Know Your Worth

22

A week had passed. Everything and nothing of consequence had occurred.

I hung out with Simon a couple of times and had a lot of fun, especially after I got to be a little bit more comfortable around him.

Sam and I finally went thrift shopping after my mom gave me an allowance, a little gift from her recent pay bonus at the private hospital. Sam's friends, Janine and Layla came with us as well and we had a blast.

It was a welcome distraction from the sad fact that the semester break was going to end in a week and a half.

I also managed to eat healthily, making sure that I had a balance of healthy carbohydrates, lean protein, and fiber. The salads were very filling and I stopped drinking caffeine in a bid to switch to green tea. 

During exam season I relied on my vanilla iced lattes for happiness, but I quickly realised that they all added up to my weekly expenses. Besides green tea had a lot of health benefits, according to Healthline and BBC Good Food. 

I didn't really remember what the actual benefits were, but what I did take away was that it was good for the body. For some reason, my memory started to turn shit when it came to non-academic stuff like the names of people that Sam makes me meet or the places that I have been to.

My brain basically filtered out everything that was not useful for examinations at this point because I had limited space. 

Too many things were happening and I started to just float around in this reality, feeling very much like a GTA character. Just existing to read my notes, hang with Simon, hang out with Sam, eat, sleep repeat. 

The ironic thing was that despite my failure to follow a routine that I had tediously planned out in my Notion, I managed to go with the flow and end up spontaneously following a ritual that kind of embodied a routine. 

Managing to avoid Theo and Cordelia was a feat that I was proud of achieving, and I wanted it to stay that way. However, I did run into Theo and Damien's other two friends, Nathaniel Mansfield and Axel Ricci while I was in the mall with Sam, Janine, and Layla. 

They recognised Sam, and they'd referred to her as Damien's girl, which she interestingly did not object to, and they'd also recognised me as Theo's girl, which was bizarre. 

I wasn't his anything, and that was fine by me because I was Simon's girlfriend after we had the awkward 'Are we dating?' conversation a few days prior. Sam was happy for me and took me out for lunch to celebrate. 

Nathaniel preferred to be called 'Nate', and Axel looked like some sort of primordial warrior. Nate was artsy. Well, he took Art History as his major and accounting as his minor. He's a real playboy, with his dreadlocks and easy smile. He was also quite fond of smoking weed and loves chewing bubble gum. 

Axel was a terrifying 6'7 and your typical New York metrosexual with his fancy layered outfits. Apparently, he was made fun of by his friends as being a simp for having a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend of five years, since middle school. He was an athlete like Theo and Damien, and to no one's surprise, was going to be drafted into the NBA after graduation. His major was sport psychology and his minor was in philosophy. 

It was so unfair how all of Theo's friends were so damn attractive. Simon is endearing, cute, and respectful, while Theo is intimidating, tall, and as Sam put it, sexy. I disagreed with the last part because I felt like I was betraying Simon by agreeing with her. 

I don't know why, but for some reason, acknowledging that some guys were sexy or good-looking made me feel like I was being a bad girlfriend. Sam thought that I was a lunatic, but Simon was my first boyfriend and my first kiss, so I didn't want to mess it up.