"Hooooly shit," I groaned, wincing at the vast amount of pain that I was suddenly feeling.

     I cocked my head a bit to the right in order to have a clear view of the clock. It was 5:24 A.M., at least I thought that's what it said. My vision was a bit blurry and I had a terrible headache, which made it hard for me to focus on certain objects, such as the clock.

    "Collins, you up?" A voice whispered from above me.

     "What?"

     "Okay, that's what I thought," He sighed, reluctantly removing the sheets from himself.

I heard a small thud and then footsteps. Before I knew it, Braydon was looming over me, which caused me to panic for a moment.

     "I have this hella bad headache, man," I sighed, putting a hand on my forehead, "It feels like my throat just exploded and then some guy took a shit on it and never wiped it-"

      "You know what, I'm going to get you a cup of water. Give me a second," Braydon stated as he scurried across the room.

     My eyelids were heavy and it felt like everything around me was spinning. Out of the blue, my stomach churned and I turned over on to my side and puked.

    "You got to be kidding me," Braydon sighed in disgrace, setting the cup of water on the counter, "Remind me why I decided to bring you?"

~

I woke up with sweat beading down my face. Panting, I sat up instantaneously, attempting to figure out why I had woke up in a puddle of my own perspiration. Once my eyes had adjusted to the light, I looked at the clock which read 10 A.M. My eyes widened and I pulled the sheet off of my body, revealing the clothes I was wearing last night. Right as the previous night's happenings reoccurred in my head, an excruciating pain surmounted my head once I sat up. My shoes were off, but my socks were still on along with my jeans and shirt. Then it occurred to me that it was not only a weekday, but I had missed two and a half periods already. Despite my headache, I hurriedly slipped on my adidas sneakers, grabbed my backpack, and sprinted out of the dorm.

Fortunately, my Calculus teacher was not in the middle of a lecture, so I could knock on the door without having the possibility of getting in trouble.

My professor stood up from her chair and strutted over to the door. She opened it and was immediately expecting an explanation for my tardiness.

"I apologize, I slept late, and I woke up with this absolutely awful headache." I stated, swiftly making way through the rows of desks in order to get to mine.

"Mr. Collins, you are excluded this once, one more time and expect to be marked down."

I obliged and sat down next to a stranger. I had no friends or acquaintances in the class, which was a bummer, but being late to class sent a bad message to the teacher and classmates.

"Damn, what were you up to last night?" The guy next to me asked with a small laugh.

"Uh, well, I went to a party with Braydon," I sighed, rubbing my temples.

  "The Braydon McCoy?" He replied, emphasizing "the."

"Sadly, yes."

   He offered me a strange look in response.

          "No offense, but you look like you haven't slept in ten days. Just go back to you dorm and sleep, dude," He stated, still not looking me straight in the eyes.

      For some reason, a pet peeve of mine was when I was talking with someone and they did not make eye contact. I did not know why, but it had always irritated me.

      I grunted in distress, "I'm not missing any more of class. I screwed up enough."

     The guy shrugged and turned to the teacher.

     ~

      I did not feel like eating in the cafeteria, so I snuck back to the dorm instead. A part of me was aching to talk to Mikayla, but then another part of me wanted to speak with Reese. With lots of thought, I decided to talk to Mikayla. After all, it was about time she updated me on the kids.

     Me:
hey, what's new with you and the kids? I miss you.

  Mikayla:
Not much, just listening to some Madonna. Heard one of her songs in the car and now I'm addicted.
The kids are great. Cameron is currently outside playing tag with a neighbor and Rose is napping.

Me:
haha, and sounds fun. Can't wait to come home. Only two more months until I have a four day weekend.

Mikayla:
Thank God. The kids and I miss you so much.
Hey, Cam's conferences for school are next week at 5:00. Can you make it?

Me:
Yeah.

Mikayla:
awesome! I'll see you then!❤️

Reading the heart emoji really got me pondering. Sometimes I never knew if Mikayla and I are a "thing" or not. I believe that is something I would have to determine myself.

"Aris?" A voice called from the hallway.

I quickly shoved my phone underneath my calculus book nonchalantly. I turned to see it was only Reese. She was stunning today, her hair was up in a messy bun, that was perfect despite the name, and she wore a lavender skin tight v-neck shirt.

"The door is open, come in."

Thankfully, the pills I took this morning helped rid the headache, so I was in a better mood.

"Hey. . ." She started, hoping I could carry on the conversation.

I was silent, trying to urge her to continue it instead. After all, we had not talked to each other since the incident the other day.

