His Muse

Fancy socializing in fancy restaurants

Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved

Sav came to Nic's dorm after studying in the lounge with the rest of the Kingsley Gang. She hardly even knocked—just swung right in and startled Nic into scribbling a line across his art history notes. He slapped his hand down in annoyance, and turned to glare at her as she dropped into the futon with an annoyed groan. The door to the room slammed shut, and probably pissed off every single neighbor near them.

"Oops, sorry," she said absently, scratching at her messy hair before twisting around to face Nic. "You know Olivia's a helicopter girlfriend?"

"Um, no? What makes you say that?" Nic snorted. The idea seemed weird. Sure, she was loud and outgoing and spent every waking... moment... in their dorm—but some people were like that! There wasn't anything he found weird about it, especially since he spent all of his childhood constantly being followed by his siblings.

Sav sighed, pulling a leg up onto the cushion as she said, "Well, for one, she babysits Leo and I."

"Really? No, she just wants to hang out with you guys."

"Yeah, but there's no way Leo would initiate that sort of contact on a regular basis. The guy has to be reminded to say 'Hello' sometimes," she rationalized, and Nic couldn't really argue with that. He always figured it was because they lived together and saw each other every day that Leo just... forewent the formalities of greeting Nic every time he walked into the room. "She thinks I'm gonna steal Leo from her," Sav concluded.

"What? Pff, no. That's just weird. You're, like, two years younger than him."

"No, you just think it's weird because you know that I would never. But Olivia doesn't know that I would never," she insisted, and he shrugged because it was clear now that Leo was on board with Sav being disinterested in most everything involving romance and sex. That much was clear during dinner when he'd stop Flo and Wes from retelling raunchy stories from the weekends as soon as Sav started to fake-gag. He seemed to forget that pretending to gag was just a part of her humor, but either way she discretely appreciated the effort.

Nic's phone buzzed on his desk, startling him out of the conversation. He reached for it, and instantly jolted from his chair. "Shit! Kieran's on his way!" he shouted, leg getting caught between his loft and the chair. He yelped, tripping forward and rolling onto the ground.

As he scrambled for his closet, Sav sat, stunned, in the futon, before asking, "Um... why should you be worried?"

"Because I forgot today his class is meeting up for dinner! They're all going out to eat at this snooty vegan restaurant Eliana eats at all the time," Nic explained, kicking off his pajama pants. "Fuck! This is what happens when all his texts are limited to telling me the second he leaves the Co-Op. For fuck's sake—"

"Why? It's, like, Sunday," she deadpanned. "And midterms. Like, legit midterms. You know, the ones that come before Thanksgiving?"

"I know, but last week was their last lesson because the instructor's gonna be out of town. And she's treating them all to dinner tonight before she heads out," he explained, throwing on the closest patterned button-up and nice slacks. He tucked in the shirt hastily and looped a belt around his waist. Sav watched him pace across the room, grab his wallet, stuff it into his coat pocket, and check himself in their floor length mirror.

He texted Leo, who got back to him saying to lock the door—Leo had his own key in his backpack anyway. Sav picked up her things and followed Nic to the door as he was saying, "And I mean, I wouldn't normally go to a vegan restaurant if it meant I was going to pay. But Ezekiel and Eliana offered to pitch in and they insisted us broke college students didn't have to pay—"