Owen
Exactly twenty four hours from today, I would be in a classroom full of people I am not familiar with.
And it scares me.
Tomorrow, my schedule only comprises of four classes, each going on for more than an hour. I didn't like the sound of that and what makes me even more nervous was that I had that ill-timed chemistry lab class with the verbatim, 'terror' professor.
Lunch was among us and weirdly, Athena and Maya were acting like they've known each other eversince they got out of their mothers' wombs.
Athena was laughing hardly at something Maya whispered over to her on the opposite side of the lunch table here inside the dorm. Fitz and I, on the other hand, were silently watching them in awe but weirdly, Fitz kept his eye mostly on Maya.
"Girls are so confusing." Fitz said as he looked at the pair in utter confusion.
I couldn't help but agree and nod.
"You could say that. Weirdly, one half of them fell in love with me and I still have no clue why."
Fitz cocked his head to the side and looked at me with an 'oh really?' expression plastered across his face.
He was wearing normal people's clothes now with his red flannel and gray shirt paired with some shorts and Vans. Only thing is, his shirt had some anime character in front of it and I don't know whether anime girls with quite some breasts is appropriate for school.
"At least you have someone who liked you." he spat bitterly as his eyes gazed toward Maya yet again.
I sighed and turned to him, brushing some hair that kept making its way in front of my eyes away from them.
"Consider yourself lucky you don't even have to decipher her mood during one of those 'days'." I whispered.
I didn't want Athena to know that even after spending some time with her these past few years, there are still things I find weird that only girls do.
For example, ever since we became roommates, the bathroom drain always had clumps of blonde hair. Occasionally, even the walls have them too.
I once asked Athena if she had some sort of alopecia or something regarding her hair fall and she nonchalantly brushed me off by saying it happens to all girls.
Another thing that I observed during our senior year was her tendency to join other girls (e.g. Viv and Marley) to the restroom. Viv could excuse herself out of the table over at Delta's and all of the sudden, Marley and Athena would go with her.
Seriously, is there some sort of secret memo guys don't get because if girls do some weird, Upside Down shit down there in attempt to release a Demogorgon into the world, I don't want to talk about it.
Right now, everything just confuses me.
Turning back to Fitz, he looked more confused now that he was a few moments ago.
"What kind of days?"
I cautiously looked at Maya and Athena chatting about some kind of wholesome meme Athena saw on Twitter then turned back to Fitz who looked at them as well.
"You know, when like, she stays in bed a lot and uhm, has these weird mood swings." I said in the lowest volume my voice could muster.
Fitz's brows scrunched up in the middle and he nodded understandably.
"I think I get it. 'Flag of Japan' days?"
Okay, now I'm even more confused.
"Flag of what?"
Fitz smiled condescendingly and sat back in his chair as he drank from his dented water bottle.
"Oh, what a small mind you have. Kinda wished I had that too. Mine's corrupted with all kinds of things." he said knowingly.
I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest as I leaned back in my own chair. I mustered a small smile on the corner of my lips as I looked at him.
"Now that's just mean."
Alarmed, Athena quickly turned her head in our direction and narrowed her eyes at Fitz. The poor guy just looked so lost as he raised his arms up in surrender.
"Now what the hell did you tell my baby boo boo that was mean?" Athena said strongly as she leaned towards his side of the table holding up a plastic fork at his throat.
In the background, Maya had a hand over her mouth as she tried to hide her laughing. Her eyes locked at mine and she shook her head. I smiled in reply.
I turned my attention towards a calm-looking Fitz and watched him sigh.
"No dude, I didn't even tell uhm, your 'baby boo boo' anything mean. He assumed it was mean." Fitz said in all honesty.
Maya masked her laugh again in the background and I rolled my eyes at the shear overprotectiveness of Athena. Honestly, as soon as we left town, she sort of became Mum's replacement here.
Athena looked at me with a glare in her sharp, brown eyes. I was startled at first since she was so quick and I felt myself gulp a little.
"Owen my baby boo boo, is this true?" she asked in a childish voice as she pouted.
Maya couldn't help herself at this point and she bursted out laughing which caught Fitz's attention. He gazed at her with a weird look on his face as he just stared at the laughing girl.
I cocked my head to the side and turned to Athena, who now had a playful, goofy look on her face.
"Yes mother. It is."
Athena gaped her mouth open and playfully punched my arm the same way she always did before.
She sat back in her chair normally and slumped with a subtle smirk on her face.
"I never knew I'd live to see the day you would call me your mom."
