Crazy World

The Study Date

Madison

I was in a cab, headed to Lex's hostel. I was excited and skeptical at the same time. The music competition was tomorrow which meant we practiced for the whole day today. We missed all our classes. So Lex had invited me over to his hostel, so that we could meet up and complete all our work together.

"A little study-date then?" Ariana had smirked when I told her.

I couldn't blame her. Lex inviting me to his hostel was the equivalent of him inviting me to his house. I was so glad Lex was including me in the other part of his life. I couldn't help but feel warm and jittery.

Lex lived in a neighborhood named Madison (bit of a coincidence there), which was ten minutes away from my neighborhood, Midwood. Those ten minutes were so long yet so short at the same time.

Lex's parents weren't in Brooklyn right now, which meant he was living life to the fullest. Maybe that was why he had invited me over today.

Now, about tomorrow's competition. I wasn't very nervous. Mild nervousness was common, I had learnt that in all my years as a singer/performer, but I wouldn't be lying if I said I was doing better than Lex. He was excited, stressed, happy, nervous, all at once. The rest of the band was doing fine too, of course, they had experience too. Lex, on the other hand, hadn't performed in a while. Still, I felt a sense of dread. Everything was too perfect this time, which meant if something went wrong, the disaster would be huge.

I was staring out of the window when I heard my phone buzz with a notification. It was Ariana's text, informing that she left for work. I had to take a leave from the café for two days because of the event but she still had to go.

Ariana was doing just fine. At least thats what it looked like. It was a couple of days ago that she had seen Sid with that other girl. She was smiling when she told us they were kissing which made me feel very queasy. After Adrien had left that day, I had tried to talk to her but I knew she didn't want to think about it. Now she was acting like everything was okay, Sid never existed so the kiss never happened.

After that incident, a part of me wondered how I'd react if it was Lex instead of Sid. I winced just thinking about it. But at least Lex didn't pretend he was interested in me. I wanted to slap Sid for what he did, but I knew Ariana wouldn't appreciate it if I fought her fight for her.

I was looking forward to this "study-date". Lex was one of the brightest students of our class, right up there with Andrew. But while Andrew was more participative in class and interacted with the teachers, Lex was always silent and distracted. He kept gazing outside, or fiddled with his pens. The teachers never really questioned it because they knew he probably knew what they were teaching. Even if he didn't, he would do well in exams.

The cab took a halt and I got off, paying the driver. Then I turned around to have a proper look at the hostel.

It was not what I had expected. It was big, for sure. Bigger than what I had originally thought. But the building itself looked kind of old. it was dull, blue-grey coloured. A guard sat in front of the huge iron gate. There was a small park between the main building and the gate. The building and the park, both were very neat. I could see a few people, all around my age, walking in the park and having fun. This place didn't seem so bad.

I approached the guard who was reading a newspaper. I told him I had to see Lex, he shrugged and opened the gates for me. I walked in. A few of the kids who were hanging around turned and frowned, wondering who I was. Maybe they thought of me to be some new kid.

Without looking at them, I walked towards the main building's door. I did not know where Lex would be right now so I thought of calling him but when I did so, I found out I didn't have balance.