Halftime

chapter 1

I was blasting the music into my ears to try to drown out the noise of the subway. Fridays were the worst days to catch the train. especially in the evening when all the working people were heading home and all the young people were heading out to party.

I guess I should be one of those young people getting ready with my friends to go out, get wasted and have the time of my life but if my options were between that and staying at home, reading a book and snacks, I'm one hundred percent going for the snacks. Plus, unlike half of these young people, I'd just spent a grueling week at NYU law school getting ready for my end of year exams.

I was nearing the end of my third year of university which meant only two more to go. hallelujah. and let me be the first to say that law school is no joke. Getting in was hard enough, especially considering that I was coming all the way from Australia with average grades to back me up. but I'd got my shit together and managed to score myself a place in NYU studying law. and now I was working my ass off to make sure that all my effort to get in would at least pay off. And this included acing my exams. Which also meant studying. Even if that study had to take precedent over partying.

My friends would be pissed at me when I get back to our apartment. I'd promised last week I'd go out and party with them only to ditch them claiming I'd go out this weekend instead. They'll be ecstatic when I end up ditching them this Friday as well.

I shared an apartment with my friend Harley, and my other two friends, Ophelia and Jessica shared a dorm at NYU but basically lived in the apartment with us. I'd started out in a dorm too, which is where I met Harley who was my roommate. Ophelia and Jess had been our neighbors. And bam. Best friends. Harley and I decided to move out after just being completely over dorm life. Or at least I had been over it and Harley offered to split the rent with me when I'd been desperate enough to find an apartment off campus.

And thank fuck I had moved because to be honest, I don't think my mental health would have survived. Especially after that first year of university.

The train was filling up the more stops we passed but I'd managed to score a seat right near the door which meant no clawing my way through people to get off. Yay. Unfortunately though, it did mean that I was squashed between two people. More unfortunately, the person on my left was dealing with an extreme case of body odor and I was doing my best to not gag in front of their face. The person on my right, thankfully didn't smell but instead was a giant specimen of a man and took up a good amount of room. He didn't really seem to notice it though and was happily typing away at his phone.

I tried to ignore it and turn my music up to drown out the noise and my discomfort but it wasn't exactly working. In fact the only thing it was achieving was potentially harming my eardrums. I shifted uncomfortably, placing my bag on the floor in an attempt to make more room for myself.

The guy on my right seemed to take a hint and moved over a bit, giving me a little more space muttering a quiet, "sorry," which I barely heard over the music playing through my headphones.

I kept my eyes averted but muttered back, "thanks."

He didn't reply and instead kept typing. I glanced at my own phone seeing messages from all three of my friends on our group chat. They were badgering me on what I was planning to wear later tonight. Pyjamas hopefully. But they didn't need to know that right now, so instead I turned my phone off and stuff it back in my jacket pocket.

It was May right now and heading towards summer and honestly it was a miracle I was even wearing a jacket in the warm weather, soon to be unbearable heat. but the comfort was too good to give up just yet, even though it was stuffy and humid in this subway despite it being late in the afternoon.