Athena
"I'm telling you, as each passing day goes by, Owen seems to be clinging more to Maya than to us."
Three days before midterms.
Three days.
It was about this time of the semester where every college student, no matter what major, are high up on coffee and are currently laying low on party nights and drinking at the pub. It was also the time where every single coffee shop is full of caffeine-addicted students who almost never leaves their seats once they're settled in one spot. Seriously, it might as well be called an infestation of college kids.
Currently, Fitz and I were in the common room where we had brought our own books, notes and laptops to study for our own exams. I was seated in one of those old, lumpy chairs that was a little itchy on the skin but overall, it was decent. Fitz on the other hand, was seated on the sofa which he blatantly hogged for himself. He smartly placed all his things on the large space where a person could no longer sit and he even had the benefit of propping his legs up on the sofa.
Lucky duck.
"It's unavoidable. They have the same majors, take almost the same classes and live in the same dorm. Of course they spend time together." I retorted.
As much as this reality worries me to death, I have to accept it. It's Owen's choice of career path and it's his future that depends on whatever he does in his four years of undergrad. I won't meddle far enough into his bounds and manipulate him for personal reasons. If he wants it, he can think of ways to get it. He's that kind of person.
"I know. That's what makes this all so fishy." Fitz defended.
I scoffed and diverted my gaze away from my notebooks and toward a reclining Fitz who had his feet up on the sofa. God, if Charlie or any of the senior advisers see this, he's dead meat.
"Fine. Explain why this all seems weird." I said, raising my chin up a bit.
I have full faith that Owen is just really friendly with Maya. Well, it's not that I find it weird how he didn't shoo her away the same way he did when I was friendly with him back then, but that was all in the past. Owen's been trying to be a little bit more open to people nowadays and if ever he diverts back to his old, grumpy, sulky self, I might as well hit him with a bat and call it a day.
"Athena, it's not just weird. It sounds entirely wrong. In high school, Maya seemed like a person for the arts and here she is pursuing some science?" Fitz questioned, putting down his book over his chest as he stared in confusion toward the ceiling.
"Maybe she got this late revelation thing going on, I don't know." I said, shrugging.
"And the classes. The CLASSES. How can two people choose almost the exact same classes for the semester? I mean, we've got this big list of classes to take and she chose almost the same one's as Owen's!" Fitz said, widening his deep, brown eyes, sitting up. I swear, it was as if he drastically turned into some crazy person sitting by motels.
I calmed my senses by breathing in and out. I will not let Fitz's weird theories get into my head; not when it's midterms. I let out a sigh and slumped back into the lumpy chair I was sitting on and raised my legs up on the rectangular coffee table set in front of Fitz and I.
"So? They do have the same major." I said nonchalantly.
I didn't want to sound the least bit worried. Maya is nice. Owen is nice. Two nice people with weirdly almost identical schedules would certainly not have any unusual relations, right?
"Maya's not even interested in science." Fitz now said blankly as he stared off into his laptop.
I managed a slight smile and raised a brow at him.
"Says the guy who stalked his high school crush until college."
Fitz shot me a tired eye and slumped his shoulders down.
"I did not stalk her. To be honest, I didn't even know she'd be here. And in the same residence hall? Is she kidding me?" he asked.
I shook my head at him and leaned a bit toward Fitz's side.
"Dude, remember, you like this girl. Aren't crushes supposed to be all light-hearted and cute?" I said, shrugging.
Fitz rolled his eyes and mimicked the 'light-hearted and cute' portion in a higher voice that sounded like he was on helium but not quite.
I shot him a careful eye and he stopped, laughing.
"Fitz," I started.
He sat back on the sofa as he slowly laid back on it with his feet up again. He was staring at the ceiling with this weird grin on his face as he sighed.
"Yeah, I like her but that doesn't mean I can't call out what seems wrong now so we could make things right some time in the future. I like her too much to see her go some weird, demented path." he admitted.
I nodded.
"Now that's sounding more like a guy talking about his crush rather than a conspiracy theory."
"Ha. Funny." he said, looking over to me.
"Yeah, now shut it. Midterms start in three days and I have an exam on a Saturday this week."
"Really? We finish on Friday. Saturday exams suck." he said, raising his head up.
"They do suck. Hard. Real hard."
Fitz and I went about our business and carried on with our day of cramming for midterms. To be honest, I think I prepared myself well enough for this. Owen was out of the dorm most of the time with probably the only female friend I've got in here. Fitz is cool letting me play video games with him every now and then but most of the time, he gets into a weird mood whenever I beat him. The people in my classes always come and go with their own social cliques so it all comes down to those I really feel some friendly connection with.
My friends back at home.
Given that Calix, Viv and Tim are now scattered across the country with Viv moving to England, I honestly don't think the term ' friends back at home' applies to them now. I might as well give it a try messaging or calling even just one of them. My focus was far from the lectures and I was more gravitated toward the idea of slacking off than studying for midterms.
I let go of my notebooks and grabbed my phone. Typing in the name that first comes to mind when I think of home, I rang him up and pressed the cracked screen of my phone against my ear and waited patiently for him to pick up.
"Hello?" he started.
I couldn't help but smile. His voice was still the same and I imagined he was just as frazzled as any other college student now that it's around midterms season for all of us.
"Hey brace face." I said, grinning. From the corner, Fitz straightened up and shot me a confused look. I put up a finger to my lips and told him to be quiet for a moment as I talked over the phone.
"God, you still need to learn to shut up. I had them out before senior year, mind you. Now, what made our little Transformer call me in the middle of midterms season?" he said with a slight chuckle in his tone.
