how to catch feelings

38

That was one less thing to deal with, at least until he responded.

I closed the tab with my email and minimized Google Chrome.

I checked Candy Crush again, but my lives were still in the tedious process of regenerating. God, I lived for the times I won hours of unlimited lives.

Really the only other thing I could do on my laptop was play solitaire, but I didn't feel like playing that for twenty-six minutes until I had one Candy Crush life to waste.

Well, okay, I could've done homework, but I wasn't one to do homework on a Thursday. Unlike my roommates, who preferred get their homework done early in the weekend, I usually opted to wait until the last minute.

So I turned off my laptop and set it aside.

"Not gonna play Candy Crush?" Damaris asked.

They knew me too well.

"Out of lives."

"Aw. That's too bad."

"Shut up."

"Love ya."

"Hate ya."

She just laughed and went back to her studying.

Nothing was more boring than when they were studying.

I went on Tik Tok on my phone, hoping to keep myself quiet and entertained until they called it quits on the studying for the night.

The little icon for messages popped up at the bottom of the screen.

I clicked on it, then went to my DMs.

Cole had sent a video.

Without even opening the chat, I swiped out of the app.

Maybe I'd go get my headphones and watch The Office on Netflix.

Ugh. I didn't want to sit still and be quiet.

I wanted to scream and jump up and down on the couch.

"I'm gonna go to the gym," I said, standing up.

Both girls looked at me in surprise.

Okay, so maybe I only went to the gym like twice a year. It was a long walk. A whole ten minutes. When it's cold and windy, that's a very long walk.

Stupid Michigan.

Nevertheless, I went upstairs to change into something more suitable for the gym.

That's to say I put socks on and exchanged my bra for a sports bra. Any other athleisure fans out there?

I grabbed my lanyard, my earbuds, and a jacket and then went back downstairs to put on my shoes and refill my water bottle. Gotta stay hydrated, y'all.

"Have fun," Meg said.

I stuck my tongue out at her. Like anyone could have fun at the gym.

***

As was to be expected of a small campus of about seven thousand students, I ran into a few familiar faces as I made my way through the sprawling building to the upstairs track.

I gave a tight smile of acknowledgement, all I could manage when walking at my usual fast clip.

I abandoned my jacket and water bottle on a windowsill and got my phone all set up for music.

Time to run.

Just kidding.

Your girl here doesn't run on the track.