I'm yours

Part 17

The first thing Beth did when entering her apartment was turning on the heating because it was cold compared to Sebastian's place. After breakfast with Sebastian, Beth picked her stuff and thanked him for putting up with her. He replied that it was fun with her on which Beth snorted and said ‘Yeah, right.’, but Sebastian was deadly serious. She thanked him once again and left, hoping that nothing happened in her apartment whilst she was absent.
It didn’t. But it was funny how exactly that morning she didn’t have time to open the windows. ‘Lucky.’
After putting her phone to charge, she turned on the laptop and checked e-mail. New assignment to do, deadline was in two days. It required some harder work, but it should be done on time. ‘No sleeping for you tonight.’
She also got an e-mail from Deb, saying that they’ll stay in Chicago until the roads are safe for driving again. Then a huge message after ‘P.S.’ written in Caps Lock about Beth’s insolence, turning off her phone and other Deb’s exaggerations. A simple ‘sorry’ from Beth with a smiley face solved everything.
After making enough amount of coffee, Beth started working on the new project.

In the middle of her work, Beth was getting hungry and went to fry bacon, although it was 4 in the morning. Usually, she wouldn’t move a finger for her growling stomach while working, but 3 days at that man’s place picked some bad habits. 

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Even after the fourth day, Beth still didn’t return Sebastian his clothes. The main reason was that she didn’t wash it yes. The other reason was that she slept in his shirt.  Crazy mofo. She knew that it wasn’t quite right thing to do, but she felt comfortable in it and it helped her fall asleep faster. ‘Saturday.’ She gave herself mental deadline. Till then, she’ll sleep in it. ‘You’re a freak.’

While standing in front of her opened school locker, Beth was taking books for her next classes when someone put a hat on her head. “Surprise!” she then heard Deb shouting into her ear. “Deb!” Beth turned to her with a smile and hugged her. “Do you like it?” Deb asked, grinning from ear to ear. Beth took the hat from her head and looked at it. It was a black-red flat-brimmed hat with a ‘Chicago Bulls’ name and their sign on it. “This would be a bad time to tell you I was joking, right?” Deb’s grin disappeared in a moment and was replaced with a shocked one. “Oh, relax, I’m messing with you.”, “You better be. I had to fight for that one because others were either white or red.”, “Thank you Debbie, I love it.” Beth put it back on her head and Deb suspiciously raised her brow. “Okay, what happened to you over the week? You’re smiling, hugging me and calling me ‘Debbie’. You’re super suspicious.” Beth snorted and closed her locker. “Nothing happened, I just had a nice, quality sleep, that’s all.”, “Mhm…”, “Come on, let’s go.” Beth said and pulled Deb’s hand after it rang for class.

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“Beth?”, “Yeah?” Beth turned to Brian in math class. It was probably the only class where he sat behind her. “Did we have homework?”, “You’re asking me that now?”, “Well, you just got here.” Beth sighed and smiled. “No, we didn’t.”, “Okay. I didn’t know you cheered for Bulls.” He said while looking at her hat which was still on her head. “What can I say? They’re the best.” She jokingly said and took it off her head. “I know, right? Did you watch the last night-”, “Whoa, dude, chill.” Beth stopped him before he could continue his blabber. “I don’t watch sports, so it’s meaningless to tell me things, okay?”, “Okay… Oh, and Beth?” he stopped her before she could turn around. “You’re pretty when you smile.”, “Thank you.” She insecurely said and turned back in her seat. ‘What else will happen today?’
A minute later, Sebastian finally came in. When seeing him, Beth covered her mouth and tried to suppress her laughter, but failed. Luckily, no one saw her because there were several ‘big’ students sitting in front of her so she was practically invisible. And no one really paid any attention to her either. The reason she was laughing was that Sebastian wore the tie she bought him for Christmas. No one else laughed but her. She just couldn’t resist, even though it suited him well.

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“You plan on eating all of that?” Deb asked Beth when she joined her, Emily and Amy at the table. “Yeah, why? I’m hungry.” All three of them looked at her plate filled with meat, sandwiches and potatoes and then how Beth started eating. “Okay, what?” Beth asked with mouthful of food while looking at them. “Nothing, nothing… By the way, what were you laughing at in math?” Amy asked while stabbing her fries on the fork. “You saw that? Well, Brian told me a joke.”, “Really? Which one?”, “You wouldn’t get it.”, “Maybe we would.”, “Okay, so… Knock, knock. Who’s there? A long pause… Java.” Beth remembered the joke she heard before and started laughing, whilst girls fake-laughed. ‘Nice one, Beth.’ She complimented her upgraded skills of getting out of irrelevant discussions.
After she ate before everyone else and had a little chit-chat with girls, Beth went back to her locker to replace books. Most of the students were in the cafeteria, so the halls were pretty much empty and lifeless. “Betty? Hey! Betty!” Beth suddenly heard someone calling for her by a nickname she hated the most and only one person in her entire life called her like that. ‘Why now? Out of all times?’