Halftime

chapter 5

Exam week had flashed by in no time. Or more like exam weeks. Plural. I'd spent the whole last week with my head down revising non stop, sculling coffee, and in university rooms sitting out sitting out my four hour exams.

To say I was exhausted was an understatement. I'd finished my last exam on a Wednesday, went straight home and slept soundly through the whole night only waking up at midday on Thursday, and spent the rest of my Thursday and Friday at the apartment relaxing.

It was even more relaxing knowing that I was now officially on my end of year holiday for the next two months. Harley, Ophelia and Jess were all finishing their exams today so I'd had the apartment to myself.

Since my encounter with Hayden at the coffee shop two weeks ago, I'd only seen him once. We'd met on the subway again and he'd sat down to talk to me, telling me that he'd texted Harley the details to a party and that he'd be there in hopes that I'd be there too.

I hadn't ended up going, understandably since I had exams the next day and it had not been time to party, but ever since I hadn't seen or heard from him.

He hadn't even texted, but I knew that he had seen my contact in his phone, since the day after Harley had added it he had texted asking if my name was Vanessa.

I told myself that I didn't care but that was an obvious lie. I did care. Especially since I knew that he would send an occasional text to Harley, usually regarding party details but I knew they had some banter.

When I'd brought it up to Harley, she'd told me not to worry about it and that if I really cared that much, I should just text him back.

And I'd thought about it. A lot. But I just never knew what to say. And between studying for my exams and doing them, there wasn't a whole lot of time to think about what to say.

That is until two days ago when I'd finished my exams and spent basically all my time thinking about how I should start a conversation with him.

I grabbed my phone, finally plucking up the courage to text him.

'Hi' I wrote. A bit lame but I mean what else would I say? Stop overthinking yourself, I scolded, before setting my phone down, waiting for his reply.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and Harley would be back in half an hour or so. I half wished she was here so I could ask what to say to him, but I was glad she wasn't since it meant I would have to build up my own confidence to speak to him.

His reply came almost instantly and I'd be lying if I said relief didn't wash over me as I snatched my phone up as soon as it buzzed.

'Hey Victoria' was his reply.

I smiled before typing back. 'Nice try but no.'

'Damn. Am I getting close?'

'Not saying.'

I chewed my lip and then quickly typed out a message and hit send before I could rethink. 'Why haven't you texted?'

I held my breath as I waited for his response. Maybe I sounded pathetic. I was about to delete the message when his reply came thirty seconds later.

'Thought you'd be studying for exams. Didn't wanna be a distraction.'

I furrowed my brows. Seriously? He didn't text at all because I had exams? I called bullshit. Especially since he texted Harley and there was no way he didn't know she also had exams.

And like I guessed a second text from him popped up onto my phone from him. 'Also I kinda got the impression that you weren't interested.'

I didn't bother hesitating before I replied, 'what gave you that impression?'