Devotion

twenty five ﾒ heavy banter and bad grades

ANGELICA

I'm freaking tired to the bone. And Leilani doesn't help this sense of tiredness. Leilani writes on her iPad some Calculus 2 notes as she stuffs her mouth gracefully with pizza. And she's talking at the same time, for Christ's sake. "And, I think, you need to get laid. This grumpy attitude is starting to affect me."

I mentally and physically grip the sides of my hair in pure agony. Two hours of sleep. Two hours, hours. I'm losing my shit here. "Hey, you okay?" Leilani asks. I glance at her and stay completely mute. Her glasses are perched on her bridge and she continues to chew.

"I haven't gotten sleep in like two days," I mumble. I stare away at my laptop at the coding assignment that's due next week in front of me. "And we are sitting in the dining hall with me looking shitty and you looking like a nerd."

"But a fashionista nerd, right?" She asks. I sigh and think, Jesus Christ. "Yes, Lei, a fashionista nerd."

She smiles happily and squeals to herself before that pure happy look she always sports is suddenly put to bed the minute her dangerous-looking cousin prances in. "I just finished walking across Central Park, and it's so pretty there. Have you guys seen Luca? I heard he's in hockey practice," she asks.

Leilani and I both glance at her with confused expressions. "You heard him going to hockey? It's not a secret, you know. Everyone and their mother knows."

"I know that. I just wanted to see him and tell him how he did amazing in his last game. I wasn't going to intrude on his personal space." Leilani gives me that look and stares at her cousin. "Don't you have other hobbies or activities you should participate in? You're a senior," Leilani says.

Mia places her laptop down in front of her and slides on her headphones. "I know, I'm doing that now. Studying with you guys since you both look like academic scholars."

I grimace and disgustingly turn away from Mia. Something about her irks me more now that I'm suffering from a bad case of insomnia. My eyes divert back to the laptop of coding language. Java, Python. Math is such a weakness for me. It's so bad I can't admit how terrible I am.

"Have you ever gotten laid in your life?" Mia asks curiously, staring at me like a beyond creep. "All I've seen you do is work, work, and oh! Work." Before I could manage an answer to her question, a sweaty Luca sat next to me dressed in his college boy attire: grey sweats and an NYU hoodie. "Uh..."

"Luca!" Mia's attention shot quickly to the boy as she plastered on her largest smile and pulled a piece of hair to the back of her ear. "Hi." And with that, I'm more annoyed than I was when I walked in here.

"Hi, Mia," he drawls and scoots closer to me to close the distance that was between us. "Hey, De Santis. You look terrible, what did you get on the exam?"

Great, and now he's bringing up the Calculus 2 exam we just had. I had gotten such a shitty grade, I had to cry about it internally before coming into this stupid dining hall, eating this shitty fucking food, and talking to Mia. That bitch. "I did okay," I say, turning my head to itch my ear although it wasn't itchy. I just can't face failure."

"Mm, okay. Not to gloat or anything, but I got full marks, 100%." In my mind, there's me gaping at this confession because math is not my specialty. "And I will continue to do so, as well."

I stare at his blue freakish eyes. I hear Mia sigh to herself as she contentedly listens to Luca speak. The way she acts around him is becoming a little stalkerish. Then, I notice the rest of his appearance. He's sweaty and so close to me. "Have you ever learned personal space? Or is that out of your ability to do so?"