1 year later
I was spread out on the couch, legs up, laptop nestled in my lap. My toes poked up over the edge. I was wearing these obnoxiously yellow socks Meg had bought me a while back, which she'd purchased on the belief I would absolutely hate them. Which I did. But because it was her who had bought them, they were a little hard to hate.
I glanced up as the front door swung open, glimpsing a brown head muffled in a red beanie, before the door shut and she was already into the kitchen. Muted rustling sounds ensued, and so I stood, wandering over to the kitchen.
'Hello my love,' I yawned, stretching. I rested up against the doorframe, Meg bent over, rummaging through the fridge.
'Hi,' she replied, frowning as she pulled out a carrot. She gave it an experimental bend. 'How bendy is too bendy for a carrot?'
She looked up at me, and I shrugged, so she took a bite anyway, closing the fridge door with here socked foot. She moved over to the cupboards, rustling through them until she found a pack of chocolate chips Phil hadn't gotten into yet.
'Hungry, I see,' I observed, watching amusedly. 'I thought you brought a whole pack of Doritos to your lecture this morning?'
'Yes, well, that was seven hours ago,' she grumbled, heaving herself up onto a stool. She collapsed onto her arms, folded in front of her, taking a miserable bite of the carrot.
'Tired?' I asked, walking over to her. I ran a hand over her bowed head and she nodded, letting out a huff of air.
'Tired doesn't begin to describe it.'
'You're working crazy hard.'
'Well, it's my last semester. Ever. It's the last chance I have to do well, and be proud of myself.' She rolled the carrot around slowly in her fingers, eyeing the opposite wall, her hair over her face.
'It'll pay off,' I said softly.
'I don't know. I'm so fucked for my final exam,' she said quietly, cheek pressed up against the marble countertop. 'Like, really fucked. The kind of fucked that happens in all orifices of the body, all at once.'
'Okay, maybe let's stopped with the fucked analogies?'
Meg didn't say anything, just sighed again. I trailed my hand down her lower back, letting them rest on her hips. 'I know you'll be great. Really. And whatever happens, you know that I'll be proud of you, right?' I made a slight scoffing sound, her waist warm beneath my hands. 'I mean, I couldn't even get through first year uni.'
A glimpse of a laugh trickled out from her. I lent in, whispering excitedly to her, 'and look at you! Soon you'll be out there designing buildings for rich people. You'll be even more famous than me!'
Another hint at a laugh, but not much more. I hated seeing her like this - quiet, down-trodden. I wished I could just make it all better. I gave her hips a little squeeze. 'Hey. I've got a deal for you.'
'Yeah?' She said gloomily, her voice muffled by her arms.
'If you help me with the grocery shopping, I'll buy you a bubble tea, make you dinner, and help you study. Deal?'
Meg glanced up at me through her hair, one single eye poking out through her hair. It creased with a slight smile. 'Deal.'
'Don't forget pasta,' Meg reminded me, pointing a finger at the grubby post-it note we'd been writing our groceries down on each week. 'And get extra. You know how Phil gets into those leftovers.'
Phil was out of town at his parent's for the next few days, and Meg and I had the place to ourselves. This would usually be great, but seeing as Meg wasn't really in the mood for anything mildly interesting, let alone some good ol' "adult fun", it had pretty much just been me cooking, cleaning, and reading emails. Not exactly the raunchy sex-fest you see in the movies.
It tended to go something a little like this:
'Dan, would Frank Lloyd Wright approve?'
'But Frank Lloyd Wright isn't here.'
Meg motioned at the ceiling. 'He could be. Who knows what's going on in architecture heaven. If there is one.' A scrunched eyebrow. 'Fuck, I don't have time for your existential crisis shit.'
'It was you who brought up the question of god and the afterlife.'
Meg narrowed her eyes critically. 'Okay, well you can suck your own dick then, asshole.'
And so you can guess what happened after that: I shut-up, Meg continued mumbling about architectural symmetry and crenellation, and then we went to sleep.