"I never even knew I'd call someone else my mum aside from my actual mum."
Breaking the weird aura created by my incredibly extroverted girlfriend who has a flair for dramatics, Maya piped in as she put her long, black locks on the right side of her shoulder.
"Okay okay, this is getting pretty weird. What do you think Fitz?" she asked as she looked at Fitz.
Looking a little frazzled and somehow awestruck at Maya, Fitz's eyes widened a bit and he kept murmuring.
"I-- uhm," he kept saying over and over again.
I smiled at him and shook my head.
He needs some backup.
"He thinks it weird too. Don't you, mate?" I asked as I nudged his arm.
He looked at me wide-eyed as he pushed his glasses up and turned to Maya.
"Yeah. That's right. Weird. Ha." he muttered as he looked down.
I was guessing Fitz was much too intimidated by Athena earlier so he's feeling out of the blue but whatever. Anything that bugs him would instantly be solved by a couple rounds of getting my arse kicked at video games.
As if on cue, both Maya and Athena stood from their chairs and cleaned up their plates. Only Fitz and I were left at the table.
"Maya and I'll head up to her room to talk shit about the engineering guys. See you later?" Athena said directly to me with an adorable smile on her lips. Her whole face just beams whenever she does.
I looked up at her and merely nodded.
"Sure. You have the amazing privilege of telling me all about it and I'll pretend I listened."
Athena laughed and shook her head.
"Love you too, Owen."
Athena turned around and walked away from the lunch hall. Maya, stayed behind for a while and looked at both Fitz and I.
"I guess we'll see each other around. Bye Owen. Bye Fitzgerald." Maya said flirtatiously with an intoxicating smile before she spun around and followed Athena.
I sighed as I turned to Fitz who still sat awkwardly in his chair. It was not long before Maya and Athena were out of the picture before he groaned loudly and slammed a hand on the table.
"Why am I so STUPID?" He asked.
I couldn't help but feel sorry for Fitz. Though I wasn't so sure why he felt that way, I still wanted to be around since we both aren't that familiar with campus and the people inside it.
"Fitz, you aren't stupid." I said.
He raised his head up at me and shot me a desperate look.
"How can I not be stupid when the girl I liked from high school sat across from me?" he ranted as he laid his head down on the table and continuously banged it.
Alarmed, I held him by his shoulders and forced him to sit up straight.
"High school? Like, my girlfriend or Maya?" I asked. I just wanted to be sure.
Fitz slumped back in his chair and groaned yet again.
"MAYA, STUPID. How could I have a crush on your girlfriend when I just met her? And how in the world did you even get a GIRLFRIEND?" He asked as he did all these hand motions in the air as he proved his point.
"Honestly, I don't know either. Now, about Maya--"
"NOPE. I ain't having this conversation about a girl I chased around for years before I even got to talk to her. And I only got to talk to her during JUNIOR YEAR." he said as he dug his face into his palms, making his glasses go all wonky as it was pushed upwards toward his dark, curly hair.
I cocked my head to the side in attempt to see if he's okay or not and to be honest, I don't have a single clue what to do.
I've never been good with new friends. Marley and I had been friends eversince freshman year of high school and Calix was goofy and kinda easy to be comfortable with. With Fitz, it was a totally different story.
He was almost exactly like me.
Well, in the part where we are both terrible conversation starters and have the tendency to avoid any form of human interaction; maybe even the desire to just be invisible.
"If it isn't such a hassle to you, what did you two talked about? Before?" I asked.
Fitz raised his head up at me and looked at me blankly.
"I asked her if I could take her to Prom." he said monotonously.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise and I gave him a reassuring smile.
"That's actually awesome. Did she accept though?"
Fitz shot me a look of disbelief and groaned before digging his face again into his palms.
"OF COURSE SHE DIDN'T. She didn't even know my name and she only did during GRADUATION once my name was called. I'm so STUPID." he said as he slammed his head again on the table.
"No, don't make it sound like that." I muttered as I stood him up on his chair.
"Why? Have any more synonyms to the word 'stupid' ? I promise I'll listen to your suggestions this time." he said sarcastically as he slumped deep into his seat with arms crossed across his chest.
I couldn't help but sigh
"Fitz, you aren't stupid. You're brilliant. If Maya only knew what she was missing, she'd regret declining your offer to Prom." I said.
Fitz scoffed and looked at me straight in the eye.
"Easy for you to say. You have a girl. A GIRL. Girls barely even look at me."
