"I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle it.Have a nice day." -Hercules
Tonight hadn't gone to plan whatsoever. I'd known Lyra was going on a date and told her I'd be in the area if she needed anything, plus we all shared our locations with one another, but when she'd called me I knew something had to be seriously wrong. She'd only ever called me a handful of times before, and it was usually when she'd gotten locked out of the apartment.
She'd called tonight from the bathroom at a bar telling me about how creepy her date was being, and how he kept saying how much he loved Japanese girls. Lyra wasn't even Japanese, and even if she was it was still such a gross thing to say. She'd sounded incredibly freaked out, so I told her I'd come get her, then left Hayden's place in a frenzy.
When I'd gotten to the bar, I'd gone up and asked Lyra if she wanted to leave, and the guy she was with better have been drunk, but even that wouldn't have excused the racist and sexist bullshit that came out of his mouth. So I did the only rational thing I could, and punched him. Hard.
Kickboxing came in handy, and even though it was weird to do without boxing gloves on, I just went for it, then grabbed Lyra's hand and rushed out the door without any hesitation. I'd never punched someone before outside of class, and the adrenaline rushing through my body was insane.
Then we ran into fucking Hayden West. I'd told him that I was fine, and he'd followed me. He fucking followed me. First off, I'd told him I could take care of myself, what part of that did he not understand. Secondly, I hadn't even told him where I was going meaning he would've had to follow me here like some sort of stalker. He was without a doubt the most infuriating person I'd ever met.
It was annoying, and why did he even do it. It's not like he liked me, it wasn't like we were even close to friends. We'd barely spoken except to argue during the movie. I was still fuming about it after we'd dropped him off at his apartment because Lyra had insisted on giving the asshole a ride.
"So, Hayden West wanted to make sure you were okay," Lyra said grinning at me like an idiot.
"No he didn't, he just wanted to annoy me and look good in the process," I responded crossing my arms and glaring at her from the passenger seat.
"So you think he looks good," she replied wiggling her eyebrows, the same stupid grin on her face.
"I'm going to turn the music up really loud now. Unless you want to talk about your date," I ask somewhat menacingly.
"Not at all," she replies, "I swear to god that is the last time I use a dating app, I'm deleting all of them the second we get back. And with that, she turns the volume up all the way and we scream and sing along to Miley Cyrus the whole drive back.
We don't even have our shoes off when both Alyssa and Adri start pressing us for details about what happened tonight, apparently while Hayden and I had been bickering Lyra texted them about what happened. I'd be annoyed if it weren't for the fact that she'd had the most awful date tonight.
"Wait, so you went to his apartment, and watched a movie together? Alone," Alyssa asks.
"Yeah, but we weren't really alone, his roommates were all there, and we were sitting on opposite ends of the couch.
"What's his place like," Adri asks, "Is it like the ultimate bro hockey pad?"
"No it was actually a lot nicer than I expected, I mean it's decorated like a bunch of hockey bros live there, but it was clean and smelled decent."
"I'm seeing nothing but green flags," Alyssa calls out, "it was so sweet of him to make sure you were okay like that."
"No, it wasn't. I told him I didn't need him, so he shouldn't have come. What does he think because I'm a woman I can't take care of myself? Like I need some big strong muscular man to take care of me?"
"Okay girl, I get the rage, but give him the benefit of the doubt here. He was just trying to do the right thing, imagine if things hadn't gone the way they did. It might've been nice of him to scare away that asshole with some muscle," Adri says.
I sigh, "I know, you're right, but my annoyance with everything Hayden does is too strong, just let me have this please."
I go to the kitchen and grab a bag of frozen strawberries to put over my wrist, I'd done a pretty textbook punch, but it was still a little sore. A small part of me was hoping I'd have a bruise and would look all badass when I walked into physics tomorrow.
The girls keep talking, and we fully dissect Lyra's date, then make her show us as she deletes all the dating apps off of her phone. She tends to have terrible luck on them anyhow, but tonight was especially awful. After that, I head back into my room to watch the last few minutes of When Harry Met Sally. Right as the credits begin to roll, my phone buzzes with a text from Hayden.
Hayden West: I'm sorry that I upset you by following you tonight.
Cassie Bennet: that's such a half-ass apology, but I'm sorry too I shouldn't have reacted like that.
