Sorry again for the delay, I have some stuff going on in my life right now and sometimes it's hard for me to update. Anyway, here's yesterday and today's chapter. Thank you again for all your comments and your support, it means the world to me! Enjoy and thanks for reading!

By the way, two characters from the books make an appearance in this chapter, but don't worry, there are no spoilers. If you haven't read them just think of them as two new characters ;)

Oh, and this chapter, the following and the others until CH11 are all linked. So yeah...stuff is about to happen ;)


Chapter 7

When the last days of finals finally arrived, Alec was completely exhausted. He had managed to score a C in his first exam, a B in his second and A's in the rest of them, but he was worried to death about his last exam. It was, by far, his hardest class, and not because the lessons were difficult or anything, it was Text Analysis after all, but the way in which each student interpreted certain content was completely subjective, and therefore, there was no way to know if what you thought of an specific text was going to be right or not.

Alec was studying with his friends Maia and Lily, both English majors like him, for their last exam. They were at Maia's room taking full advantage of the fact that her roommate was nowhere in sight.

"Why is this so hard?" Maia asked, skimming through the pages of some textbook. "When I signed for this I thought we were only supposed to read and write stuff, not make almost scientific analysis of some stupid poem written more than 200 years ago."

Alec laughed. He shared her opinion. "Well, Mrs. Peters would say that 'analyzing someone else's work is the easiest way to get a constructive opinion.'" Alec said, imitating their teacher's elderly voice.

Maia rolled her eyes, and they continued reading in silence for some time until Lily broke the silence.

"Are you guys going to attend the end of term party tomorrow?" She asked.

Maia and Alec shook their heads at the same time.

"I think we should go," Lily continued, "I mean, we have to let off some steam somehow, right? A party sounds like a good idea, it could be fun."

"They are going to eat us alive." Maia said. "Those parties are usually crammed with the «cool» majors, and I hate to break it to you, my friend, but we are not one of them. We are English majors, bookworms...we don't fit there."

"Maia is right." Alec agreed.

"I know she's right," Lily said, "and that's exactly why I think we should go; to prove everyone wrong and to show them that we are not boring creatures as they call us. To show them that we can have fun too."

Maia and Alec shared, yet again, another look.

"Listen, guys. It could be great. We could all go together as friends. Maia, you can be my date, and you Alec, can invite Lydia. That way, none of us will be alone and we can all have fun together."

"Well, it doesn't sound so bad, what do you think, Alec?" Maia asked.

"I don't know…" Alec hesitated, "parties are not really my thing."

"Neither are mine," Lily agreed, "but it could be fun, we deserve to have some fun after all this stress. I swear this «college life» is going to kill me eventually."

Alec meditated the idea for some seconds. "Okay, fine. But no drinking."

"What's the fun if we don't drink?" Maia immediately complained.

"We're not legally authorized to-" Alec was saying, but Lily interrupted him.

"So? We're young, Alec. We're supposed to be reckless and stupid. I know we are not, but maybe we could be for one night?"

"Please?" Maia begged.

"Okay, you do whatever you want just don't force me to do anything I don't want."

"You are the best!" Lily exclaimed, giving Alec a kiss on the cheek.

"You should text Lydia and ask her to go with us." Maia suggested.

"I will...when we finish studying." Alec said.

"No, Alec. You should do it right now. This studying thing is going to take us hours." Lily said, as bossy as ever.

Alec sighed and pulled out his phone, quickly texting his friend. The response arrived almost immediately.

L: Sure, sounds fun. See you guys tomorrow.

"Done." Alec announced. "She said yes. Now, can we continue studying?"

Maia chose a poem from the endless list they had there to study and started reading out loud.

"How delicious is the winning, of a kiss at love's beginning. When two mutual hearts are sighing, for the knot there's no untying! Yet remember, 'midst our wooing, Love has bliss, but Love has ruing; Other smiles may make you fickle, tears for other charms may trickle. Love he comes, and Love he tarries, just as fate or fancy carries; Longest stays, when sorest chidden; Laughs and flies, when press'd and bidden. Bind the sea to slumber stilly, bind its odour to the lily. Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver, then bind Love to last for ever. Love's a fire that need renewal, of fresh beauty for its fuel: Love's wing moults when caged and captured, only free, he soars enraptured. Can you keep the bee from ranging, or the ring-dove's neck from changing? No! Nor fetter'd Love from dying, in the knot there's no untying." ***

"So?" Maia asked.

"I don't know…" Lily said,"for me this poem is just like some sort of masculine view of love that-"

Alec paid attention for like two seconds because in that moment realization hit him. He was going to go to a party and he didn't know what to wear. Every time he had gone to some party in the past his sister, Izzy, had been the one to tell him what to wear. And his sister wasn't there with him, and worse yet, he hadn't brought anything decent to wear for a party from home. His entire closet here consisted mostly of black jeans and his ragged collection of sweaters.

"Are you, okay?" Maia asked. "You zoomed out for a second."

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Please continue you were saying, Lily, that you perceived this poem as a masculine view of love?"

"Yes," Lily said, "it's perfectly expressed, there is no mistaking in its meaning. Campbell doesn't hide from the truth. He expresses in every line what-"

Alec got lost in thought again and pulled out his phone. He was suddenly terrified about the upcoming party and he knew he had to ask for help.

A: S.O.S...I'm going to a party tomorrow night and I don't have anything to wear!

I: don't worry, big bro. Your sister will be there tomorrow after school to save the day.


***The poem is called Freedom and Love by T. Campbell.