"Riding the Waves of Us"

**Part Five: Butterflies** 

Arienna lay sprawled across her bed, staring at the ceiling, her mind refusing to settle. The day had been... a lot. 

Cam. 

Kai. 

Two completely different kinds of chaos, and somehow, she was caught right between them. 

She turned onto her side, exhaling slowly. She could still feel the sun on her skin, the salt in her hair, the rush of the wind as she clung to Kai's back on his motorcycle. And before that—Cam's effortless grin, the way his eyes had lingered just a second too long, like he saw something in her no one else did. 

Her stomach flipped at the thought of both of them. 

She groaned, pressing a pillow over her face. *What am I doing?* 

She had barely been here a day. She should be focusing on getting through the week, figuring out where her classes were, making actual friends. But instead, her brain was tangled in the way Cam's voice sent shivers down her spine and the way Kai's teasing smirk made her pulse skip. 

Her phone buzzed, breaking through her thoughts. 

She grabbed it off the nightstand, and her stomach did a weird little flip when she saw the name on the screen. 

**Kai:** *Still breathing, princess?* 

A smile tugged at her lips before she could stop it. 

**Arienna:** *Barely. I think you almost killed me today.* 

**Kai:** *You're fine. Admit it—you had fun.* 

She rolled her eyes but couldn't deny the rush she'd felt, the way her heart had pounded when she'd wrapped her arms around him. 

Before she could type a response, another text popped up. 

**Cam:** *Hey, new girl. Survive your first day?* 

Her breath caught. 

Oh. 

She stared at the screen, her heart thudding. 

Kai had been all fire and adrenaline, his presence impossible to ignore. But Cam—Cam had this way of looking at her that made her stomach do slow, lazy somersaults. 

The butterflies swarmed in full force. 

One guy was enough to throw her off balance. But two? 

She was *so* screwed.