"So, we have not really talked about what happened last time we hung out," She said, "I think we should talk about it."

"I mean, sure," I replied, "For starters, I shouldn't have kissed you, I just felt... such an urge to. I mean you looked gorgeous and what we were talking about resulted in us to both fall deep into our thoughts-"

Unexpectedly, Reese leaned in and kissed me. A powerful sensation rushed through my body as our lips made contact. Her hands ran through my hair and my hands wrapped around her waist. I stood up and she lead me to the bed and before I could speak, she had taken off her shirt. I was too hypnotized and my lips seemed to shut tightly, as though they had been glued together. She gazed into my eyes and I looked into hers. Then, reality hit me and instantly, I came cognizant of where this was heading.

"Oh, God," I sighed, stifling a laugh, "I can't, I just..."

"What do you mean?" She asked in between breaths.

       "I kind of have a girlfriend." I spat, instantaneously scolding myself for allowing my mouth to work faster than my brain.

        It took me a moment to process what exactly I had said, but by the look on Reese's face indicated that it was not a good thing.

       "What the hell?" Reese said incredulously, exchanging glances between her clothes and me, "So, what is this then? Some kind of fling?"

    "What-well-Goddammit," I groaned, trying to fully process what was happening in this very unexpected conversation.

     "I just risked my education here just to sneak in your damn dorm and now you are telling me this spark between us was fake? I cannot believe I fell for you, I knew it would be too good to be true."

Ouch.

She slipped on her shirt and rushed out of the room, without considering the fact she had a 50/50 chance of being caught. After she had left, Braydon casually strolled in.

"What. The. Hell. Just. Happened?" Braydon asked, his eyebrows burrowed, "Did I just see Reese Sadjak just walk out of this room?"

"Can we just ignore that... please?"

"Okay, first off, you are still high as heck. The last thing you should be doing is-"

     "We didn't do anything," I interjected, "I stopped it."

"You realize I could go and report this," He added, raising an eyebrow, implying his consideration.

"Don't be a dick," I retorted, ignoring his glance.

"Hey, I don't even bring girls in here!" Braydon added with a laugh.

"I didn't-"

"Don't sweat it." He concluded, strolling out of the room.

I sighed and pulled out my phone from beneath my calculus textbook. So much had happened in just ten minutes and I was feeling both stressed and relieved as a result.

   How was I supposed to tell Mikayla about my relationship with Reese? After all, Reese was quite aware that I had one with someone else.

~

Finally, the school day had come to a conclusion. I walked back to the dorm with extra power in my stride. I had a lot to accomplish in the next hour before Brayden would arrive from basketball. I unlocked the door and threw my backpack against the doorframe. I slid off of my shoes and flew myself onto my bed. This day had been extremely mind-boggling and emotionally stressful.

Before I could officially let myself relax, I needed to call Mikayla and talk to her about everything that's been going on. I did not want to, but I knew I had to. I reluctantly grabbed my phone and slowly tapped her number in. Then, I put my phone against my ear, listening to it ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mikayla." I smiled at the sound of her voice.

"Oh, hey. You realize we were texting only a few hours ago and you rarely call me. Is everything okay?" She inquired.

I could catch the faintest glimpse of a tremble in her voice.

"Well, I have been meaning to talk to you about something," I began.

"Oh God, is this a I-need-to-grab-a-bowl-of-ice-cream kind of talk?"

"Errrr," I groaned, "maybe?"

"Okay, well stop leaving me in suspense and just tell me!" She scolded, eager for an explanation.

"So, there's this girl named, Reese, that I met a little while ago on campus."

"Okay..."

I could tell she knew where this conversation was heading.

"We have been hanging out quite frequently, and the other day she informed of something that I would have never known about, which caused a lot of unexpected emotion to be included. She was just so sad and I kissed her."

Mikayla's end of the line was dead silent.

"Aris, you realize that we aren't officially in a relationship right?"

"Yes, but we have a special bond that could ultimately result in something to turn into a relationship, you know? Look, I just thought it was the right thing to tell you about what has been going on."

"I understand, and I love you in a way that I am really unsure. We have a more intimate connection, nevertheless, we do have two kids."

"That is true." I replied.

"So, since we are talking about this, there is something I need to tell you too."

~

AN// I wanted to go to sleep like somewhat early tonight because I have school, but it was worth staying up. I'm glad I was finally able to get a chapter out and I'm hoping to get another one out maybe late this month or December. To make this quick, I want to thank you all for 4k reads! I feel as though just yesterday I hit 3k. I love you all, and if you've read this far, you're a real one.
~SDS💗