The Scars of Anatomy

5. Finch

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I fling my arm backwards, blindly and aggressively smacking around for my phone on top of the nightstand to turn off the damn alarm. After much effort, the shrieking of the alarm finally stops and I shove my face back into my pillow, ready to fall back asleep due to my raging hangover from the party last night.

Not even a minute later, the door opens and I hear Chase whistle a tune as he walks into our dorm room. "Bro, get your lazy ass up," he says.

I groan in response, and shortly after something damp and hefty lands on my face, causing me to shoot up out of bed. "What the fuck?"

Chase laughs from the other side of the room, and I rapidly blink the sleep out of my eyes to see his bath towel that he must have thrown at me on my bed near my pillow.

"Come on, dickhead, we have biology in less than thirty minutes. You already missed Monday and Wednesday," he reminds me.

"Fuck off," I grumble, grabbing his towel and throwing it at him. It hits him straight in the side of his damp blond head as he bends down to pull on his jeans.

"Whatever, just don't expect to copy my notes when you miss class," he taunts.

"You don't even take notes," I call him out on his bluff.

"True, but at least I listen, which gives me a leg up compared to you. Do you really want to fail a class senior year?"

I wait a moment, letting out a heavy sigh after. "Fuck you," I mumble, grabbing my own towel and shower caddy, walking like a zombie to the showers.

"Dude, wake up," Chase whispers, elbowing me in the side of the ribs.

I jerk awake, ready to sock him in his pretty, boyish face when I realize we're in the middle of our biology lecture. It takes me a second to grip my bearings, realizing I must have dozed off while the professor drones on and on about different species of birds.

"And the next species we're going to discuss," our professor informs, switching to the next slide of the PowerPoint, "is the finch." 

The professor launches into a lecture about how Darwin proposed his theory of evolution by observing finches on Galapagos Islands, going into great detail about how they differ in beaks, body size, and behavior.

"Finches are very quiet little birds," the professor continues. "But even though their chirps are soft and sweet—making them a great house pet—they are actually very social in their own little groups. Now, this poses a problem. Like I said, they make good house pets, but you really have to have more than one in your home in order for them to be mentally and emotionally stable. Finches need companions in order to thrive. They're not like a dog or a cat, forming special bonds with their owners, they much more prefer the company of other finches over human companionship. Out in the wild, actually, they live in fairly large groups and rarely migrate."

My mind immediately drifts to Olivia, her soft voice and tiny frame, and how she's never strayed from home. I feel a smile touch my lips, thinking about her sweet smile and melodic laugh.

"Dude," Chase whispers, nudging me and giving me a what the fuck look. I probably look like a loon sitting in the middle of biology grinning as the teacher spews out random facts about birds.

I shake my head, sitting up a little straighter in my seat to try to get through the rest of this lecture without falling asleep again.

"You're going to need that," Chase snickers as I grab a coffee from the dining hall, setting it and a bottle of water on my tray before we head to the checkout line.