Little Hoodie Thief

3.

It took him a while, but after the not-so-successful night at Jason's, William decided to spend the rest of his week working on the various assignments. Now, a week later, he has turned in four of them and is now on his way to submit the fifth. Four of his professors were not Neanderthals to request in-person paper submissions but this last one is just something else. The fact that William is about twenty minutes into missing the deadline is also not helping his case and the brown-haired man is now running through the halls of the Science building to get to his professor's office in time.

    He is in such a rush that William somehow forgets to watch where he's going and by some unfortunate... or fortunate luck... he bumps into another student who also seems to be rushing somewhere with a stack of papers, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

    "I am so sorry," William apologizes immediately as he frantically gets up to search for his paper which is now mixed with the others. Okay, what happened to the Dean's paperless system? He wonders. Of course, it's just his luck that his paper which he was deadly late in turning in will get lost in a heap of other papers.

    "Eh... that's okay. I should have been- wait a minute," a deep voice pauses. William looks up at the tall blond man who is now standing over him with an anger that William does not comprehend. "Is that my hoodie?"

    Before William can even process what's happening, his collar is pulled and he's mere inches away from the angry man's face, standing on the tip of his toes, his eyes wide like saucers.

    "Excuse me? What? Your hoodie?" William scoffs in disbelief. He does not have time for childish pranks. "I do not have time for this bullshit."

    "Bullshit?" The blond man nearly shouts and lets go of William. "You're literally wearing my hoodie which you STOLE from my dorm room when you broke in like a week ago. What the fuck?"

    William looks around the hallway and prays a silent thank you to God that there is no one around to hear this ridiculous statement.

    "Stole? What the hell are you going on about? I did not steal your hoodie!" William insists, confused as to why he's being accused of such a heinous crime. He looks down at himself and his eyes widen. He's wearing the hoodie he borrowed from Jason. That's why he felt like he was dying as he was running. "No... you got it all wrong. This is Jason's hoodie."

    The man frowns. William's frustration remains.

    "He's a guy I met like a week ago. He gave me this after he puked on my shirt. I definitely did not steal it and seriously, I gotta go," William explains and rushes off before the guy can even counter his argument.

    He gets to his professor's office just a minute before 12 noon and hands in his work to the TA. He breathes out a huge sigh of relief, thinking that it's finally over. The clock above the TA's head just struck noon and William submitted merely seconds before. He got in. He smiles to himself. I made it.

    "Um... William?"

    "What?" His eyes narrow as he looks down. Michaela's dainty hands point to the name and course code written on the paper he has just presented.

    CS 101 - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE BRIANNA JONES

    No, William thinks. "What the fuck?!" He nearly screams. His heart jumps into his stomach as he glances up at the clock.

    12:01

    Fucking hell! This is not his ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES assignment. And his name is definitely not Brianna fucking Jones! How the hell did he mess up so badly? "Oh no! I swear I had it with me," he begins to explain and he sends his mind back on his journey to the science building, trying to figure out exactly where it all went wrong.

    He had his paper in hand as he ran all the way from his apartment to campus, even when he had to bypass a group of football players on their way out of the sports center. The only moment where things became blurry is when he bumped into the fool who accused him of stealing. This is when William realizes what happened.

    "Fuck, I remember now," he says out loud, startling the TA. "I bumped into some guy on my way here. My paper definitely got mixed in with his. He had a heap of them," he explains.

    Michaela frowns. "Was he blond? This tall?" She gestures high up above her own head. William nods. "Oh that's Ollie. He left here with a bunch of essays for Professor Luke."

    Ollie? Was that short for Oliver?

    "Tell you what, I'll give you until 5pm to find him and submit your work. I understand what you're going through so it's the best I can do," Michaela says and at this point, William could almost kiss her.

    "Thank you! Thank you so much!" He shouts with gratitude and rans from the office.

    Now if only he knew where to find this Ollie.