Is the Universe Infinite?

CHAPTER 2: Picture Perfect

"Believe me, your honor. My life was completely different before my cat started talking," I insisted. "Let me paint the picture for you..."

SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2017.

It was the end of the summer and I was excited.

Odd, right? 

Hear me out. I had nothing against the freedom of being able to go out to the pool whenever I wanted and eating tubs of ice cream without judgement. After the end of my freshman year, I was wild. I definitely gained some pounds and no, it wasn't from "freshman fifteen." 

Freshman fifteen was an urban legend. You don't gain weight during freshmen year because you go to college. You gain weight from being reintroduced to your mother's cooking when you go back home on break. Seriously, I almost shed an actual tear when my mother set a plate of mac and cheese on the dinner table. I inhaled everything on that plate and my family tried to take a picture of me eating ravenously but by the time they came back to the table, my food was gone. Yeah, I loved being back home but it was time to leave.

To recap, my summer break was coming to a close and I was thrilled to see my friends again on campus. Sadly, I commuted to school since my college wasn't too far from my house. The plus side was that I was saving quite literally thousands of dollars from housing fees. My friends, in comparison, were out-of-state students and could probably take three steps from their dorms and get to class on time. 

Meanwhile, it took me thirty minutes to drive from my house to my college's crappy parking garage. But I digress, my friends always invited me to hang out in their room's so the drive was worth it whenever I went to go see them. I was a little lonely without them this summer. One day, I even visited the campus alone. I just missed my friends so much I pretended they were there with me while I sipped on a frappe in a desolate Starbucks on campus.

I know what you are thinking. 

I'm lame. 

That might be true, but it's a fact that my friends are quite literally rad. Not only are they completely honest with me, but they are genuinely upbeat and supportive people. I am incredibly lucky to have them in my life. So, if you average my coolness with their coolness, I'm pretty okay.

The sound of a chime suddenly rang in my pocket. It was my cellphone and the name "Beth" along with various emoji's flashed on the screen. 

I squealed. "Oh my god, I was just thinking of you."

"Really? That's up for debate. You, missy, have been AWOL all summer!" Beth said in a chastising tone.

Bethany Shnider was the kind of girl that everyone fell for. The way she carried herself was just so graceful, you couldn't help but want to replicate her in every sense of the word. She was like the human equivalent of the latest Iphone and I was a domesticated pigeon. 

Once, I remember going to the library to finish printing out a final paper for one of my classes and I walked towards the front desk to staple my 20-page paper worth 45% of my final grade. I spent approximately six laborious hours writing about the gross misjustices of the healthcare industry against the poor and analyzed works by my own personal hero, Paul Farmer, in the most concise and comprehensive way I could. It took five seconds of a hot guy smiling at me at the front desk in the library to make me staple my 20-page paper onto one of my sleeves. I flipped my hair back, but failed, because my assignment flew right by my face. It's suffice to say that Beth was cool and I was socially handicapped. Beth, however, accepted my flaws and found me to be "quirky." 

"Hello? You have some answering to do. Where did you go? I texted you like every single week in August!" Beth cried. "You left me on read!"

She was right, I spent so much of my summer spending literally every waking moment with my family. I couldn't even be bothered to send a text message back.