I didn't know how to console Fitz.
I didn't know how to make him feel better about himself.
Between us, I was the more stupid one.
I couldn't help but notice how down Fitz was over his little interaction with Maya: the girl he had liked during high school.
From the bat, Maya was far different from Athena. She's a conserved spirit, a calm one too. Maya is the total contrast of Athena's vivid personality and it baffles me to think that they actually made up over Athena's little debacle last movie night.
I turned my head around to view the other students enjoying their lunches and happily talking to their friends just to think for a bit.
I'm going to help him.
"Look, I don't exactly know how to 'get a girl' but as far as I know, take things slowly." I started.
Fitz looked confused.
"Take things slow? Dude, I've liked her since eighth grade and I could easily count the times we even talked. I could even count the times she ACKNOWLEDGED me on my fingers. I don't exactly know how slower I could get than that." he said with a shrug.
I was left without words.
Shit, I'm terrible at being the consoling guy when everyone else is having a bad day.
"Uhm, maybe start over again? Like, be your normal self. Not the one word, one phrase guy." I said slowly as I kept checking on Fitz if I offended him in some way because believe me, your words and how they are phrased matter.
At least to me.
Fitz shot me a disheveled look as he scratched his nape and sighed.
"I don't even know how to act like a normal human being. With dudes, I'm kinda alright with the whole conversation thing but with girls; it's a totally different world out there." he said as he looked down onto his palms which he kept clasping.
"Honestly, I don't even know how to approach people let alone girls too. Maybe try it pretty slow like, eating with us regularly? That is if you don't have any other and obviously better friends."
Fitz looked up at me and looked a little less sullen. He had a disbelieving look in his playful eye and it regained my sense of stability in this conversation.
"I haven't really made any other friends since I'm so terrible at finding them. I suck at human interaction." he said with a slight curve of his mouth.
I smiled too and nodded subtly.
"We do make a great team, don't we?"
Fitz scoffed and stood up, carrying his plate in hand. I took my plate as well and placed it carefully on my lap before I unlocked the brakes of my chair and swivelled slowly away from the table.
"Batman and his Batmobile? Sounds awesome."
Fitz and I made our way onto the lunch station where we could leave our plates and as he threw in his, he took mine in his hands and threw it in as well. I couldn't reach the fucking drop bin.
That sucked.
"Let me guess, you're Batman and I'm the fancy talking car?" I asked as I looked up at him with one eyebrow raised.
It was a talent of mine I practiced through the years, actually.
Fitz smirked and shrugged as he put his hands into his pocket as we made our way out of the lunch hall.
"It's obviously better than baby boo boo, isn't it?"
"Shut up."
-----------
HI GUYS!
So like, this is probably gonna be my last update before I go back to school for my senior year. OF HIGH SCHOOL. YA GIRL'S GOING TO COLLEGE NEXT YEAR Y'ALL OMG. Though my senior year would probably be online most of the time, I don't care as much because first, SAFETY GUYS. There's still a pandemic and people who go back to school in PERSON are making themselves more vulnerable to the virus than those who stay at home. I won't judge if any of my readers already went back for face-to-face classes because it's their choice and who am I to tell you guys what to do? I ain't nobody's mom lmao.
(just wear a mask pls)
Going online is probably the best decision for now if any of y'all are going back to school and don't want to skip a year or a semester due to the current situation we are facing.
More about online classes, Another reason going online is the better choice is that you have the choice to turn off your camera and mic and like, just listen to the lecture. At least that's what my school does. It's every introverts' dream and I am LIVING for it. The only downside is the truckload of schoolwork:(
Going back to our regular broadcast, I'd like to thank everyone who read As I Fell and THEN kept up with my crappy writing on the sequel.
AGAIN.
Because of you guys, we hit 1k! Now THAT'S amazing. I didn't even think a single soul would even be sane enough to read more of whatever story I came up with. Thank you so much! I appreciate every read, every vote,every comment and even you silent readers out there! Hi!
I have so much ideas for this story and I tell you, based from the summarized plot I created in my phone's Notes a while ago, this is gonna be preeetty long. I don't know if it's gonna exceed the chapter count of As I Fell but what the hell. Let's just let the wind carry this story wherever. This is probably the most exciting thing I've ever done. Even better than a getting out of bed at 2am to grab some nachos for snacking as I binge Netflix shows (Umbrella Academy S2, I'm looking at u).
Once again, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND I HOPE Y'ALL STAY FOR MORE!
LOVELOTS!
ðBea