It took a while before Nora gets a response from someone close by. Which means days after she made her profile. Surprisingly, the area around her college wasn’t a popular hotspot for hook-ups and Nora was cautious in extending beyond her preferred distance. That, and commuting was expensive.

No wonder Selene made Nora walk to her boarding house.

Nora withholds her attention from her notes. The PDF have been greatly occupied with highlights that it was impossible to find a blank page without it and, well, she tried her best with keeping her studying minimalistic.

She took out her phone, dimming the brightness of the study lamp and taps a couple of things on the screen in order to access the dating app. Glee, it sprinkles the hope she has for the future and rereads the message she received.

‘Hi!’

It wasn’t much but it’s a start. A little step for whatever they’re going to have but her lips thinned at the greatest possibility. A hook-up, a one-night stand. Nothing more nor less, but Nora persists with a reply: ‘Hello! How are you?’

Why did she even bother downloading the app?

Yet she anticipates for the reply, staring at the bubble popping up to signal the other person typing. Nora slouches, trying to maintain her composure and bites her bottom lip to refrain from smiling.

Her phone vibrates: ‘Not much but I’m listening to music right now… wbu?’

‘Just studying something for a quiz this Friday QWQ’

Nora glances to her desk, grimacing at the piles of papers and notebooks scattered. Her pencil case wasn’t any different. She observes Lily from the bottom portion of the bunk bed, sleeping peacefully with her mouth slightly gaping. Her glasses were still on her face with her textbook lying on her chest.

 With a sigh, she stood up and walked close to Lily’s bed. She bent down, taking the glasses and textbook from her best friend and whispered her reassurance as Lily began to move.

“Nora?” Lily calls out to her. Her voice hoarse and eyes squinted.

“Just putting your things on your desk so you can sleep comfortably,” Nora explains, noting the nod she received from Lily and watches her best friend snuggles deeply to her pillow. The blanket was tucked under her chin and Lily resumes her sleep.

Nora places the glasses folded on the Lily’s desk with the textbook inserted in a bookcase. And in haste, skims through the reply she got a while ago: ‘Hehe, I know how it feels but do your best!’

Then receives another: ‘Wanna hang out? Got burned out from all of the research I had to do this week and thought I deserve myself a nice break… with a cutie like you, if you want?’

-

“So, you agreed?” Lily repeats.

“Yup,” Nora answers.

“On the spot?” Then another.

“Yes.” And she complies one more time.

In the end, Lily just looks at her in disbelief and Nora places the shirt back on the shelves. She took a couple of steps away from her best friend, knowing the stare intensifies from the distance and tries to feign ignorance with her actions.

But the sigh she hears halts her in place and Nora thinks back of the shirt she declines; the design was what she likes but the color didn’t compliment the details. Fortunately, she has Lily to help her choose an outfit.  

“I don’t think your date would mind what kind of clothes you’ll be wearing,” Lily reassures her. Her heels tap along to the wooden floor of the store and Nora turns around, facing her friend with doubt drawn on her face.

“Yeah, but first impression matters,” Nora says and looks down on the shopping cart she carried. It was empty, for the most part. She manages to find a pair of cargo shorts she likes. Even Lily slips in a couple of hair clips for her bangs.

“But it shouldn’t be a definite conclusion either,” Lily argues and Nora listens, because Lily always knows what she’s going to say. “I didn’t think I could ever become friends with you because you’re different from me – and yet we managed to kindle a friendship because we were grouped together in an assignment.”

Nora snorts and reminisce the start of their friendship. Who could have thought that a quiet and studious mouse would try to talk to her about a video game she had been playing at the time. And the conversation ended up with Nora teaching her jargons, buffs, nerfs, and passives of the characters she plays.

In the end, Lily didn’t play the game that night. She didn’t play it at all. But she was willing to be a listening ear whenever Nora vents about her teammates and the insults she had been dubbed and thrown back during matches.

“I always wonder what made you so determined to learn about the game but never play it at all,” Nora tells Lily, curious. She waits for an answer and watches as Lily’s cheek burns in a darker shade of red.

The cause could’ve been the lip tint Lily has painted her cheeks with. Maybe the heat of her cardigan has finally settled in. Or the humidity the store had circulated due to the broken air-conditioning, although without it the ukay-ukay store was still the fanciest out of the ones Nora has been in.

Lily opens her mouth, inhaling the air in between them.

And answers, “You.”