𝙁𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 - Akali x Male reader

Chapter 12

I reach for the top of the laptop, waiting for our tutor to finish up as I close it and start to pack my things. More a precaution in being the first in and first out so that I can just do what I do best. Though I am doing it absent-mindedly. Everything over the past two or so days is just a blur now.

Well... I would be lying if I said I forgot completely but it is tucked away far enough for it not to bother me it all. 

I wonder if Akali is busy - my thought is interrupted as amidst the chaos of every student trying to leave a body stops next to me.

I tilt my head to look up through the corner of my eye, I spot Grace as she stares down at me, "You mind helping me with something?"

Giving a slight nod, "Sure. Unless you are going to end up letting me do everything."

Shaking her head, "Nope. Just got a few... problems that need to be worked around and I figured you are the best one to ask."

I chuckle, finishing with packing up my stuff. I sling the bag over my shoulder as I state, "At least there is something I can do," then shaking my head, "Are we going to the library?"

"If you want to whisper in my ear every five seconds sure," I furrow my brow as she giggles, "I'm joking. We could either go to the study hall or one of the on-campus cafes. Whichever suits your fancy."

"Either works."

She nods as she turns to walk, I pull my gaze away from her. Keeping her in my peripheral as I follow her I retreat to my thoughts. 

I don't understand... under usual circumstances, she wouldn't be around me if either Toby or Gregory isn't around. They are more her friends than mine, the two of us do kind of talk but that is only when they are around.

She must still be skeptical about this whole situation... can't wait till she asks me about it and I won't be able to say anything to defend myself. I mean... if what I said till now didn't work why go out of my way to continue playing charades.

We reach the study hall, a building right next to the library. Seeing as a lot of students either have to walk or drive home this place is almost perfect for just staying inside and doing all of that studying. Plus nobody will bother you.

It isn't as quiet as the library but there is nothing that your own headphones can't block out.

The interior is mostly tables and couches scattered around. There is a second floor but I haven't once been up there - everyone usually bolts for the seats up there and I don't want to look everyone in the eye trying to find a place that isn't taken.

Though the atmosphere is comfortable, almost more than my own room. It is just missing that key. She takes a booth at the furthest corner, sliding in as she sets up her stuff.

She then states, "The old food court was supposed to be here, or at least that is what the professors say. Because of the second-floor, they thought it would be perfect so they just ended up moving it to the atrium nearby."

"It would have been closer if they put it here."

She arches her brow, "Have you seen the food court? It's massive. No way it would have fit in here."

"Just nitpicking," I state as I drop down the same side as her, "What do you want me to look at?"

"About... a thousand lines of code."

I stare emptily into the screen, "Ah..." then at her, "Now I know why you phrased it as, will you help me, and not, will you help me find one syllable I accidentally put in my code and is currently eating my soul."

"I wasn't going to scare you off that early," then showing off her code she states, "A runtime error. But that just means there might be something else behind what is causing the runtime error.

I let out a sigh as I give in despite wanting to do literally anything else, "Sure. I turn the thing to me as I start doing a debug."

Hopefully, this can be fixed just like that. It didn't. Although debug helped with a few things, we had to restructure some of the code to have some callback functions because a lot of code did end up getting repeated needlessly. 

I could have just copied my own code but that feels more like an easy way out... and honestly, I was pretty close to doing exactly that. Until I actually ran the code and realized it prompts the error and it was just a memory limit that was being exceeded. One of the arrays was too large.

(Ps. I don't understand the sense it doesn't make.)

"You are awesome," she tucks her hands between her legs as she looks at me sideways, "Thanks for wasting your time helping out."

"Ah... don't mention it," I then twist my lips to the side.

"You want to hang out considering I already dragged you along with me? I ended up skipping lunch so wouldn't mind hitting the cafe before needing to go to our next class."

I glance at her and then back to myself, "S-sure."

She then without a single word starts to unplug her stuff as I lift myself out of the chair. Watching her through the corner of my eye with a confused stare. I guess we count as extended friends and she is trying to be my friend? Maybe something a little more?

Nope. Definitely not the last one. Wait this is exactly what both Conrad and Akali said is my biggest problem... but I can't pretend like she is after me when I am just setting myself up for ultimate failure.

I'll just stick with the friend thing. But I don't really know her that well, sure we can talk about IT but who wants to talk about classes every single time... maybe she just wants to know more about this whole situation I got myself into.