The rest of work goes by quickly, and I head home, stopping first by the grocery store. I have a few hours before class begins, so I clean the kitchen and living room. The apartment manager said they cleaned the place up before I moved in, but it still feels like it needs a little TLC.

After I finish cleaning, I eat a quick bite and get ready for class. I throw a spiral notebook and a couple of pens in my backpack along with a few snacks. Then I leave for class.

The parking lot is already full, and I park ridiculously far away from the building. It’s okay, though. I don’t mind walking. I let out a few breaths before stepping out of the car, because I know I’ll be seeing Nico.

I haven’t been to the campus, so I’m not exactly sure where to go. But, I easily find the building. Then I roam around before, finally, locating the room number that I need.

Glancing at my phone, I see I’m about ten minutes early. There are already a few people sitting in class. My chest gets that funny feeling when I find Nico already sitting in a seat. He looks like he’s consumed by a book that he’s currently reading, and he has his earbuds in. Looking cuter than ever.

I can bet anything that he’s listening to classical music. He always tended to do that. Anytime I read, it has to be in complete silence. I can’t read at school, a coffee shop, or anywhere that has the slightest bit of noise.              

I walk toward where he’s seated and think to myself maybe I should sit somewhere else, but I want to mend our friendship. I’m not sure if he wants to, but I want to at least say that I tried.

Nico is lost in his own head with his book in one hand, and his other hand playing a symphony against his leg when I stand next to him.

Grabbing hold of one of his earbuds, I place it against my ear, and I can hear an orchestra. I’m not good at identifying what instruments they are, but it’s classical. “I knew it!”

He gives me a quizzical look. “What?”

Removing my backpack from my shoulders, I plop it down on the floor and take a seat. “I knew you were listening to classical music. Every time I saw you studying or reading, you were always listening to it.”

Nico puts the book away and pulls out his one remaining earbud. “I can’t help it that the sounds help me concentrate.”

I tried it one time when I was at his house studying for a test, and I gave up after about three minutes. All I kept hearing were pulsating knocks, and it wasn’t working one bit.

“How was work?” I ask. I’m trying to make conversation.

“I came straight here after I got off—it was all right. Ever since Violet left, I’ve had to do a lot. She always looked like she had nothing to do and made it look so easy.” She did make it look effortless. Most of the time she was drawing in the office, but still managed to get everything done.

I lean over and unzip my backpack to drag out the notebook and pen that I brought. “I think she was good at multitasking. Either that or she had a little magical person sitting around doing all her work.”

 “You know, I can see that,” he chuckles.

“How is she liking New York?”

Both of his auburn eyebrows shoot up against his forehead. “How did you know that she moved to New York?”

Crap. Do I lie? Do I tell him the truth? I don’t feel like it’s a big deal now. “Well, I saw her about a year ago, and she told me about New York.”

Nico’s lips purse together, and his forehead wrinkles from his surprised expression. “She never told me about this.”

I’m about to answer when the teacher walks in and saves the day. The class is full, and I somehow missed everyone coming into the classroom and taking their seats.

The teacher, Mr. Hendricks, begins passing out the syllabus for the summer session. I catch myself rubbing my hands together in anticipation to see what the movie list is going to be, and I stop doing this strange movement.

Mr. Hendricks looks old. He not only looks old but is old, like in his seventies. He’s wearing an old suit, and I’m straining to see what is on his tie. When he gets close enough, I notice that the white spots are ducks on his tie. Interesting.

He hands me a green sheet of paper. I scan through it and immediately slouch in my chair.

“Disappointed?” Nico whispers.

“Yes! I have never heard of any of this stuff before,” I whisper back.

I know a lot of movies because when I was in junior high, Jessie and I got into a big movie phase. When we took turns spending the weekends at each other’s houses, we would do a different theme each month.

We did the eighties, romantic comedies, horror, indies, comic book, you name it. Then when Dad started getting sick and spent most of his weekends at home, we watched more movies then. Even if I haven’t seen the movies, I have usually heard the name. Not on this list, though.

Mr. Hendricks walks back up to the front. His voice is pure monotone, and his first few sentences are putting me to sleep. The class does seem easy, and we only meet two nights a week. The first day of the week is the movie. The next day of the week, we turn in a short paper about our thoughts on the film and have a ten-question quiz.

Since the summer session is jammed packed into such a small time frame, he’s going to start the movie tonight. We have the option of staying here to watch the movie. If we have it or can rent it from somewhere else, we’re free to leave.

