The Attorney ✓( A White House occupants prequel)

Chapter Twelve

The path before me has become almost too familiar this past week. The more I think about it- I've spent more time walking than studying, and I hate myself for it.

  Because maybe I've done enough to memorize possible scenarios for the multiple choice section- and maybe I haven't. I should be fine, at least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night. Everything is logic, that's what Professor Albert says.

  "Don't be a dumbass." She also said. "Use that brain of yours and you'll be fine."

  I'm not sure I have a brain left in there. It got fried a long time ago from years of constant use, but I've tried. There's not much studying left I can do. The exam is tomorrow, so I'm giving my brain a little break. Tomorrow afternoon, it'll be more strained than it's ever been before.

  I pass by the same tree I've started to recognize, and the same campus officer stationed near it. He smiles at me, mumbling an "Good evening, Joe". I try to be polite. I think I am, but I'm tired so I can't be too sure. Oh well.

  Even the lobby attendant for her apartment building recognizes me, so I wave to him too. Having a face like mine has proved useful after all. I was the second most good looking in my family from the second I was born, right behind my brother who I have no idea how he came from our parents. Unless...no. My mother wouldn't do something like that.

  Noelle's apartment feels too fancy to feel real. Sure, mine is nice- but this is a whole different ballpark. Being just off campus, they've marked rent up to an astronomical price and made everything so perfect that students would pay it. People get tired of campus apartments the first year, so it's a pretty smart business move, especially considering that most of the people who graduate from here never go back home- and choose to stay nearby instead.

  I click the button on the elevator that'll lead to her floor and step inside. I'm alone today- which isn't normal. This is such a large building with so few elevators that there's normally five people in here at all times. I've gotten lucky.

  The people I've ran into have been...interesting to say the least. One of her neighbors is a woman in her mid fifties who invited me into her place once, and had more taxidermy cats than I could count. Another is a man in his twenties that lives right across the hall, and was walking down it in his underwear with a toilet seat stuck on his head one morning. I didn't ask and have no intention to.

  Another time, I ran into a couple having sex in the middle of a main hallway. They stopped, and I just kept walking. I'll never understand risk takers like that- I don't want everybody in the world to see my bottom half. I also can't count the number of times one of my brothers just barged into the bathroom while I was trying to use it- or the number of times I almost cried because I had no privacy.

When I got home from the hospital that one time, I was told to shower three times a day- because my immune system was weak from all the antibiotics. You can imagine how annoyed everybody was at that, with all the kids sharing a bathroom- but they couldn't say anything. I would hop in at five am so I could steal all the hot water, then after lunch when it's had time to heat up again after the morning people, and again at night. The nighttime one was almost always cold.

At night, I would pull the covers over my head while I read just so I could feel like I were alone. It didn't work, of course. Those motherfuckers never learned how to shut up when it was "quiet time".

Her apartment complex is strangely quiet now. I check the time on the elevator's clock- and it's not late at all. Weird. I step out into yet another quiet hallway on her floor, and begin walking to the apartment I've memorized.