Not enough (Fermín López)

Chapter 1

By the time Lorena got to the classroom, everyone seemed to be there already. Always on time on the first day but she expected to see more empty seats as the months passed. And of course, it was all boys. Studying sports science wasn't really something girls chose often. But she didn't care. It was what she had always wanted to study.

"Did you get lost, pretty girl?"

"No, I didn't".

She looked at the seats again. Only two were empty. The one next to Adrián and the one next to a guy who was looking down at his phone. Well, it was going to be a very easy decision then.

"Sorry, is this seat taken?"

Fermín lifted his head to see a girl talking to him. She was the only one there. Actually, he was surprised to see a girl in the class.

"No. You can sit here if you want to".

"Thanks".

Lorena was about to sit down when she heard his voice again.

"Come sit here with me, baby", said Adrián. "I saved this seat for you".

"Go die!"

Fermín frowned, staring at her.

"You ok?"

"Yes. But a little piece of advice. Never make plans for something like uni with your boyfriend. Because then you'll break up during the summer and will be stuck seeing his ugly face for a whole year. Or more".

"Noted", said Fermín trying not to laugh. So that was the story.

She started to take things out of her bag and Fermín noticed how unprepared he was. He didn't even bring a school bag. It was just their first day.

"Sorry about that", she said, sighing.

"About what?"

"Him...it didn't end well. And I'm dreading having to share classes with him. I'm Lorena, by the way".

"I'm Fermín. Nice to meet you. And don't worry, I get it".

"Did you have any bad breakups too?"

"No, but...I can imagine how it is".

Lorena laughed. "Ok. You look familiar, actually. Which high school did you go to?"

"I don't think that's the reason I look familiar", she frowned. "I did the pre-season with Barça. Maybe you saw me at the matches".

"Shut up".

"But...".

She picked up her phone and opened the Instagram app before passing it to him. "Show me your account".

Fermín took the phone and wrote his name in the search bar. There it was, his verified account full of photos of him as a football player. "There you go. Not making it up".

"Shut up!"

"I'm not saying anything", he whispered.

"I didn't really check the matches this summer but I follow Barça on Instagram so I guess I must have seen your face even if I didn't look closely".

"Do you like football?"

"I'm more of a basketball girl. Wait, do you know the Barça basketball players?"

"Not really...".

"A shame. But football is cool too. I like it. Good luck this season if you stay with the first team".

"Thanks".

Fermín noticed her pressing the follow button before putting her phone away and he itched to pick his phone up to see her account. He was getting a lot of followers lately and she might not have put her her name as her account name. So it wouldn't be so easy to guess which new follower was his classmate and not another random fan. Or a bot.

"I didn't bring much to class today. I thought we wouldn't be doing a lot of taking notes and such".

"We might not. But it's good to be prepared. I have another notebook if you want to use it".

"I don't want to bother you with that".

"You won't. Will you be missing a lot of classes because of matches?"

"I guess...".

"I can take notes for you and tell you about assignments".

"You're too nice. There is no need for that. I can ask the professors".

"It's not because of you being a footballer, don't worry. I just...you might have noticed I'm the only girl here".

"It's hard not to", he chuckled.

"So I know it'll be tough to make friends and I'm latching onto you because you're the first person who's been nice to me. I know it sounds a bit desperate. But I'm just being real".

"Wow, I feel so special", joked Fermín.

"Oh, shut up".

"Why do you keep telling me to shut up?", he frowned.

"Sorry. I do it a lot. Bad habit. Tell me to stop if I do it again".

"You're odd", pointed out Fermín.

"Good odd or bad odd?"

"I work with footballers who are very odd. You're...interesting odd".

"I'll take it", she shrugged.

Their first professor showed up and started to tell them a bit about how their year would be. Fermín noticed Lorena kept writing in her notebook and honestly wondered what was so important she needed to have all written down. But then he noticed she kept writing while the professor was just chatting casually and realized she was writing the same things in two pages. She ripped one from the notebook and passed it to him.

"Here. I hope you can read my handwriting".

"You really didn't have to...".

"It's ok. Can you read it?"

He looked at the piece of paper where everything the professor said was written in bullet points and with little notes added by Lorena. She was going to make him feel so dumb. "Yes, it's perfect. Thank you".

She smiled and looked down at her notebook, taking highlighters to colour-code everything.

"I don't get pretty colours on my copy?" Fermín whispered and Lorena looked down at the piece of paper in front of him. "I was joking. This is too much already. But I might take you on the offer to let me have your notes when I miss classes".

"I take great notes, which makes me a great uni friend".

And Fermín believed that. Not the note taking, but that Lorena could be a good friend. One he didn't expect to make.