Next morning

There was no encore the following morning for anyone in the room. All four had classes some stage in the morning so by 9:50am, Mark was being woken up by Miranda who was fully dressed, ready to head to her first class.

“Mark… Mark! Get up,” she said, standing next to the bed, nudging his shoulder.

Slowly he began to open his eyes. He sat up, stretching his arms.

“Don’t make me late for class, you’ve got to leave so I can lock the door,” she told him.

He could barely keep his eyes open, struggling to see Miranda in her tight black leggings and white t-shirt. It took him quite a bit of time just to wake himself up.

“Don’t trust me to lock up?” he asked as he stepped out of bed, his head vibrating from all that **** the night before.

She wasn’t in any mood for a chat, she just grabbed the rest of her books and waited at the door.

The look on her face was one that he didn’t want to mess with. He couldn’t quite understand where he stood with her. Mark couldn’t have been too far in his bad books considering she was comfortable enough to masturbate in front of him and the others last night. But it still didn’t seem like they were friends yet. There was plenty of work to be done.

Mark quickly put on the rest of his clothes and exited the room, Miranda leaving right after him, locking the door.

***

Later that afternoon…

Monday was long.

Hungover and tired, Mark struggled to concentrate longer than a few minutes in any of his classes.

When it was time to head back to his dorm, Mark was keen on getting a nap before dinner. As he entered the East Hall common room, he noticed it was almost empty except for a couple of freshman on one couch and an old familiar face who was coming down the main staircase.

It was Matt, his old dorm mate.

Mark and Matt had recently gotten over the previous years drama revolving around Cassidy. He certainly didn’t see them as friends right now but at least things were looking a little brighter between the two.

They politely said hello as they met on the staircase. At first, Mark thought that would be it and the two would keep going their seperate ways but Matt called back out to him before he could get anywhere near his room.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

Mark stopped in his tracks, turning around. He took a few steps back down the staircase so that they were on even ground, “Yeah sure.”

“Have you spoken to Cassidy much since we’ve been back this semester?” he asked.

Mark shook his head, not sure where this was about to go.

“You don’t know what she’s been up to?” he pressed.

“Matt, I don’t know where you’re going with this but I haven’t even really seen her since we’ve been back this year,” he said, worried where this was about to go.

He shook his head, “No, no, I wasn’t suggesting anything. I just… I dunno… I really want to win her back but I don’t know how.”

“Look, I can’t speculate too much man but I think it’s just going to take time,” Mark replied.

He knew from Cassidy about how much she really loved the boy but after everything that went on over the last two years, it was going to take time for her to feel ready to take on a relationship with him again.

“Just be patient, she’ll come your way when she’s ready,” Mark advised him.

Matt looked dejected.

“How have you been anyway?” he changed the subject.

Mark shrugged, “Been alright I guess, yourself?”

Matt nodded, “Yeah guess everything else is cool, how’s your room mate?”

It was more difficult to answer that than it should have been. Sharing a room with Dirty Dale came with a lot of consequences and not many privileges. He was an anti-social slob that didn’t leave the room often, using his high tech computer to game.

“Only thing he has on you is that he doesn’t snore,” Mark joked.

Matt laughed, “Well if he ever gets on your nerve too much, let me know, maybe we can organise some sort of swap, anyways, I’ll see you around.”

“See you Matt.”

Mark watched him leave East Hall as he stood in the staircase. It was an oddly nice conversation that the two just had. Mark felt weird that he wanted to ask him of all people about advice for Cassidy.

At least it felt like he had matured over his time at college.