Athena
"Owen has weird socks." I said as I let myself laugh out loud with Maya.
I wasn't the least bit surprised when Maya spat out her caramel latte out onto the table and some of it landed near my cup of matcha.
In the end, we both were laughing as hard as candy could get.
"Weird socks?" she asked, looking at me disbelievingly as she took some tissue and wiped down the table.
I grinned and took a sip from my matcha and leaned in towards her.
"He has Dobby socks. DOBBY THE HOUSE ELF. And the guy's EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD." I said, still in awe that the guy I fell in love with has a ridiculous pair of socks. I haven't even snuck around his things that much but I assume Owen has more weird socks hidden somewhere in his room back home.
Maya chuckled and shook her head. Her eyes crinkled at the corners and the sunlight off the window hit her side profile kinda aesthetically.
After a good run and the feeding of possibly poisonous cookies to some birds on campus, we decided to cool off in a nearby cafe just around the corner.
We sat by the window, just good enough to see the gates of the university by a small inch.
"I think it's adorable he has Dobby socks. Dobby's cute!" she said enthusiastically with a small smile planted on her lips.
I snorted and shook my head at her.
"You know who's cute? Cedric Diggory. Robert Pattinson was hella fine doing Harry Potter and I have no idea why the hell he pursued that vampire movie." I said, rolling my eyes.
Maya laughed and hearing her laugh always lifted something off my chest.
She really was nice and she kinda reminded me of Viv. I missed her terribly. After graduation, she moved back to London to pursue something pre-law. Tim on the other hand, ended up in NYU for business.
Going back, Maya cocked her head to the side and pulled back her hair to tie it more neatly than before.
"Whaty wrong with Twilight? Don't you like seeing half naked werewolves and pale-bodied guys with six packs and fangs?"
I felt myself laughing as soon as she mentioned the werewolves and I couldn't help but spit out some matcha on the table as well. Maya and I stared at the pale green concoction splattered on the table before she snorted and we laughed again.
I took a tissue from a small dispenser on the table and wiped my traces of DNA mixed with matcha goodness off the table as we both laughed and stared at each other.
"Maya! Why did you do this to me?" I asked laughingly.
She kept smiling hugely and shrugged.
"I don't know! Aren't half naked guys and pale dudes hot enough to spit on?"
As I finished off wiping the table, we laughed again and I was nearly sent to tears.
"You are one DIRTY girl. You can't be friends with Owen, then." I said smilingly before I put on a serious look on my face.
Maya looked at me disbelievingly and scoffed. She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.
"And there goes my chance making out with a real life vampire."
We both stared at each other seriously before I felt my chest go all giddy and I snorted a little before going on a full blown laugh-athon. Maya eventually caught on and laughed as well.
"Owen's not a vampire! Does he really look THAT pale?" I said, still laughing so hard, my stomach was hurting.
"I'M SORRY! His whole aura screams the Cullens to me."
"I thought he gives off Timothee Chalamet vibes? He is NOT Edward Cullen from Twilight. That guy's too pale."
Maya shrugged and sipped her latte.
"I don't know about you but I think Owen's a Cullen. Periodt."
"He's Walmart Chalamet. Nothing's gonna change my mind on that."
"Unless you take off his shirt and see how pale he is." she asked, raising her brows.
I smiled and shook my head.
"No way. I don't want to randomly take off his shirt and weird out the guy. He says he's still working on his abs! Kinda tricky since he sucks at pull ups on his chair during physical therapy."
Maya and I eventually quieted down after being given bad looks by the other people inside the cafe and we both looked at each other with the same snazzy look on our eyes.
We sipped our lattes and stared out the window in silence, only to have it broken by Maya's sighs.
"What's it like?" she asked.
I raised a brow at her confusingly and put down my cup.
"What's like what?"
Maya smiled and shook her head as she looked out the window and onto the passerbys on the other side of the glass.
"What's it like to be with him? With Owen?"
I was at loss for words for a brief moment before shrugging it off with a small sip of matcha.
"If you mean dating someone in a wheelchair--, I don't exactly know." I admitted.
I didn't even think of this straight. Being around Owen these past years made things between us seem so natural yet to others, it seemed as if I had some care taking to do.
I don't even take care of him, even. I occasionally punch his arm lightly or slap his leg and that's the end of it. Owen can take care of himself and it was given that time he was sick and I didn't have a clue on what to do.
"Why?" Maya asked as she leaned towards me. She was close enough for me to see her individual strands of dark, raven hair fall messily out of her high ponytail.
I shrugged and smiled subtly at her, trying to copy Owen's signature small smiles.
"It's like, when you know someone for quite some time, you kinda tend to forget whatever made him different. He's pretty average for a guy. But his LOOKS, oh god, that boy is just plain hot. Nerdy hot. And I didn't even think of his looks at first!"
Maya nodded and smiled.
"He's probably the most good looking guy I've seen on campus. Have you even seen the engineering guys?" she said as she rolled her eyes and shot me a look of disgust.
I shook my head and gave her a tight lipped smile.
"Nope. What's wrong with them? Don't they just look like any other guy?"
Maya widened her eyes and leaned back in her chair.
"They're a bunch of pervs. Weird ones too. Hopefully, guys in Biochemistry are better." she said.
I couldn't help but choke on my own saliva as soon as I heard Biochemistry and I shot her a look of surprise.
"Biochem? YOU? Seriously?" I asked in disbelief.
Owen's not gonna believe this.
Maya nodded and smiled.
"Yeah. Kinda wanted to go for something related to research. Why'd you ask?"
I widened my eyes and smiled hugely at her.
