'We've only been back to college less than a week yet I feel like I have an absolute ton of work already,' I complained in the campus coffee shop as I enjoyed my morning latte with my two best friends before classes.
'Oh my god,' Penny replied. 'I thought it was just me that felt that way!'
'Me too,' Georgie sighed. 'I think it's just being away for Christmas break. It makes you lazy; I got too comfortable doing nothing.'
'I think I might have to book in for a few tutorials with some of my professors because my head is officially blagged!' I said.
'Do you think that all college students complain as much as we do?' Penny asked.
'Probably,' I laughed.
'No, you two are the worst for it,' Georgie said, taking a sip of his coffee with a cocky expression.
'Excuse you?' Penny replied.
'I have a lot of friends,' he said. 'All different types of friendship groups; my theatre friends, my gay friends, my stoner friends. You guys complain the most out of everyone.'
'Stoner friends?' I repeated with a snort. 'Since when do you get stoned?'
'All the time,' he replied. 'I get along with my roomie now and he smokes it all of the time and I got into it. He introduced me to his friends and sometimes we hang.'
'I thought he was a nerd,' I said.
'So, then I also have my nerdy friends too; I'm a popular guy,' he chuckled. 'But obviously, you two are my best friends. You don't need a group, you're a league of your own.'
'Awww!' Penny and I joked with a giggle.
'Come on, let's go to class,' I sighed, picking up my my books and getting out of my seat.
We all walked through the coffee shop and exited, stepping out into campus where the air was still icy cold and there was still snow on the ground. We were all well and truly wrapped up in coats, hats and scarves and grouped together in an awkward little hug to say goodbye before walking separate ways.
I headed across campus to Hamilton where I entered my Medieval English class and joined Brodie as he gave me his usual perfectly bright and straight-toothed smile.
'I was totally debating ditching today,' he said with a yawn. 'However, I always feel bad when it's Medieval English because I know I'll be leaving you to suffer alone.'
'Don't mind me,' I laughed. 'I actually like this class.'
'Nerd,' he laughed.
'You know what,' I said, turning to him with a grin. 'Yeah, I am a nerd and I love it so bite me.'
'Geez,' Brodie laughed. 'Who pissed in your cereal?'
'Everybody quiet please!' Our Professor whizzed into the class and set down his briefcase before taking off his glasses and lifting his head to greet us. 'Good morning all.'
'Remind me why I didn't ditch this class?' Brodie murmured.
'Because you can't bear to part with me,' I joked.
'You wish,' he chuckled.
'Shut up, I'm trying to listen,' I hissed.
'Problem, Miss Jones?' Professor Fawkes called pointing to me and I dropped my eyes shut in vexation as Brodie sniggered quietly.
'Yeah actually, Brodie won't stop talking to me when I'm trying to learn, Professor,' I said, trying to hold back my smirk as Brodie jolted forward with his mouth open.
'Hey!' he cried.
'Mr West, leave your obsession with Miss Jones at the door, please,' Fawkes joked and everybody laughed.
'I didn't even do anything,' Brodie mumbled, sinking in his chair.
I glanced at him with a smirk as Fawkes continued and he scowled at me, making me press my lips together to hold back my laughter.
'The Lais of Marie De France!' Fawkes called. 'A collection of poems from the 12th century that I'm not expecting a lot of you to have encountered so we will look into it in a little further detail. Mr West, anything you can tell me about it as you sulk like a child in your chair?'
Everyone chuckled again and I stifled a little laugh although I was feeling bad now that I had made him a target. Brodie and I were always finding ways to get one over on each other in this class and currently, I was now winning.
'Can you tell me the name of one of these poems?' Fawkes asked him.
I quickly grabbed my pen, trying to be as subtle as possible as I scribbled one down and slid my notebook over to him. His eyes flickered down to it and he sat up straight, looking back to Fawkes.
'Guigemar,' he answered.
'Thank you for that,' Fawkes replied, strolling onwards across the front of the room as he spoke. 'A knight with no interest in love until he is cursed and unable to ever heal until he finds a woman to fall in love with.'
'Lame,' Brodie said in a screechy, humorous tone, making the class laugh once again.
'You know where the door is, Mr West,' Fawkes said. 'I'm surprised you're aware of this poem at all if you find it so lame.'
'I just meant the guy not having interest in love,' he said. 'Then being cursed until he finds it is pretty cliche in my opinion.'
'So which poem would you say is your favourite?' Fawkes asked, making Brodie shift a little and I picked up my pen slowly to help him out. 'How about you tell me yourself without reading an answer that Miss Jones scribbled down for you?'
I dropped my pen and sunk back in my chair as Fawkes stared at Brodie with a raised brow and Brodie let out a chuckle.
'Sorry, Professor,' Brodie said.
'The next strike is the final one, Mr West,' he said. 'So, why don't you tell us about another one, Miss Jones.'
I sighed as I was forced to once again look like a complete know it all in front of the whole class but it wasn't my fault my knowledge had proven to be way ahead of most of my peers. 'Umm...La Fresne; which tells of a young twin girl that is given away by her mother as she is fearful that she'll be scorned for giving birth to twins.'
