Above & Beyond ✔

3. The Boy I Used to Like

Spring almost came to an end. As the temperature gradually warmed up, the clusters of tulips in my faculty garden started to lose their fearlessness. The petals were now dried up and stiffly curled, while the leaves were bending over like a banana skin, dangling outward when they were pulled halfway. Some petals already left the stem, lay helplessly on the ground, waiting for their vibrant color to wither, and then returned to what had given them lives in the first place, the earth. Soon, the roses would take over the fame.

Sitting on the grass while inhaling the sweet floral scents, I slowly munched on my sandwich I carelessly packed this morning. It took me longer to finish my lunch since I forgot to smear some butter, making my lunch as dry as my brain at the very moment. I contemplated skipping my last class, psychodiagnostic, but then I would miss the last chance to earn extra points from the last-day quiz. Judging from how cynical Mr. Andrew during our brief talk, I wouldn't get my hope up about him helping me with my report revision. He would probably just approve my submission, but then the grade I received would be painful to see.

A sound of a soft thud on the grass disrupted my train of thoughts, followed by a blue backpack landing on the grass next to my feet. I looked up just to find the owner staring down at me, grinning, or wincing from the glaring sun. His dirty blond hair was disheveled, probably from being pulled too often during a boring lecture.

"Thought I would find you here," Dean said before plopping down next to me. His familiar scent instantly invaded my nostrils; it was a mix of the sweetness of his perfume, his sweat, and the smell of the sun. I grew up with this scent and took comfort in it.

"I'm too broke to buy lunch this week."

"But what's that look for?" he asked while studying my face.

"Nothing." I put the rest of my sandwich in my lunch box before chugging down the water from my bottle. "I was just thinking of just skipping my last class so that I can sleep for a few hours before starting my shift."

"What's stopping you then?" he asked, unwrapping the bread roll he'd been cradling in his hand. A meatball with barbeque sauce, and no veggies. Classic Dean.

I shrugged. "My last chance to earn points from the weekly quiz."

"It won't do much, will it? It's not like you haven't collected enough points." He took his first bite, earning an eye roll from me since he made a crunching noise while chewing.

"Quite the contrary. I screwed up with the experiment, big time, and I am probably going to get an E, if I'm lucky. So, the quiz it is. It's only twenty percent from the total grade, but still, it counts."

Dean green eyes were fixed on me. "What did you do?"

"Stupid thing." I groaned as I pulled my knees up and buried my face in them. "I'm behind with my reports, like, very behind that I might have gotten kicked out of the mentoring group. So, I tried to fix it today and went to find my mentor, to beg him, making up a story about why I didn't come to him on time, but then I found out he was the guy I got nasty with at the coffee shop."

"What?" Dean frowned then chuckled with a full mouth. If my mom was around, he would get scolded for sure.

"We fought over coffee this morning. I thought it was mine, so I attacked him, but seemed like he was there first, and it was his coffee. In the next fifteen minutes, I learned that he was my mentor," I told him the whole story in one breath. "Fuck me."

Dean barked a laughter, not a pity laugh, nor solidarity laugh, but an evil laugh while he threw his head backward. He stopped when I smacked his shoulder hard. "But how did you not know him?"