(song: "Wild Child" - WEEKED)

"Hello, earth to Natalie!"

Virginia waved her hand in front of Natalie's face a few times. The two of them were back in their dorm room sitting on Natalie's bed. Natalie's side of the room was pretty, pink and pristine. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Virginia's side of the room was not messy, but more artsy. Half-done or failed art projects mostly took over her side of the room.

"Hm?" Natalie asked while she chewed her lip and stared at her phone.

"You were telling me about what happened after your improv date with tattoo-boy. Remember?" Virginia helped to refresh her memory.

"It wasn't a date, Virginia. After the improv group he stole my phone and put his number in it. Then he gave it back to me and we said our good-byes." Natalie kept gazing at Kaden's contact entry on her phone. She'd managed to avoid getting numbers from boys since she was fifteen.

"You should totally ask him to come with us to the concert on Friday. It can be like a double date because Steve and I are back together so he's coming." Virginia was far too excited at the idea of any guy other than Gardner being involved.

Natalie pulled her hair up into a bun and worked to pin it in place. "Why can't I invite Gardner?"

Virginia rolled her eyes. "Because you know he won't come! He has the weirdest taste in music and no appreciation for anything indie. I bet tattoo-boy would go."

"He has a name you know. . ." Natalie didn't even say the name she held up her phone for Virginia to inspect it. The contact name stated: Kaden Bennet - Ink-Buddy.

Virginia squinted at the name and then looked up to the ceiling in deep thought. She rubbed at her chin and tucked her legs under her, "That name sounds really, really familiar. I think I've heard of him somewhere. It's going to drive me crazy until I remember where I know him."

Virginia retrieved her phone from her bra and checked through her extensive contact list. She began to tap against the screen rapidly.

"What are you doing?" Natalie asked curiously.

"I'm asking Ashlynn if she knows where I have heard Kaden's name from. Ashlynn is like our school Wikipedia, she knows who everyone on campus is." Virginia then made a grabby gesture for Natalie phone. "Give me your phone so you can have her number too."

Natalie nodded and handed over her phone. Virginia quickly took it and started to type in some letters. After a few seconds, Natalie began to realize it was taking Virginia far too long to punch in a simple number. "Um, Virginia what are you doing?"

"Texting Kaden to invite him to the concert on Friday. He says that he'll go," Virginia said smugly without shame.

Natalie scrambled to grab her phone and stared at the conversation on screen.

[Me: Hey, I'm going with my friend and her boyfriend to a concert on Friday. Would you like to come with me? ;) ]

[Kaden: Sure. I'll go with you. ;) ]

Natalie threw herself onto her bed and kicked her legs furiously in the air like an marathon biker. "You sent him a winking emoji?" Natalie felt like vomiting. "And he sent a winking emoji back! Virginia do you have any idea what you've done? Everyone knows a winking emoji is universal code for 'I want to have sex with your face'!"

Virginia shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, kind of the point."

Natalie hid her head under her pillow and pointed to Virginia's half of the dorm. "Dammit Virginia! Go to your side of the room!"

Virginia took two steps over and was basically on her side of the dorm. The room was an incredibly small living space. She laid back into her bed and began to laugh and smile over sweet texts from Steve.

It all made Natalie feel sick to her stomach.

Natalie stood in a line with Virginia and Steve in-front of a local bar called "The Blue". The bar was in a small old red-brick building that had been renovated to become a popular hot spot. They were famous for everything being blue; from the lights, to the chairs and even the drinks. The indie band they were waiting to see only had local fame and a fan-base of no more than five-thousand people. Three-hundred of those people were in line and Natalie was one of them.

Even though it was freezing, Virginia had figured out a way to have sexy-looking winter wear. She wore a form-fitting black sweater dress, tights, sexy knee-high boots and a hot pink parka. She looked like a girl who belonged in a music video. Natalie, on the other hand, dressed like she got lost in her grandmother's walk-in closet.

"Natalie? Where are you?"

It was unmistakably Kaden's voice that had called out her name. Natalie looked around the line of people to try and spot him.

