Sweetheart Single

03 | Slim Party Pickins'

Nikki and I walk back to change into some dry pants before going to the cafeteria for dinner. It's right after the last afternoon block and I know the cafeteria will be a total mad house for Pasta Night.

Part of me wonders if I'll run into Shawn.

"What a great first day!" I exhale into the cold, opening the door to our dorm lobby.

"You're too much, Elle. It was class. No one is ever as excited about class as you are," Nikki says, laughing at me.

"Not true. People just pretend not to be. But I love first days. They're so –new." I can't help but feel embarrassed. Maybe I am too nerdy for my own good.

"I guess." Nikki shrugs. "Not mad about Mr. Banks, though. How do they expect us to focus on analytics and context in historical literature with him around?" She flings her bag onto the lobby couch.

"Nikki!" I laugh. "He's a teacher... Our teacher!"

"Yea, a sexy one. You're lucky I even got the name of the class right."

"And aren't you into girls, considering you're dating one and all?" I tease.

"Sure, doesn't mean I don't appreciate a fine piece of a–"

"Okay! I get it," I laugh.

"I'm amazed you agreed to come to dinner. Didn't think I could pull you from the library on the first day back," Nikki says.

"Carter had to reschedule our study sesh, or else I'd be at the tower," I tell her.

"You love the library clock tower," she says, rolling her eyes.

"What's not to love?"

The clock tower is what we (the collective student body) call the small, cramped room on the second floor of the library. It's dubbed the quiet room. As if any rooms in any libraires are ever loud.

We both take out our laptops and set up shop on coffee table in the first-floor lounge. There are only three other people in the lounge right now. Two boys I recognize from last semester are both browsing on their phones. A girl I've never seen is unpacking her books onto another table. She's got her hair pulled back and old school glasses that make her eyes look bulging and buggy. I wonder if that's how bookish I seem to people.

"So, have you heard about the party from Darren?" Nikki asks, looking over the edge of her phone.

"Yup," I nod. "It's tonight apparently."

"Tonight! We are so going. You have an outfit, right? Wait, who cares? We can pick one out after dinner." Nikki looks excited at the prospect of dressing me up like her doll.

"Nikki, it's a school night. I'm only going to drop by early and say hi and show face so I can leave. And you're only getting that much because it's in my own building."

I open my agenda organizer on my laptop. Time to start organizing all my study sessions and color-coding my homework grids and everything else Nikki will judge me for if she ever finds out.

"How do you expect to meet someone with that attitude?" Nikki raises her eyebrow.

"I don't..." I smirk. A fuzzy image of Shawn springs into my mind.

"Oh, come on, Elle." Nikki sighs.

"You sound like my mother," I laugh.

Sure, mom always wants me to focus and do well and get good grades, but I know she secretly wishes I would date Shawn and fall in love and have a man in my life. I know, I know. How cliché. How 1990 of my mom.