American Sweethearts

13

"Engineering sucks," Lena complains, slamming her textbook shut. "It doesn't make any sense."

"You're only a week in," I laugh.

"I know but they've given us all these new terms to learn and it doesn't make any sense."

"Is it interesting?"

"Very. I'm already learning about buildings and bridges and all the cool things I love."

"Then stick to it. You can do it. It'll make more sense as the semester goes on."

"I want to drop out."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"Lena..."

"Sarah..."

"just give it a few more weeks."

"Easy for you to say," she scoffs. "You don't have any assignments due yet."

"But I will soon. My intro to bio class is starting in the lab next week."

"You get to work in a lab?"

"Yeah, I even had to buy a lab coat."

"That's so interesting. I'm just stuck behind my laptop all day."

"What about your other classes?" I ask. "You love your statistics classes, right?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't major in that. I wanna do engineering."

"Then you're just gonna have to pull through. It sucks, but maybe it'll get better."

"I hope so."

"Just give it time."

She huffs, resting her head in her hands. She's still tired from yesterday. I managed to catch up on my sleep, but her major is a lot more intense than mine. Especially right now, I'm mostly taking introductory classes, while hers jump right into the nitty-gritty.

"How about I make you a drink?" I offer.

"Yes, please! Something alcoholic."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Definitely."

"Lena," I hesitate. "I don't think I should do that."

"Oh, shush, I'm not an alcoholic."

"But we're still underage."

"Don't worry about it," she shrugs. "I've got this."

"Fine."

I hop off my stool, heading over to the fridge. The whole bottom level is jammed full of different kinds of alcohol. It takes up an entire shelf of the pantry, too. In this apartment, alcohol gets consumed more than water and food combined.

I hand Lena a can of beer. I don't mind her drinking, I just worry she'll drink too much.

While I'm here, I pour myself a cup of coffee. I've been living off caffeine today. I spent all morning behind my keyboard, trying to play some more Beyoncé songs.

"Have you found a good support group yet?" Lena asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "There are a few options."

She turns my laptop screen towards her, eyeing the tabs. She reads over the information of the ones I picked out. It took a lot of googling to find them, but hopefully one of them will be helpful.

"I like the second one," she says. "It seems less focused on coping, and more on healing."

"But it's on campus, though."