Coffee & Curses {AN INFERNAL DEVICES MODERN AU}

*two*

Jem didn't know how long he'd been playing; just that the last time he had checked, it was still light outside, and now it was dark.

Will had a late-night shift at the Starbucks he worked at, otherwise Jem would have been stopped by the guilt of annoying Will with all his practicing. Even though Will never complained about it directly, Jem could tell that after a while, it got tiresome.

When Jem finally put his violin down to take a break, working out the kinks in his neck and shoulder, it was 11:34 at night. The brightness of his phone screen made his pale face look a ghostly blue in the dark dorm room, and Jem squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before opening them again, just now realizing how tired he was.

And he still had that Economics assignment to do...

He knew he should have started it yesterday, but he'd got caught up in helping that girl on his way to the library. He liked to go to the library to study, even though everything was on computers now, and there was no need for books. Jem just liked the quiet. Which was odd, since, sometimes, when he was alone in the dorm without Will, he hated the silence and had to fill it by playing violin. He didn't understand himself sometimes.

Jem made a cup of instant noodles and settled cross legged on his couch to work on his paper. He already had an introduction from when he had started early in class, and a vague outline, so all he had to do was fill it in with fluff and extra words to draw it out into six pages.

But the more he tried to force himself to do it, the more cloudy his brain got. He was reading the articles he was supposed to be citing, but not comprehending them. He couldn't focus long enough to get past the third paragraph, and gave up after half an hour of trying.

He hated it when this happened. Usually it was because of lack of sleep, but Jem didn't feel tired. Instead, he got his violin out again, not to practice; just to play something familiar.

He had barely started, however, when a soft, insistent knocking came from the door, growing louder and more urgent with each rap on the smooth wood. Putting down his violin, Jem got up and half-jogged to answer it, expecting it to be Will. Maybe he had been let off early, or had forgotten his phone.

But it wasn't Will. It was Tessa, the girl he'd helped in carrying her boxes up to her room.

She was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, though this one was different than the black one she'd had on earlier. Her hair was in a loose braid, and she was in socks with no shoes. She looked flustered and awkward, and her hands were clasped nervously behind her back.

"Sorry for interrupting but, um, well, Sophie tripped over the coffee table- Her knee's bleeding pretty bad and we don't have any band-aids or anything so I was wondering if you guys had any?"

Tessa said the second sentence all in one breath, so fast it took Jem a few moments to process.

"Oh! Yeah, yeah we have band-aids. Hold on..." Jem darted over to the miniscule kitchen, ripping open two drawers before finding a half-empty box of assorted bandages, along with some antibiotic cream. He handed them to Tessa, who had been waiting anxiously, with her arms crossed, by the door.

"Thanks," she said. "Again, I'm sorry for interrupting your playing, and coming over so late.. It's just you're kind of the only person I kind of know here besides, you know, Sophie-"

"It's fine, really," Jem said. "Don't worry about it. I said I'd always be happy to help, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Thank god it was you and not Will, otherwise I might have caught him mid-soliloquy and have had to wait for him to finish," she finished with a short laugh. "I mean, I'm joking. Dont- don't tell him I said that."