What a lucky duck.
"Owen's in Biochemistry too! Why do you attractive people take something as confusing as biology mixed with chemistry?"
Maya stifled a laugh and shook her head.
"Lucky me, I guess. Also, you find me attractive?" she asked, raising a thin brow.
I shrugged and rested my head onto the glass beside me.
"Everyone of you's attractive except me. Do you think there would even be guys in Psychology? Who are straight?"
Maya looked at me with a playful, shocked expression and slapped my hand lightly.
"Athena! You have a boyfriend! What's the guys in your major gonna do on your road to med school?"
I laughed and shook my head.
"There needs to be some sort of class clown. I don't want to question the existence of everything without someone breaking the silence by farting."
"So you think girls can't pull off something as heinous as a fart?" she asked laughingly.
"Well, it's not that I'm implying we girls are too immaculate to fart out loud but what I'm saying is,-- boys are funnier."
"True that."
Maya and I laughed our heads off again and eventually, we decided to leave the cafe and head back to campus.
Walking ever so slowly with our lattes in hand, I savored the soft, August breeze on my skin and inhaled.
"So, do you fart?"
Maya snorted and I think she choked a little before she laughed. She turned her head to look at me and I found it kinda convenient since we were about the same height. But this time, I was the one who was taller.
"ATHENA! Quit it with the farts! Is that how you even flirt with guys?" Maya said with a huge smile on her face.
I smirked and shrugged as we kept walking. We were a few meters away from the gate and later on, we were back on campus.
"I wouldn't exactly say that's how I flirt but if you want to get a guy, throw on every punch of humor you can give him. He's gonna worship you the same way the rest of the guys worship Vine."
Maya shook her head and sighed.
"You think?" she said, looking at me as we passed some few buildings where students pooled out on the grass, did some stupid college shit and talked loudly with their friends.
I grinned at her and cocked my head to the side.
"Of course. You're cool. Guys just love cool girls." I swooned.
Maya gave me a weird look and scoffed.
"Not as cool as you are."
I smiled at Maya and sighed, stopping in my tracks until Maya turned to me confusingly and stopped as well.
"Now, how about I teach you every bad joke I know in your room as we do some 'girl talk'?"
---------
It was past three in the afternoon now and Maya and I were still laughing our asses off over random stories we had in store for each other. At this point, she was practically the other person next to Owen who I don't mind sharing some embarrassing story about my cringey childhood shit or my chaotic friend group.
Old Taylor Swift songs were blasting loudly from her Spotify and we were both giggling and jumping all over her room, cautiously avoiding her potted plants.
"Athena! You've GOT to check this out!" Maya said smilingly as she peered over her window and urged me to come over with a wave of her hand.
"What?" I asked, walking over giddily to the window.
Outside the window were guys.
HOT guys.
I looked over at Maya and her eyes had never looked so hungry and full at the same time.
I shook my head and slung an arm over her.
"I call dibs on the brunette." I whispered.
Maya looked at me like I was crazy and laughed, walking away to get a pillow from her bed until she threw it at me and giggled.
"YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND. GET OVER IT." She screamed.
I laughed and threw the pillow back at her and chased her around her room. We looked like a pair of middle schoolers who had just been allowed over for a sleepover but I didn't care.
Maya was nice and my first impression of her was wrong after all.
She's such a small cinnamon roll.
"YOU LIKE MY BOYFRIEND. YOU GET OVER IT." I replied back, laughingly.
Maya squealed as the pillow hit her and she threw it back at me with a huge grin on her face.
"I JUST FIND HIM HANDSOME. IT'S NOT LIKE I LIKE HIM, OKAY."
I threw the pillows back at her.
"YEP. YOU LIKE HIM, ALRIGHT."
"NO WAY."
Maya and I ran all over her room and once she looked exhausted enough, she slumped down onto the carpeted floor and laid there.
I laid down too beside her and laughed.
"You have a crush on Owen." I said in a sing-song manner.
Maya turned her head and scoffed at me.
"In your dreams. You have a crush on every gorgeous person you see. Especially brunettes." she giggled, looking all smug with a small, sly smile on her face.
I rolled my eyes and scoffed.
"So? I already date one."
Maya laughed with the corner of her eyes crinkling and her left dimple was showing. Even up close her skin was flawless.
"You are unbelievable. No wonder people like you." she admitted.
I looked away from her to stare back at her plain white ceiling. Little green vines popped up here and there as I looked straight and just had a small smile on my face.
"I just hope that's the truth. Now, about farts,"
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Hi everyone! Okay, so this took longer to write than others because I don't exactly have a concrete plan of this Maya-Athena friendship thing and college entrance exams yallâ¨
Oh god, I'm so anxious for uni and applications start next week for one of those schools I kinda want to go to. I've been working my ass off studying with all these late nighters and I don't think I'm smart enough to apply for those schools I really wanna go to since most of them are like, my country's version of Ivy League schools. They are TOP TIER and my dumbass just can't with these.
Going back to the story, I apologize. Again. I know I apologize for a lot of things here and I'm here to address the delays in chapter updates. It's just hard trying to find that perfect moment of writing inspiration that does NOT fuck up my study schedule. Funny thing, when I actually have free time, I don't feel like writing but when I'm busy as HELL, those are prolly the moments where I think of ideas for this story. Sorry bout that! With online school coming up in 2 weeks and keeping up with my college review classes, updates are gonna be pretty slow from this point on.
Thanks for keeping up with my inconsistent updates guys! I won't let you down any time soon. I love yall to PIECES and I appreciate every form of support you guys show to this story!
LOVELOTS!
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