Sparring Partners [18+]

Chapter Fourteen: Aah, Bisto

"So..." Sarah was watching me from the corner of her eye as we walked to uni. Unlike me, she was full of energy. Sarah was someone who woke up early, dressed nicely, and approached the day with a sense of eagerness I most certainly lacked. Today she had dressed in a pair of faded mom-jeans, her worn Docs and an emerald green jumper that looked gorgeous against the vivid red of her hair. She even wore make-up most days featuring impressive eye-shadow and winged eyeliner - something I didn't know how to replicate no matter how many YouTube tutorials I'd watched as a teenager.

Comparatively, my morning routine was to crawl out of bed at the last possible second, brush my teeth, and pull on whatever clothes I'd left folded over my desk chair the night before. Often, it felt as if I hadn't fully woken until at least two hours into the day, and to me, wearing jeans to uni was abhorrent. Of course, I could dress up when I wanted to - my date outfit last night proved that. I enjoyed making an effort to look good - I just didn't care enough about my course mates and their opinion on me, to want to dress in anything that wasn't essentially pyjamas. Sweatshirts and leggings were my preferred study outfits.

"Yes?" I asked with a tired sigh. I hadn't slept well last night, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with my energetic roommate this morning.

Sarah had a shit-eating grin, and she looked far too pleased with herself as her shoulders wiggled a bit with every step. She made an excited squealing sound. "You came back late last night. The date went well, yeah?"

Ah. How had I forgotten about the date?

It was a naïve question, considering I'd spent a good portion of the night thinking about Markus' parting words. Even now, I felt a gentle heat seeping into my cheeks. It was very clear to me how the terrible date had become overshadowed by the rest of my evening.

"Oh my gosh, you're totally blushing right now. Mate, what happened? Are you meeting up again? Tell me everything," Sarah demanded.

"No, no," I rejected in a rush. God forbid she approached Michael today to ask him about it. "The date was horrible."

"What?" Sarah gaped, looking at me as if she thought I was lying to her. Which was fair.

"Seriously," I snorted, covering my cheeks with my icy hands, "Why the hell did you think he would be a good match? He's way too hung up on his ex and wouldn't let me get a word in edge wise."

"Really? That's wild. I thought he seemed alright. Are you still wanting to go out with that girl I mentioned, or are we sacking the whole thing off?" Sarah pulled a face, her feature scrunching in mild disgust. "Maybe 'Matchmaker Expert' shouldn't be on my CV."

I patted her on the back slowly and with a little too much force to not be sarcastic. "Yeah, maybe we should leave the matchmaking to someone else."

Sarah hummed, seeming a little more subdued than before.

"Where are you today?" I asked as we made it to campus, approaching the steps of the Thorpefield campus bridge. A river divided our university, one that was only crossable by a large bridge on one side of campus - which made it very irritating if you had back-to-back lectures scheduled on opposite sides.

"I'm in Marie Curie for an hour." Sarah nodded to the tall glass building closest to us, her ponytail swishing with movement. "But I have a lecture in Metis literally right after. It's ridiculous. There's about 30 of us speed-walking to the other side of campus. I don't know why they don't just push it back for, like, half an hour or something. We're always late, and David then wastes another five minutes chewing us out for it as if it's our fault the Physics department is so incompetent with planning."

I snickered. "Sucks for you, man. How longs the lecture for, when do you finish? I'm in Metis till twelve; want to go to The Swan for lunch?"

Sarah knocked her shoulder against mine as we came to a stop outside the Marie Curie building, side eyeing me with an unimpressed purse of her lips and roll of her eyes. "You don't have work today?"