Wow. Romance.
Okay, I'm being a little bit selfish. Truth is, I'm so incredibly proud of her. But also worried. She looks like she's about to snap, which is saying something, because Meg is the least snap-able person I know. We've been through a lot together, and I'd never seen her this stressed - as Ferris Bueller said, if you stuck a lump of coal up [her] ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond.
We finished with the groceries and headed over to the bubble tea store, placing our orders and sitting back against the window. The glass was cold against my back, despite the multiple layers of clothing. We'd had a recent cold snap in London, and everything was brittle, frigid.
Meg swung her legs beneath her, her shiny black Doc Martens periodically glimpsing the ceiling lights as they swung back and forth. Her eyes were set ahead, off somewhere in her head. Probably with Frank Lloyd Wright discussing design angles and such.
I nudged her in the side as our orders were called out, and she blinked, giving me a vague smile before we hopped off the stools and grabbed our bubble tea. It sloshed around in the cups as we walked back out, cold against my palms. Heavy grey clouds loomed overhead, everything dark and bleak.
The grocery bags sat at our feet as we stood on the tube, a mix-matched array of various cloth bags we'd picked up over the past few months as an effort to save on plastic. The carriage rattled as we thundered off, and Meg leant back into me, tucking her chin down. I thought she may be sleeping, so I gave the top of her head a small, gentle kiss, and maybe it was just my imagination, but she let out the tiniest little sigh.
The apartment already warm by the time we got home. We'd left the heating on in the hope we could return to a toasty apartment, and sure enough, everything was warm and cosy. Meg stripped down to reveal one of my T-shirts, and she grinned sheepishly at me as we settled down on our bed.
'Your T-shirts are a lot more comfortable than mine,' she explained, folding her legs beneath her. 'Like, super comfy.' She wiggled her eyebrows. 'Plus it's fun to steal them.'
'I'll allow it,' I said with pretend grudgingness. She slipped into another mega-watt Meg grin, and then threw a stack of paper at me. 'Okay. Go.'
I flipped through the various print-outs and hand-written notes. 'Uh, where do I start?'
'Um, good question,' Meg said, bending forwards. She crawled over to me on her knees, picking through the paper until she was about halfway through. 'Here, I think here,' she said, pointing to a page. 'I've got the first bit down. Just some of the technical terms.'
'Okay.' I stared down at the page, recognising almost none of the terms. 'Uh...what is empher-what? Oh. E-ph-er-meral architecture,' I said, having to sound the word out slowly.'
A hint of a smile glimpsed Meg's face. 'It's temporary structures. A kind of architectural art instillation in public spaces.'
'Correct. Brutalism?'
And we went on like this for a while - back and forth, me reading out terms I didn't understand, Meg explaining and providing examples. This is going to sound weird, but I loved the way she studied. The way she picked her legs up every thirty seconds and moved them around. The way she pulled her lip through her teeth as she worked through a particularly hard question. The constant brushing of hair back from her face, her eyes flicking around the room.
I left to make dinner at some stage - I was gone maybe twenty minutes, but by the time I came back, Meg was passed out on the bed, notes untouched beside her. I gave a slight laugh, walking over and shuffling the papers into a stack, resting them on the bedside table. I then tugged Meg up so her head was on the pillow, pulling the duvet over her. She made a small sound, but didn't appear to wake up. I sat outside and ate dinner at the kitchen, the lights off, listening to no one but myself. The night was thin, cold, but here in our apartment it was heavy with heat. Our apartment. The thought made me smile.
I took another bite of food, folding my legs beneath me.
TWO CHAPTERS LEFT MY DEAR READERS
i know i know i'm freaking out
hope you liked this one! there's only two left, so get ready for the finale (it's not that exciting lol)
lastly, thanks for being here throughout this whole process. i'll write a proper thank-you at the end, but honestly this story has been made possible by you guys. i usually give up on a story if no one is reading it - so this is a massive thank you to everyone who has read this. ur super cool *hugs awkwardly*
xx