Myocardium

Part 21

Despite my nightly excursion with Rafael, I wake up feeling less tired than anticipated. The bit of sleepiness I do feel is certainly noticeable, but the amazing conversation we had does more than enough to make up for it. 

Rafael is a wise young man, and in the short time I've been seeing him, he has already given me better advice than most people in my life. Plus, waking up to a message from him reading "Hey, it was really nice talking to you", makes me feel even more energetic to begin with, which is a nice bonus our meet-up brought with it. 

After stretching out my limbs and rubbing my eyes, I type "Glad to know you feel the same :)" and make my way to wake up my siblings one by one. This single message from him actually gives me the motivation to put a bit more love and effort into our breakfast today. It's these simple acts of seeing that someone gives a shit about me that make my days a bit easier.

On campus, I know how to hide myself behind the fabric of my grey sweater. I am not too fond of my Wednesdays' schedule, as I have lab studies on that day, which often comes along with group assignments. 

Despite it being my last lecture of the day, I'm not too keen on having to socialize with the people in that course of mine, especially since I know some of them are the social butterflies that count as some of Ben's quote-unquote friends. 

Now that he's been trying to eradicate the distance I've kept up for years between us, I'll have to try even harder to stay away from him in any way possible. Even thinking about it has shivers creeping up and down my spine profusely, but I know better than to say that he's not a dangerous man. Sure, most of the time, he's bluffing, but when he gets serious about something, I know that he's capable of doing terrible things. 

Back when this thing with his brother came to his attention, Ben showed me more than clearly what a gruesome monster he can be.

With the way my schedule changed ever since Rafael has been holding his discussion sessions, I am forced to adjust the way I used to do things. Regardless of his insights being interesting for us to listen to, I must admit that I'd much rather be spending the spare time I used to have before lab to study for one of my upcoming tests. Somehow, it is much easier for me to work on assignments and keep my mind focused on studying on campus. So, naturally, I prefer spending every minute efficiently. 

Once again, in the process of listening to Rafael talk about various currently relevant topics, I am reminded of how smart he is. It's not that I ever had any doubt in it, but the approaches he takes on answering the question he is faced with has something both logical and relatable to it. 

It almost makes me dread the end of his lecture, especially since my lab class is all the way across campus and walking so far to reach my next class can be such a tedious process. The area where this specific lab room is is often referred to as the 'abandoned hallway' by other students, since it's part of the oldest building on our campus, and the heating is non-existent due to the terrible isolation of the exterior walls. Especially in winter, students don't usually care to linger in this building for any longer than necessary, hence the nickname. 

Thankfully, the management seems to be aware of the issue, since nowadays, the only relevant rooms in that building are the exam rooms and one or two labs that are used more frequently. From what I've heard, they made some changes to the arrangement of the classrooms was made during the big renovation of the entire campus that happened a couple of years ago. Although that's just hearsay, it was before the time I first became a student here. 

What is almost certain is that we won't run into many other students in that section of the hallway on our way there.

With some other people who also attend Rafael's session forming an almost coherent group, we proceed to the biology laboratory, where we are already welcomed by our pretty chill bio-lab teacher.