The weekend rolled around, and Iris felt like it couldn't have come soon enough. She was tired and exhausted from the week, and all she wanted to do was wind down and relax.

It was no surprise when Saturday night rolled around, and Iris found herself at another college party. This one differed from the one that she went to a couple of weeks ago. There were way more people here, and a lot more drugs were being smoked, swallowed, or snorted.

Iris spent most of the night standing in the room's corner, clutching tightly onto her red solo cup while trying to make out any semblance of a slightly familiar face in the sea of people.

She knew it was pretty irresponsible of her to go to a party alone, but Korra was spending the night with her boyfriend, and Iris couldn't think of anyone else to ask.

Besides, the whole point of attending these parties was to make new friends. Wasn't that the point?

"What's a beautiful girl like you doing all alone?" a guy asked, suddenly appearing in front of Iris.

Iris ‌nearly laughed at the cliché-ass line.

"Partying?" Iris said, but it came out more like a question.

"Hmmm, this doesn't look much like partying to me," the guy said, taking a step closer, "but I could show you a good time if you want."

Iris could smell the smoke and sweat radiating from the guy. She could barely make out his features in the dark, but she knew he was standing a little too close for comfort. Things were quickly taking a turn in a way that Iris didn't like.

"Actually, I'd rather not," Iris said, wrapping her hand around the penknife she had brought with her in her pocket. She knew it was completely stupid of her to come to a college party by herself, but that didn't mean she had to be completely defenseless.

"Alright, I respect that," the guy said. He raised his hands up and backed away from Iris. Disappearing once again into the sea of bodies, the same way he had come.

Regardless, that was enough action for Iris for one night. She quickly pushed herself through the sea of bodies, till she was out of the party.

Luckily, the location of the party wasn't too far away from Iris' apartment, so she legged the journey home. It was late at night, but not too late for Saturday night at college.

There were several students Iris passed along the way. Including a girl crouched over in the bushes, throwing up. She was surrounded by her friends, who occasionally offered her water and tissue to clean up the vomit.

Typical college weekend vibes.

For a moment, Iris wondered what her mom would think if she knew ‌she had been at a party alone.

Growing up, her mom had constantly warned her about the dangers of parties- make sure you cover your drink, make sure you go with a group of people and leave with the same group of people, have a weapon of some sorts on you.

But here Iris was, disobeying most of those rules. At least she had a weapon on her, so she wasn't completely irresponsible. Or at least that was what she told herself.

Iris arrived back at her empty apartment in one piece. Locking the apartment door behind her, she quickly changed out of her clothes and got into the shower to wash the sweat and smell of smoke off from her before settling into bed.

It took her a while before Iris actually fell asleep. All the while, her head was spinning with what felt like a million questions. As usual, her mind wandered to Niki. She wandered what she was doing tonight. She wandered about their interaction the day before, even though she had been avoiding thinking about it.

Iris pushed the thoughts out of her mind, and at some point after 2am, she could finally fall asleep.

"I need to get almond milk," Iris announced, reading off the checklist on her phone. "I think they should have some in aisle three."

Korra, who was pushing the shopping cart, scrunched up her face in disgust. "I can't believe you actually like that shit."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you think oat milk is superior. I've heard it all before," Iris replied as they made their way over to aisle three.

It didn't take long for Iris to locate the almond milk, before dropping it in her cart and turning to look at her list again.

The girls were out grocery shopping together. They realized they were running low on food in their apartment and direly needed of food, which led to the impromptu trip to the grocery store.

"Okay, I think that's everything on my list, so we can get to yours now," Iris announced, taking Korra's phone, which she handed to her to read off her list.

They had a system whenever they went grocery shopping together. One person pushed the cart, and another person read off the list and got all the things that they needed.

It was things like this that made Iris and Korra such compatible roommates. People often spoke about the harm that living with your best friend could bring, but that wasn't the case for them. Korra attributed this to the fact that they just had really similar organizational personalities. Iris attributed it to her Virgo rising, being compatible with Korra's Cancer moon.

"Ew pork," Iris said, scrunching her face as she read the first item on Korra's list, "and you were judging me for my almond milk."

"I'm sorry if my pork bacon addiction does not appeal to you, your honor," Korra joked, causing Iris to roll her eyes as they made their way over to the aisle with bacon.

"Oh fuck, Korra, fuck‌!" Iris whisper-yelled, ducking behind her friend, hiding from view, "it's her, it's the 'Karen-girl' from the gym I told you about!"

Sure enough, Adi was standing a little distance away from the girls, doing her grocery shopping, oblivious to the scene behind her. Her hair was framing her head in its usual curly 'fro. She was dressed in a matching red hoodie and brown cargo pants.

"That's her?" Korra asked, looking at the girl a little distance away with curiosity, "from the way you described her, I thought she was white."

"Black women can be Karen's too, Korra," Iris said, still hiding in her position, ducked behind Adi. "I didn't think so either till I saw it myself. This is why I don't like coming to this grocery store. The entire campus community and their mom love coming here."

"Yeah, because it's the closest and coincidentally the cheapest grocery store, and we are college students you know, a historically broke group of people," Korra responded, turning to roll her eyes at Iris, "and why are you hiding behind me?"

"Because she's crazy! I told you about how she showed up at our apartment the other day. Why aren't you more concerned?"

"I don't know, Iris. She ‌looks harmless to me... plus, she's kind of cute, don't you think?"

Iris stopped in her tracks to send her friend a look.

"Unless this is your weird way of coming out as bisexual to me, I do not appreciate you calling the girl that is probably plotting my death 'cute'," Iris said, putting up air quotes on the word 'cute'.

Korra rolled her eyes. "Relax, I am still painfully heterosexual, but I'm just saying. Besides, you did break her water bottle.."

"I know you are not taking her side right now."

"Girl, chill. You know I'm not doing that, okay? I'm just trying to see things from her perspective."

Iris folded her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes at Korra. She wasn't at all appreciating the discourse that was going on right then.

"Okay, okay, I give up," Korra said, holding her hands up in defeat. "Look, she's gone. Let's just complete our grocery shopping and leave before we bump into her again, okay?"

Iris had not completely forgiven Korra for siding with her newfound nemesis, but Adi was nowhere to be seen, so she continued with the shopping, occasionally glancing around the store like a paranoid person.

"Could you please stop doing that," Korra finally said, "you look crazy."

"I'm just making sure she isn't here anymore," Iris responded, still looking around.

At that moment, she caught sight of the familiar fiery mane of hair. Adi was at the checkout paying for her groceries. Iris stared at her for a while, but as if sensing her, Adi looked up, locking eyes with her.

A shiver went down Iris' spine, and despite how badly she wanted to break eye contact, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Adi held eye contact with her too, and Iris was certain that at any moment, she would come right up to her.

But Adi looked away. Grabbing her grocery bags, Adi she made her way out of the store, without even a look back in Iris' direction.

"Damn," Korra said, having observed the whole interaction, "maybe next time y'all should just get a room."