Imagining Us

Ch.62- Too Much

Today was not her day.

She'd woken up late for class—completely missed her alarm. Her gas gauge was knocking on empty because she had meant to fill it up. Esi would have to leave campus after her 4pm class to go to the gas station if she didn't want to be possibly stranded on the side of the road.

She was now sitting in her Information Systems class doodling at the side of her notebook, wondering why she chose this out of the box elective.

It wasn't that it was a difficult class, but her professor was just extremely repetitive, and that could wear on anyone's nerves. She tried to pay attention, and usually she did, but her mind was all over the place.

Even next to her, she could spy her classmate Vinnie playing COD on his phone as their lecturer droned on. Granted, he would probably ace this class seeing that he was a computer science major.

She looked at her watch— half an hour left.

Maybe she could do it.

Maybe she could focus long enough for the next few minutes to get Talia's words out of her mind.

She thought back to when she first went to dinner at their house with Luka. What she'd overheard Talia say about her being Porte's girlfriend. When she'd teased him about it, he had vehemently denied , but here Talia was again, asserting that it was true.

No one can be that deluded.

Someone was lying to her.

But why did it matter if Porte and Talia were together? Esi didn't like Porte in that way, right?

Maybe it was Talia's haughty attitude, the way that she spoke about him—like he belonged to her, and the way that she accused Esi of trying to steal him.

Esi did not sign up for this kind of drama, and the fact that maybe Porte was keeping something from her—as her friend—upset her more than she liked.

She sighed, not believing that she still let her mind stray there. She glanced down at her watch again.

Five minutes left.

* * *

Esi walked briskly from her class to get to her car which she had to park further away than usual.

The university was having an alumni event that week so the campus was buzzing with activities. Just to take the stairs from her class, she was met with traffic.

When she reached down to the first floor, the main entrance had too many people around it so she decided to take a shortcut through the administration building.

As she punched through the double doors, she sensed the different between that and an academic building. Compared to the others, it was a peak of efficiency and silence. Esi didn't think that they would appreciate her power walking through, so she slowed her pace. The floor had smatterings of people throughout. She saw some student volunteers talking to the alumni and guiding them through.

She had to maneuver her way around some people that were standing in the middle of the floor. Esi was near enough to the revolving doors that she could see the outsides.

She heard someone call her name.

Esi froze.

That voice.

No.

No.

No!

She took another step towards the door.