Reverse-Harem Cafe!

VII. The Iced Tea Dilemma

(I thought maybe you guys would want to see what my characters look like (from left to right: Jacob, Max, Mae, Ervin, Ulrich, William) ^w^ so I drew them except Toby, cuz he's not one of the main guys...sorry for my limited art skills T w T. Oh and the guy at the bottom right hasn't made his debut yet. I might color it and make it into a new cover.)

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I scream and sit up in my bed. I breathe heavily and look around my room. A faint beam of moonlight sneaks in through the window curtains and stretches across my bed covers. I put my hand over my head, relieved that it was just a nightmare. I dreamt that I forgot to put my name on my math midterm exam and failed it. Ahh I feel pathetic. This is what high school does to poor, confused adolescents.

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Over the past week, I've been constantly stressing over my midterms, especially in pre-calculus and today's no different. AGHH the midterm for Pre-Calc is tomorrow and I really suck at math.

I get to the cafe at eight minutes passed 3 PM to cram in some last minute studying, my earliest time yet. The only other people there are Ervin and Toby. Toby is shit-faced and hung over today, I could tell immediately when I came in and he started singing "Barbie girl" and making out with a blender. Ervin and I helped him into the locker room to sober up. He's currently sleeping off the alcohol on the table.

I dump my textbook, notes, calculator, and pencils on one of the cafe tables and begin to study. "Hmm if the graph's equation is written like this....ah it must be a limacon!" I mumble as I shuffle through my notes. The whole time, I am aware that a pair of eyes is staring a hole through my skull. Finally I can't take it anymore!

I turn around in my seat and see Ervin staring at me over the counter, resting his chin on his hand. "What are you staring at? Don't you have to study for midterms too?"

He chuckles a little, "I don't need to study to get perfect scores."

"Leave me alone." I reply in an irritated voice.

I wait for him to look away and go back to checking inventory or something but he keeps his eyes glued on me.

"What is it??" I ask.

"It's actually a lemniscate."

"Huh?"

"The equation you're looking at is actually a lemniscate." He walks around the counter and over next to me. Then he leans over and looks at the math problem in my textbook. "See? If a is squared, then the graph is a lemniscate."

"Ahh I totally forgot that, thanks!" I reply and erase my graph. Ervin turns and leaves. I guess even the robot is nice sometimes.

After I fix my graph, he comes back over with a tray of two lemon iced teas and places one on the table next to me and one at the seat next to me. "Here. Judging by those dark circles under your eye, you haven't been sleeping enough. You need sugar."

"You don't have to be so blunt." I say and cover the dark circles with my hands. I can't believe he noticed though and did something about it. He smiles and sits next to me. "Thanks." I mutter.

"You really are a troublesome kouhai (underclass men)." he sighs. "Having trouble with the next problem?"

I look down at the next question. Crap. I don't remember learning this at all but it's under basic trigonometry!! "Mhm." I reply and read the problem. "If Louis is looking up at a 2 feet tall building and the angle of elevation is 34 degrees, how far away from the building is Louis." Wait...what? "Louis must be an ant...what kind of building is only 2 feet tall? These people might be mathematicians but they're kind of impractical."

Ervin bursts out laughing. I've never seen him like this before. I don't even think what I said is funny but I smile along. It's nice to see him break out of that aloof front he puts up. Finally he calms down and begins to explain the problem, but I can't stop staring at him. His face is so close to mine. Ah what am I thinking, I need to focus! Suddenly he turns his head towards me.

I stumble back and almost fall out of my chair. HE WAS SO CLOSE, HE COULD HAVE KISSED ME. My heart is beating so fast from embarrassment.

"You're such a klutz," Ervin smirks without even looking the slightest bit flustered, "you should stop trying to balance your chair like that or you'll get hurt."

What a baka (idiot)! It's your fault I almost injured myself. You almost stole my first kiss too...

Just then, Max and Jacob walk through the door.

"Oyyy, princess, don't tell me the nerd already snatched you away from me." Jacob says as he walks over to the table.

"NO IT'S NOTHING LIKE THAT." I protest, "A-and I'm not yours to begin with."

Jacob tries to pick up my iced tea and drink it but I stop him, "My tea!" I hiss and slide it closer to me. "Drink from Ervin's!"

"Awww c'mon, I want yours. It'll be an indirect kiss... unless you want a real one."

Without a second thought, I sock him in the stomach. I've had more than enough almost-kissing experiences for one day. He falls flat on the ground and rolls away. Ervin gets out of his seat and follows Jacob, leaving with a, "Better get back to work."

"Then what were you guys doing?" Max asks curiously, taking Ervin's seat.

"Just studying for exams. Ervin was helping me with pre-calculus."

"Oh really?? I just had that exam today and got my results already!" He says with a childish smile.

"How'd you do?"

Max reaches into his backpack and pulls out his exam paper.

"C-!" he says proudly. I squint at him nervously, C- is barely passing but I don't want to say anything especially since he looks so triumphant. I take a sip of my tea and pick up his exam paper. I nearly spit my tea out when I see his answers. At least a quarter of the questions are answered with drawings of dinosaurs. What the-

"N-nice!" I stutter, trying to sound genuine.

"I know right! Hey, I got the Godzilla movie tickets today! You want to go with me on Sunday?"

"Hmm..yeah, Sunday is good for me."

"Great. it's a date then!" Max says playfully.

I don't know if I'd consider it a date but I'm definitely excited. At least I'll be done with exams and winter break will be here. I smile and take another sip of my iced tea.

"Woah, this tastes really good."