'Thank you,' he said, turning his attention to the board behind him where he wrote the name down and elaborated to the class.
I glanced at Brodie and we smirked at each other, amused by our little game taking a slightly extreme step in this class compared to when we usually just argue a point one of us has made and then punch each other under the table.
Class finally ended and Brodie and I were in fits of laughter as we left, receiving a disapproving look from Fawkes as we did so and we headed out of Hamilton onto campus.
'He's such an asshole,' Brodie said.
'I think he's great,' I said.
'Because you're his favourite student,' Brodie teased. 'Whenever nobody knows something he just comes right to you.'
'Then maybe you should expand on your literature a little,' I told him with a grin.
'No thanks,' he said.
'Hey, you're smart and I know you know plenty because you always manage to put up a good argument with me in there,' I told him.
'I know, I know, I'm just a little more modest about it than the teacher's pet,' he teased.
'Fuck you,' I laughed. 'Anyway, I have to get to my next class.'
'Yeah, I have a free so I'm meeting Olivia,' he said.
'Okay, I'll see you at lunch maybe then,' I said, leaning in to give him a hug.
'Yeah, enjoy your class,' he said as he hugged me back before we turned away from each other and headed off across campus.
Brodie was now one of my best friends. He was different now that he'd moved on from his crush and had Olivia. His love for me had stopped us achieving the amazing friendship we now had as the pair of us really did get on so well. I couldn't be without him as a friend now and I certainly knew that Medieval English would not be the same if he wasn't there.
My day continued as I moved from class to class, taking notes and trying to stay organised so that I could keep on top of the huge workload I now had. When we first started the year, our professors had seemed to go easy on us with us being new to college and fresh out of high school, but it seems they'd decided we'd had more than enough time to get used to things and had plenty time to relax during Christmas so now, we were all drowning in assignments.
I'd stopped for lunch, grabbing a salad at the deli with Brodie and Olivia and listened to her talking about herself and her rich dad and her puppy Coco before I found an excuse to head to class early before my head exploded. She was a nice girl and I really liked her but man, was she a bragger. Brodie just stared at her like he was transfixed and as long as he was happy, I was happy for him.
My last few classes passed by and by the end of the day, I was worn out. It was also the end of the first week and I was totally ready to have the weekend off to relax; no partying or anything, I planned to not even get dressed at all this weekend. I knew I'd be stuck at home doing work but as long as I was with Cal, I didn't care.
I knew Penny and Georgie had already finished earlier and I headed out onto the street to catch the subway, deciding to head down to Brooklyn instead of going home. I wanted to pop into the shop to see how things were going and also have a little catch-up with Charlie and Tori, who I now very much enjoyed spending time with as surprising as it was that Tori and I were now kind of friends.
I made the thirty minute journey on the subway and headed through Brooklyn to Lakey Ink, walking to the street where I could see Cal standing outside of his shop, smoking a cigarette. I smirked to myself as I edged in close to the buildings on my left and walked slowly and discreetly up the street until I was right by him. He was stood out on the edge of the kerb now staring out at the opposite buildings and I snuck up behind him, getting as close as possible.
'That shit will kill you, you know!' I cried, making him dive forward off the kerb and drop his cigarette.
I laughed out loud as he turned around and glared at me before quickly running towards me and grabbing me in a head lock, ruffling my hair before letting me up and pulling me close to him.
'Not fucking funny,' he said, placing his arms around my waist.
'Very fucking funny,' I chuckled as I rested my palms on his chest.
'Good job I love you or I would have kicked your ass,' he said, brushing his lips across mine.
'I do sometimes love the aggressive Cal,' I joked. 'It's such a turn on.'
'Then allow me to unleash him later on so I can spank that ass of yours for fucking with me,' he mumbled, pressing his lips to mine and kissing me.
I stepped back after a few minutes of making out in the street and he took my hand in his as we moved to the shop door.
'How's work been?' I asked, as we stepped inside.
'Well, not too bad,' he said, closing the door. 'Still hella busy but we should have it all under control by next week.'
'Oh really?' I asked. 'That sounds great.'
'Yeah, we finally hired someone,' he said, as we moved forward towards the front desk.
'Cal, that's awesome!' I said, feeling relieved that they'd no longer be struggling.
'I know,' he said. 'That career fair wasn't such a bad idea after all. He got in touch with us the next day.'
'When does he start?' I asked.
'Whenever he's ready,' he replied. 'But he's in here now getting a little induction so it could even be Monday.'
'That sounds great, Cal,' I said, as we headed towards the archway that led into the back.
'I'll introduce you to him,' Cal said, as he stepped in front of me to squeeze through the archway and glanced down to his right and pointed his thumb at me over his shoulder. 'Dude, this is my girl, Bethan.'
I scurried forward with a smile to greet Cal's new artist and Cal continued to his station to carry on working.
I edged forward into the back room and looked to my right with a smile, my heart immediately thumping out of my chest as my eyes rested on the man lounged across the red sofa, smiling up at me.
'Nice to meet you, Bethan,' he said with a grin. 'I'm Felix Fender.'