Kaden lifted his arms high and waved them. Natalie mirrored the same motion to get his attention. Kaden then waved his hands around even more frantically with the expression of a lost dog.

Couldn't he see she was right there?

Natalie jumped and kept waving her arms like a lunatic. It was embarrassing, but he wasn't seeing her.

"Kaden! Right here!" She yelled.

Kaden snapped on a smile and approached Natalie and her two friends. "Yeah, I saw you like five minutes ago. I just wanted to see how far you'd go to get my attention."

Natalie's face burned with frustration. He was such an annoyingly impossible person.

Virginia didn't care and pushed Natalie a bit to the side to interrupt. "Hi Kaden, remember me? I'm Virginia." She then tugged on Steve's reluctant arm to force him to meet Kaden too. "This is Steve."

Steve was one of those young college guys who looked a decade older than they really were. He was tall with a thick beard along his jawline and heavy apathetic brows. He nodded at Kaden, "Hey man."

"Hey back you," Kaden delivered back. "Nice to see you again, Virginia."

Virginia couldn't stop smiling, she pointed her taupe acrylic nails between the two of them. "You both have the same sense of style. How adorable is that?"

Natalie studied Kaden's outfit. He looked like he played in his grandparents closet too. His hair was a wild, blonde mop of hair that he had made little effort to control and he wore a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. He had a cut on his chin from rushing to shave too quickly.

He wasn't stunning in the way Gardner was and he had little to no fashion sense, but Natalie couldn't help thinking it was kind of cute.

They continued to follow behind Virginia and Steve in the long and slowly moving line. Couples and friends alike huddled together to shield themselves form the winter cold.

Kaden pulled himself up to Natalie's side and lowered his voice a little, "Your friend sent me the winking emoji, didn't she?"

Natalie looked completely startled. "How did you know?"

"You don't seem like the winking emoji type of girl." He said simply.

"Yeah. . .wait. What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing it's just an observation. Do you want to be a winking emoji kind of girl? Because I'm fine with that if you are. Let's get down to business and skip the concert, I'm sure we can find a nice graffiti filled bathroom-stall we can squeeze into." Kaden nudged her arm with his and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"You're an idiot," Natalie said, but it made her smile. "God, when did a winking emoji become like netflix and chill? It used to all be so innocent. I love watching Netflix and chilling, but now if I tell people that, they think it means I'm a big whore."

"We should netflix and chill." Kaden smoothly suggested.

Her eyes grew big. "What?"

His dimples were visible with his lips curled upward in their usual charming fashion. He seemed to really like how easily worked-up she could get. "In the literal sense, not the figurative one. You know actually watch a movie and make commentaries about what's happening on the screen. How about we do that tomorrow?"

Natalie's mouth hung open a little with bewilderment. "We haven't even gotten through tonight and you already want to make plans for seeing me again?"

"Yes." He answered firmly while he made direct eye-contact.

Natalie felt her stomach jump. It'd taken Natalie years to work responses from Gardner and deciphering him, but Kaden was so clear in communicating what he wanted. She didn't know how to handle it.

"This. . .this is not a date, Kaden. And besides, tomorrow I have a study date."

"Oh, with the guy who awkwardly walked away from you at the cafe?" He said, just to be ballsy.

Natalie felt compelled as always to defend Gardner, but she couldn't. She wanted to tell Kaden that it was his fault Gardner left the way he did, but she didn't.

"Yeah, with him," she admitted.

"Look, my uncle and his family live near here. They have a nice place and it's good to get away on the weekends. Maybe after your study date, we can netflix and chill—literally or figuratively." Kaden's devilish smile was as charming as ever. It was hard to tell when he was joking or being serious with his comments.

"There will only be literal chilling, thank you very much."

"So. . .that's a yes?" He looked hopeful.

Natalie smiled and mimicked a winking emoji with her facial expression. It resulted in the both of them laughing together.

Natalie's phone buzzed within her pocket. If it had been a date she wouldn't have answered it, but since it was just Kaden, she checked her phone.

It was a text from Ashlynn that read: [Ashlynn: AVOID KADEN BENNET!]