‘I prefer smelling like fancy chocolate than anything floral related to be honest.’ Her online date, Julia, replies her question.

Nora grins, anticipating for another answer on a question she immediately sends. Online dating, if they were dating at all, is tricky. Their schedules didn’t align, most of the time, and Nora’s patience thins at the hours she had wasted through waiting.

It’s understandable, at least that’s what she chants in her head. They were both college students, albeit in different years with Julia already doing her thesis for her course and Nora dealing with harder lessons for her preliminary exams. Time’s not on their side, unfortunately, and so was their professors.

Really, though. Teachers just dump things and leave if possible.

Julia sends a message.

Nora immediately lies on the bed. Her back aches from the slouch she made earlier and hugs her pillow. Although, she scrunched her nose as it’s being tickled by the pillow sheet and skims an unrelated message: ‘Hey… we never planned out the place we’re going to meet… thought we could decide right now.’

It was true.

While her agreement was made open through a simple text. Suggestions, however, were nonexistent. Nora seems content at the places she routinely comes and goes which was mostly school and the little café Lily has found nearby the exit.

Anything else were sadly left unexplored, ignored.

‘Can you find us a place please? QWQ I’m currently redoing my grammar on chapter 1 while computing the results for chapter 2… ‘

Nora hesitates. Her thumbs hover on the keypad with little confidence concerning the suggestion. But she persists, nodding along to the arrogance she tries to display through her words.

‘Okay! I know a great place we can go. You probably have heard of it, though.’ Nora reads it, once. Maybe a skim through her second time but anything else was a matter of luck.

The front door of the room opens and Nora peeks through the rail to see Lily coming inside. Nora hears a sigh, the sounds of shoes thrown against the wall and the shuffles of fabric coming from Lily’s uniform. Nora sits up on the bed, observing the dejection drawn on Lily’s face.

“How was the quiz?” Nora asks.

“Just fine – I passed and that alone should’ve been important but the professor wanted us to retake it for a better score.” Lily slumps on her chair, taking out the notebooks and textbooks from her bag and opens everything. The study lamp has been turned on and her stationary scattered across the surface.

Murmurs of medical jargons occupies the room. The pencil glides through the empty pages of her notebook and the highlighter have painted certain phrases for Nora to see from the distance.

She frowns.

The stress can be felt, heavily.

“Hey,” Nora starts a proposition and sighs down her disappointment as Lily ignores her. Maybe she couldn’t hear it, the expectations muted down the white noises beyond the lessons she sings out of the textbook.

Nora can’t help but be forceful with the second attempt. So, she steps down from the upper portion of the bunk bed, wearing her slippers and sat down on her chair. There were downsides of two desks placed side by side, and Lily have always been annoyed by the procrastination Nora has done with her studies.

But, right now, there were pros she can tackle.

“Hey,” she repeats and slowly takes out the pencil Lily was holding, loosely. Her best friend simply melts from her touch, the hand Nora takes in her grasp reciprocates with a firm grip, easily pulling Lily away from her studies and guides them on the bottom bed.

All the while Nora soaks in the melancholy.

“My classmates were mostly frustrated at the prospect of retaking it,” Lily blurts out, “but I didn’t… all I thought about was that I should’ve done better – that I could’ve aimed for perfection than the adequacy I ended up with.”

Nora frowns and tries to unclench Lily’s hands from her skirt. The fabric wrinkles, visible creases resulted from the frustration Lily has for herself.

“Can I see it?” Nora questions and Lily immediately replies back with the paper taken out of her pocket. It was folded, but there were lines that indicated its crumpled state.

Nora opens it, not expecting the worse actually. And her assumptions were true – Lily’s score was above average, almost a close approximate of the overall perfect score. But Lily didn’t see satisfaction, looking down on the piece of paper with a misplaced glare.

“I want to do better,” Lily tells Nora.

“You’re doing great, Lily,” Nora compliments.

“Still not enough for the teacher.”

“But you’re more than enough for me.”

Vague, it’s a word Nora can easily describe the phrase. It makes her think of the possible context outside their scenario, which aren’t exactly diverse nor unexpected. And, unfortunately, Lily thought the same – if the reddened cheeks and ears can be used for Nora’s assumptions.

Nora stutters, mumbling the reasons she tries to portray through the embarrassment she has for herself. God, she thinks, help me.

“Pla-platonically! Platonically!” Nora shouts, “because I know you’re smart and the score is more than enough to prove it!” But she receives nothing, not a chuckle nor a smirk. A blank expression could hardly be deciphered and the intense stare caused Nora to look away.

“Oh… thanks,” Lily replies back, clearly disappointed. Her best friend wasn’t afraid to show it, the smile she expresses; crooked and easily waned from her lips.

It gnaws Nora.

She clears her throat, drawing Lily’s attention back at her than the folds of her skirt. Nora glances down to her lap, knowing their hands were still intertwined. Its grip firm but never tight nor was it loose either, but enough to slip away or felt by the other’s touch.

Its warmth eases Nora and the confidence she needs, albeit small, help.

“How about we go somewhere for dinner?” Nora offers.

Lily tilts her head, confused. She opens her mouth and Nora places a finger in the middle, silencing the possible doubt.

“As a treat for you getting a good score,” Nora explains and shrugs the shock from Lily. “And no, I’m not planning in taking to the café we usually go to. Think of this as a special occasion.”

Lily argues, “But it’s not a special occasion. I’m going to receive many more quizzes like this one.”

Nora sighs. “Fine, think of it as a moral support and besides, weren’t you whining about that Korean place for the past few days now?”

She’s winning and Nora continues, “besides, we still have a couple of hours left before dinner. So, if you want to study – you can. Just remember we have to get ready for our… uh, hang out.”

Date, Nora almost said date. She grits her teeth, conflicted. Nora blames Harold, for that shitty rhyme and for the idea brought into her head. Lily’s a friend, she chants, and stood up from the bed. She looks away from Lily, aiming her attention to the door with an excuse in mind.

“I’m going to use the bathroom,” she excuses, holding her phone tightly in her grasp and looks at the screen when it vibrates.

A distraction, Nora pleas, and it was.

From Julia: ‘It’s okay! Lead the way cute stranger 😊’