She leans back against the chair, crossing her arms and nodding her head, “Yes. You’re getting this done whether you like it or not.” She throws the pillow back at me and gives me her fake outrage look. The one with the squinty eyes and her pretending not to smile. My stomach clenches, she’s so fucking pretty.
“Fine. But you should know I’m a little drunk and I’m going to complain about it the whole time.”
She lets out a laugh, “that’s alright. Now come on.”
Chapter Eleven
Kennedy
Will is lazily sprawled out on his bed with my astronomy notes on his lap and his laptop on the bed next to him. I’m still sitting on the chair next to his bed, facing him, feet perched on the edge of the bedframe. We’re taking our weekly quiz together as has turned into our habit.
I glance at him. He’s squinting at a page in my notebook, eyebrows pulled together with a look of genuine confusion on his face. I want to reach over and snatch my notebook out of his hands, but I don’t. Instead I turn back toward my laptop. “I’m about to submit,” I say before tapping the button and waiting for my grade to load. The screen displays 100%, “Yes!” I whoop, turning my screen to show him.
“How are you already done? I’m only on question 7,” he says, frowning and returning to my notebook.
“Maybe it's the fact you drank several beers tonight?” I toss at him.
“That was multiple hours ago, I’m not even feeling it anymore,” he says. He swings his body over the edge of hisbed, legs brushing up against mine, facing me. He hands me his laptop, “What did you put for this question?”
I take the laptop from him and read his screen. “Oh, it's B!” I click B for him and hit the next button. Somehow over the next few minutes, I’ve made my way onto Will’s bed with his laptop over my thighs while his side is pressed up against mine as we huddle over his screen.
Will also gets a 100% (thanks to me) and I have him pull up his personal statement. The document hasn’t changed much since I last saw it, which is to say it's blank save for one sentence.
After that day at the library, I spent a few hours researching physical therapy school and what’s needed to get accepted. I read several personal statement examples and think I have a good idea about what they’re looking for.
I turn my head toward him, my stomach swooping at his proximity. “First, we brain dump.”
He scoots closer to me, body pressed against mine, as he places both his hands on the keyboard. He shoves a pillow under the back of his knee, propping it up, before starting a bullet point list of all the reasons why he wants to be a physical therapist. He adds a list for what physical therapy has done for him, and any miscellaneous thoughts.
“Stream of consciousness is fine right now, I just want to see everything you’re thinking all in one place,” I tell him.
He smirks, but keeps his eyes on the screen instead of looking at me. “What about your timer?”
A small fluttering moves through me as I pull out my phone and set a timer. We spend 30 minutes in relative silence as Will brain dumps everything he can onto the page. I encourage him to even dump out the random side tangents too.
We do another full cycle of my timer method, him typing and me commenting. “That’s all for tonight,” I say when the alarm goes off, signaling the start of rest time.
“That’s it?”
I nod and agree once more. “Yup, we're done for today.”
He still hasn’t moved away from me, making me extremely aware of all the places his body is touching mine. I watch his throat bob on a swallow and he whispers, breathy and low, “What’s next on your list?”
My stomach is swooping again. I feel like I have a swing set in my chest as I whisper back, “I don’t know.” His eyes dip down to my lips and on reflex I dart my tongue to wet them. Part of me thinks he’s going to kiss me, and then I remember the fact that Will is not even a tiny bit attracted to me.
I whisper back, “I’m not sure if there is anything left you can help me with.”
Leaning in a fraction closer, “We could go dancing.”
Before I can think about it long enough to hesitate, I’m nodding. “Okay.”
He smirks at me. “Yeah?” I nod at him again, catching his eye as he continues, “then let’s go right now.”
“I don’t have clothes for that.”
“Your apartment’s on the way. Can you be quick?”
“It's already after ten.”
