Everything I'm Not (GirlxGirl)

40. Seventeenth

I would've offered to help if it wasn't for the editorial's club advisor passing his responsibilities to me and making last-minute changes on the school's paper. Normally, I wouldn't mind taking his duties for him, but it pissed me off that he had to wait until the last minute to tell me. I hate cramming.

My phone dings, the name on the screen shaking off my frustrations for a second. How's the paper going?

About halfway done. Your poster? I type back, then after a moment, I add, Might have to pull an all-nighter.

It took a while before Alex's reply came back. No one fails a class because of one project, right?

I shake my head after typing out a reply. Knowing her, there's a fifty percent chance she's being serious right now. But also knowing her, she's going to find a way to pull through and get whatever needed to be done by tomorrow.

Returning to the pending articles in front of me, I spent the next hour editing and revising the publication before my phone buzzed again. Come down here.

I suck in a breath. What?

Special delivery from Books and Brews.

I run down to the front gate, barefooted and on my nightclothes, so fast it was a miracle I didn't trip over myself. There, standing outside looking absolutely perfect is my girlfriend, holding a coffee cup with Books and Brews' logo with a huge grin on her face.

I throw myself at her, not caring about anything other than the warmth that instantly settles over me as she wraps her other arm around me and pulls me tight against her. "Are you happy about the coffee or seeing me?" She chuckles against my hair.

"You." I always thought the sappy things like showing up in the middle of the night in front of the girl's house I always see in the movies are cliche and overrated. Well, cliches are cliches for a reason and I'm certain I can get behind the idea if this is how it feels like. "Definitely you."

A bark from inside the house makes us both jump before it turned into high-pitched crying. Alex loosens her arm and gives me a once-over. "It's cold." She takes me in her arms again and hands me the cup. "Here. Go back inside before your dad sees me."

"He's not home."

Alex blinks. "Oh."

"Come inside for a bit." I take her hand before she can protest and tiptoe back to the safety of my house. "How'd you even get in? The guards are supposed to call first before letting anyone in."

She smirks. "I have my ways."

"Of course you do." I roll my eyes at her, finally taking a sip of my coffee. Double espresso. "And how'd you get this?"

"I have a key to the shop." Alex lets me enter my bedroom first—the door left open from when I rushed downstairs—before entering and shutting it close behind her. "Any progress?"

I put my cup down on my desk before taking a seat on the couch. Alex follows me, stopping in front of my table when she notices the pictures hanging on the wall. There's been one recent addition to it of a certain grandmaster playing chess, sitting cross-legged in our living room, a knight clutched between her fingers in her outstretched hand, paused in midmotion when I took the picture. Seeing the polaroid film puts a smile on Alex's face.

She sits down next to me after peering down on my table and outstretches her arm on the back of the couch. I squeeze myself into her space, putting my legs over hers and cuddling closer. "Almost done with the paper. But I still have to review for our exam in Physics."