And enjoying a cat nap

You sit up awake again some time later. You can see through the window the warm glow of sunset in the sky. You grunt and stretch. You grab your phone and notice how low on battery it is, single digit percent. You plug it in and put the waitress’s note on top of it so you won’t forget it. You’re hungry. You get up and walk to the kitchen.

“Morning sleeping beauty.” Mark says as you groggily stumble into the kitchen.

“It’s not morning.” You grumble back, opening the fridge.

“Uh,” Mark says, “what are you talking about?” You look at him.

“It’s evening.” You state. “I took a nap, don’t try to trick me.”

“John.” Mark states, his face a dead serious stare. “It’s Monday morning.” The gears are turning in your head, slowly, but they are turning. You walk away from the open fridge and look out the kitchen window. Huh, you think, that isn’t where the sun should be.

“Oh fuck.” You say, wide awake now. Mark clicks his tongue behind you.

“Let me get out of the way so you can make breakfast or else you’re gonna be late.” He says, moving as fast as lightning. You messily make a cup of unfortunately crunchy coffee and some quick toast. You glance up at the clock and realize that you’ve got maybe half an hour to get ready to leave for class. It is, in a word, a mad rush to get out the door. You grab your phone, which is hardly charged, punch in the waitress’s number and shoot her a “hey” and then throw your phone in your bag. You don’t shower, you don’t get to do much other than clean your face, brush your teeth, and change before you are walking quickly out the door. You run down the front steps as quickly as you dare and nearly run into Bea at the bottom.

“Oh hey.” You say, trying not to body slam the poor girl in your hurry.

“H― Hey.” Bea stammers, giving you a little smile and brushing a wayward strand of hair out of her face. You can see that she’s still very embarrassed to talk to you, but more important to you is getting to class at this moment.

“See you around.” You say, quick walking away from her and giving her a little wave. She waves back, still standing in front of her door stiff as a piece of wood. You continue trotting towards campus, very aware that attendance is more of a suggestion then a requirement in college and that besides you’re already doing really well in this class so why make such a deal about being there on time. Yet, some part of you is going to be very upset if you get there late. You’d made such a habit of being on time that it would be awful to break that now. So you continue trotting uncomfortably fast and hoping that you are fast enough..

You just barely make it on time, and find yourself sweating hard as you sit down at your desk, completely out of breath, as the class starts. You rest your eyes for a moment, just breathing. You breathe in and breathe out, and then open your eyes and get to work. You take notes through your lecture as you usually do, but for whatever reason you feel as if someone is watching you. Strange, you think to yourself.

After class, you get up and check your phone. You have a couple new messages, including some from Kat. You open them.

KAT: Hey

KAT: I don’t know how not to make this sound rude

KAT: But don’t sit with Marcy and I today, we need some space

YOU: Sure

YOU: Do I at least get a reason?

It takes a minute, but Kat responds.

KAT: I promise that I’ll give you one after class when we talk

KAT: Which we still are on for, right?

YOU: Right

You sigh, feeling some anxiety about talking to Kat. You can guess what exactly she wants to talk about and how exactly it is going to go down. You figure that you’ll get to think about that over the long lunch you will be sharing with yourself and open the waitress’s messages.

AUDREY: Hey dude

AUDREY: Name’s Audrey

AUDREY: How you doing?

YOU: I’m doing good, have classes right now

YOU: What about you?

You sigh again and put your phone away just as the next class is starting. It’s a long day for you, just trying to get through classes, knowing that you’re all gross and sweaty both from running and from the party. Of course, you’re also pretty sure that you’re the only one who particularly cares about how gross you are. You are effectively one of the nameless students who look like they just rolled out of bed before class because you basically did. You shift uncomfortably in your seat. Of course, how many students out there that still have somebody else’s bodily fluids on them, in class, is probably much smaller.

Soon classes are done for the day, and you find yourself involuntarily walking towards the canteen, and having no idea of who you exactly plan to eat with if at all.