Just Another Day
"I have just one hour today," says Tyson, doing a happy little dance.
"Me too!" announces Max. They high five.
The weather is so bad, the campus is shrouded in darkness and the lights in the building are all switched on.
A lone bulb above the window Max is sitting on illuminates the dim stairway.
"How's Kenny?" asks Tyson. "Those girls still harassing him?"
"No, I think they've left him alone. He hasn't mentioned anything about it in a while."
"Keep an eye on him. He might be keeping it to himself."
"I don't think so. He seems...happier lately."
Tyson's eyes widen. "Yeah? Any idea why? Is there a special someone behind the joy this time or is it another project again?"
"I'm pretty sure it's another exciting new project."
Tyson snickers, leaning against the wall. He has Shapiro at 09:00 and the rest of the day off. There's an essay he has to submit before six in the evening. He also has to talk with Robert about the shower problem and the pen drive today. It completely slipped his mind after the news of Julia's birthday party yesterday.
He lights up when he remembers the text conversation he had with Mariam last night.
"Mariam wants to meet up for some ice-cream later," he tells Max with a sly grin.
"She proposed?" His friend's eyes brighten.
"Yeah"
"Oh" he says thoughtfully, "I guess you're the only one who senses a lack of chemistry."
Tyson rolls his eyes. "I'm not saying we're completely incompatible. I wanna give it one more shot. See how the date goes."
"And if it goes well?" teases Max.
"Then I guess I'll finally have a new girlfriend." Jesus, it's been nine months since he last kissed someone.
"Are you planning to kiss her today?" his friend asks as if he read his mind.
"If I feel like it." Tyson smiles, looking forward to 5 p.m. Max grins.
Hilary joins them near the window, sweeping up like the wind. "Who do you think it is?" she asks them, her eyes searching for something in the courtyard below.
"Hey, Hils," Tyson greets.
"Heyyy. What are you talking about?" Max frowns lightly.
Hilary seems weirdly excited and out of breath for such an early hour. It's only 08:55. "Haven't you read the latest post from TCS?"
"I don't follow them," replies Max.
Tyson extracts his phone from his pocket. What's going on now? Who is under fire today?
Hilary saves him the trouble of opening his twitter and scrolling through his feed by catching them up to the daily gossip herself. "Kai likes someone. This girl who works off hours in the Student Union building overheard the Blitzkriegs talking in the lobby. She understands a little bit of Russian. According to her, Kai asked someone out a couple days ago and she said no. To his face."
Tyson freezes.
Max's jaw drops. "For real?"
"Yeah" Hilary nods. "I cannot believe her gall. Apparently, he was super surprised, and even a bit offended, so he saw her as a conquest and went after her. Determined to win her over."
"Did he get her?" Max asks, intrigued.
"Of course he did. She said yes last night. They have a date tomorrow."
Tyson has trouble breathing. He turns to the window, opening it. Hilary pokes her head out. A predator on the hunt. "Who do you think it is?" she muses. "It's probably some goody-two-shoes second year with dark hair and a model bod. That's his type anyway."
Fuck
He rests his head on the wall behind him. They already know. Thank god that girl didn't know the basics of the Russian language and confused the pronouns. Because if she hadn't, Tyson would be dead right now. And Kai's reputation flushed down the drain. He might have survived. But Tyson would have been dead dead.
This just shows how stupid he was to have even considered going out with him. Kai's always under scrutiny in this campus. And even outside campus. What the hell is Tyson doing getting involved with someone like that? He cannot have another scandal happen. He'll lose all his friends. May be not all, but he will definitely lose Hilary.
He's not worth half the trouble he brings, Tyson realizes. He cannot cancel on him because that would just bring them back to square one. He needs to get that date over and done with. Then it's goodbye forever. No more Kai. No more lying and sneaking around.
Tyson takes a deep breath. Wishing it was Saturday already.
Hilary's picking out possible candidates from the quad, Max nodding or shaking his head to each pick.
"I don't think you can find her," says Tyson. "There are too many girls."
"No. There aren't many that satisfies all his criteria."
Oh god
"Don't you think you're obsessing over him again?"
"I'm not obsessing over him," she disagrees coldly, "I just want to know who he considers smart and pretty and interesting enough for him."
