Matters of the Heart

Chapter 0.2

|| Madison ||

Another school week was coming to an end at the beginning of September as my brain glazed over my pathetic weekend plans. Gym, work, do a bit of writing maybe, gym again. Yep, super exciting as you can see.

My mind was brought back to focus as my creative writing professor, professor Edmonton, brought up the topic of an assignment, causing a majority of students to groan.

"Relax," He laughed, "it's nothing too bad. It's just to see what you guys can do. It only counts for a meager amount of your grade and you can work in pairs."

Pairs? Um, no. I don't know anyone.

Checking my student inbox, I saw that the assignment brief had been emailed to us. A paper detailing what brought us to writing and why we want to go into it. Um, okay. Tell me again why this requires us to work in pairs?

"Working in pairs? That's a no from me," The girl next to me muttered.

"Preach girl," I murmured to myself but apparently it was loud enough for her to catch it.

"You don't fuck with working with people either?" She asked me.

"Considering there are very few people I know here and probably fewer that I'll actually like, sounds about right," I told her.

"Well I don't like people and you don't like people, I say this is a beautiful common ground. We should work together," She said with a cheeky grin.

The girl's sparkly grey eyes held a sort of mischief to them and her smile was welcoming enough for me to like her. "That sounds fabulous."

"Great!" She beamed. "I'm Kayli, by the way. Kayli Oliver."

"Madison Wakens. Nice to meet you," I smiled back.

"Do you wanna start on this tonight? I rate we can get a bulk of it done and be finished way before deadline," She said. "I mean, it's not a particularly taxing assignment."

"Yeah, that sounds good," I nodded. "I've got work till five thought."

"That's all good. Come over when you're ready," She said and then handed me a sticky note with her address on it.

"Perfect," I smiled before the lecture hall was brought to a silence by professor Edmonton who wanted to continue his class.

When the class had ended, Kayli and I bid goodbye to each other but not before promising to meet up again tonight.

Because it was a Friday, I only had four classes out of my usual six and my classes ended at two thirty before I quickly went to Tranquili-Tea to grab a chai latte (which of course Priscilla knew I was there for) before I drove to work.

My shift at the Bookworm went as it usually would and just after five pm I clocked out and bid goodbye to Alison and Sarah, the other girl who works alongside Alison, Dylan and myself, before heading home to my studio apartment.

When my uncle was helping me arrange my move to California, he had wanted to put me in an absurdly over the top condominium. That's when he first met my stubborn side after I had argued that I'd be happy with a one bedroom apartment close enough to his house, campus and work.

Entering my abode, I dropped my bag on the couch and then headed into my bedroom to pick out a pair of leggings and a comfortable pullover before quickly showering.

The GPS in my car showed me that Kayli's place was only a fifteen minute drive from mine and I'd messaged her just before I left to tell her I was on my way.