FLAKES | NATHAN CHEN

FOUR

FEBRUARY 16TH, 2019

     The next morning, Avery woke up to the sounds of girls yelling outside of her dorm. The one thing she didn't like about Yale dormitories is that everyone seemed to be early birds except her, so it was often that she was woken up against her own will on the weekends. She quickly placed on her glasses before she grabbed her phone and checked all of her messages. It had been just passed 9:45, so she had gotten a decent amount of sleep. She had went to be early the night before, only staying up until 11:00 watching Stranger Things.

    She saw a text from Nathan asking if they were still on for today, and she smiled to herself. She typed a quick reply back, while teasing that he was indeed a try hard for texting her at six in the morning. Rolling up her sleeves to her long sleeved sleep shirt, she quickly changed her shorts into a pair of sweats before bustling around the room. She had a total of two hours before meeting with Nathan, which was the perfect amount of time for her to take a shower beforehand. She quickly grabbed a pair of black Lulu leggings and a Nirvana t-shirt to wear and then headed to her dorms private bathroom.

    Avery emerged from the shower about twenty minutes later dressed in her new clothes for the day. She traveled to her mirror on her side if her room before starting her hair routine. Her face scrunched in pain as she tried to comb out her knotted wet curls before scrunching her hair and then adding a bit if hair gel for it to hold. She then grabbed her phone again, checking to see if anyone - maybe a peticular someone - had texted her.

    Jess watched her roommate with a curious gaze. From the past semester, she had learned that Avery never seemed to care what she looked like, especially on a Saturday morning. The girl had always spent her weekends locked up in her room studying for her exams, reading, or watching some sort of true crime tv show or action movie. Never had Jess every seen her spend her start her Saturday morning with a shower and hovering over her phone every five minutes.

    "What's got you all excited this morning," Jess teased from her bed, the straw from her coffee in between her teeth. Avery turned to face her roommate, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion at the statement. "What are you talking about," She said, walking over to her computer to check and see if any of her teachers posted any assignments online. "Well, you are out of bed on the weekend which is a first. You are not wearing sweatpants and a random shirt you found off the dorm floor, and you took a morning shower. Plus you've been hovering you're phone like you are waiting to hear if you won the lottery. You are hiding something," Jess listed off, finishing the sentence matter of factly.

    Avery breathed out a chuckled, rolling her eyes as she closed her fully charged computer. "I am not acting different, I just thought I would be proactive today and study in the library instead of in here," she said, starting to pick up her clothes that laid across the floor. Jess got out of bed, her arms folding in disbelief as she watched her roommate clean her room, another unusual task. Avery continued, "And besides, I am not hovering my phone like I am going to win the lottery."

    Just as she finished her phone rang, signaling that she received a new text message. Avery froze, her eyes widening and her gaze met Jess'. The two lunged for her phone that laid on her bed, but Jess reached there first. Avery chased Jess around the room, yelling at her to let go of her phone until Jess held up a bottle of febreeze towards her as a weapon. Avery raised her hands in surrender as Jess read her phone.

    "Who's Nathan? And why is he asking if you like sandwiches?" Jess questioned, her mouth dropping as she read the text. Avery slowly lowered her hands while her eyes widened at the girl across from her. Just as she was about to answer, she heard her phone ring as another text message came in. "And why is he saying that you need better taste then mini m&m's?"