Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

Excuses, Excuses

2 DAYS LATER

Samantha

It's half an hour till the exam starts and I'm still pacing up and down an empty hallway on the fourth floor. It's early, and not many people walk the hallways of the university at 9 am, specially the ones on the top floors. Which is exactly why I like it here: I can be alone and let my worried mind work through its whole "I'm freaking out" process without anybody interrupting me.

Okay girl, you got this, I tell myself.

I studied as much as I could, I know everything I need to know. I just need to chill down so I can go back down to the basement floor and join the rest of the students that are probably already waiting by the door to be called into the master classroom.

I take a deep breath and make myself believe my own words.

✢✢✢ 

"Oh, well, that wasn't as bad as I expected! They asked me about all the things I knew!" My smile runs from ear to ear as I walk towards the cafeteria with Nico, my lab partner, and one of the few guys in my class I kind of get along with.

I feel refreshed, as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

"That's easy for you to say, you always know the answers to everything in the curriculum!" Nico runs a hand through his blond long hair, and then nudges me in the shoulder playfully as we step into the crowded room.

"Not true!" I complain "C'mmon, let's go find an empty table somewhere."

We only walk a few steps before hands are rising in the air and a group of older students are calling Nico over to go join them.

"Nico! How was your exam?" Yells one of them.

"Was it zoo? Damn, I remember that being a hard one!" says a ginger girl with amazing curls that run all the way down to her waist.

"Not too bad," says Nico grabbing a seat next to her, "but I think Sam here did way better than me."

"Oh, hi!" says the ginger girl, and her wide blue eyes make a spark of jealousy tingle in my insides. This girl is absolutely gorgeous; perfect porcelain skin with lovely freckles all over her nose and cheeks, a warm look in her eyes, a lovely little nose. She's just perfect.

I give her a shy little smile.

"Nice to meet you," says another guy sitting in front of her, and I dare run my eyes quickly through the little crowd at the table. I notice every little detail in a matter of seconds; there are four boys including Nico, and three girls. They all seem at least a couple of years older than me, and I'm pretty sure I've seen some of their faces around the hallways. As I look through them, conversation restarts among them, and the awkward silence after I didn't reply dissolves into nothing.

They all look so acquainted with one another and so confident in each other's presence, that a little something twists in my gut, so I look down at my watch, pretending to remember something.

"Hey, so sorry Nico," I say in a voice that's just a little more than a whisper, "I forgot I was meant to pick something up for mum on my way home, so I should get going."

I think Nico looks slightly disappointed for a second, but he just mutters a little goodbye before I've already turned away and I'm walking out of the cafeteria, into the hallways to the main pavilion and then out of the front doors.

The fresh air coming from the nearby river hits me in the face, and I close my eyes for a second, taking a mindful deep breath.

I head down the stairs and take the path to the river, walking between all kinds of lovely trees, cypresses and pines, sequoias and poplars, walking past groups of students sitting on blankets in the grass, enjoying the last days of sunshine. The whole landscape seems like a painting, oranges and yellows mixing up with the reds and green on the leaves falling off the trees, the bark of some of them peeling away, and birds chirping happily over in the canopy. A perfectly lovely autumnal day.