Half a World Away // Vinnie Hacker

*10*

It's about 5:30 when Vinnie drops me off at my apartment and I have school tomorrow that I need to get ready for. It's going to be pretty scary in a new place with new people but I think after I memorise my way to each lecture I'll be ok it's just the new people bit that really scares me.

The thing that I like about uni the most is that you don't have five school days and different periods for your classes like you do in high school, you could have one lecture a day or three a week, something like that. I'm just glad that I only have three lectures each week because that means I only really need to be on campus three times a week for a few hours at a time, enough to make friends but enough to not be overwhelmed.

My schedule is sort of weird. We have one lecture tomorrow at 11 am the goes until roughly 2 and then we have another lecture that night that goes from 7 until 9 because the lecturer is back in Sydney, so we have online classes and it's a short lecture just because of the time inconvenience. Then on Thursday, I have another lecture from 4 until 7 and that's it, all the rest of the work I do is at home and pretty much whenever I want as long as I keep in mind due dates for certain things.

The other day, when I saw that sign in the coffee shop window, I made a mental note to go back and ask if the position was still available. i went back yesterday and sure enough, it was. I start tomorrow but I have a weird shift time for a coffee shop, 4 to 7, but the coffee shop closes at 5. I'm guessing they want me to clean up after closing and they kept the shift short to use it as an introductory shift I'm guessing. They said they'll put me on register to begin with but if people find it too hard to understand my accent, they might have to move me which is understandable.

I decided I'd get all my stuff ready for tomorrow before I ordered food. I grabbed my laptop and made sure I plugged in the charger and turned it on at the powerpoint, I grabbed a notebook and a few pens and put them in my tote bag. I grabbed a few different coloured pens and a couple of highlighters and chucked those in there too; investing in a pencil case might make this easier.

I walked over to my wardrobe and pulled out a pair of light wash blue jeans with butterflies on them, a white cropped tank top, white platform hightops and a black zip-up jacket. I laid that out on my desk chair and then put my bag next to it. all my stuff was together so I'm praying to god I don't forget anything.l but watch me still change my outfit last minute tomorrow.

I decided to order a pizza, the first non-frozen one I've had since I arrived, and then sat on my bed and scroll through TikTok. Over the past few days, I've been getting more and more Vinnie TikToks which is actually annoying because he's my friend and I know him in person but maybe if I didn't know him in person I'd actually be ok with it. it also doesn't help that majority of them are thirst traps because I don't see him like that, I see him as a friend, I think. I don't know how I see him if I'm honest but I'm just going to go with friend for the time being so I don't complicate things. The TikTok of him with the faux freckles TikTok came up and I couldn't help but laugh at the similarities he has with a cat and then I saw the caption saying 'i look like a cat' which made me laugh harder, hunger literally makes me go insane. I watched it one more time and couldn't help but notice how hot he looks with this filter on. I watched it a few more times then decided that was weird and closed the TikTok app and just laid down on my bed.

The pizza should be here in a few minutes which I was grateful for but that didn't stop the hunger I was feeling getting stronger and stronger but I knew if I even got up and looked at other food I would turn into Stephan in the vampire diaries after he tastes human blood again.

The buzzer rang out through my apartment signifying that there was someone at the door. I got up yelled a 'coming' through the buzzer so that the person at the door could hear. I walked downstairs praying that it was the pizza guy and to my luck, it was and not just someone pressing the wrong number, again. the amount of times that's happened I swear to god. I gave the guy a tip and then brought the pizza back up to my apartment, immediately stuffing my face.

after the second slice of pizza, my phone screen lit up in front of me showing Jess's name. "what do you want?" I said as I answered the phone and put it on speaker. "How'd you know I wanted something?" she huffed so hard I could pretty much feel her breath through the phone. "Because usually facetime not normal call," I replied. she forgets she's my best friend sometimes I swear. "Ok, fine. I was just wondering if you'd take me to one of the hype house parties if I came over," I could practically hear her batting her eyelashes through the phone screen. "Yeah, I'd have to be invited first though," I replied with a roll of my eyes. She squealed, said thank you. and then hung up the phone. she never was one for formal hellos and goodbyes.

By the time I had finished eating and had a shower, it was around 9 o'clock so I decided to go and lay in bed and go on TikTok again. after about ten minutes of scrolling, Vinnie's name popped up asking for a facetime call. I answered and his face appeared on my screen, with plenty of noise in the background. "Oh, were you asleep? I didn't mean to wake you up, sorry," he apologised. "No, I was just on TikTok, it's all good," I replied. I was just confused as to why he was calling, the only times we've called have been when organising something or to talk about the drama happening but even then, most of that happens in person. "Would I be able to stay the night? They're having a party and I have shoot tomorrow so I actually need to sleep," Vinnie asked. I was contemplating against it because of course I would let him stay over, those parties don't end until it's like four in the morning but I don't have a couch yet so one of us would have to sleep on the floor or we'd have to share a bed. I guess we could make it like a sleepover. "Yeah, sure. I only have my bed or the hard cold floor though, so I guess if you're ok with that we could share a bed." why was I getting nervous? It's just two friends sharing a bed and having a sleepover. "Yeah, that's ok. I'll be over in an hour," Vinnie said.

He hung up and then the wait began.