Consequences of Attraction

1. Study Group

"How about you leave me alone, yeah?" I asked politely to my annoying roommate otherwise known as Sarah, my best friend, who doesn't seem to take the hint that I'm busy typing up my English essay that's due in a month's time.

I shifted my body away from her and moved my laptop to the arm rest, hoping that she will finally leave me alone and give me some much needed peace. Did that work? Nope because she continued to poke my side with her bony finger. I glared at her before swatting her hand away from me.

"For goodness sake, Kass, that stupid paper isn't due for a WHOLE month. Why can't you take a small break and watch some Netflix with me? We haven't had any Kass and Sarah time because I'm busy with swimming and you're busy shoving knowledge up your-" I raised my hand to quiet her. Gosh this girl can be such a pain.

"Sarah, you know how important this paper is for me. You heard what the professor said. This paper is HUGE and if I don't ace it then I could possibly fail the class and then not get considered for the exclusive writers club-" this time she interrupted me.

"Don't even go there. You're an English major! Plus Professor Wilson loves you, he wouldn't fail you and you know that." She argued. I rolled my eyes.

"If you would've let me finish, I was gonna say that this club only accepts two members a year out of thousands of students that are on campus." I replied with annoyance.

Saying all that and trying to knock some sense into her caused a light dizziness to my head and I suddenly felt urge to lock myself up in my room and roll up in a nice blanket and sleep all of this nonsense off. Sarah rolled her eyes and stood up, walking away into her room. I know that I have upset her, but can't she see how important this is to me? We always have time to watch movies and laugh at stupid TikToks, but I only have one shot to get this paper worthy enough of an A.

I continued to type up my essay, but as soon as I finished up a sentence, my thoughts became unclear and I knew the pain of guilt was seeping into me. The constant sound of the keyboard keys against my fingers began to irritate me and I closed my laptop, seeing that I can't continue with fuzzy thoughts and the idea of Sarah being upset because of me and my selfishness. I placed my laptop on the coffee table and stood up. Part of me hoped that Sarah was still awake, but the other prayed that she was asleep so I could save this argument for tomorrow. As bad as it sounds, I hate confrontation and even though she's my best friend, I can't stand looking at her in the eye and admitting that I was being hard headed. I walked over to her room and pressed my ear against the door, trying to listen for any evidence of her still being awake.

"Kassandra, I know you're there." My breath hitched as I heard her say my name. Sarah opened the door causing me to fall over and make contact with the hard, cold floor. Rolling over, I groaned and gave her a glare. She could have warned me that she was gonna open the door or told me to come in like any normal human would. Shrugging, Sarah walked over to bed and sat down while I got myself off of the floor.

"You didn't have to do that." I stated, rubbing my throbbing head. There's definitely gonna be a bruise there tomorrow, no thanks to Sarah.

"You could've been nicer to me. Seriously, is our friendship less important than your stupid grades? You're Kassandra Gates! Valedictorian of her high school class, president of student council, and lead editor of the school's paper, Kassandra Gates." Sarah continued to go on and on about all of my achievements and how there's no way I could possibly fail a simple English essay. I sighed while nodding because I knew she was right about everything. She's right that I focus 99.9% of my attention on school rather than enjoying all the little things that life has to offer, but there's a part of me that finds that scary. I grew up with strict parents and all they ever taught me was school first, success second, and if you have time, you can have a little bit of fun, but not too much because you might end up screwing up your successful future.