Exposure • Tamber

Chapter 5: Broken.

"Anika, calm down, it's going to be great." Mindy watched as Anika kept pacing in the kitchen, something she had been doing for the last 30 minutes.

"Calm down?!" Anika stopped pacing and her body went stiff, she was shaking with how tense she was, "Telling someone to calm down never helps them calm down!"

"Uhh, Tara, are you ready yet?" Mindy called down the hallway, "I think Anika is about to combust with nervousness."

"Coming!" Tara called out from her room. She was going through her closet trying to find something to wear. What did one wear to their best friend's midterm art presentation thing? Anything, Tara. One could wear literally anything. She grabbed a tight button up and threw it over her tank top, doing up the buttons as she rushed down the hall towards her waiting roommates.

"Finally, gosh." Mindy sighed, "We are going to campus not the opera."

"Oh shut up." Tara glared at them playfully, "I literally took 10 minutes to change my clothes."

"I think you look great!" Anika's voice was an octave higher than usual, which was impressive, but let the other two know it was time to stop making jokes and get going.

"I'm glad we are doing this." Tara locked the door and jogged to catch up to the pair already making their way towards campus, "It's been a while since we all hung out, the three of us."

"Is it really considered hanging out if it's for Anika's midterm?" Mindy asked, bumping their shoulder into Anika's, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh my gosh, you're right." Anika murmured, "I'm getting graded on this. What if I did terribly? What if you can't even tell which is mine? Its supposed to be a self portrait but what if my self doesn't look like myself—"

"Woah, Anika, calm down." Tara held up her hands in a 'slow down' gesture.

"Oh man. Wrong thing to say completely, T." Mindy brought their palm up to cover their face.

"No. It's fine. I'm fine." Anika's voice got impossibly higher and her pace towards the school doubled. "Everything is fine."

—

"Beefcake." Amber looked Chad up and down, "I didn't recognize you with your clothes on."

"Amb sexy!" Chad bounced over towards her, wrappings big arms around her and lifting her into a hug tightly against his chest.

"Oomf!" Amber's lungs emptied of air with how tightly Chad was squeezing her, "Put me down before I feed you your own spleen."

"Woah, angry hottie." Chad chuckled and set her down, his goofy grin never leaving his face.

Amber glared at him and readjusted her clothing, "What are you even doing here?"

"Well I wanted to come see all the awesome pictures of me, but they all look like other people." Chad looked around the room with a puzzled look, "I hate to say it, but you guys aren't very good at art."

Amber chuckled and patted him on the shoulder, "Keep looking big guy, I'm sure there's a drawing of you in here somewhere. Did ghostboy come with you?"

"Oh yeah!" Chad beamed, "Little bro is around here somewhere! I'll find him for you!" He basically bounced off to look for Ethan (and a drawing of himself, probably).

—

"Anik a, why are we looking at pots?" Tara tilted her head to the side, changing the angle she was looking at one very poorly sculpted pot.