Hayden West: I gotta know though, where'd you learn to hit like that?? That guy's nose looked so broken
Cassie Bennet: I kickbox at the campus gym
Hayden West: FR? Damn, I guess you really did have it. Guess I gotta watch out now don't wanna be next on the hit list
Cassie Bennet: Oh you're definitely at the top of the list don't worry though I'll only hit you if you say something I don't like.
Hayden West: So I can just never speak again got it.
Cassie Bennet: Sounds like heaven
Hayden West: Nah, you'd get bored, if it weren't for me you'd never get through these boring ass movies you keep picking
Cassie Bennet: Hey don't blame me, blame the genre. I doubt even you could find a romance movie you'd enjoy
Hayden West: Okay, bet. I'll pick the next movie.
I continue texting with Hayden for a little longer until we decide to meet up again on Sunday afternoon to watch the next movie, at his place again. It's kind of unbelievable that he and I are having a civil conversation. Sure it's over text, and we have been insulting each other, but it feels more like joking around than actually arguing. Maybe it's just because over text you can't read tone, but it feels different like maybe he and I are going to turn over a new leaf. The thought nearly makes me laugh. As if.
The next few days were relatively uneventful, I got a high five from Mel when I told them about punching that guy, then went to classes and lab. Hayden didn't show up to class on Thursday, which was somewhat disappointing, and I try not to think too much about
Friday night, the girls and I had big plans. Adri was going home for the weekend, and since she was the only one of us not planning to go through more school after graduating, we were ordering pizza and baking cookies, and starting our applications together. I know it sounds very lame, but we all thought it'd be more fun to get it all started together, plus the later it got the more ridiculous our essay ideas were sure to be.
The three of us spent nearly thirty minutes debating how much and what type of pizza to order, then another twenty baking cookies until everything was ready and we brought all the food into the living room where we had a whole thing set up.
Lyra had this massive whiteboard on wheels, it looked like the ones you'd see in the library. Maybe a little too much like the ones in the library, but I wasn't about to ask questions, and we had the board all set up. We each had our own color with the schools we were applying to, the deadlines, and everything we'd need to do for the application. It was absolutely beautiful, and quite possibly the nerdiest thing we'd ever done.
Our main plan for tonight was to figure out what to write for the essay portions, who to get letters of recommendation from for each program, and make sure we all had a wide variety of safeties, targets, and reaches. We were about to make every high school guidance counselor ever proud.
Lyra was applying to the most schools with thirty-five listed on the board, she was a beast and also terrified by the stats of how few people got into med school. I was trailing her with twelve grad schools, then Alyssa had eight she was applying for, which was closer to a normal amount to try for. None of us wanted to think about how expensive all these applications would be.
"How bad is it if I just recycle all of my essays, these are all asking the same thing," Lyra practically cried as she added yet another 'where do you see yourself in ten years' question to the Google doc with all our prompts on it. We were all sharing one document so we could go through and easily edit and review each other's work.
"Can't do that with all the why us questions though," I respond, feeling her pain, "it's not like I can say I'll go anywhere with a good program."
We each grab another slice of pizza, leaving only one slice left from the two pizzas and two things of breadsticks we ordered, not to mention the sheer amount of cookies we'd consumed. Usually, we tried to eat pretty healthy, but every now in then you just needed to carb load while doing an inhumane amount of school work.
At the end of the day, I was almost positive we'd all get into if not our top schools, at least one of our backups, but it was still so stressful to actually begin the application. It made it all feel so much more real. I still hadn't gotten that feeling yet, like I was a real adult, and I wasn't sure if I ever would, but it felt all too real to be applying to graduate school. A few years from now, assuming all went to plan I'd become Dr. Cassie Bennet. When I went to the lab to do research, it would be my research, and someone else would be doing all the grunt work. I was so ready, but at the same time not ready at all.
Around midnight, we were all practically delirious, and decided to call it quits for the night, and wheeled the whiteboard over by the window, so it'd be staring us down every time we walked back into the apartment. We then threw on an episode of gossip girl, our go-to trashy tv show, and watched it until we all passed out. It was by all means a great Friday night.
It was definitely not how most people I knew would be spending tonight, but we somehow managed to turn something productive that we'd all been dreading a little bit into a fun girls' night. The real work was still just beginning, but it was all a little less scary to do when you had your best friends by your side.
Then, before I knew it, it was Sunday and I was once again standing outside of Hayden West's apartment waiting to be let in. This time more nervous than the last, I had no idea what to expect from whatever movie he choose. I just hoped it at least was classified as a romance movie.
