The Kiss Bet July 2022 Ship Challenge

#14 Future

"I'm going to fail this assignment. I'm doomed and nothing can save me." Sara-Lin thumped her head against her desk and groaned.
"Quit being so melodramatic! You fail so many assignments it shouldn't be anything new to you right?" Rose piped up from her desk.
Patrick quickly kicked the blonde's chair and sent her a glare.
She huffed and then added "I mean, you USED to. You've been doing a lot better lately. You'll probably do fine with this one too." She glanced at Patrick raising an eyebrow to test if that was a better response.
He just slightly nodded and then added "You'll be totally fine! You're in the Newspaper club, if you can do any assignment well it should be writing a paper. Just come up with whatever, it doesn't really matter what you write about as long as you turn in SOMETHING."
Sara-Lin was not impressed. Maybe that would work for Patrick but that wasn't the sort of person she was. She couldn't just make up whatever,  she had to mean it.

As she sat in her room that night it continued to eat away at her. She got more and more upset about it until finally fat tears started to roll down her cheeks. 'Whelp! Time for a balcony cry!' she decided. Wrapping up in her favorite blanket she stepped out into the brisk evening air. She looked over and saw Oliver, but thankfully he had headphones on and seemed to be completely engrossed in the notebook he was writing in.
'He's not going to notice me crying out here, and even if he does it's honestly not like he hasn't seen it before and would judge me.' She sat down and started to cry in earnest letting her emotions flow through her and escape with her tears.
After a while she finally stopped and just sat staring at the stars.
"Feel better?" The sudden voice surprised her.
She looked over at Oliver only to see that he'd taken his headphones off and set his notebook aside.
"Mostly I guess. For now at least." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Let me guess, more boy problems?" Oliver looked at her halfway between empathetic and teasing.
"Actually no, not this time. This time it's a... school thing? Life thing? I'm a loser mess thing?"
Oliver furrowed his brow and frowned "Ok, first of all you're not a "loser mess" so don't ever call yourself that. Secondly, would you like to actually tell me what's wrong? I might be able to help if it's a School thing."
"I doubt you can help. Not unless you can go back in time and fix the years of bad grades. And also tell me what my life's purpose should be. And figure out how I'm going to support myself. And also find me love. And do it all in the next two days." Sara-Lin started to get misty eyed again as she ranted at the boy.
"So I take it you're supposed to write about your plans for the future?" Oliver said steadily.
"My road map for the next 5 years specifically. Everyone I know has their future at least SOMEWHAT figured out, and I have no idea what I want or how to get it."
"I thought you wanted to follow your mom's footsteps? Purse a career in writing of some type?" He said quizzically.
"How? I can't go to college, I only just started passing my classes. My transcripts are a joke. And even if I went to a community college how would I pay for it? I'm not getting any scholarships."
"Then forget college. Just write. You're GOOD. Anybody worth their salt will be able to tell how skilled you are, even without some fancy diploma." The look he gave her was fierce and made her heart skip a beat.
"You really believe that?"
"Absolutely. I'm not saying it'll be easy. You'll probably have to get another job part-time to pay bills until you get going, but I truly think you can do it."
Sara-Lin blushed. "Thank you Oliver. You've been more helpful than you know. I think I might actually be able to write this paper now."
"I hope you can do more than just write your paper Sara-Lin. I hope you can think about what I said and really have a chance to believe in yourself." Oliver smiled at her and as his dimples showed she once again felt her heart skip.
"I'll try." She said smiling back.
"Well I'll always be around to remind you if you forget again." He said simply.

As she walked back into her room and sat on her bed she thought over their conversation and the way he'd made her feel. They hadn't discussed the part about her finding love, but suddenly she wasn't as worried about it.
She smiled to herself and laid down, knowing he was telling the truth when he said he'd always be around.

A/N: This one is really short because I wrote it at 1:30 am when I couldn't sleep (Stop drinking coffee so late dummy). But I think maybe #17 might end up being... not necessarily a part 2, but a continuing of this in some way. We'll see how it comes out lol.