It was finals season. Soulless bodies walked the empty hallways of
the academic blocks like zombies in search of a prey. Some were off to their
respective halls to sit for their papers while others were hustling to the
library early in the morning to get a good seat and remain there till evening
came. It was just another day on campus, nothing had change in the past four years
and it will probably never change, a certain blonde mused.
She was on her daily pilgrimage to camp in the library, having gone
there religiously since before the exam started to hide in a corner on the
third floor and revise for her papers. The library offered her the comfort of
silence and air conditioning which she sought after. The environment at her
dormitory was insufficient to say the least. The dorm rooms were poorly
ventilated and also the freshmen were having the time of their lives despite it
being their first finals in the university. She could understand their feelings
for first year’s papers especially those in the first semester, were fairly
easy and required little study time. The new batch of freshies obviously thought
the same and partied well into the night consistently.
She went alone, usually. She preferred it that way. She would only
think of her friends who wanted to tag along as hindrances. They weren’t there
to study, that she knew very well. The air conditioning there was a welcome
relief from their dorm rooms. Besides, she could only study properly if
everything was dead quiet. It was the only way to get her hyper active mind to
calm down. Meditating before starting didn’t work, she just fell asleep. So you
could say that going to the library was a last, ditch effort to get herself to
study.
Having gone consistently for the past few days, she was pretty sure
the librarians could recognise her by now and maybe a few other library
regulars like one of her classmates whom she spotted on the first day she
started to camped there. It was Ty Kim, a quiet yet joyful character in her class.
If memory served, Ty had a selected group of friend of about three to four
people, much like herself and he was alone, too. They were fairly well
acquainted with each other as they were in the same course. They had many
classes together in the course of three years. Ty greeted her with a nod from
his seat while she waved back before disappearing into her corner.
While she was buried under her pile of notes, she didn’t notice that
it was almost 2pm and she hadn’t had lunch yet. It was only when she paused to
check the time did she realise how hungry she was. Despite her growling
stomach, she was quite reluctant to eat because she didn’t want to eat alone.
It made her feel pathetic in a way, having to eat alone while everybody else
was with their friends. In sheer desperation, and also just to try her luck,
she texted Ty asking if she had lunch yet; and hoped for the best. Ten minutes
later, a reply came
‘No, not yet..you too? wanna go grab lunch?’
‘Sure =]’
They had lunch in the cafeteria two blocks away from the library. To
Jessica’s surprise, Ty turned out to be a very chatty person and she enjoyed
listening to the stories that he told while they ate. After lunch they returned
to their seats in the library and a few hours later when dusk came knocking,
they left with an unspoken promise to meet again the next day. And the few days
that followed took a similar pattern. Ty and Jessica talked during lunch that
week. Other than lunch, they rarely talk to each other. Jessica was hidden in
her corner while Ty preferred a seat closer to the stairs. They were on opposite
sides of the floor.
It seemed like a weird arrangement between two supposed friends but
it was how they worked. Every morning a nod as a greeting and every dusk, a
wave goodbye as a promise to meet the next day. Jessica had never looked
forward to going to the library that much.
When Thursday came, something was off. Jessica had declined lunch
with the excuse of not being hungry. A few moments of silence later saw her in
tears.
“Do you remember when I told you about my cat?” she asked in the
steadiest voice she could manage.
“Yea, what..happened??”
“He..died..yesterday. My cousin found him, well, his carcass. She thinks
he was knocked over, there was a pool of blood. But when I got home, the body
was gone…”
“Oh..I’m so sorry…”
Ty wanted to stay back with her but she told him to
go eat instead.
“You sure? Wanna just..go get a drink?”
“Yes, I’m sure..go..it’s late and you must be hungry…”
“Aren’t you?”
“No, I had a heavy breakfast…really..go..I’m ok..”
When Ty had returned from lunch, Jessica was nowhere to be seen. He
figured she must’ve gone to lunch since her things were still on the table. Glancing
around, he quickly went to his seat and grabbed his things and settled down on
the table next to Jessica’s.
A faint smile played across Jessica’s lips when she returned to find
a half asleep Ty in her corner. He quickly woke up and pretended to be giving
his notes full attention when Jessica had dragged the chair out on purpose. Ty
flashed her a cheeky smile and cleared his throat, returning his attention to
the notes while Jessica snickered. The hours passed with the two of them
sitting in silence, each enjoying the presence of the other, not wanting to
break the comfortable silence. Apparently the silence was too comfortable and
Ty fell asleep again.
Jessica was nowhere to be seen again when he had woken up. Her things
were still there but she did not reappear even after half an hour. Far too long
a time for her to be in the bathroom, Ty mused, a phone call would be possible
though, she continued her musing. After a few more minutes of waiting, he went
home.
---
“Hey….”
“Hey! What’s up?”
“Yea..sorry I lost track of time just now. I was meeting with my
supervisor and…”
“It’s ok, totally fine”
“Did you just reach home?”
“Oh..no actually..I left about an hour ago..”
“I'm sorry, I just got back and I saw your note. It was very sweet, thank you..”
“You’re welcome..haha..”
“So..see you tomorrow, maybe?”
“Sure..see you tomorrow..”
---
Hey sweet sugar cakes XD
Where were you? I didn’t want
to leave without saying goodbye so..yea…haha
Bye bye!
p/s: thank you for being my
lunch buddy for the past few days =]
see you tomorrow maybe? :D
love,
you-know-who :D
