An Aftermath Of Many Years (CrankGameplays)

16

7th December 2016

I sighed. The seventh sigh of the day. My body just seemed to be dragging itself around this morning and I knew it was because of the all-nighters I'd been pulling this week. I didn't need to. In the back of my mind, I knew everything that'd be covered in the test, but the rest of my mind knew none of that. I was too busy dealing with headaches and everything else overloading around me.

"By the looks of some of you." Josh just couldn't stand still while he talked. Sometimes he made it hard for me to focus. "You're freaking out about Friday. Now I can assure you that there's no reason for you to be freaking out."

My head was on the desk. I was practically pulling a Millie and sleeping in class. My mind went to my friend. She was probably actually freaking out. Pulling all-nighter because she knows nothing of the covered coursework. I sighed and rolled my head in her direction. She was awake, looking at the professor who was walking and talking. I had apparently zoned out and was too not bothered to zone back in. My sad exhaustion was caused by the pills, everyone knew that. It just wasn't an excuse in my eyes to be the way I was. If it wasn't in the real world, why should it be now?

"Now. As for homework. Now I know its Christmas and you're going to want to spend time with your family, but I've sent out an email on what I want to be done." I could hear his feet, step by step walking around. "That includes you miss Fischbach. Don't think that I can't see you back there, hidden behind your laptop."

I sighed and pulled my head up. A couple of kids eyes were on me, but with the way I had been over the past month, no one was surprised to hear my name again.

"Miss Fischbach, use earphones if you're going to watch videos in class. Your headphones are obnoxiously large."

"Miss Fischbach. Do you have an inside voice?"

"Miss Fischbach. Your phone, please."

I got my phone taken quite often now and you could blame Ethan nine out of ten times. He just didn't get the concept of me being in college. I think he expected me to be in my apartment, curled up in the purple duvet with some weird vegan drink he's never heard of, editing a video or watching a film. OR. If he was stupid enough, imagined me meditating on the living room floor. The assumption of that came from Jenny, who while he didn't know her, knew of her in the form of 'vegan roommate'. None of that group had met my friends from college. Not even Mark and Tyler, who had both been to my apartment when they helped me move in. I didn't think I needed help when I had practically no possessions. I still don't. I see no need to clutter things up with items. Besides, Jenny does enough of that. Our place didn't need a bookshelf for different ceramic cats, but we had one. It was rather creepy.

I put my head back on the desk. My attention was one thing that people usually got from me, even if it didn't seem like it. I was often listening, or eavesdropping as most would call it, by having my head down, headphones on and pretending to be on social media or playing a game. Ethan had decided that this was his least favourite quality of mine. He could've chosen anything to be that, but my eavesdropping was what he chose. I was surprised that it wasn't my constant bad mood or my distaste for fatty and grease filled foods. Fast food, mainly.

"I expect you'll most likely put off doing your homework until the night before, and that's fine. If you do so, please don't make it look like you did." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, not that it mattered when the only use for the homework was to make sure we did something with our lives. "Trust me, I can tell."

Jenny was outside again, holding a cardboard drink holder for the three of us walking out. Aaron gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and we took off to head outside. The thing was, that even though it was California and it didn't get ridiculously cool, there seemed to be this winter breeze blowing around outside. Millie noticed it and practically pulled Aaron's jacket off him. He was already wearing it, but with a little force, he no longer was. Millie put it on, despite it being way too big for her.

"Gee, asshole. I was wearing that," he laughed, pushing the brunette into me.

"I thought I texted you to bring a jacket," I mumbled, sipping the coffee off the lid and my hand where it had splashed up. "Do you check the forecast in the mornings?"

"Do you?"

"Yeah." She was apparently the only person in our group who didn't. "How did you get to class this morning? It was cooler then."

"I ran."

I sighed and we got into Jenny's car. She was the only one with a car. I had failed my driving test every time, and I didn't think the others had even thought about it. My learner's plates were on the floor of the front seat with at least a few of Aaron's muddy footprints on them. It wasn't like I was really using them anyway.

Millie had a job. We all had jobs. But Millie had a job and this was the first time we were hearing about it. She wasn't the type of person to talk about her life with anyone. Even us. She had supposedly had this job for about a year now. A part-time job at a noodle bar in downtown LA. She was a dish hand. I wanted to laugh, but honestly, it wasn't that bad of a job. She said she enjoyed it, so what was the point in any reaction other than to be proud of her.

Jenny worked at a bookstore. She knew the in's and out's of every shelf and row and could point out any book from halfway across the store. And Aaron sorted out PO boxes. Putting each one into the correct box, all that shit. He seemed to like it because it didn't take that much brain power and he could do other things at the same time.

And I edited videos for my brother. What a world we lived in.