Owen
Thank God midterms are over.
It was a warm afternoon just a little past three o'clock this fine Friday and my chest felt its lightest these past few weeks because I can finally get some rest from this college stuff.
"You're such a weirdo. Who stays inside the dorm after midterms? Let's go out." Maya told me as soon as we got out of the examination room.
Maya was walking alongside me along our school corridors as she slung her baby blue messenger bag over her shoulder, shoving in random papers and flashcards she made.
She had a judging eye on me as we went down the halls and instead of looking up at her, I stared out front instead into the sea of students spilling out of classrooms in utter joy and relief after this year's first midterm exams.
Eventually, I turned my head up at her as I continued pushing my chair, feeling the cold rims on the tips of my fingers as I did.
"Sorry. I'm really tired and I would rather spend the rest of the day sleeping in the presence of my girlfriend, thank you." I said.
I really missed Athena these past couple days and I might even be found guilty for spending less than two hours with her daily. During those two hours, I'm embarrassed to admit that it's either the times she was the one who helped me get through understanding biochemistry lectures or accompanying me to PT. To think of it, I haven't been to PT with Sophie for a couple weeks now.
"But you always get to see her. You wake up to her, go home to her, and-- didn't you guys spend a heck ton of time together during high school?" Maya spat.
I merely shrugged and as we came to a sharp turn along the corridors, I twisted my chair smoothly in that direction and continued pushing.
"Well, that's the beauty of it. I see her almost everywhere. I like that." I admitted with a small trace of a smile.
Maya groaned and cocked her head in my direction. Her gaze was engaging and I felt as if she was saying "really?" in her head.
"Come on. Just for a little bit of change in scenery? How about the mall? Ever went shopping for things you didn't need?" she said, suddenly all so cheery and bright. Her smile was huge and she radiated with excitement as soon as she mentioned the mall.
I scoffed and shook my head.
"I don't need malls if Target hands me almost everything I need, mind you."
Maya stifled a short laugh and nodded in agreement, shoving her hands into the pockets of her dark denim jeans as she walked.
"Yeah, they do have everything. Are you sure you don't want to hang out somewhere? It's the end of our exams, ain't it?" She said with a pleading look.
"Yes but--"
"No buts. You and I deserve this after that paper Dr. Anderson made us do right before midterms. Come on, we could go inside bookstores and you could go pick yourself a book. Don't you like books?" she said as she attempted bribery in order to get me to come with her to the mall.
I felt myself actually smiling since I never did remember telling Maya that I read a lot of books. Athena must've been blabbering random things to this girl and I was surprised Maya picked it up.
"Uhm, sure, yeah but I don't think I need another one. I could use some sleep though." I said, putting back sleep into the conversation as we strolled down the hallway until we reached the good elevator and got in.
"Ugh. Could you sleep after our little trip? Let's go to the arcade. I think you deserve to experience even a small amount of real college fun." Maya said as the elevator door closed and she pushed the button to the ground floor.
I had never been into an arcade before. Well, after the accident that is. If I was twelve, I guess I might've enjoyed throwing balls into hoops in the arcade. They're probably the only hoops where I could actually get balls to go through in given that they're lower than actual basketball hoops.
Things are different now. I'm not that weird twelve year old kid in a wheelchair who just wants to shoot balls through arcade hoops instead of the real, tall ones. I'm eighteen turning nineteen and never had I felt the need to go inside an actual arcade. More so, the mall.
"I don't know Maya. It's just, -- the people and the weird looks they have on their equally weird faces. I mean, do I look like a person who would enjoy the mall arcade?" I told her.
Maya slumped her shoulders down and looked at me with a menacing smirk on her face.
"Why won't you try and see for yourself then? You could give it one go and if you still don't like it, I'll buy you a churro and we'll head back to the dorm. Sounds good?" she asked as she put up two thumbs up and smiled at me.
To think of it, I never really went that far away from the university's radius. Even when I first got here, I never did explore the area and go on these adventures into random shops and restaurants. I was with Athena and one of the first things I did after the big college move-in was to fix things with the ODS.
Maybe this mall arcade thing wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be. Sleep could wait. Athena still has her last midterm exam tomorrow and I wouldn't want to be a bother to her.
I looked up over to Maya and smiled.
"Churros do sound nice. Uhm, okay. Fine. Let's get this over with." I said with a subtle, crooked grin.
Coincidentally, the elevator door chimed open and Maya and I were free to go wherever we would want to go. And this time, it was at the mall.
We're college kids after all.
