Short Stories

five | wrong number

"So, uh... What do you want to write about?"

Shawn set down his phone and sighed. "It's a fable right? Then animals. A moral. Happy ending with the protagonist winning. Easy grade."

"Yeah... okay. How about a 'if you don't try new things then you might miss out' or something like that?" I suggested and nervously tapped my fingers on the desk.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "Whatever you'd like."

"Mendes!" the professor snapped.

Shawn looked over at the professor and rolled his eyes. "I swear that professor fucking hates me."

"I feel bad for you, it's not fair considering-"

"Considering what?" he asked with a glare.

I looked down and mumbled, "Never mind."

Opening my laptop, I started the story line and a few headings and titles while he leaned over the desk with his eyes forward and jaw clenched. I guess I knew how he'd been dealing with himself this morning now.

We worked mainly in silence, mostly because I was scared to say something and have his hazel eyes glare, sharp as knives, stare into me. By the end of the class, we had a large bit done, mostly because I was non-stop writing to avoid having to talk to him. The professor made sure to remind us that they were due by next class.

"D-do you want to work on it sometime this weekend?" I asked while shoving my computer into my bag, successfully not making eye contact once more.

"I have hockey practice."

So what?

"It'll only take an hour-"

"I'll just do half of it tonight and you finish. Okay?" I could feel his eyes staring at me.

"You don't gotta be so aggressive," I let slip from my mouth.

Shawn snapped around and took a sharp step my way, opening his mouth to say something. He pointed his finger at me and glared at me with such an intensity everything around us could have burst into flames. Worst part, I probably wouldn't have noticed with my heart feeling like it had stopped beating. He opened his mouth, before shutting it and dropping his hands.

"Fuck it," he snapped, and walked away.

I let out the breath I had been holding. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and ran out of the classroom, running as fast as I could (which wasn't all too fast considering I'd quit the track team after a month) without looking weird. I bet there were a lot of kids with the bad luck that required for them to cross the campus in 45 seconds, I'd just pretend to be one of them for the meantime.

For the next half an hour, the library was my 'happy' place. Luckily at 10 o'clock in the morning the place wasn't too crowded. By 10:30 though, I was back sitting in Math 101, a demented course that too many poor souls across the world were given the misfortune to be shoved into. Taylor was with me in that class and kept glancing across the room at me, like she knew something was up. I mouthed to her to walk back to the dorm with me after class.

"What's up?" she asked amongst the chatter of everyone else in the room.

"How do you know?" I returned as maybe a joke, but my voice came out tired.

"When you spend upwards of 600 hours with the same person, you learn to read their face pretty well."

"Shawn's in my writing class. He sat next to me, he didn't recognize me at first though. We got partnered for a writing class, and long story short he absolutely hates me."

"Then drop him," Taylor replied easily. "I'll find you someone else to stress about."

"That sounded so weird," I laughed.

"I wouldn't have to do it if you would just find someone already."

I rolled my eyes. "It's only Wednesday, Taylor."

"See? So much time wasted already."

The topic quickly changed, but my mind still stayed on Shawn. Something in me made me feel like I was responsible for this whole thing. Like I couldn't just 'drop him'.

...

Friday, 8:30 a.m. 

A morning I spent meditating, drinking herbal tea, walking around campus at dawn, journaling, drawing, reading, listening to rain, and taking a hot shower.

I'm going to stay calm. I'm going to be friendly. I'm going to be helpful.

Taylor saluted me before I headed out and made my way to the building across campus. The sun was particularly shining and gold and the wind blew by with a nicely cool breeze. I'll take that as a sign from the gods.

I sat down in my chair and watched as more people came in and leaned over to talk to their partners and rapidly type the conclusion of their story. Shawn walked in a few minutes after I did, with a look on his face that made me wonder how well my meditation would pay off at this point.

"Hey..." I said with a nervous sort of smile.

He looked over at me and nodded. His expression looked even more bitter than he did on Wednesday.

"Today we're going to present our fables that we should have already finished-" He threw a glance at Shawn, who rolled his eyes in return. "So take 15 minutes to practice."

I turned in my chair. "So how've you been doing?"

"Worse than before I entered this class," he replied with rude looking glare at me.

Breathe Camila. Just breathe.

"Look, I know bad things have happened this past few days, but that doesn't give you an excuse to act like a fucking dickhead every time I try to speak to you."

"You don't get a fucking excuse to fool me and act like you're my girlfriend just because I texted the wrong number."

"It was supposed to be funny, you know."

"Someone's humor is broken," he muttered.

"Can you just act like a decent person and do this with me? You're acting like a temperamental 16 year old and, you know, I didn't choose to be partners with you and if I did have a choice I wouldn't, so just act mature enough to finish this project with me-"

"It'd be a lot easier if you weren't being so annoying, screeching in my ear and all."

I closed my mouth and watched as he crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair, feeling all sympathy I had for him burning away slowly in the fiery pits of hell. I took a deep breath.

"Two things. One, please just practice reading this with me once so you don't completely ruin our grade. Two, fuck you."  

A second went by, before he brought up his hands and golf clapped. "Very, very nice, the 'fuck you' at the end really brought everything together."

I shot a fake exaggerated smile in his direction. "Thank you, really, I'm flattered."

He snorted. I felt a little smile creep onto my face.

"Now that we've got that out of our systems, let's read."

"Okay buzzkill."

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hey, look at that! i updated! (shocked face)