Vienna found her new lab partner at a table in the library basement. The building was nearly empty, as most of the university's students had not yet begun regularly revising.

"Hey," she said quietly. Pepe jumped and looked up, his eyes wide. When he realized it was her, his cheeks flushed, a slightly crooked smile on his face. "Sorry," said Vienna, a soft laugh escaping her lips. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Don't worry about it," said Pepe. He gestured to the chair across from him. "Take a seat."

"You make it sound like I've been summoned to the headmaster's office," said Vienna, though she set her bag down anyway. "Am I in trouble?"

"Depends on how bad you are at physics," joked Pepe.

Vienna opened her bag and removed her physics notebook, textbook, and pencil pouch as Pepe finished scrawling something in a notebook of his own.

"What are you working on?" asked Vienna, leaning forward to peer at his surprisingly neat handwriting.

Pepe looked up at her, his face tinged pink again. "Calculus. It's pretty easy."

Vienna rolled her eyes. "Show off. That shit is hard."

Pepe shrugged. "We all have our strengths. Hold on, let me finish this problem, then I'm all yours."

Vienna opened her textbook to the practice problems they were assigned to work on and tried to get a head start. She had barely begun to write out the first equation when she got stuck.

"Doing alright over there?" asked Pepe. He had closed his calculus notebook and removed his own physics materials from his backpack.

"I don't know," sighed Vienna. "I guess I just don't understand the conversions we're supposed to be doing."

"Can I take a look at what you have?" asked Pepe.

Vienna slid her notebook across the table to let him read her work. He nodded as he read, his dark eyebrows furrowed.

"Here," he said, passing the notebook back to her and pointing at one of her numbers with the eraser at the end of his pencil. "You need to carry the decimal over one more digit to the left."

Vienna looked at her work. "So it should be 4.23?" she asked.

Pepe beamed at her. "Exactly."

The two kept working, Pepe eventually moving his chair around to the other side of the table so they could sit closer together to more easily compare notes. Every time Vienna got lost on a problem, Pepe would explain it, his tone calm and reassuring.

"It's not as complicated as you're making it," he said gently.

Vienna leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "You say that now," she complained.

"We didn't talk about this in class, but I know a way to make the conversions easier, do you want me to show you?" asked Pepe.

"Honestly I'll take anything at this point," said Vienna. "I don't know if I'm going to survive this semester."

"That's why I'm here to help," said Pepe. "You are not going to fail this class."

With that, he launched into an explanation of his preferred method of converting measurements. He spoke slowly, and as he talked, Vienna became more aware of his slight accent. She couldn't figure out where it was from, and she wanted to ask, but he seemed really focused and she didn't want to distract him.

Vienna's phone buzzed from its place across the table, breaking their bubble of concentration.

"Can you pass me that?" she asked, as Pepe's arms were much longer than her own. Besides, it was sitting closer to him than it was to her.

"Who's Josh?" he asked as he caught a glimpse of the notification.

"Joshua," corrected Vienna. "He's my boyfriend."

"Oh."

Vienna opened her Messages app and rolled her eyes.

...

josh <3
you doing alright?
how's the studying going?

...

Vienna rolled her eyes before typing out a response.

...

enna
just fine
would be going better if you weren't distracting me
<3

josh <3
my bad, babe

...

"Sorry about that," said Vienna, setting her phone face down and redirecting her attention to Pepe.

Her phone buzzed again. Vienna debated for a few seconds on if she should answer it.

...

josh <3
how's pepe or whatever tf his name is

...

Vienna sighed and shoved her phone in her pocket without responding to the message, her lips pursed.

Pepe frowned at her. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You seem a little tense."

"I'm fine," she said. "He's just protective, that's all. He's not too keen on the idea of me studying alone with another guy. I'm not sure why, I've been with him for three years, we're kind of locked in at this point." She made a face. "That sounds bad, I do love him a lot, like more than anything, I promise."

Pepe smiled, but the expression didn't quite meet his eyes. "I see," he said softly.

"Okay, let's get back to physics," said Vienna, swiftly changing the subject before things got too awkward.

The pair continued to work, their conversations hushed until their homework was done and Vienna's understanding of physics became a little more clear. The subject never left their studies, and Vienna didn't think of her jealous boyfriend once, though her phone buzzed a few more times with texts from him.

...

an: i'm not too sure how i feel about this chapter, but that's okay. the next one will be vienna and pepe getting to know each other a little better, which should be fun to write :) i need her and joshua to break up right now but i need too practice self control. also, just a little self promo, feel free to check out my other fics, i have ones for franco colapinto and jack doohan that i am actively updating, plus fics for luke browning and ollie bearman coming this spring (plus an indycar fic with multiple ocs and love interests). one last thing, i'm trying out a new chapter header thing, idk if i'll put it on all the chapters, but i kinda like it. that's all i have for today! -willow <3