Can I be your favorite?

Chapter 7: Fun Distractions

Anika's POV

It's been a week since I've seen Ricardo. One week since I touched or been in the same room as him. We text daily but it isn't enough. We haven't been on a date, nor does he stop by the café anymore.

I miss him.

More than I would like to admit. It shouldn't feel this awful. Furthermore, the way we left things has my anxiety reaching critical levels. I try to remind myself that Ricardo just needs time, sort himself before he speaks up. I can understand that I need to be alone when something frustrates or annoys me to help clear my mind. Yet I cannot shake the feeling that something has been off. The more I think about it I begin to realize something has been off for quite some time now. While it hasn't been obvious before, it is becoming increasingly noticeable.

For example, when we went on dates, we always went to places that were at least an hour away from campus. Or when he comes to the café, he's always wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses or a hoodie that partially hides his face. Plus, at the party last week, he seemed like an entirely new person.

I take a deep breath. It's probably nothing. Ricardo has always been a private person. He doesn't even have an Instagram account. As far as I know, he doesn't have any friends either, if he does, I have yet to meet them. So, it's probably my imagination running wild. It's happened before, I would cook up some dramatic story which would only lead to my embarrassment. So, I push my crazy thoughts out of mind and focus on the path in front of me.

Upon entering the gates of Wesley, you will first stumble upon the main building where the classes for architecture that Wesley was renowned for take place. Along with the main office on the ground floor. The building was painted an off-white color with accents of red to define the pillars that held up the structure. A total of five floors for the main building with state-of-the-art educational equipment. The other courses Wesley offered had buildings at the back, which were impressive themselves, but nothing compared to the architecture facility.

Wesley's campus was huge. There were frat and sorority houses within the compound, fifty meters southwest to the main building. Café Wesley, popular among students and staff alike, was situated next to the architecture building. It resided beside the red walk pathway, which is frequently used by local residents near the area, to attract the foot traffic from off campus as well. The property was arranged in such a way that there was a hundred-meter-wide circular patch of grass at the center of the school, with buildings surrounding it. Trees were scattered about the courtyard that gave students refuge from the harsh sunlight.

The infirmary was located on the bottom two floors of the medicine department, which could be found at the very back of the property, where students didn't venture out much, since the staff quarters were right next door. Thus, it's very quiet on that side of campus.

The dorms are situated at east wing of campus, next to the sorority and frat houses. The dorms were not part of the 'inner circle' as we like to call the part of campus where classes are held. We were much further away, the buildings were arranged in an arc formation, the girls on the right and boys to the left.

Our school canteen was on the opposite side of campus from the dorms as a cruel form of torture. Since classes start late for me, I have time to run from my dorms to the canteen and back to class. However, that isn't the case for others, like the students studying finance. They skip breakfast altogether since the commute is too long. They opt to have a coffee and an energy bar. Sounds insane to me. Skip breakfast? The best meal of the day. No way in hell.

I make my way to the canteen, admiring the noisy campus. Usually, I would take the long way across the campus, using the walkway. However today I woke up extremely hungry, so I decided to take a short cut and cross the grassy field, risking running my white converse shoes.