POV: Daniel

I walked into the lecture with my backpack limply hitting my back as I took the stairs two at a time down into the lower level of the lecture hall. I took my usual seat, my unassigned assigned spot for the semester. The hall was relatively quiet since no one came to class early except for weirdos like me. I plugged in my earphones to listen to the Nevermind album for the thousandth time while playing meaningless puzzle games on my phone.

My gut tightened when Oliver sat next to me. I didn’t say anything. We were just project partners, not even really friends. I found it to be courteous to at least take my earphones out when he came through. I threw him a good morning wave, and he returned it. But he was off.

Usually, he had energy coming out of his very pores. Talking to him was like talking pure energy, sunshine. As cheesy as that all sounded, it was true. But that day, he was blue instead of blinding yellow.

I couldn’t really focus on the lecture. I don’t think he meant to, but his energy was always so contagious. I just wanted to do something, anything. I felt that if he was left alone, he may have melted into a pile of whatever was bringing him down. My goodie-goodie side took over though, and I didn’t want to talk during the lecture.

I resorted to Plan B and pulled out my phone. I typed out the only thing I could think of.

“Are you OK?” I typed out. He responded with the most honest, if that word could even be used there, hand signal I had seen. His eyes still showed storm clouds, but his smile was a small ray fighting against the storm. I smiled back and gave him a thumbs up. I kept glancing over, just looking for a sign. A sign of whatever was dampening his light.

Sure, he said that he was fine, but looks could be deceiving.

He went off to the offices that were housed in the back of the lecture hall building. I didn’t know if it was just me, but he moved sluggishly to where Professor Acharya was waiting with his usual grin. A pit formed in my gut, but I did nothing. I was sure it was probably nothing.

I watched the door close behind him before heading out into the late morning sunshine. It was that annoying time of year where it was winter in the morning and summer afternoon.

I attempted to shake away the odd feeling in my head as I headed over to the Tutoring Center for my afternoon shift.

I took my seat in my usual corner, chin in hand as the room remained empty except for my fellow tutors. I sighed while thinking of the cloud looming over Oliver’s head. Something must have been going on, but I just couldn’t figure it out. There was far too big of a gap between us.

One of my fellow tutors, a girl in my bio class came and sat next to me. She smelled of vanilla and had a crown of curls framing her freckled face. Her name was Penny. A nice girl really, but I didn’t know her all that well.

She came with a girl that day whom she pecked on the lips before entering the tutoring space. Seeing them made my stomach twist like a pretzel.

My phone pinged. There were no students coming in any time soon so I took a look. It was Amber.

Amber: So

Amber: It went well

Me: ?????

Amber: the date?

Me: Oh? With Oliver?

Amber: Surprised you remember his name XD

Me: Gonna go out with him again?

Amber: Who knows, we’ll see ;)

That was Amber, a sea of ‘We’ll see’s’. A big pool of adventure and stories ready to happen. I’m sure her date got her usual spiel about something being complete horse shit. I swear to God that the only thing that got her second dates was that god damn smile of hers. She rarely gets past that though.

My shift consisted of nothing more than scrolling through Reddit and making sparse conversations with my coworkers. My foot tapped to an inaudible tempo. I really hated not having something to do.

I slung my backpack back on and headed out into the main part of campus where paved walkways criss-cross large lawns dotted with old trees. A sea of students coming to and fro classes and appointments went across the walkways, many glued to headphones and cell phone screens. I plugged in my own earbuds.

Kurt Cobain’s strained lyrics filled my ears as I headed for the parking garage. A mop of hair peeked out from the sea of downturned heads. It was as if I was hard-wired to spot him, like some kind of easy Where’s Waldo game.

I wanted to just go strike up a conversation with him. Just start walking beside him and talk about absolutely nothing like I did with Amber over text. My palms sweated at just the idea of going up to him.

There was a smile on his face as he walked forward with is head high. I guess the date went well. His smile made me smile, but the knot in my gut only tightened.

POV: Oliver

I opened the garage and walked into my house, only to be welcomed by the all too familiar smell of Mom’s cooking. It was often my dad who cooked, so smelling some classic Latin flavors was a pleasant change of pace. Neither of my parents was bad cooks, but Mom was far more traditional than my dad. Beans and Spanish rice were simmering on the stove while Mom’s radio quietly played in the kitchen.

“Hey,” I said nonchalantly.

She turned, looking me up and down with those all-knowing eyes. She just smiled while she looked back down at her phone. Probably at some cute pet videos while kind of just watching the food out of the corner of her eye.

I put my keys on the hook by the door before heading to my room. Copper sat in front of Manny’s door, her head nestled between her paws as she gave the handle ojitos. I could imagine her mindlessly scrolling through Reddit in Tumblr with her big headphones on that practically engulfed her head. I carefully stepped over Copper to reach my room at the end of the hall.

Copper followed me back into the kitchen. The rice and beans were almost done so Mom put the carne asada into the cast iron, letting it sizzle and fill the room with its delicious scent.

“How was school today?” she said, looking up from the meat.

“It was good.”

“You seem chipper, did something happen?”

There was that all-knowing smile. She could read me like a book. I bet she could read my next chapter before it was even written. I sometimes wondered if that was just a power that mothers had. They just had the power to know. To know everything without being told.

“Nothing really; hung out with a friend in between classes,” I said while picking up the wooden spoon to stir the beans. Sure they were just being reheated from the weekend but they still smelled as good as when Mom made them on Sunday.

Her brow raised the way she did when she knew something was up. She said no more though before her phone buzzed with a text from Dad saying to start dinner without him. She sighed as she set aside a plate for him and placed it in the microwave.

Manny never came out for dinner no matter how many times we called for her. I was sure that we were gonna be hearing the microwave go off later that night.