The Shadows Of Yesterday

The Shadows Of Yesterday {7}

I sat at my desk, staring at my computer screen, letting my eyes scan over the words I'd written. Music poured in through my headphones and I nodded my head along with the beat.

I winced as one of my earbuds was suddenly yanked out. I glowered up at Seth as he held it to his own ear and scoffed.

"You listen to the shittiest music," he said, pulling hard so the other earbud was yanked out of my ear. "I'm doing you a favor here, Jer."

"I like that band," I said, snatching my headphones away from him but not bothering to put them back in. "Besides, it's nice background noise while I work."

"I'm heading to meet Brynn." He crossed his arms. "Get all your work done so you don't have any excuses to ditch us next time."

I gestured to my screen. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"No clue, looks boring," he said. "Catch you later. Maybe use the free time to find some less shitty music."

"I've seen your playlist!" I called after him as he left the dorm.

"Yea, and my music doesn't have stupid ass lyrics and annoying intrumentals," he called back, shutting the door before I could argue more.

I grumbled under my breath as I finished editing my piece. When that was done, I checked the time and pulled out my phone, dialing Arlo's number.

"Hey, Jeremy!" he answered.

"Hey," I said, wondering why he sounded so damn excited to talk to me. I leaned back in my chair. "I've got some free time tonight. I was wondering if you wanted to meet at the Cantina for a drink, or something."

"Sounds good to me. You wanna head right over there?" he said.

"Might as well. Whoever gets there first grabs a table," I said. "See you in a few minutes."

I hung up and stood, stretching. I glanced in the mirror, ran a hand through my hair, accepted it was eternally doomed to be messy, and headed out without bothering to try and fix myself up a little. At this point in my life, you either took me as I was, or fucked right off. I didn't have the energy to try and look good all the time.

I left the dorm, wondering if Seth had someone watching me. Ah, well, it wouldn't look so suspicious if I was just heading to the library. I could just say I went there to work on my homework when I'd finished my column piece.

I looked around as I left the dorm, but didn't spot any of Seth's friends lingering about. A few groups were lounging in the grass, scattered around the front and side of the dorm. One group was playing frisbee in the street, probably hoping someone ran them over so they could sue to afford their education.

The path was fairly quiet as I headed to the library. It was a nice evening, so the tables outside the library had been claimed by students already.

The Cantina was, thankfully, pretty quiet. I spotted Arlo as soon as I stepped in, but he still straightened up and waved me over to the table he was at.

"See? My flirting had to work at some point. You called me again," he said as I sat across from him.

"Uh, yea, something like that," I said, and couldn't help but snicker as he scowled at me. "Count your blessings while you can, I guess? Let's go order. No clue why I sat if I knew I had to get right back up."

We got up and went up to the counter, ordering drinks. Arlo ordered some pretzel bites for us, and we took our stuff back to the table.

"Here," Arlo said, pushing the pretzel bites between us. "Don't ever say I'm not a gentleman."