"Jesus Christ. Send help."

The guy in the red beret was unbelievably non-fancy.

"Is that a prayer I'm hearing? Why don't you pray for me too?" I asked, half-joking.

The boy gave me a side-eye, looking almost annoyed. After I sighed and turned back to face my assigned monitor, I noticed him still staring at me through his fancy glasses.

"Ok dude, quit staring. I'm sorry I talked, ok? The exam hasn't even begun so no one's gonna say anything," I said, turning to properly face him.

I could see his eyes crinkle into a smile, a muffled chuckle through his mask.

"That's alright. And you should really pray for yourself. Never trust middle-men," he said.

It was my turn to laugh now. "Oh, I'm an atheist. And I'm pretty well prepared for this exam, so I don't need luck," I proclaimed, proudly.

He moved his mask to his chin and gave me a mysterious smile.

"You don't really know that, do you?" he asked, almost menacingly.

"The hell, man?" I laughed, trying to shake the freshly brewed self doubt the smiling, praying piece of trash had instilled. "Now I get why you need prayers."

"Why?" he asked, looking genuinely curious.

"Because you think you need them."

"No. I believe I need them," he replied.

Not even gonna lie, I was getting tired of talking to him. Just too much passive-aggressive, mixed comments which were absolute crap.

"Well, good for you. All the best," I said, preparing to sleep for the rest of the time before the exam.

"I didn't study for the past week, you know? So I'm just kinda... shooting my shot, at this point," he continued.

"Hmm," I hummed in understanding, already leaning my head against the table, mask knotted around my index finger. Everyone else at the exam centre didn't seem to care anyway.

Unfortunately, I couldn't resist responding. "I mean, I didn't either. If it makes you feel any better. I've heard it's some kind of a strategy?"

"Yeah," he laughed, taking his mask off as well. "A bad one."

I could feel my confidence cracking, so I said nothing. While the truth is that I was just too lazy and demotivated to study on the weeks before the exam, it would hurt my pride even more to admit that I didn't really believe I could pass it.

"Well it's different for everyone, I guess. No use thinking of that now," I said.

"I agree," he replied, laying his head down too. "Good luck."

"Yeah, you too," I said, closing my eyes.

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