Breakfast on Tuesday

39. Not so grumpy girl

I finished my exam twenty-five minutes before time and it didn't surprise me. Studying had gone pretty well - all thanks to Dante for helping me.

After going through the syllabus and figuring out what was important for the exam, he tested me repeatedly using the mock exams and even came up with a few questions of his own. I couldn't believe how much information I had retained from those sessions.

I didn't know if the information stuck with me because of all the kisses I got whenever I got a set of questions right, or the sex breaks in between, or the repetitive testing, but whatever it was, I needed to bottle and sell it.

I would make a fortune.

Next to me, I looked at Eva and she gave me an it's-not-going-good-look. A quick glance at her page number told me she wasn't nearly close to finishing the exam. With twenty minutes left on the clock, she had to hurry the fuck up.

Giving her a thumbs up, I muttered, "You got this."

I stood up and saw Eli sitting at the back of the hall with a deep frown of concentration on his face. I could never tell if he was acing an exam or not because in both cases he always looked like he was pulling teeth.

I handed in my paper and then went downstairs to our spot to wait on Eva and Eli. Our spot was just a bench inside the cafeteria with our names scratched on the metal surface as if we were still in high school.

It felt so weird sitting there alone. Normally Eduardo was always first to finish his exam and we would all gather around him, waiting for him to tell us if we had gotten our answers right or not.

He would often shake his head at Eli's ridiculous answers and then in a gentle voice, he would supply the correct one. The rest of us would groan and hold our heads in our hands when we also realized that we had gotten the answer to that question wrong as well.

Eduardo was never loud or boisterous. He wasn't popular, but within our group, we felt his presence. And because he rarely spoke, every word - even the most simple word - that came out of his mouth was powerful, transfixing even.

I missed him greatly.

Madeleine hadn't shown up for the exam today and I was worried about her. I hadn't heard from her in a while and I didn't even know if she was back from Paris yet.

I took out my phone to call her when a text message popped up on my screen.

Dante is bae: Hope your exam went well, baby. I'm parked right at the entrance of the parking lot.

Me: You're early 🙃

Dante is bae: Always, unlike someone I know 😁🤣 Get your pretty ass over here. I miss you

Me: 🥰

Me: Waiting on Eli and Eva. Be there soon 😘

I couldn't believe my boyfriend was missing me already when he practically fed me breakfast this morning and then rushed me out of the house like I was a toddler who had no concept of time and what it meant to be punctual.

Therefore, for the first time in a long time, I arrived at the university early. Ten minutes early in fact. Turned out that being early wasn't that bad.

Someone hugged me from behind and I knew by the Hugo Boss perfume that it was Eva. I grinned like a fool and turned around.

Eva was a special kind of beautiful, but what I loved most about her were her kind eyes. They were a light brown, similar in color to autumn leaves after the yellow faded.

She was the best fucking best friend in the world, and without her, getting over my father's death would have been impossible.

"Carla, you sexy bitch," she hissed in my ear, and then she kissed my cheek, leaving the warm residue of her lipgloss behind.