I suppose you could call me mean or a bully but people don't really take that second chance to get to know me. Take this afternoon for example, when I was retrieving that girl's cat from the beam of our dorm, Simon nudges the door open and sees me grabbing the cat by the scruff to try to get her (the cat's name was daisy) down from rafters. He just started shouting at me and I was so surprised that I dropped the cat entirely and it sprinted out the open door as fast as its four legs could carry it, with the girl chasing it, calling for the cat to come back. That is just my luck, people always judge me before they can get to know me.
Simon was now avoiding me like I was Hades or the Grim Reaper so I pulled out my laptop and let the world of MagiCath wrap around me, surrounding me like the ocean.
'Walking to class, Levi couldn't shake the feeling that he was pretending to be a college student in a coming-of-age movie. The setting was perfect - rolling green lawns, brick buildings, kids everywhere with backpacks. Levi shifted his bag uncomfortably on his back. Look at meeee - I'm a stock photo of a college student. He made it to American History ten minutes early, which still wasn't early enough to get a desk at the back of the class. Everybody in the room looked awkward and nervous, like they'd spent way too much time deciding on what to wear.
(Start as you mean to go on, Levi had thought when he laid out his clothes last night. Jeans. Plain white top. Green jacket.)
The girl sitting in the desk next to him was wearing earbuds and self-consciously bobbing her head.the girl on Levi's other side kept flipping her hair from one shoulder to the other.
Levi closed his eyes. He could feel their desks creaking. He could smell their deodorant. Just knowing they were there made him tight and cornered.
If Levi had slightly less pride, he could have taken this class with his brother - he and Dylan both needed the history credits, maybe he should be taking classes with Dylan while they still had a few in common; they weren't into any of the same subjects. Dylan wanted to study marketing - and maybe get a job in advertising like their dad.
Levi couldn't imagine having any sort of job or career. He'd majored in English, hoping he could spend the four years reading and writing. Maybe the next four years after that. '
It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders but as I finally came out of my safety blanket of MagiCath, that airy feeling in my chest disappeared to be replaced by an enormous, fat elephant stomping around in my stomach and do you want to know the reason?
