Casey sat at the small desk in her dorm tapping away on her computer keys. She had 2 different textbooks laying open next to her that she continued to glance back at as she wrote. She was working on a 5 page paper that was due at noon the next day. She sighed as she dared to take the quickest of breaks to look down at the time. 4:13am. Casey sighed and her cheeks puffed out as she did.

Procrastination. It's something that never affected Casey before. Ask anybody who knew Casey before she started university and they'll tell you that she was the epitome of the perfect student. She was the kind of girl to get homework done 3 weeks before it was due and pursue every extra credit assignment offered by her teachers. Not because she ever needed the extra credit, but because she really enjoyed school that much. She thought University would be the same. Unfortunately, University changed all that. She was at the start of her sophomore year, double majoring in Political Science and Communications with a concentration in Journalism. The workload just seemed to get harder as the semesters went on. These days, she did things like sitting at her desk at 4am relentlessly typing away and praying she'd be able to get at least an hour of sleep before her first class of the day. It's not like she was procrastinating just for the fun of it – in fact, nothing stressed Casey out more. There was just so much on her plate these days that it was hard to do anything until the last possible minute. She hated the fact that things had to be this way.

She took a deep breath as she finally got to the last page a few hours later. And an even deeper sigh of relief as she typed out the very last sentence and proceeded to email it to her professor.

"Done." She whispered as she closed her computer and turned off the small lamp on the desk. She fumbled to her bed in the dark and finally closed her eyes.

She started to drift into sleep, but was interrupted only minutes later by her roommate's alarm. She groaned and pulled the covers over her head, but the alarm wouldn't stop. She threw the covers off and gave her roommate an evil glare. But she didn't even move. She just… laid there. This happened every morning. The first morning this happened, Casey was genuinely worried that she might have been dead. It took at least 3 alarms for her to wake up every morning.

Casey's roommate was Jordan Floyd. She was a psychology major who scheduled her classes at 8am every morning even though she clearly had trouble waking up. As hard as Casey tried, she would never be able to understand why. Casey tried very hard to get along with Jordan, but to her, the girl was unrelentingly annoying.

Casey jumped out of the bed in frustration and picked up her phone from the bedside table. She then grabbed her bag that laid next to the door and made sure to slam it as hard as she could as she left.

She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next. She was tired. She hadn't slept at all that night and it was now 7am. Her first class started at 10:30am. What was she supposed to do until then?

She walked down the hallway towards the elevator and looked at her phone. There were 2 texts waiting for her to answer. One was from Derek, her step-brother, and the other was from her boyfriend, Eric.

These texts were received much earlier in the night, but Casey purposefully ignored both of them in order to get her paper done. She opened the text from Derek first.

"Can u help me with this paper? I have no idea what I'm doing."

Casey smiled a bit as she opened the textbox to reply.

"What are you doing later? I can meet you tonight to figure it out."

Derek and Casey's relationship is another thing that has changed quite a bit since starting University. Derek became Casey's step-brother when they were both 15. With that being said, high school was a trying time for both of them – they constantly argued and Derek seemed to genuinely enjoy getting under Casey's skin. If you told Casey they would be going to the same University and would even enjoy hanging out quite a bit in their free time, Casey would've never stopped laughing. And yet, that's exactly how things were now. That's not to say that Derek didn't still mess with Casey – this is something he might always do, and Casey came to that understanding a long time ago. Casey mostly enjoyed hanging out with him because she always felt a little less homesick when she was with him. He was the only person that really knew the Casey that existed before University; being around Derek was like holding on to the girl that she used be.

She hit the send button and went to read the text from her boyfriend.

"I know you're busy working on your paper rn but what are you doing tmrw night? Can we go see a movie or something? I miss you…"

Casey tilted her head slightly as she texted him back. "I miss you too, Eric." She hesitated before continuing, because she wasn't sure what she was supposed to say next. She wished she'd opened his text first, because she just told Derek she'd meet him that night. She thought for a moment, and then texted back, "We can hang out later tonight after I help Derek with his paper. I'll let you know after I talk to him, k? Love you."

Finally, she put her phone in her pocket and hit the button down for the elevator; it opened almost immediately. Not really sure where she was going but knowing she had to get out of this building, she rode the elevator down to the first floor.

After aimlessly walking around campus, she quickly found herself at her favorite coffee shop. They had just opened, so there were only a few people there.

She ordered coffee and switched from using her phone and reading the book she kept in her bag throughout the rest of her time there. In that time, Eric had replied back to her text, saying that he loved her and was excited to see her later that night.

The rest of the day drug on. She tried as hard as she could to be attentive in class, but it was so hard when she was working on zero hours of sleep. Derek texted her at 1, asking if she could meet her in his dorm at 6pm. She agreed, although she did contemplate asking him if they could reschedule. In the end, she decided against it, knowing that Derek wouldn't have asked for her help if it wasn't needed.

Her last class of the day was at 4:30, so that gave her just enough time to get to her dorm and have a quick minute to herself. When it was finally time to go, she picked up her bag once more and headed off to Derek's dorm.

Derek's roommate, Johnathan, answered the door. Jonathan and Derek had been friends and roommates since the first semester of freshman year, and they also played together on the school's hockey team.

"Oh, hey Casey." He said, stepping to the side and opening the door wider so she could come in.

"Hey, Johnathan. How are you?" Casey asked, beginning to yawn as she set her bag down next to Derek, who was sitting at his desk wearing headphones. This made Derek look up, only just noticing she was here.

"Good, I was actually just getting ready to go hang out with my girlfriend. Do you guys wanna come?"

Casey was quick to answer before Derek could rope her into anything. "No. I'm actually here to help Derek with his paper."

Derek laughed as he took his headphones off and swiveled around in his chair to look at the two of them. "Don't listen to her man, she just doesn't like you."

"Der-ek!" Casey yelled as she went to pick a pillow off of Derek's unmade bed to throw at him. He dodged the pillow and picked it up off the floor to throw it back at her, laughing. Casey caught the pillow and thumped down on Derek's bed and sat with the pillow in her lap, leaning her back against the wall.

"Alright-y then." Jonathan said, obviously feeling a bit awkward, though Casey wasn't sure why. "I'll see you guys later." He said, grabbing his jacket and walking out the door.

Casey waited for Johnathan to leave before she started talking. "Alright Derek, talk to me about your paper."

Derek read her the instructions given by the professor for the paper, while Casey nodded her head and tried to listen. He stared at his computer as he went on to specifically state what about the assignment confused him. After a while, he turned to look at Casey to see what she had to say, but she clearly wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth was slightly open. The dorm was quiet, and Derek could hear nothing but her rhythmic breathing.

If Derek were younger, he would have put whipped cream in her hand and scratched her nose with a feather, or put her hand in cold water. But now, as he looked at Casey, he couldn't do anything but stare at her, despite himself. He got up and took the blanket that lay at her feet and put it over her, then walked back towards the swivel chair at his desk.

Watching her, he smiled a smile so small that if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't have seen it at all.