“She’s hot right? I think I’m gonna get her number,” he says.
I look her up and down. She is hot. She’s got a cute face and a nice body. She looks like a girl I’d normally go for, but for some reason I’m not interested.You know why.“You should ask her out,” I say.
Adrian bumps me with his elbow again and points at the social media girl, “Carter’s finished with his interview, watch and learn how it’s done,” he says before jogging over to her.
He runs his hand through his hair and winks at her before trying to shamelessly flirt with her. Even from here I can tell she’s not impressed with his charm like he’s used to. It’s actually hilarious to watch him crash and burn this badly.
It takes less than two minutes before he’s walking back in my direction looking confused as hell. He takes the seat next to me and says, “She said no?”
Glancing at him, “You’ll get the next one, buddy,” I say, patting his back.
He leans back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, and shakes his head in disbelief. “She said she doesn’t give her number to pretty boys like me.”
That makes me laugh out loud. Adrianisa pretty boy. Some might even call him a fuck boy. But not many have the balls to say that to his face. The social media girl is now on my list of people I think are cool. I bet Kennedy would like her. Maybe I’ll introduce them sometime.
I was hoping that I would be able to sneak out of here today without having to do anything with the social media girl. I hate, no, I loathe having to do these things. It makes me feel like a circus animal. Dance monkey dance is all I can hear when I’m called over for my interview.
There is a tripod set up with some lights and a white backdrop. The social media girl points where I’m supposed to stand, a small red x on the floor. She smiles at me in a way that I think is supposed to put me at ease, but all it does is make me more stressed.
“Who on the team would you not let date your sister?”
“Carter.” I say it instinctively, not caring about who hears. It’s true, Carter is the one person that I would have a serious problem with if he tried to date my sister. She gives me a wide eyed look and then hits stop on her phone. “I’m sorry, can I be done? I really do not like being recorded.”
She gulps and looks down. Shit, I’m being a dick. “Yeah, you can go. Thanks.”
I give a curt nod and then stomp off back to my seat, checking the clock and counting down the minutes until I can be out of this hell.
???
Adrian and Liam are drunk. They’re standing in front of the TV with a controller in their hands playing FIFA. The rules are simple: shotgun a beer or take a shot for every goal scored. It doesn’t matter who scores the goal or what team it's for, both players drink for every single goal. This is Adrian’s favorite game, but man is it dangerous. It doesn’t take long before you're smashed. I’ve been a victim a few too many times to ever agree to this game again.
Instead of drunk gaming, I’ve been sitting on the couch nursing my third beer and doom scrolling through social media when Kennedy pops up in the background of Miranda’s story.
Now I’m thinking about Kennedy again. It's a little concerning how much I’ve been thinking about her lately. I’vethought about the hickey she gave me multiple times over the last few weeks. I spent several minutes looking at it the morning after she gave it to me, feeling an almost comical satisfaction. It’s completely gone now and I almost sent a picture of my chest and neck to Kennedy showing her it's gone. In a really low moment last week, I nearly texted her at one in the morining to come over and give me another one. The only reason I didn’t was because I know that’d be weird as fuck, but it doesn't erase the urge I have to ask her to do it again.
Besides the fucking hickey, I’ve been finding myself just thinking about her at random times. More so than I ever have before. She’s so easy to be around. She’s so funny. She’s one of the only people I know that is always willing to go along with the bit, no matter how stupid it is. I wish she was here right now, making fun of me and pretending that I annoy her.
I finish the rest of my beer and grab another, feeling like an idiot because I expected her to ask me why I wasn’t in class today, but she didn’t.
I’m starting to feel just a little tipsy on my fourth beer and pull up my text thread with her. I stare at our last conversation. It's from yesterday. The last message was a dumb meme, sent by me and she didn’t respond. Normally, I would never second guess texting Kennedy any time I wanted, but lately I never know how to interact with her.
You know what, fuck it, I like talking to Kennedy and missing class today is an excuse to do that.
Will:Can you send me the notes from class today?
Kennedy:Yeah, hang on let me take a picture
A picture comes through a few moments later. The picture is clear but the handwriting on the page is basically a scribble. Kennedy writes her notes by hand, she says it’s her secret for not needing to study much.
I look at the picture again, struggling to make words out of what I’m looking at. I know I’m a little tipsy, but I can’t read this. Not even a little bit. There are familiar multi-colored doodles in the margins, words in half print and half cursive, and the notes don't seem to follow any type of structure. Things are circled and linked together with other circles via random squiggles.
I scan her notes for a second, deciphering her print, zooming in on all the random scribbles before I say, “Liam,” and turn the phone in his direction, “can you read this?”
He pauses the game, grabbing the phone from my hand, squinting his eyes, stretching his arm out in front of him like a grandpa before pulling the phone back close to his face. “No man, this is horrible. Who wrote that, a Russian Doctor?”
Adrian, now having a piqued interest in what we’re looking at, grabs it. He also looks confused. He double taps the screen and zooms in. “I think this says, events and horizons?” That makes no sense. He tosses me my phone back so he and Liam can continue their drinking game.
Will:Do you expect me to be able to read this? Those are not words