Maya smiled hugely and gave me a quick nod before stepping foot out of the elevator. She looked really pleased with herself.
"To the mall, then."
-----
Athena
Oh god, why do I still have midterms tomorrow?
I hate this.
Studying alone after two years of studying with Owen at Mr. Jones' bookstore had been a habit that had stuck hard on me and I found it weird not seeing Owen around as my study buddy.
I was sitting right on my desk area with my pink and white cat headphones on, blasting some study jazz as I fumbled with a pen I had wedged in between my fingers.
This was starting to get boring.
I pushed myself away from the desk where I had laid out my notes for tomorrow's last test and took out my phone. It was about time I used it since I hadn't been on it the whole day.
Looking at the time, I realized that if I am correct, Owen's exams must be finished by now. It's already past an hour after his last test and still, he wasn't here yet.
I sighed and took off my headphones. Standing from the desk as I put on some slippers real quick, I went out of my room and headed over to Fitz's. He also finished his midterms today and maybe, just maybe, Owen was there.
As I strolled down the opposite hall right here on the first floor, I reached Fitz's door and knocked. I waited patiently for him to answer and soon enough, the slim wooden door swung open and out came an annoyed Fitz.
"Athena, I'm in the middle of a game. What-"
"Is Owen with you?" I quickly asked.
Not to be the overly-obsessed girlfriend here but, I'm really worried. This was not like Owen to vanish from thin air without notice. It was not in his blood to go somewhere he's not comfortable with. If he's forced to go someplace like that, he would send me a text to go make up some excuse to get him out of it.
"What? No. He's not." Fitz said, peeping back into his room. He opened the door wider to prove his point that Owen was indeed, not there.
"Oh shit. Uhm, where do you think he is?" I asked.
I felt a little desperate over here. Lately, whenever Owen's out, he almost never tells me where he's gone to. He only tells me when he's either at the place he's been to or when he's back at the dorm.
"I'm really sorry Athena but honestly, I don't know. I think he might be with Maya though." Fitz said with a sad shrug.
"Oh." I said in a tight voice.
God, for some reason, my chest twisted slightly and I felt the teensiest bit of uneasiness.
I know it's wrong to dislike a person who has been nothing but kind to someone who, let's be honest, needs more help and attention than someone like me. Maya's been nothing but kind and watchful of Owen and I appreciated that.
Fitz leaned over to the doorframe and sighed as he looked down for a moment.
"Yeah. I know. It hurts. See you later then?"
"Sure. See you." I said sadly, turning away from Fitz's door and slowly made my way back into mine.
As soon as I was back into my room, I sat down slowly in front of my desk and sighed.
The room really does feel empty without him. And I am so bored.
I can't barge back into Fitz's room since I do have an exam tomorrow morning. For the past few hours, all I've been doing was staring blankly into sheets of paper clumped together as jazz blazed through my cat headphones.
I slumped down into the hard, plastic chair I had for the desk and opened my phone again. This time, not for the time.
I opened up my contacts and started scrolling through names in search of someone to talk to. For an extrovert, I am extremely lonely. I can't go out and distract myself too much since my midterms aren't done yet.
I scrolled past Aunt Lydia, my parents' overseas numbers, Calix, Viv, Tim, Owen, and a whole lot of numbers of people I went to high school with. Well, boredom really did strike me hard today, to be honest. To kill some time, I decided to clean out the numbers of those I rarely talk to nowadays.
I deleted numbers of teachers I had in high school and those of the kids I never really got to like. The more I went on clicking delete, the cleaner and shorter my contacts list got. It was nice.
As soon as I was nearing the end of decluttering, an unnamed number at the bottom seemed to be taking my attention the most. Among all the other contacts on my phone, that number was the only one without a name. And I was curious.
I felt my fingers slowly pace above the "call" button and I didn't know whether someone would answer. I didn't even know if the number belongs to a person or to some random eating establishment I saved.
Still, I was itching to know. Curiosity killed the cat, they say.
With a quick breath, I finally pressed "call" and put my phone up to my ear.
It rang on for a few seconds and just about the moment when I decided that this isn't worth it, someone picked up.
Someone finally picked up.
I was enthusiastic about the idea of talking to a random stranger's number I had laying around in my phone but the moment I heard the other person chuckle, I froze.
The voice from the other line was oddly familiar and I felt goosebumps resurface on my skin, prickling me. The feeling was cold, extremely cold. I wanted to hang up and forget about this whole ordeal but I can't. I was frozen.
It's him.
"Hey babe. I missed you."