He let me in, then we stood in the elevator in awkward silence as we went up to his apartment on the fifth floor, "So how was your weekend," I asked him attempting to break the silence.
"Good. We won our final preseason game down in Oregon."
"Oh. Is that where you were on Thursday?"
"Yeah. I'll probably miss a lot of Thursday and Friday classes now that the season's starting."
"Oh," is all I say in response. How long is this elevator ride supposed to be, and why is this the most awkward conversation in existence. I told myself I'd be civil until given a reason not to be, and apparently when we were being civil toward one another we didn't know how to have an actual conversation.
We both sigh in relief when the elevator makes a sound and the doors open to his floor, as soon as we get to his apartment, his roommates from last time all greet us, they're hanging out in the kitchen this time.
"Listen, man, I could get behind it when you made me try pineapple on pizza, but apples in a pb and j is pushing it too far," one of them, I think it was Teddy was saying as we walked in. Thomas was easy to pick out, but Teddy and Brandon both looked so similar it was hard to tell them apart. I think Teddy was the one talking though, with the longer lighter brown mullet.
"Dude I know it sounds weird, but I swear, the crunch from the apple elevates the sandwich so much," the one with the darker slightly shorter mullet, Brandon replied.
"You two sound like 4th graders, you should be making a real sandwich like me," the third guy, this one I know for sure is Thomas responds, motioning to what looks like a ham and cheese sandwich in front of him.
"West, settle this for us man," Brandon calls out, grabbing a sandwich half and thrusting it into his hand.
"Payne, I am not trying another one of your weird sandwich combos, the peanut butter and ham sandwich from sophomore year still haunts me.
"Okay that was objectively bad, but this one is good I swear," he replies glancing around at the guys almost like a lost dog.
"He's right," I pipe up, almost unintentionally, "My mom used to put apple chunks in it and it really does add to the sandwich." My face flushes as they all stare at me for a moment as if they hadn't fully comprehended that I was there.
"See, I'm not insane, someone gets it," Brandon shouts and does a fist pump before taking a bite out of his sandwich.
"You've just boosted his food ego way too much," Hayden leans down a little to whisper in my ear as he grabs my arms and leads me toward his room.
"We're watching the movie in here," I ask standing hesitantly in his doorway after he let go of my arm and walked in.
"Well yeah unless you want to listen to them argue about sandwich toppings the whole night. It's clean in here I promise. And I'll be a perfect gentleman, especially after seeing what you did to that one guy."
I somewhat hesitantly enter and take a look around. His room is a little bit bigger than mine is, and where my desk is cleared off for studying, his has a large monitor on it that I assume is normally used for playing video games, and is what we'll be watching the movie on tonight. The desk is positioned in the corner of the room, with the monitor angled so there's a great view of it from his bed which is surprisingly well-made. He walks over to his desk to pull the movie up, and I sit down on the edge of his bed.
"You can make yourself comfortable, just don't get under the covers or anything," he calls out as he fiddles with the computer.
I roll my eyes, "Trust me the last thing I want to do is get into your sheets. What movie are we watching tonight anyways?"
"Shotgun Wedding," he responds, "I found it under the romance section on Prime Video. It's about a wedding party that gets taken hostage by pirates according to the description."
"Did you just search for the most bro romance movies or something?"
"Look, If I'm gonna sit through however many more of these, they can't all be wishy-washy romances, I at least want there to be some pirates."
I sigh, "Fair enough."
He presses play on the movie and then moves to sit on his bed next to me. Thankfully it's a queen-sized bed, so there's a decent amount of space between us. The weirdness of being on Hayden West's bed cannot get past me though.
"What the hell even is this," I turn to Hayden, both of us on the verge of tears from how ridiculous this movie is at what I think is about thirty minutes in.
"Is she seriously going to have to carry the grenade around the rest of the movie," he asks.
"God I hope so, and how the hell is her hair still so perfect," I ask laughing.
"I'm gonna pause it for a few minutes, I feel like we need popcorn or something to get through the rest of whatever the fuck we're watching."
"Agreed," I call out, "this is somehow both the best and worst movie I've ever seen.
He walks back into the room a few minutes later with a bowl of popcorn, and a bag of candy that based on the noise from his roommates he took without permission. He tosses the candy at me, then sets the bowl of popcorn in between us so we can continue watching the movie.
I try so hard to focus on the movie, but between the ridiculous plot, the fact that he and I keep reaching for popcorn at the same time, and our hands brushing against each other, it's near impossible.
