The Awakening: The Truth about Order series, Book One.(Part 1, En Garde)

"4..." (Part 2/2)

“Hey!” A voice yelled right in Melissa’s ear. Her eyes shot open and she whipped her head off the desk to sit upright in the wooden chair. The pencil she had been somehow holding flew up in the air with a couple other paper that had stuck to her forehead. Her long, black hair fell over her face and her knees smacked the bottom of the desk, reverberating a loud bang throughout the library. She sat perfectly rigid for a second as she recovered from the rude awakening, then brushed her hair behind her ear and looked around for who the perpetrator was. Standing directly behind her and holding in a laugh was her friend Katie, Melissa’s mirror opposite in almost every way. Katie was muscular, tall and athletic, where Melissa was petite, short and thin. Katie was loud, outgoing and loved to be the life of the party but Melissa was none of the above. The culprit brushed aside her perfectly curled, blonde hair as she smiled widely.

            “What are you doing here, Melissa?” She asked, somehow maintaining a smile while she spoke, “it’s Saturday night and you’re in the library?” Fake disbelief in Katie’s voice, Melissa couldn’t tell if it was mocking her or just sarcasm. Though since she had awakened, she did notice that the library was completely empty.

            “I could ask you the same thing.” Melissa groaned, her headache told her she had not quite fully woken up.

            “I came to get you! You’ve only come out with us a few times since the semester started and we miss your charm.” Katie smiled wider. Obvious sarcasm, so much so it hurt Melissa’s ears. Melissa looked at Katie, purple sundress barely reaching the middle of her sculpted thighs, make up thrown on to make her look like she was ready for a photo shoot. Melissa then looked down at her faded jeans and hockey sweatshirt. She felt the post-wake up crust in her green eyes still, and she didn’t remember putting on makeup any time in the past week.

            “Seriously?” Melissa muttered.

            “If you hurry up, we can go stop by your apartment on the way so you can change and...” Katie’s smile faded as she paused, “get cleaned up a little. Shit, Melissa have you left this chair all weekend?” Melissa looked over at the bowl of fast food salad she had picked up for lunch. Or maybe it was dinner from the day prior. She smiled at how uncomfortable it made Katie.

            “Technically? Yes.” Melissa responded, and smirked again as her friend squirmed a little in obvious disgust.

            “Alright, this is an intervention. Get up.” Katie said, grabbing Melissa’s arm and pulling her up.  Melissa tried to fight back, but she was no match for her athletic foe. Her legs felt a little wobbly under her; she clearly hadn’t stood up in quite a while. She put her fingers against her cheeks and massaged them gently, trying to wake up her eyes. Her cheeks were a little chubby compared to the rest of her thin, narrow face. It bothered her. Coupled with the freckles that populated only her cheeks and nose, and it was by far her least favorite part of her face. Not to mention she could feel a thin layer of grease coming off onto her fingers as she rubbed.

            “Katie, I have to get this paper done. I can’t go out tonight.” Melissa groaned, pleading with her friend to leave her alone.

            “That’s ridiculous. You have all day tomorrow to finish and you weren’t exactly hard at work when I walked in.”

            “Katie. Please.” Melissa looked her friend in the eyes and made her voice as stern as possible. Katie knew not to push too hard.

            “Fine. But you don’t have a choice next weekend alright? It’s your twenty-first birthday, you’re not spending it in a library.” Katie presented it more as a fact than a proposition. Melissa had known for a long time she’d be forced into some kind of celebration she didn’t ask for, so she had already resigned to the inevitability.

            “Ok. Next weekend I’ll go out.” Melissa said, trying to sound like Katie had talked her into it.

            “Promise?”

            “I promise. Now go have fun and let me work.” Melissa threw Katie a weak smile. Katie looked Melissa up and down quietly before she huffed loudly and turned to walk out. She cast one last look back before she turned around a bookshelf and disappeared. Melissa plopped back down in her chair, staring after where Katie had just walked out for a few seconds before turning back to her work. Pathophysiology. No wonder she had fallen asleep. She looked at the book for a minute, eyes scanning over the partially highlighted text but not actually reading anything. She needed a break again, already. Maybe she should have gone with Katie after all.

            Searching for an excuse to peel her eyes off her book, she reached for her phone and swore under her breath when she saw the three missed calls. The first two were from Katie, probably wondering where she was, the third was from her landlord. She skipped right to the voice mail from her landlord and put the phone to her ear, dropping her forehead onto the table as the message played. Instantly remember what it was she forgot to do the day before, she deleted the message before it finished playing and put the phone back on the desk without lifting her head up.

            She started wondering if she even had enough in her account to pay the month’s rent. For some reason there had been a test every other day for the past couple weeks. She hadn’t really had much time to put hours in at work. Though she hated her job at the airport parking lot, it was a job, and it had helped her pay everything she needed to so far. Hopefully, her degree would come without any hiccups and she could finally look at hospital jobs like she wanted. Though she supposed she’d have to study to make that happen.

She picked her head up a little to look at the book again. Pathophysiology was a good a place as any to start.