Excerpt: Cascadia University

Olivia finally noticed what Eris seemed to be so upset about. A trio of tall slender girls were walking towards their table, their expressions a mixture of shock, amusement and contempt. Olivia felt her heart sink and she busied herself with her cookies, her gut telling her that this was not going to end well.
The girls stopped in front of the table and stood looking down at Eris, who heaved a great sigh and threw her head back so she was looking up and back at them. As with most trios, the group had a clear leader, and she stood slightly in front of the others. Her hair was platinum blonde, her skin artificially tanned, and she wore a pair of light blue skinny jeans and a pale pink tank top that emphasized her chest. Already tall, she wore high-heeled boots, causing her to tower over the two seated girls. Her face was caked in makeup, and it wore a sneer.
“Eris Malone,” she said, her voice high-pitched and dripping with condescension. “Of all the people I’d expect to run across here, I most certainly never expected you.”
“Ilia,” Eris said, looking the blonde girl in the eye, causing her two friends, who could have been clones of her, to giggle. “What a horrible surprise. Don’t you have some dick to be sucking somewhere?”
The two blonde lackeys gasped at Eris’s rudeness, but the leader, Ilia waved it off with a laugh. “Same as ever Eris,” she said. “Rude, crude and utterly pathetic. How in the world did you get accepted to Cascadia? Your parents pull some strings?”
“Like yours did?” Eris replied, obviously trying to keep her voice even. “Please. Not everyone needs to beg their parents to get them into a top school. Some of us do more with our brains than think about shoes.”
“And what do you think about Eris?” Ilia asked, still sneering. “Repeating a year of high school? Getting arrested? All those poor people-”
Eris slammed her hands down on the table, making Olivia jump. “This isn’t Bright Star camp Ilia,” she said. “And it sure as fuck isn’t high school. So go hang out with your sorority friends while I get an education and just leave me the hell alone.”
Ilia snorted. “Whatever,” she said. “Like I care what you and your little loser posse are doing,” she sneered at Olivia, whose cheeks colored and eyes turned down towards her plate of cookies.
“Kindly go choke on a cock and die Ilia,” Eris said. “Before I make you choke on my fist.”
Ilia laughed, but a bit nervously, and she nodded to her two friends. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” she said, tossing her hair, which hung, artificially straightened, past her shoulders. “I have better things to do than be seen with a criminal like you anyway,” she said, turning on her heel. “See you around, loser.”
The three girls walked away practically in unison and Eris let out a breath she had obviously been holding. “Fuck me,” she said, shaking her head. “Figures,” she sighed, then looked over at Olivia, who was still looking pointedly at her cookies. “Sorry about that,” she said. “That was not something I wanted you to see.”
Olivia finally looked up and took a bite of her cookie. “It’s okay,” she said. “I know how it goes sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Eris said. “I’ve never really been miss popular.”
Olivia laughed. “I know I haven’t,” she said.
“That’s the trouble with being from the blood I’m from,” Eris said, shoulders sagging slightly. “Everyone knows me, and they remember me and I’ve had, well,” she sighed again. “A very interesting high school career.”
There was silence for a while, and then Olivia reached over and patted Eris on the shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said. “There’s a reason I went to college out of state; to avoid stuff like that happening.”
Eris cracked a smile. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
Olivia nodded and finished her cookie.
Eris sat up a little straighter. “So yeah,” she said. “I wish I could say the bitch was exaggerating with some of the shit she said, but she really isn’t.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Olivia said, holding up a hand. “The past stays in the past. I’ve just met you, and I’m going to get to know you based on you now, not on who you used to be.”
Eris stared at her for a few moments. Olivia stared back, and then noticed that her roommate’s eyes were filling up with tears.
“That,” Eris said, her voice thick, “Is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”