My Saving Grace

Chapter 3

I spent the next two days studying for my physics midterm and getting additional help from both my professor and TA. The last midterm we'd had a couple of weeks ago, I'd totally bombed, so it was crucial that I did better on this one.

"You look like you could use a break from all of this studying," Alexa remarked when she saw me at one of the tables in the library.

I closed my laptop and gave her a tired smile.

"My brain feels like it's going to burst. God, why does physics have to be so hard?", I groaned, dropping my head on the table as I rubbed my temples.

"At least this is your final semester of it," she pointed out.

"Thank the lord."

She smiled reassuringly at me then began putting my things into my backpack for me. Meanwhile, my stomach started growling loudly, and I realized that I hadn't eaten a single thing since breakfast. One look out the window told me that it had to be six already at least.

"Let's get some food into that tummy of yours," Alexa said.

"Ok. Where should we go?"

"You up for some Chinese?"

"Cream cheese wontons sound amazing right now, actually."

"Chinese it is then." She beamed.

The two of us left the library then took the campus connector over to a Chinese restaurant in Dinkytown. Unfortunately, when we got there, the place was packed. People were standing by the door, waiting for a spot to sit.

"Excuse me, how long is the wait?", Alexa asked the host. He glanced at his tablet.

"About forty minutes."

"That long? For a table for two?"

"Yes. There's others waiting for a table for two, too, you know," he stated pointedly.

"Can you please give us the first available table? My friend here hasn't eaten since this morning, and she's craving cream cheese wontons, and she has a midterm tomorrow morning," Alexa said, her voice raised. I immediately tugged on her sleeve.

"Um, we can just go somewhere else," I muttered.

"My wife and I were the first ones here. They can have our table when it's available," a man offered.

We both turned around to face him.

"Are you sure?", I asked.

"Yeah, of course. I was a college student here, too, years ago. Chinese was always my go-to food." He grinned.

"You girls go right ahead. We're not too hungry right now," his wife added with a friendly smile.

We both thanked the couple.

"No worries. Good luck on your midterm," the man said.

Within five minutes, Alexa and I were seated at a table.

"Gosh, the people here are so sweet," I remarked.

"Well, it is 'Minnesota nice' for a reason." She smiled.

After a huge dinner that consisted of fried rice, shrimp, vegetable stir-fry, and of course, cream cheese wontons, we walked back to our residence hall. A sinking feeling developed in my chest when we passed by Chase's building as I thought of everything he'd told me two days ago.

"You OK there, Soph?", Alexa asked.

"Just worried about the physics midterm." It wasn't really a lie, but I didn't want to tell her about Chase quite yet.