" You know," Hayden says in the middle of a scene where they're fighting one of the pirates, "When I get married, there better be pirates."
"Ohmygod you've got to be kidding me, you want this," I motion towards the screen which is now showing a very attractive, but still disheveled Jennifer Lopez running from the pirates in slo-mo.
"I mean, if anything it's made their relationship stronger. If you and your partner can survive pirates holding you for ransom, hired by your ex, then you can survive anything."
"That's why I've never dated anybody with pirate connections," I respond, "then it's a non-issue."
"How do you know that you've never dated anybody with pirate connections though," he asks in a joking accusatory voice, "we do go to college on the coast after all."
"You make a good point," I respond, "I'll just not get married near water then. Boom no pirates."
"No pirates, but also no fun. If there aren't pirates then what's even the point of getting married?"
"You did not just say that," I laugh and throw the piece of popcorn I'd just grabbed at him.
He grabs the popcorn which landed next to him on the bed and eats it, "I'm just saying, weddings are expensive, and honestly pretty boring. If pirates attack the wedding, one you'll never forget it, and two you could probably sue someone and get the wedding paid for."
"Spoken like a true business major," I called back out shaking my head, "I'm pretty sure when you're the one getting married the wedding isn't boring and forgettable."
"Yeah because when I'm the one getting married there will be pirates," He grins.
I sigh and shake my head turning back towards the movie. We thought it was bad up until this point, but absolutely nothing could've prepared me for the last fifteen minutes of the movie.
"That was insane," I said, unable to think of anything else to describe it, "how did they manage to tie every little thing together."
"You should let me pick all the movies now," Hayden replied, "this was infinitely more entertaining than the other movies."
"Okay," I respond sitting upright on his bed, "As funny as this was, it doesn't represent the genre as a whole and we need to get a good grade on it."
"You can choose the next movie then," he replies, "But honestly why do you care so much about this grade. It's one class, and it's not even remotely related to astrophysics."
I was surprised he remembered that that was what I was studying, and the way he asked it, he sounded more curious than peeved that I was being such a try-hard on this assignment.
"I'm applying to grad schools right now, and I want to get in somewhere good. I need to maintain a high GPA for that. It's easier to boost my GPA with this class than the physics class or astronomy class I'm taking."
He pauses for a second as if thinking about what I just said before responding, "So what do you want to do after grad school," he asks.
I'm surprised he cares enough to ask, "I want to work for NASA or Blue Origin, or any space-related company really."
"Like an astronaut?"
"No, more like the behind-the-scenes person. Doing work down on earth that can teach us more about space."
"That's actually pretty cool, not as cool as being an astronaut, but I can see you doing that."
"Thanks," I blush a little bit, nobody like Hayden West has ever thought there was anything remotely cool about what I wanted to do. "What about you," I ask, "straight to the NHL after graduating?"
He looks away for a second, then back toward me, "Hopefully, I got drafted a few years ago, but they still haven't called me up yet. I'm hoping if we can win the frozen four this year, that'll show them they picked the right guy."
"And if it doesn't," I ask out of curiosity, trying to keep my voice soft so it doesn't sound like I'm trying to crush his dreams.
"If it doesn't, they lose their rights to me after a certain amount of time, and then I'd hopefully be able to sign somewhere as a free agent, which again would be easier with a championship win under our belt."
"Wow," I respond, almost not knowing what to say, "that sounds like a lot of pressure." I know next to nothing about hockey, but winning a championship can't be easy.
"It can be, but it's worth it every time I'm out there on the ice."
I smile, "That's how I feel when I'm in the lab too. Or well sometimes, I feel that way when I get to do the actual hands-on work, most of what I do now is just inputting data."
"The lab? Is that where you go after class every day," he asks.
"Yeah," I respond, "I basically spend every waking moment there, outside of class at least."
We talk for a few more minutes about my research, which I hope isn't too terribly boring for him, I know as interesting as I find it all, almost anyone outside of the field would be bored out of their minds hearing about it.
I take the bus back to my place, and as I do I think about how this is the first time I've ever been around Hayden and we haven't spent half the time arguing. For once we actually kind of got along, and it was honestly really nice. There's more to him than I thought, even if his entire life is just hockey, there was an intensity in him when he talked about it that resonated with how I feel about astrophysics, and getting into grad school. Maybe, in some alternate universe, he and I would have been friends. In this one though, I'll be surprised if we manage to get through this project civilly.