There's nothing worse for an introvert than a group project with strangers.
In his final year at university, creative writing student Misha Kent and his friends have a big group project. They have to work with students from three faculties for thei...
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Image: Misha
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Misha believed that raining on the first day of university was a bad omen. Looking at the dark crying sky, he sighed and put on his hood. It was going just great.
"Do you want my umbrella?" Nina asked, looking at him. Both her and Linda had their umbrellas open and they were blessedly dry. He scolded himself for forgetting his raincoat.
"Nah, I'm already wet," he said. "Where'd José go?"
"He's buying coffee. He didn't go to bed until four last night and skipped breakfast," Linda said. She was a head taller than Nina, her purple hair standing out against her dark clothes. "Serves him right for not going to bed on time."
"I still can't believe all of have an early class on Monday."
"Somebody up there must hate us," he muttered. He didn't know if there was anybody 'up there' but if there was, but if there was, they hated him with a passion. At twenty years old, he still hadn't dated once and every time he had a crush on somebody, they ended up being straight. On top of it all, it was raining on his first day of university.
Nina checked her watch. It was getting late and the bus was nowhere to be seen. Even better, they were going to be late. He was so glad that Nina had the same classes as him because if they were separated, he'd be terrified of ever setting a foot in any of his classes. There was nothing worse than seeing everybody's heads turning your way when you enter a room, especially if you did it after the teacher. He could feel his pulse speed up at the thought. Most of all, he hated being late.
"Is the bus not here?" José's words almost made him jump out of his skin. He didn't notice when their Hispanic friend joined them. His bleached hair was soaking wet and his coat drenched but he was grinning, holding a steaming mug in hand. "Oh, here it is! I'm so glad we didn't miss it."
Misha turned the way José was looking. I admire your luck, he thought as he queued with the rest of his friends to get on the bus. If it had been him, he would've missed the bus for sure and then the next one wouldn't have shown at all. This was just his kind of luck.
* * * * *
Linda kissed Nina goodbye and headed off to the graphic design building with José whose faculty building was close to hers. Misha took out his phone to check the time and reply to all of his messages on Instagram and started walking towards the Austen building which is where most of their writing classes happened.
"Oh, my God," he said. "I have twelve hundred likes on my new picture!"
He turned around, trying to show his phone to Nina and had just enough time to hear her warning before somebody collided with him and his phone flew out of his hand and into the grass.
"Sorry," he said without looking at the person he had walked into and bent to take back his phone, only for another hand to claim it. He looked up into a pair of bright green eyes, shaded by a neatly styled black hair. He was at least a head taller than Misha and a bit broader in the shoulders. Misha averted his eyes, looking at his phone in the stranger's hands.
