Twist Ties - MaxTul

Chapter 1

It's been seven months since the last time Tul has been home. His master's degree's classes and projects were taking every single minute of his days daily and he couldn't help but to stress about it. He missed home, he missed his parents, his siblings, his friends, and more than anything, he missed him. Tul knew it was worthless though, he had 17 months more ahead of him, and he doubted he would get even a week-off until then. There were the holidays, of course, including the Spring Break that would start the next day, but he would probably get only three or four days off before he had to start working again, so going home was never an option, since he would spend most of the time inside an airplane.

This week has been hell for him. He had to take four very difficult tests, build three architectural models and help the undergraduate students out with some assignments. All that combined with the time he's been away from everyone he loved was making him extremely moody, and he was holding himself back so he wouldn't snap at anyone. Thank God it was Friday and he could hide himself inside his apartment and not deal with people for the next few days.

That day was really testing his patience, though. It started wrong in its very first minute when his alarm didn't go off and he had to leave the apartment without eating anything cause he wouldn't have the time to prepare anything before his class started. And he was hungry. And a hungry Tul is very moody Tul, he was the epitome of a "hangry" person. He decided then that he had at least to go to his favorite café and get something to eat, because if not, he would probably not go through the rest of the day.

At least he didn't live far from the Architecture building, so he could go there walking and didn't have to deal with public transportation or with driving there everyday. He was still not used to driving on the right side of the road. About seven minutes later he arrived in front of the café and that sight almost made him pull his hair out of his head. The line was humongous. What the fuck was going on? Was everyone bidding their goodbyes before Spring Break or something? He could honestly punch someone at that moment. There was no way he could wait in line, get something to eat and get to class on time, so he just sighed in frustration for the umpteenth time that week and walked the rest of the way to his building. Still hungry. And angry.

Well, the rest of the day didn't go very well either but he had to admit that things started to get a little bit better after he ate lunch. A well-fed Tul was a calmer Tul. Regardless, he was still looking at his phone every 10 minutes to see if it was already time for him to pack his things and go home, order a big ass combo of sushi and proceed to hide under his blanket or something, until he had to go back to the university again.

Obviously, it didn't go as he planned. It never did. When he was leaving the classroom, ready to head home, his friend and neighbor, Ashley, approached him with a very big smile on her face."Tul!" she said cheerfully while grabbing his right arm. "What do you think about visiting the roof of the Uris building today?"

Tul almost let out a growl, why did she have to ask for that today? "Ahm, I don't know, Ash. I'm really tired and the Uris is really far from here, I don't feel like walking all the way there." I said, trying to gently turn down her request.

"Awn, come on, Tul! We've been meaning to go there ever since the semester started and we never got the chance to do it. Today is the perfect day! We have no obligations for tomorrow, you can sleep the whole day, and besides... My car is right there in the parking lot beside this building, I'll drive us there and take us back home later." She looked at Tul expectantly with her big brown eyes. Damn it. Screw him and his inability to tell people no. "Okay..." he said, giving up.

The drive to the Uris building lasted less than 10 minutes. It was getting dark and the light poles were starting to light up, giving the campus a very comforting and relaxing aura. Columbia University was a very beautiful place, especially at night. The lights coming from the street poles made beautiful shadows on the sculptured details on the walls of its historical styled buildings. That made the architect inside of him shiver.