The Caged Bird Must Sing

Chapter 5

"Maybe you should ask him out. You know, switch the gender roles around." Nami suggested, walking besides Summer as they both headed towards the union building. The orange-haired beauty carried her accounting textbooks in one arm and her purse on the opposite shoulder, mimicking the posture of the blonde, who had two of her photography books in her left and her bag on her right.

"You know me. I'm not brave enough for that." Summer admitted, blushing a little at the mere thought of asking Law out herself. In her mind she could see how much of an epic fail that could potentially be, Law scoffing at her, or saying that he just wanted to stay friends. Or, if things really were awful, he'd simply tell her no and to never come back to the bar because the whole thing was just too embarrassing. Nothing had even happened and she could already feel her cheeks heating up...

"Hey, you there?" Nami snapped her fingers in front of the blonde's face a couple times, snapping her out of her dazed stance.

"Huh, what?" She questioned, blinking several times to focus her eyes. Sighing and rolling her eyes, Nami lead them both up the stairs, passing dozens of other students as they walked the campus.

"I said you need to start taking things into your own hands, like your love life and important things like that."

"Right. Yeah." Summer nodded, feelings of dread and anxiety already beginning to rise once more. There were so many things that were about to come into play, what with her graduating soon, she wasn't sure how she was going to handle it all.

"The least you could do is sound like you believe me." Nami prodded.

"Sorry, Nami. I'm just too distracted today. Maybe some food will help me relax a little." Summer replied, giving an apologetic smile.

They both reached the set of doors to the building and walked inside. The interior of the building was brightly lit and a lot cooler than the warm spring temperatures outside. Lining the edges of the grand entranceway were numerous tables and plush seats, each one occupied by a student with a mountain of textbooks or laptops. Two sets of stairs, one on each side of the room, led to the second floor where a lounge with more chairs and sofas were.

Venturing further inside, they found the courtyard packed with people. The lines were long as usual. The lunch rush had just begun, which also meant the casual drone of voices trying to be heard over one another was present. As far as food went, there were several stations to choose from, anywhere from chinese to pizza, mexican to italian. At the end of the room was a small convenience store style station. The two females headed there.

"Let me guess: oranges and a diet coke as usual." Summer guessed, grinned as Nami reached for said drink out of the refrigerator. Looking back, the orange-haired woman grinned as she closed the see-through door.

"You know me so well." The two chuckled. Grabbing her container of pre-sliced oranges, Nami poked Summer in the arm. "Now my turn. You'll get a candy bar and a gatorade."

"Hmm...gotta be specific. Which candy bar?" The blonde asked, pausing in front of the candy aisle to wait for her friend's answer. Humming softly with a hand under her chin, Nami grinned and pointed to one in particular.

"Three Musketeers."

"On the mark." Summer laughed, grabbing the silver-wrapped confection from the shelf and a blue drink from the fridge. Carrying their items on top of their textbooks, they headed towards the counter where the cashier stood waiting.

He grabbed Nami's items and rang them up, punching in numbers on the register. "That's $3.41."

Digging in her pocket for her student I.D., Nami handed it over and the cashier, who's name badge read Mark, ran it through the machine. It beeped and he gave back her card.