Neighbors at Night

10. Sage

Rafael was a few minutes late to English and we were already in the middle of taking notes when he walked in but he still smiled at me as he took his seat and set his bag down on the desk. 

"Hey," he greeted, his voice just soft enough to not be heard by Miss Carsten. 

His grin seemed to grow even bigger when I responded with a simple, "Morning."

I redirected my attention to the white board in front of us, sighing as I rested an elbow on the desk and my chin in the palm of my hand. 

It was darker than usual in the classroom, as she'd turned off the lights and closed all the blinds so we could better see the video playing, and it was admittedly making me a bit drowsy. 

While Rafael had left the apartment the night before just after eleven, I wasn't able to fall asleep until almost one in the morning. I'd gone on my phone with the intention of scrolling through social media for a few minutes, only to look at the clock a bit later and realize that it had been an entire hour. And then it took me another half an hour to actually fall asleep once I was all settled in bed. 

I'd still gotten almost six hours of sleep but - even though I'd slept even less before and been entirely fine the next day - I was completely drained today. 

I had a small feeling that it wasn't only from physical exhaustion though. 

Miss Carsten paused the video then, reminding me that I should be taking notes and not dozing off. 

I yawned as I finished writing out the third bullet point on the screen, blinking back the moisture in my eyes and shaking my head slightly to wake myself up.

"Tired?" 

I flinched at the abrupt sound, feeling like facepalming when I realized that it was only Rafael. 

I turned to look at him and I noticed that his eyebrows were furrowed and his head was tilted, as though he was genuinely worried about me. It was a little strange if I was being honest; we were technically friends but we weren't all that close. And, after only having one friend for so many years, it was like I'd found myself in an alternate reality. 

I shrugged, "Not really." But my body belayed my words as I yawned again. 

Rafael chuckled softly, "Se nota. You totally don't seem tired at all." 

I rolled my eyes, "Okay. So I am a little sleepy." 

I returned to my notes, glancing at the board to see if I missed anything and adjusting to lay my head on the desk when I saw that I hadn't. 

"Hey," I lifted my head to face Rafael. "I have an idea," he whispered. 

"What is it?"

"You should go to sleep," he began but I interrupted him before he could continue.

"But I need these notes for the essay we're writing," I explained. 

Rafael raised an eyebrow, a small smile on his face, and I pressed my lips together apologetically. "As I was saying," he laughed quietly, "You should just go to sleep, and I can take the notes for you." 

I immediately shook my head, "No way am I letting you write all that for me." 

Rafael suddenly frowned, "Why not?" 

(Why would he want to?)

"Because," I deadpanned and he huffed. "You have your own notes to write, and I'm not going to make you write mine too just because I'm tired. Besides," I straightened in my seat, "I'm totally awake now."