What We Take Away

Chapter 25 | Zac

Swearing, I pick up my pole and carry it back towards my start point.

"Hey, maybe take a break?" Jesse suggests.

"Don't tell me what to do," I snap. "I'm going again."

Jesse gives me a look but stays silent. With a curt nod, he grasps his pole and stands aside.

My jumps are a disaster. I'm not in the right head space to jump, but I do it anyway to keep my mind busy.

Keeping busy is how we are all managing these days, it seems. Some of us, like Irina, keep trucking on as though nothing happened. Then again, nothing fazes Irina. But most of us have been struggling in our own ways.

Chloe bursts into tears during practice quite a bit. During our downtimes, Andre is usually on the phone with other colleges back home trying to get a spot on their team. Kyle is less excitable and vulgar, while Sampson has completely shut down. Kat picks a fight with everyone, while Sam mostly prays.

It's all too much for me to handle.

When practice ends, I hurry out of the fieldhouse and get as far as I can away from the team and from Jesse. Though he means well, I don't want to listen to him anymore.

The freezing wind blows tiny fragments of snow around as I start to walk from the CHU Crow Center back to East campus. Jamming my hands into my pockets, I breathe in the cold air.

Jesse didn't deserve some of the things I said to him during practice. He's been in my corner since day one, and it's not his fault that everything is falling apart. It's also not his fault that there are heavier things weighing on me apart from the track team decision.

Heavier things... like Cass.

I don't know what's more surprising – the jealousy I felt seeing her with Aram that night, or the deep concern I have for her wellbeing. I really don't like that guy. That jerk looks far too concerned with his muscles to be an attentive boyfriend. And he gives off a rather dangerous vibe.

I sigh, heavy and exhausted. It doesn't matter anymore. Cass made her choice. And before that, I made a choice to just stay friends with her.

So why does it hurt so much?

---

On the first day of February, an ice storm takes over the campus. Professors cancel classes as a safety measure, encouraging us to use the extra time to study for our winter session final exams. Antsy and bored, Lee and I decide to play pranks on each other to pass the time.

It began with Lee's trash can, which was overflowing with junk food wrappers and other shit he never bothered to clean. Two nights ago, I waited until he was asleep before carefully taping every piece of his garbage to his closet door. When he woke the next morning, he got the message loud and clear.

The next day while I was in the shower, Lee stole my towel and clothes, forcing me to streak down the hall back to our room buck naked.

Fortunately, no one noticed.

From then on, Lee and I declared a truce and decided to target Tim the RA.

Yesterday, Lee found some old cardboard and newspapers from the Swan Hall dumpsters. We decide to lug the trash back into our room for safekeeping and wait for Tim to shut himself in his room for the night. After I see him return from the bathroom with his toothbrush, I give Lee the signal before we drag our cardboard and newspapers out into the hallway and get to work.

All the doors along our corridor in Swan are set in heavy doorframes with deep jambs, providing a generous gap between the cinderblock wall and the actual door. Using tape, I erect a cardboard wall across Tim's door from the floor up, leaving a three-inch gap at the top of the doorjamb. After the cardboard wall is done, I stand on a desk chair and ball up pieces of newspaper, dropping them through the makeshift slot. The idea is to fill the space behind the cardboard wall with crumpled up newspaper balls, so that when Tim opens his door in the morning he will be bombarded by a ton of old newspapers.