Tyson's face falls, his gaze dropping to the floor. He glances out the window, at all the beautiful girls Kai could have gone for instead of him.
He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it at all.
He still thinks it's some kind of twisted prank.
The bell rings. "I should get to class." Max jumps off the ledge.
Hilary straightens with an exhale. "I will find her." She shoots Tyson a smile.
"Good luck with that," Max grumbles, heading upstairs.
Tyson tilts his head at her.
"I'm not obsessing," she insists, "I promise."
"You haven't been eating much lately. You're cutting carbs out of your diet. Don't think I can't see you."
Hilary rolls her eyes. "I never ate carbs anyway."
"Since when?" They turn to climb up the steps. "I've known since you we were in kindergarten. You love rice."
"I hate rice."
"Bullshit"
The air is filled with the call of seagulls and the sound of waves crashing on the shore.
Tyson eats his icecream as the sun plays hide and seek in the sky. Mariam's hand clutched loosely in his.
He's eating strawberry. She chocolate.
They walk along the beach enjoying the brief warmth of the sun when it shows and the cool breeze.
"I don't get why society only wants us to become one thing," she's saying, "when I can be many things at once."
"Like?"
"Like I'm studying to be a marine biologist, but I also love birds. I'd like to be an avian vet and help those poor guys out too. I have a bunch of other professions on my list." Tyson chuckles. "Just a couple centuries ago..."
Mariam's an incredible good human being. She's one of those guilty rich people who are always trying to get rid of their wealth in the best way possible. She donates to several charities annually, to a bunch of different causes. When she graduates, she has a thoroughly detailed plan to save the sharks in the oceans.
She could be the perfect girlfriend.
Yet Tyson has only lukewarm feelings towards her.
They sit on a bench, to rest their legs for a minute. Tyson licks his icecream, smearing some on the side of his mouth.
Mariam stares at him for a moment, before leaning forward all of a sudden and wiping the cream off his face with a swipe of her tongue.
Tyson stills.
Taken aback.
Then he lets out an awkward, slightly surprised laugh.
Mariam smiles, expecting him to kiss her.
Tyson's gaze falls to her lips. He feels the opposite of what he hoped to feel.
He returns her smile. And does not kiss her.
May be Mariah did break him after all.
Tyson's hurriedly typing out his essay. He's overdue. Again. For fuck's sake.
His spine is ramrod straight. His ass is sweating through the chair. Max has the stand fan on full blast, and he's in a jersey and boxers, but the stress has him leaking through his pores like he's in the sahara desert.
"You have five minutes left," Max informs him, eyeing the clock on the wall.
Eeesh. His professor allowed him another two hours but he's about to cross that mark too.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck" he curses under his breath as he types the closing para.
He fills it with the usual crap. Tweaking a few keywords here and there.
He finishes his essay with 1.5 seconds left to spare. "Aha! Done!" He hits send.
The door bangs open. "Yo!" Michael appears in the doorway, a paper in his hand. "The Student Union responded. Look at this shit." Tyson had talked to Robert earlier. Raising the issue of the broken showers in the dorm. Rob had advised him to file a written complaint to the Union, which he agreed to hand over to Tala personally. Michael's eyes are on the paper. He looks like he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry as he reads it out loud. "'The Union recalls the showers had been fixed less than six months ago and hence holds the inhabitants of the dorm responsible for the recent damages caused to the same owing to their careless and aggressive use of the dorm facilities.'" Michael snaps the paper in the air. "Not only are they blaming us for their shitty ass shower heads breaking again, they want us to pay them for the repairs."
"What? That's so unfair." Tyson gets up from his chair, to go read the statement himself.
"Look at Rei!" Michael points to the adjacent room.
Tyson takes a peek. The man's sitting slouched in a chair, in nothing but a vest and boxers, a towel hanging from his neck.
"He's been trying to take a shower since today afternoon," wails Michael. "It's eight!"
Rei looks up at Tyson and Max peering in from the hall. "They're fully packed," he explains with a shrug. "Some of them are doing their laundry in there."
Tyson plucks the paper from Mike's grasp. Max reads over his shoulder.
"That's because you're a nice guy." Rick walks into his room, wearing only a pair of white boxer shorts with red hearts on his ass. "Nice guys always finish last. You should take those guns of yours and scare all the freshmen out of there."