I plan on going home and ordering it from somewhere to watch. Then I can pause it or do whatever. I start packing up my stuff in my backpack.

Nico leans over. “You aren’t going to stay to watch the movie?”

I look at the front of the room toward Mr. Hendricks and back to Nico. “Um, I’m going to have to pass on that. I’m going to sit on my semi-comfortable futon and watch it from there.”

“Oh, okay,” he nods.

I hesitate for a split second afraid he’ll say no. “If you want to stay here then more power to you, but you can come over and watch it if you want?”

“Are you sure?” He’s already putting his stuff away in his backpack.

“Yes, I’m sure. No one deserves to sit for two hours in these chairs.” I laugh while looking at the hard seats.

We leave the classroom and walk out of the building. When we get outside, it’s already dark, but still hot as hell. “Where did you park?”

He points to a silver truck that’s in the front row. “How did you manage to snag that spot? I’m way the crap out there.” I point to destination nowhere.

Nico cracks a side smile. “Well, when I got here, I drove down this row, and the spot was empty. So, I took it.”

I wish I had that type of luck today. “Smart ass. I’ll see you when we get back to the apartment.” I turn to leave and only make it two steps before he grabs the top of my backpack and stops me in my place.

“I can drive you to your car.”

I shake my head. “This is my workout for the day, you don’t want to interrupt that, do you?”

Nico releases my backpack and smiles. “Okay, but be careful.”

I whip out my pepper spray that’s already in my hand and bring it up, so he can see it up close and personal. “I’m already locked and loaded.”

He rolls his eyes to the night sky. “That you are. Do you need me to pick anything up on the way over?”

I start walking to my car. “It’s your lucky day. I went to the grocery store earlier, so there are plenty of snacks and drinks.”

We tell each other bye, and the walk through the parking lot is a disaster. Somehow, I forgot where I parked. I keep clicking the unlock button until I hear a beep and find my car. If only I had a bright green car, black blends in everywhere I go. I’m secretly excited and nervous that Nico is coming over.

When I get home, Nico is already parked in the parking lot, and I pull into the empty space beside him.

He steps out of his truck at the same time I get out of my car. “Took you long enough.”

I yank my bag from the ground on the passenger side; it rolled off the seat earlier. “We can’t all have VIP parking at the school.”

Nico walks up beside me “So, where are you working now?”

“I’ve been working at the office where my mom works for a while. I do a lot of data entry. It’s basically typing all day long, but I only work there three days a week. I’m going to start subbing in the fall and working around my school schedule.”

“That sounds interesting. How’s your Mom?” We both know that data entry does not sound interesting.

I laugh. “Interesting is code word for boring, and yes, it’s extremely boring. She’s doing good; she’s been getting into a lot of different hobbies. Some are a win, and some are a lose.”

When we get inside, I grab a packaged cookie and offer Nico one, which he more than happily accepts. I walk to the TV and search on my phone to try and locate the movie from the list. It’s some super old war movie, and it’s two and a half hours long. I manage to find it and click the rent button.

“What’s the deal with all these cheese balls?”

“Huh?” I turn around and look over at Nico whose hand is hovering over the trash can to throw away his wrapper.

Oh. Those cheese balls. The ones I spilled all over the kitchen when he was at the door. I guess he didn’t notice them everywhere when he came in the day before. “I dropped the container yesterday, and those little morsels didn’t make it into my intestines.”

He walks over and then sits beside me on the futon. “You know, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t bottle them back up and eat them. I remember how much you love cheese balls.”

I set the remote down. “I’m going to be honest here. I did think about it, but then I don’t know who lived here before me, who walked in the kitchen, what walked in the kitchen, so I had to pass on that.”

Nico leans back on the futon and stares at the TV. “You’re still the same.”

He’s right and wrong about that. I still have my same quirks, but I think about things in life a lot differently.

I load the movie on the TV, and then grab juice boxes from the fridge for Nico and me. I also snatch a bag of chips for him. I’m not that hungry, so I sip on my box and start the movie. It’s nice sitting here next to him, and it feels like old times.

The movie has to be one of the worst war movies I’ve ever seen. Maybe I’m not the movie pro I thought I was because I’ve never considered the war movie genre. It has to be the one genre I stayed away from.

I take a glance at Nico who looks to be struggling about as much as I am. My eyes keep straining to stay open. At some point during the movie I drift off to sleep.