The Scholar of Time

Chapter 4

The door to our apartment slams shut as Morgan and Cece return from a football game. Their chatter instantly fills the entire apartment, ending the peaceful three hours of silence that I was enjoying while attempting to finish my psychology essay.

"Hey hun," Cece says with her southern drawl as she pokes her head into my room with her eyes and teeth shining. She's dressed head to toe in maroon, our school's colors. Her curly brown hair frames her face, highlighting the freckles against her tanned skin."How's your paper going?"

"I wrote a single paragraph," I say flatly with a shrug. It's one paragraph more than what I had yesterday (I had nothing written yesterday).

"See I told you that you weren't going to get anything done!" She says flopping dramatically on my bed, her brown curls spilling onto the mattress behind her. She lifts her head enough for me to see her bright maroon lips frowning with matching sad puppy dog eyes."You should've come to the game with us Sunny!"

I try not to roll my eyes at the nickname she started calling me three years ago despite telling her, many times, that I despised the nickname. It's pointless to tell her though because anything negative is unable to penetrate the curly hair shield around her ears.

"I told you already I think football is stupid. It's just a bunch of men fighting over a ball."

Cece gaps as if I've just personally insulted her. "How can you stay such a thing? How can you call yourself an American if you don't like football?!"

I roll my eyes at her theatrics. Cece is from Texas so football has been engrained into her existence. Since kindergarten, the Texas education system taught her three "very" important things; how to square dance, say the Texas pledge from memory, and Football. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if she went to college for the discounted football tickets and partying rather than getting a degree.

"Do you hear this crazy talk, Morgan?" She yells to Morgan, who's joined us during this incredible pointless argument that we seem to have every time there's a home game. She leans against the doorway with a maroon Jersey on and a pair of jeans. Her black hair is tied back into a high ponytail with some glitter sprinkled in. Pretty sure that was Cece's idea. Morgan glances back and forth between us and I see the edges of her mouth twitching as if she's trying to hide a laugh. Well, I'm glad one of us is enjoying this.

"Well today's game was pretty boring and we did lose," Morgan says coming to my defense. She turns towards Cece. "It's okay not to like football. Not everyone is as obsessed with it as you are Cece."

"But she's never been to a game before!" Cece whines as she stands up from my bed. "How does she even know she doesn't like football if she won't go to a game? You can't say you don't like something before you've tried it." At that last remark, her eyes wander over to my pride flags on the wall; The progress and asexual flags. I grit my teeth slightly, feeling as if this conversation has suddenly shifted from something other than football. Morgan sees this as well and her smile quickly disappears.

"Are you still going to eat dinner with us tonight?" She says, redirecting the conversation away from me. I make a mental note to thank her later.

"Yeah, we're making pasta right?"

"Yep, it's going to be carb heaven!" Cece interjects, leaving my room. Morgan watches Cece leave but turns back towards me.

"We're gonna start cooking at 6:30 if that's ok?" She asks. I nod. Morgan smiles gently but I can tell she is offering me support regarding Cece's comment. "Don't worry about what Cece says, she just doesn't filter her thoughts."

I purse my lips as she leaves my room. I have an inclining that Cece does filter her thoughts.

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