CAMPUS 101: An Unhelpful Guide to College Life

{2} Cars Go Vroom Vroom

"Let's get pizza," said Sienna as we finished our cell biology class.

"Again? Didn't we get pizza last week?"

"So?" she prompted.

It was crazy how that was enough reason for me to drive my friends around the shady parts of Baltimore solely on a hunt for pizza. I should have been studying like a good student, but after a week of exams and painful headaches, I think we deserved to slack off.

Without a doubt, some of our friends jumped on the bandwagon, ready for another adventure off campus. Sienna and I were always up for a ride, but that day our friends Zeno and Chad decided to tag along because in all honesty, they had nothing better to do. They needed a good reason to ditch.

And we gave it to them.

Chad sat in the front with me, giving very vague instructions to a pizza place he said was great and close to campus. I didn't explore Baltimore much since the lockdown, so naturally I trusted him. Sienna and Zeno were in the back, arguing over which song to play from my phone.

"Uh... Why do you have a playlist called 'Simping for Kaoru'?" asked Zeno, stifling a laugh along with Sienna.

Gazing at the duo from my rearview, I smiled, not ashamed in the slightest. "It's no secret that I simp for anime characters."

"You have another one called 'Chilling with Kaeya'?" he started laughing full heartedly now. "Dude, these are some very sus names."

"I can take my phone back by the way," I lightly threatened.

"Alright, alright. I'm putting a song on."

As I pulled up to the pizza place, we ended up crossing the street because everything in Baltimore is a giant hassle solely to get on my nerves. Not to mention drivers around here had no patience, calm, or common sense.

Seriously, they'd run me over at any chance they got and then find the fault in me. Who the hell gave them a license? Was that person blind?

Zeno suddenly stopped walking, causing me to bump into him. "What?" I asked, turning to see the object of his fascination.

"There's a tea place," he pointed out like a hungry child. "Let's go there!"

Chad shrugged his shoulders, heading off in that direction, also not much of a talker and a tall man that had an accent to his advantage. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to use it.

Stopping in my tracks, I turned to the line of college students blindly walking towards a boba tea place. "Uh... guys? Shouldn't we order the pizza first?"

With puppy eyes, Zeno frowned. "But the boba," he whined.

"Pizza first, then boba," I said, pushing them all in the right direction.

Cars were zooming down the broken road, speeding above the limit and driving like they lived life on the edge. The breeze blew against my hijab and the sunlight beamed against my face, a gentle afternoon to the chaotic events that'd soon follow. There was no pedestrian light, and by law pedestrians had the right of way.

And if they hit me, I'd either be dead or I'd sue them. College is expensive, but then again so are funerals.

As we began walking down the pedestrian crosswalk, a car a few feet ahead was slowing down. That man or woman did not want to get a legal case stapled to their heads for running over college students. Zeno, being the eccentric fool he was, had other ideas in mind.

He stepped off the white crosswalk, tunneling his hands around his mouth as his voice bellowed down the street. "Hit me and pay for my college tuition! Do it!"