Right Place, Wrong Time

41. Save the Date

For the last few hours, Joey had been keeping Lauren company over text while she studied for her last final. He'd offered to go over there, but she said that would be too distracting. His own eyelids were beginning to droop but the conversation kept flowing from her end, so he was keeping himself awake.

'Do you think you'll be going to sleep soon?' he asked, for his own sake but also because he was worried about her.

'You don't have to stay up. I'll be fine' she replied, which answered his question.

'I'm coming over'

Her incoming phone call took over his screen but he rejected it, knowing she was only going to try to talk him out of it. He crept out of his own house and across the street to hers, seeing her curtains twitch as she looked out to see him. He waved, and she shook her head and disappeared, but moments later was opening the door for him.

"You really didn't have to come over," she whispered, as she led him up to her room.

"What better things have I got to do on a Tuesday night?"

"Sleep?" she suggested with a grin.

"Not as fun," he grinned back.

"Yeah, I'm sure watching me study is going to be really fun for you."

She joked, but he would have stayed awake thinking about her for half the night anyway, and he would always rather be with her than doing anything else.

She dropped into the chair at her desk, papers spread out all over it, and he made himself comfortable on her bed. The light from her lamp magnified the shadows under her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked gently.

She sighed. "Stressed as hell."

"You've been studying for hours, Lo."

"I know. But I have to do well on this."

"Do you have to? Or do you just want to?"

"I have to. I can't retake this."

He got up from the bed and leaned down to hug her from behind. "You've got this," he promised. "I need you to not overthink it."

"That's all I'm good at," she joked. "I'd get an A in that class no problem."

He picked up a stack of flashcards, returning to his place on her bed. "I bet you know more than you think you do."

Working through the cards, he read out the questions for her to answer almost every one perfectly, the smile on her face growing with the size of the finished pile.

"Do you believe me now?" he asked.

She swivelled her chair back and forth, trying not to smile too wide. "I guess." She folded her arms on the desk and lay her head down on top of them, closing her eyes.

"You done?" he asked, smiling fondly.

She shook her head. "Just resting my eyes."

"Okay," he said, glad she couldn't see his grin. "Then we can keep going right after I go pee."

She made a noise of assent and he went as quickly as he could, so that she wouldn't have a chance to fall asleep for real. But even so, when he returned and moved around to the other side to see her face, her mouth was slightly open, her eyes tight closed. Out like a light.

Moving her to the bed might wake her up, which was the last thing he wanted to do, but she could use a more comfortable night's sleep than this before her exam. He began tidying her desk without disturbing or rearranging things too much, bookmarking her place in textbooks before folding them and piling them up, clearing a space big enough to slip a pillow under her head.