The Double-Tap Accident

Chapter Nineteen: They Restrained Me.

Chapter Nineteen: "They Restrained Me."

THE BOYS HAVE officially taken over my table.

Sure, it was mine, Yasmeen's, Mariam's and Iman's to begin with but Dev and Aven have laid a claim. Dev's claim was obvious in the way he drew little shapes on the surface of the table, retracing to the point where it seemed like it was going to stay well long after he graduated. Aven's claim on the table was in his spot right across from me where he could look out the window.

I stretched my hands out in front of me, reading over Ashton's stupid message in our shared document with the other two in our group. I didn't think I was going to have to deal with any of them during this week, but Ashton wanted to get a head start on our experiment.

Which was fine. I was going to suggest starting it on Monday. If this was anyone else, I would've been over the moon with the idea of working ahead but this was Ashton.

My laptop was suddenly closed shut. "Hey!"

"Why do you look stressed?" Aven asked, running a hand over the light stubble that had graced his chin. 

"I have a huge presentation for biomethods," I groaned, my face in my hands. "It's thirty percent of our mark and faculty members are going to opt-in and look at our topics."

"What's your topic?"

"We're testing the effects of this cleaning product on bacteria."

Aven opened his mouth once to speak. Then shut it. Then opened his mouth again. "That sounds interesting."

"It sounds boring. It's boring," I said. Biomethods as a whole was beginning to bore me. "And I have to do it with that stupid group of boys who thought 'oh radical dude, this sounds like the best fucking idea ever' when it's not the best idea ever. It's a shitty topic that we have to conduct and then present our findings and I'm confident I'm not doing as good as I want to in this course. So, so much shit is relying on this."

"Jay."

"Put me out of my misery.' I handed him the stylus to my laptop, covering my face with my hands once again.

A pause. "You think the best way to go is stabbing by laptop pen?"

"I am giving you permission," I said, moving my hands from my face to meet his amused expression. "Do what you want with the pen."

He twisted the stylus between his fingers, "When are you presenting?"

"In January."

Iman took off his earphones, glancing at me, "Why do you look mad?"

"I'm not mad, I'm annoyed," I mumbled. My stress meter was at a 6 right now. 10 meant that I was on the verge of tears. Anything over 10 meant that I was going to burst into tears. And I made a promise that I was not going to burst into tears this year.

Iman reached over, putting a comforting hand on the top of my head. I stared at him, "What are you doing?"

"Lending comfort."

"This is not comforting."

Iman wrapped his arms around me, his tall torso allowing him to dig his chin onto my head. "Better?"

"Better," He squeezed me for a brief second before letting go and patting my head twice.

"And now I have to study for my midterm," I opened my laptop but Aven closed my laptop again. "What the hell?"

"You know the material for your midterm, and you have months until your presentation. You can take a break."

"I can't take a break. I need every good grade I can get." I said.