Memories

1

Andy didn't particularly like hanging out with Mikey and Lara. He loved Mikey more than anything, they had been best friends since kindergarten, but Mikey wasn't Mikey when Lara was around. He didn't blame his best friend, neither did he blame Lara, but he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed whenever they completely lost interest in him again. Like he just vanished, like he didn't exist.

He was happy for Mikey, most people never found their soulmate, unable to make any sense out of the memories they shared. He was happy for both Mikey and Lara for finding the person they were meant to be with, but couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Jealous, because Mikey had started to spend less and less time with him. Jealous, because Andy had no clue who his soulmate was and would probably never get to experience the strong bond between soulmates.

Andy started shaking his head in an attempt to stop himself from thinking about his soulmate. Plenty of people never found their soulmate, that didn't mean he was never going to experience love. His parents weren't soulmates and okay, fair enough, their marriage had ended years ago, but they had experienced love for at least some time.

'You okay, mate?'  Mikey gave him a worried look, the first look he had given Andy in over ten minutes. He had been too busy tongue fighting with Lara. Andy just nodded and got up, quickly putting all of his stuff back in his backpack. He knew studying with the both of them would be a bad idea.

'I'm fine, just tired. I'm gonna go study at the library, I really have to pass this test.'  Mikey just nodded and focused on Lara again. He just rolled his eyes at the two and left the house. At least he wouldn't have to watch happy couples in the library. At least there he would only be confronted with the despair and pain every student had to deal with now that exams were coming up. 

Andy could smell the stress the second he walked into the building. Thankfully, he had started studying weeks ago. He figured he wouldn't make the same mistake he had made dozens of time by now and started early for once. It seemed to pay off, but his grades would have to prove if his new method worked. 

Finding a seat was a lot harder now that everyone suddenly acknowledged the existence of the library. After walking around for about ten minutes, he finally found a little table all to himself. He got his stuff out of his back and sighed before opening his first book. Andy found himself losing himself in the words, marking every little thing he thought to be useful, making his book look more like a color book. He scrabbled little notes in his notebook, making sure he didn't forget about the questions he had to look up later.

Andy had been studying for about 40 minutes when he got interrupted. Someone sat down next to him, his music so loud Andy wondered if the person next to him was deaf. He glanced at the boy next to him, already preparing himself to speak up. Andy didn't like talking to strangers, especially when they annoyed him. The boy next to him didn't even look at him, though, making it a lot harder for Andy to speak up.

At first, he tried to ignore the music coming from his headphone. He really tried to block out the sound, but after reading the same paragraph for the fourth time, he decided he had had enough. 

'Could you please turn the volume down?'  No reaction.

'Hello?'  No reaction. Andy sighed, reminding himself the boy probably just couldn't hear him and wasn't ignoring him. He was definitely getting annoyed by now and waved to get the boys'  attention. The boy looked up at him and put his headphone around his neck, the music still playing.

'Could you please turn the volume down? I have a really hard time concentrating,'  Andy tried again. 

'I need it to focus.'  Was all the boy said before putting on his headphone again and leaving Andy even more annoyed than before. He just started waving again, making the boy look up again, this time with an annoyed look in his face himself.

'I need it to be quiet to focus.'

'Then go sit somewhere else.'  Andy's eyes widened, anger now slowly building up. He sat here first, who was this guy to tell him to go sit somewhere else. He was about to start waving a third time, but stopped himself, knowing now was not the time to get into a fight. He was not going to fail his exams because of some jerk. Andy shoved all of his stuff in his backpack and got up. 

'Jerk,'  Andy muttered under his breath before walking away.

'I heard that.' 

'Do I look like I care?' Andy called before walking around the corner, leaving jerk and his awful music behind.