selfish [levi ackerman]

1

The night was meant to be typical.

A stack of papers decorated the library desk in front of you, your earbuds plugged into your laptop as a quiet lofi beat bumped in your ears.

You had been studying for four straight hours, and your eyes were starting to burn.

The college workload was a seemingly never ending struggle. You had expected it, being that you chose a science oriented major, but what you hadn't expected was to have a shockingly little amount of time to yourself.

Rather than meeting new friends or exploring the city, you often set your mind to your work; this resulted in your most frequented spot being the campus library. And although many other students occupied the same space as you, it felt eerily lonely.

You listened to the light scrawl of pens on paper through your earbuds, trying desperately to maintain focus on the work at hand.

You were a botanical science major, and you loved it, truly. Nothing had ever sparked your interest more than the biology of crops or seed dispersion patterns of weeds; It just felt right to study in college. But you were getting tired of all the uniformity.

Waking up, drinking some caffeinated concoction, sitting through class, wolfing down lunch, going to the library, studying, inhaling dinner, and getting to bed late every single night could only be so fulfilling. You needed excitement in your life, or at least a break of some sort.

You stared blankly at the taproots on the sheet in front of you, waiting patiently to be labeled and defined. You were beginning to physically feel the bags under your eyes.

You shook your head to regain focus, but another glance at the page brought the same, dull sight to your pupils. The lack of stimulating material was lulling your brain to sleep.

There was only about a page and a half of work left to review, but that page and a half felt longer and more torturous than any page and a half you had ever seen in your life.

You took a deep breath and tried one final time.

The words on the page began to mold together into jumbled splotches, dancing across stark white pages and grey smudges of ink. Pictures of fresh, white blooms were drooping and turning ochre. The pleasant lofi beat had turned repetitive and sour.

'Screw it.' you thought.

You gently shut your laptop screen and gathered your papers into a neat stack, sliding them swiftly into their folder, then pulling your earbuds out of your ears and stuffing your belongings in your backpack. It took you less than a minute to leave.

You relished the fresh air as you left the library and began your short walk to Sina Hall. It was almost nighttime but the sky still held a light tint of blue, like the sun were holding out for just a few minutes more. The sunset was peeking out from behind your dorm building, highlighting it in a marigold hue: a beautiful sight to awaken your droopy eyes.

Sina Hall itself was a rather sub-par building. There were multiple halls on campus with nicer amenities and rooms, such as Maria Hall, but you had sacrificed vanity for utility. Sina was closest to the campus library, and you very much enjoyed quiet places but did not enjoy long walks. It had been a good decision on your part.

The large glass doors unlocked with a click when you scanned your ID card, allowing you entrance into the downstairs lobby.

Tan walls accented with paintings of flowers paired boringly with the familiar oak floors. At the end of the lobby sat two metal elevators directly across from each other. The only other thing of notice was a sitting area near the front doors consisting of burgundy couches that had likely not seen a deep cleaning since the eighties.