God, I miss this idiot.
"Nothing. I just missed the old gang. And stop calling me a Transformer. Just because I got hurt at the end of junior year doesn't mean you can call me that, you idiot." I said.
Fitz kept looking at me with a confused look and muttered a small 'what the fuck?'. I shrugged at him and kept talking to Calix.
"Wow, she called me an idiot. That's new." he said sarcastically.
"Yeah, I missed you too Cal." I sighed.
This time, Fitz looked even more confused as he widened his eyes and scrunched his eyebrows together. It was weird seeing him eavesdrop in to my phone call so I put out my tongue at him and stood from the lumpy common room chair. It was about time I get out of the dorm for once.
"So really, what made you call all of the sudden? College made you go crazy yet?" he asked.
I walked away from a weirded-out Fitz and stood by the doorway into the dorm. Leaning into the hard wood, I pressed my back against it's cold surface and stared out into the Princeton scenery.
"It's getting there. I mean, I have less than five friends including Owen over here and I'm stocked on coffee. I think I'm getting this whole college craze right." I said.
Cal chuckled on the other end of the line and I heard him sigh softly.
"You forgot the part where we don't sleep at all just to finish all the reqs. I mean, it's still midterms. What more if we have finals for the semester? I don't want to study for that." he said.
Once Calix mentioned studying, I felt a little numb but mostly, just unfeeling. Owen was studying with Maya. I was supposed to be okay with it and I affirmed it. Now, I dont know what I'm supposed to feel about this.
"Yeah, about the whole studying thing," I started.
Calix sounded a little worried and uneasy. He always had our backs before and even now, he still has them. God, am I starting to feel homesick.
"What about it?" he asked.
I was quiet for a moment as I organized my racing thoughts and sighed. If only I didn't love him that much, then I wouldn't be so into this whole situation.
"Owen." I said.
"He hasn't died yet, has he? That half of an idiot isn't taking things seriously?"
Half of an idiot, my face. Owen's smart but he's more two-thirds of an idiot than only half. The remaining one third mostly sleeps and reads.
"No. Uhm, actually, he's been taking his academics pretty seriously. The person he's doing it with isn't, I think."
I'm proud of what he's achieved so far. I really am. Owen easily gets down a lot and I love how he tries his best to be on par with others. What I don't love right now is that someone else is doing the stuff Owen and I used to do for the last two years in that bookstore he loves.
"Oh, so there's another person involved in here?" Calix asked.
"Yeah. A girl."
It was our thing. Ours. Unlike most couples who shag off in each others' rooms, go to the movies or have those romantic spaghetti dinners like in Lady and the Tramp, we were very unlikely to have studying as our thing. It was unusual and weird but yes, I found it very solemn and calming. Having to see one of the best people you've met concentrate on aiming high as he studies quietly with earphones plugged into his ears as he gently bobs his head along to the rhythm is kinda sexy, to be honest. I was turned on.
"A girl. That's unheard of. That guy basically worships you." Calix said with a laugh.
I stifled a smile for a bit but it quickly evaporated.
I know he loves me and he knows that fact all too well himself. It's this whole agenda with Maya that keeps getting in the way. If this goes on longer, my fears would really come together and haunt me the same way it did with the last guy I was involved with.
"And that same guy is currently off studying for midterms with her. Is it me or am I thinking too much into this?" I asked desperately.
I was frazzled. It won't be too soon before I become paranoid all over this little Owen and Maya fix.
"Whatever you're feeling, it's valid. Why don't you guys just talk about it to clear things up?"
We did.
It was that day over at one of Owen's PT sessions with the famed Sophie. He kept bringing it up and I told him to shut it.
I was wrong.
It all felt wrong.
I must've let him talk to me about his worries and convinced myself that Maya was someone to keep an eye on no matter how nice she is. She did seem like she has a little crush on him every time the four of us eat lunch inside the dorm leaving poor Fitz only to his fantasies of her.
I sighed.
"We tried before but it started getting annoying. Since then, we never spoke about our assumptions about that girl. She's actually pretty nice, really." I told him.
Maya was nice. And sweet. How could a person dislike someone for being nice?
"Yeah, I don't know about that." Calix quickly answered with a wavering tone.
"Why?"
I may not look like it but I actually know exactly what he's talking about.
"New place, nice girl, kid in wheelchair who surprisingly has a girlfriend-- these kinds of things add up to one thing and I'm not sure whether it's what's bothering you or not."
"And that is?" I asked in a small voice, holding my breath.
This is it. A good friend would finally affirm something I was terrified of.
He's going to say it.
"You're thinking too much into this. The guy needs friends. You're obviously an exemption since you're the girlfriend. Marley's in New York, I'm in DC. What's the worst that could happen?" he asked as if he's not worried at all.
"What if we split?" I asked blankly.
Calix laughed at me and it took him a few seconds to get back to normal.
"Hold your horses, Thena. Remember, he was friends with Marley before us and they never did like each other as more than friends. Just--, good 'ol pals. Don't sweat it. He's okay. You're okay."
I was still skeptical.
"You sure?" I asked.
"Sure as heck, yeah. Talk soon? Or maybe hang out some time on winter break?" he asked as I heard random shuffles in his background.
"Yeah, sure. That sounds really nice." I said with a tight lipped smile.
It was bittersweet to part with a friend like Calix. I never knew why I've never gotten homesick the first few days after I moved into campus but after talking to him through the phone, my stomach churned and yearned for home.
"It's been good, Athena. See you." he said before hanging up and all I heard was the short beep that signalled me back to university.
I immediately put my phone into my pocket and sighed.
This is gonna be a long ride.