"They're not freshmen," argues Rei. "They're third and fourth years. I can't even raise my voice against them or I'll get spit roasted."
"I heard they're sharing showers now," says Eddie, leaning against the doorjamb.
"We need to do something about this," Tyson says, approaching Rei's desk. The guys in the hall follow. He lays the paper on the table. "The showers broke because they were cheap."
"I'd like to see the actual amount of money they spent on the repairs. Because the amount they've shown in the paper is a complete lie."
"It's fraudulence," rumbles Rick.
Several other second years on the floor, enter the room or hover near the door when they hear the raised voices.
Kiki comes up to the table, squeezing in between Max and Tyson to reach the paper. "What the fuck?" he says in his high pitched nasally voice when he reads it. "Ex-the-fucking-cuse me? They want us to pay fine?"
"What's Tala on these days?" huffs Eddie.
"It's completely unfair," declares Tyson. "We're already paying them thousands for the dorm. The money for the showers are included in that. We can't just sit back and let them pull this shit on us. We have to protest."
"When?" asks Michael, his arms folded over his chest. "Tomorrow?"
"No," he says, thinking. "We need time to gather enough guys. How about Monday?"
"Yeah. Monday works," Rei nods approvingly.
"I'll let all the floors know by then," agrees Max.
"Do you think they'll come?" asks Rick suddenly, doubt on his countenance.
"Well, it's a matter that concerns the entire dorm," argues Michael. "This floor has the biggest number of broken showers but I'm sure there are others breaking all over the building."
Tyson picks up the paper and rolls it like a scroll. "Front office. 9 a.m. Monday?"
Everyone responds in support of the plan.
Friday evening, Tyson stands in front of the bathroom mirror after a shower. He has a light trickle of hair along his jaw and upper lip. Super light. You won't see it unless you're standing close to him but at the same time, it gives him a shabby appearance.
May be he should go looking like he didn't give two shits about the date.
Because he doesn't. He really doesn't care. He just wants to get Kai off his back.
He can't wait to get this date over with.
He checks the time again. 07:40 p.m. There's a piece of paper stuck on the tile next to the mirror with a famous quote on it. Tyson's eyes fall upon it. 'Be kind. Every person you meet is fighting a great battle you know nothing about.'
He stares at the words. His heart thudding softly in his chest.
Tyson looks back at himself in the mirror. Then picks up the razor.
He shaves.
Back in the room, he throws the age-old shirt and pants he was planning to wear and chooses a fairly new black t shirt and jeans.
He combs his hair. Styles it to the side with gel. Rubs his hands and the sides of his neck with cream and sprays cologne over himself.
When he raises his eyes to his reflection again. He looks like he's going on a date.
Tyson's sitting on the bed, pulling on his socks, when Max walks in.
"Wh-" He gapes. "Where are you going?" The door shuts behind him.
Tyson doesn't answer right away.
"Are you going on another date?" asks Max, taking in the mess of clothes on the bed Tyson had pulled out while searching through the closet earlier. "With Mariam?"
Tyson rolls his jeans over the socks to his feet and begins tugging on his best boots. "No" he says at last. There's a beat. "Not with her."
Max's mouth makes an 'O' shape. His eyes go to something on the bed again. Tyson follows his gaze. It's the box of chocolates Kai had sent earlier. Fuck.
Max was the one who received the package from the delivery boy. He knows who it's from. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Tyson about it though.
He senses the shock in the air when his friend puts two and two together. "Oh my god" he gasps suddenly. "It's you, isn't it?" he asks Tyson, gawking at him with wild eyes.
There's no point denying it. He doesn't want to lie anyway. What's the harm? He nods quietly.
"Fuck" Max loses his mind. Tyson suppresses a grin at his reaction. "Holy fuck!" He puts his head in his hands. Staring at Tyson. He starts pacing the room. "Oh my god, it's you! The girl Hilary was talking about was you! Fuck. You're not even a girl."
Tyson stands up after lacing his boots. He checks the time. It's almost eight.
"I gotta go."
Max looks up from his hands. "I have so many questions. I'm going to kill you when you come back, but uh.." he looks at him up and down. "You look good. Have fun."
"Thanks" He opens the door, stepping out. "I won't" he mutters, shutting it behind him.
A/N: I know it's short, but the date is coming and it's coming soon.
