“So, you’ll be there?”

Ryan snapped out of his daydream and looked at Simon. “At the club right?”

“No, dude! Haven’t you been paying attention? We’re throwing a party at the frat house this Friday. Ryan, seriously, where’s your head at?”

Ryan didn’t really know where his head was at. Math probably. The exam was on Friday and he’d been cramming for weeks. It was the only essential subject he hadn’t passed yet.

He swiped his bangs out of his face, and looked up at Simon. “Sure, as long as I survive the exam I’ll be there. Be sure to stock up on enough booze, because I’ll need it”.

His best friend gave him a pat on the shoulder. “You betcha, man. We’ve got your back.”

“Heya Simon, Ryan, wanna go to get some burgers?” A loud voice boomed through the library, and immediately got hushed by the librarian. Allen tiptoed theatrically towards the guys, pointed at them, his mouth and the exit accompanied by a hushed voice: “Simon, Ryan, burgers, now!”

Ryan looked at the librarian’s reddening face and figured it wouldn’t do him any good to stay in his sights. So he picked up his books, and walked out with Simon and Allen. As they walked through the halls of the college Ryan pondered his dinner plans.

Having burgers with his friends sounded good. But it was probably going to get late, and he still had some studying to do. He normally wasn’t such a tenacious student, but he really had to nail this test to get through to the next year. And he wasn’t ready.

He majored in physics, and math was a crucial part of his major. But for some reason, this term he could not find the same logic as he used to in mathematics.

Imaginary numbers. He had to do calculations with imaginary numbers and he didn’t get it. Why would you need imaginary numbers when you’re doing actual physics? He had decided it was idiotic and not worth his time, but that resulted in him failing the math exam twice. So for his final chance to make it through the year he had to decide otherwise and study…

So no burgers today.

Ryan said goodbye to the guys, and promised them again he’d come to their frat party on Friday. It was funny, he was sort of a fraternity-appendage. All of his friends were in the fraternity, but he wasn’t. He had decided not to because they wouldn’t allow pets in the frat house.

Lucky for him, the guys had understood and had even decided to let him join the club anyway. He had gotten all the good parts, but didn’t even need to go through initiation. All thanks to his lovely Kitty.

As Ryan thought about his cat, he decided to get fish for tonight. He would definitely make Kitty happy with fresh fish, and he could set a plate for him and dine together. He always loved how he could have dinner with his cat and talk to him. The red tabby always seemed to listen so attentively.

Besides, a candlelit dinner with the cat would make for some pretty pics on Instagram that the ladies would love. He decided to go for it to take his mind off math for a bit, and went to the fishmonger.

Coming home to his apartment, he was greeted enthusiastically by his pet. He petted him fo a bit, then started to prepare the table, all the while telling Kitty about his day. The cat had already seated himself on the chair with the extra cushions on it and didn’t mind being put on a bib. The red tabby looked so cute with the bib, that Ryan decided to take a quick picture, before going ahead with preparing the candlelight dinner.

When everything was finished, Ryan put the food on the table and took some pictures of the scene and some selfies. Kitty waited patiently until Ryan had finished taking pictures and had seated himself down. “Enjoy your meal Kitty” he said. “Meow” said the cat and both of them started eating.

After dinner, Ryan cleaned the table and did the dishes. The cat followed him around and pressed himself lovingly against his legs. As he finished up, he said down on the couch with his math book and the cat curled up on his lap. He decided to try and explain what he knew about the imaginary numbers to the cat. Sometimes, explaining something helps you re-arrange your thoughts.

All the while the cat looked at him and seemed to listen attentively. That certainly helped.

He had had Kitty for 3 years now. His mother had given him the cat as a gift, when he moved out of the house.

It was a nice gift. Ryan was a bit anxious about moving far from home, and the cat would keep him company.

He was used to having a cat for company. They had always had a cat at home: a grey tabby called Mr. Masato. He had died shortly after Ryan moved out, though. Kitty had been really well mannered from the start, and seemed to understand everything Ryan said. He hadn't thought that was strange, because he was used to that with Mr. Masato.

Nevertheless, Ryan had always thought Kitty was a special cat. Never scratching things he shouldn't scratch, never making a mess, always sweet, attentive and obedient.

He had only acted up once, when Ryan took him to the vet for neutering. Kitty seemed to have known what was going on, and his continuous screaming had made Ryan think of how he’d react if someone wanted to cut his balls off. The thought had made him shiver, and nothing the vet had said could convince him to go through with the neutering. He had apologised profusely to Kitty for even considering it in the first place, and his cat had never screamed again.

After a couple of hours of studying Ryan went to bed, and as usual Kitty went with him. He thought it was probably weird that his cat slept in his bed, but he didn’t care. He was a guy so he couldn’t be called crazy cat lady anyway.

In bed he checked his Insta. As he thought, his dinner pics had gotten him a huge amount of comments and hearts from the ladies.

Lilah had commented if she could drop by to pet Kitty someday. Ha, if she’d come to his house, she’d be petting something else entirely, Ryan thought as he fell asleep.