Wish I Were - Qinter (Human) AU

6

Winter PoV:

I peered over my laptop to glance over at Qibli sitting on his side of the desk in the middle of our room. He seemed more tired than usual, although the same could be said for many of the students, including myself.

His eyes flitted up to meet mine and I self-consciously averted my gaze elsewhere.

"Enjoying the show?" Qibli said with a smirk.

"W-what? I wasn't-" I jumped in my seat. I continued mumbling excuses as Qibli silently laughed at me.

"I'm only teasing!" He said between laughs. "No need to get so flustered." he added with a wink.

Is it possible for your insides to boil inside of your skin and kill you? I thought briefly.

"Only a few weeks until finals, huh." I said, trying to divert the conversation. "You feeling ready?"
Qibli scoffed. "Never."

I nodded in agreement. "Feels neverending, but if you think about it- this term and we're done. With school." I shrugged. "Unless you for some reason decide to go to grad school, of course."

"Man. Feels like just a few months ago we first met, huh." Qibli ran his hand through his hair. His hand stopped mid-stroke as an uneasy frown crept across his face. "We'll still- y'know. Be friends and keep in touch after school, right?" he asked tentatively.

I blinked. "What? Of course!" I said quickly. "Why wouldn't we?"

He simply nodded in reply and turned back to his work, not before I could see the smile stretching between his cheeks. I smiled back at him even though he wasn't looking at me.

Currently, I sat inside of the Starbucks near the campus, staring at my laptop and hoping I didn't look too much like that college kid in Starbucks. Honestly the only reason I was in a cafe and not in the Library was because Turtle and Kinkajou were arguing about something dumb and the air was very tense. And Qibli was at his part-time job. And Moon...

"Hey babe, whatcha doin'?" she asked, pulling up a chair across from me.

"Staring at my laptop and hoping it will write my essay for me." I said quickly. Moon laughed, like she always did. I gave her a forced smile, unsure how to respond.

"You're hilarious, Winter, you know that?" she reached over the table to push me gently on the shoulder.

"...Thanks?" I tried not to take my hand away as she laced her fingers with mine.

One of these days I need to talk to her about that. I squeezed her fingers uncomfortably.

"Are you free today?" She asked.

"I guess so, why?"

"I borrowed a movie from the library, I was thinking we could watch it together at my dorm." she traced a squiggle on the table.

I thought for a moment. It's just a movie. There's no way this could go badly, right? It's just a movie.

"Sure, I don't see why not." I shrugged.

"Great! 8:30, I'll be outside the building." She waved and walked up to the counter to get her order and leave.

"See ya." I mumbled.