The Thing about Falling ✓

Eighteen • The Thing about the Long Haul

Athena

"I'm telling you, as each passing day goes by, Owen seems to be clinging more to Maya than to us."

Three days before midterms.

Three days.

It was about this time of the semester where every college student, no matter what major, are high up on coffee and are currently laying low on party nights and drinking at the pub. It was also the time where every single coffee shop is full of caffeine-addicted students who almost never leaves their seats once they're settled in one spot. Seriously, it might as well be called an infestation of college kids.

Currently, Fitz and I were in the common room where we had brought our own books, notes and laptops to study for our own exams. I was seated in one of those old, lumpy chairs that was a little itchy on the skin but overall, it was decent. Fitz on the other hand, was seated on the sofa which he blatantly hogged for himself. He smartly placed all his things on the large space where a person could no longer sit and he even had the benefit of propping his legs up on the sofa.

Lucky duck.

"It's unavoidable. They have the same majors, take almost the same classes and live in the same dorm. Of course they spend time together." I retorted.

As much as this reality worries me to death, I have to accept it. It's Owen's choice of career path and it's his future that depends on whatever he does in his four years of undergrad. I won't meddle far enough into his bounds and manipulate him for personal reasons. If he wants it, he can think of ways to get it. He's that kind of person.

"I know. That's what makes this all so fishy." Fitz defended.

I scoffed and diverted my gaze away from my notebooks and toward a reclining Fitz who had his feet up on the sofa. God, if Charlie or any of the senior advisers see this, he's dead meat.

"Fine. Explain why this all seems weird." I said, raising my chin up a bit.

I have full faith that Owen is just really friendly with Maya. Well, it's not that I find it weird how he didn't shoo her away the same way he did when I was friendly with him back then, but that was all in the past. Owen's been trying to be a little bit more open to people nowadays and if ever he diverts back to his old, grumpy, sulky self, I might as well hit him with a bat and call it a day.

"Athena, it's not just weird. It sounds entirely wrong. In high school, Maya seemed like a person for the arts and here she is pursuing some science?" Fitz questioned, putting down his book over his chest as he stared in confusion toward the ceiling.

"Maybe she got this late revelation thing going on, I don't know." I said, shrugging.

"And the classes. The CLASSES. How can two people choose almost the exact same classes for the semester? I mean, we've got this big list of classes to take and she chose almost the same one's as Owen's!" Fitz said, widening his deep, brown eyes, sitting up. I swear, it was as if he drastically turned into some crazy person sitting by motels.

I calmed my senses by breathing in and out. I will not let Fitz's weird theories get into my head; not when it's midterms. I let out a sigh and slumped back into the lumpy chair I was sitting on and raised my legs up on the rectangular coffee table set in front of Fitz and I.

"So? They do have the same major." I said nonchalantly.

I didn't want to sound the least bit worried. Maya is nice. Owen is nice. Two nice people with weirdly almost identical schedules would certainly not have any unusual relations, right?