Thought Process

Time ticks by as I gaze off into the library parking lot from my desk on the second floor. I watch as families come and leave. A woman hurries through the lines of cars, pulling along a young child who's struggling to catch up. Her short legs too small to be of any use at the moment. As the woman notices this, she scoops the child up in her arms and takes the lighter load as a chance to increase her speed. Soon, she is out of my view and enters the very building I am residing in. Leaving me to sit and wonder just what could possibly have her in such a rush to enter a library.

With my distraction no longer there, I turn my focus back to my computer screen. The white, blank screen glares at me and sends an angry message, "You don't have it in you."

And maybe it's right. For ten hours I have sat at this very desk struggling to come up with something worth turning in to my creative writing teacher.

And yet, here I am.

Nine o clock on a Friday afternoon staring at a blank screen.

With a yawn, I lift up my arms in an overexaggerated stretch and give a quick look to make sure no one is looking before I slip down my mask so that I can breathe a little better.

'Maybe this will bring more oxygen to my brain and I'll actually be able to think'. I surmise silently.

However, thirty minutes later and I have no such luck.

'Write a story about something that inspires you.'

Those are the eight simple words that have been on my teacher's board since Monday. Eight simple words that have managed to absolutely stump me like never before. Eight simple words that are the reason I have been seated in the same chair for hours upon hours.

Now don't get me wrong. It's not like I've done absolutely nothing in these hours of turmoil.

No.

I have written down many words and sentences and even punctuation and all that crap.

Except that's what is was.....crap.

So I used my best friend 'Mr. backspace' and deleted everything multiple times throughout the day.

Why am I in school to be a writer again? I'm pretty sure you don't have to go to school to be a writer. And yet here I am. Wasting my money on.....well I don't know really. That's the question isn't it?

I let out a hard sigh before deciding to pack up my things and call it a night. If all I am going to be doing is thinking about how much money I'm spending, then I need to get out of here and release my mind for the day.

Logging out of my laptop, I close it and slip it into my its' case before shoving the whole thing into my backpack. As I'm getting up to leave, my phone lights up and the whole thing begins blaring some unidentified, default ringtone throughout the silent library.

Cursing under my breath, I grab it and answer it before it can cause anymore trouble.

"What?" I hiss into the phone without looking to see who was calling beforehand. Let us hope it's not my mother.

"Uhm okay relax no need to bark at me bitch. Imma need you to try that whole thing again."

It's not my mother.

With a sigh, I drop the phone away from my ear, throw my head back, rub my hand over my face, and then place the phone back against my ear.

"Sorry Amayah I'm just not in the best of moods right now." I apologize as I continue to pack up my things. "What can I do you for babe?"

Amayah is my roommate in college and has been my best friend since we met freshman year. We didn't start as roommates but she lived a couple doors down in the freshman dorm and we bonded one night when we realized we were the only ones left in our hall on a Friday night. Everyone else was out partying.

Yea, we weren't big partiers when we first got to college.

Boy has that changed.

"What can you do for me?! What can you do for me?! Honey it's not 'can'. I NEED you to bring your pretty ass out that stank library so that we can go have some fun. I gave you all day to sit in there and do absolutely nothing. So hurry up!"

My mouth popped open in shock. "What makes you think I got absolutely nothing done?"

There was a beat of silence.

"Don't doubt how much I know you." Amayah scoffs. "Disrespectful. We all know you can never do actual work in the library. You do better when you're hungover and pressed for time. Soooo, bring your ass so that we can get messy. Bye."

Click. She hung up.

I drew the phone away from my face with a start and stared at it for a second before chuckling quietly and finishing packing up.

In here defense, she isn't wrong. I wish I could complete assignments like a normal person. But alas, that isn't the case. Kudos on me for spending the whole for trying right?

Right?

With a final sigh, I descend the library stairs and soon find myself exiting into the warm spring breeze.

I instantly spot Amayah on her phone standing against her car that is parked right in front of the library. I shake my head in amusement as I notice that part of the car is actually up on the curb.

She can't drive for shit.

"Yo!" I shout and her head shoots up, a wide grin gracing her face. "Give me your keys I'm driving!" The smile drops off.

"The hell you are." she pouts and holds her keys closer to her.

"No seriously I'm not going anywhere with you if you're driving. Tonight's one of those night where I actually don't feel like putting my life in danger. Cough em up."

She reluctantly hands them over before skipping to the passenger side.

"Fine but you better get into it tonight. No slow rolling."

"Into it into it?" I climb into the drivers seat.

"Yuh. Like hella into it." She grins cheekily. "And hey, the worst the hangover, the better the schoolwork right?"

I roll my eyes before starting the car and pulling off. "Yea yea I guess."

Amayah lets out a loud battle cry that I think was borderline inhuman and goes to turn on the radio.

Instantly, an obscure party song is blaring through the car speakers and I try my best not to cringe as Amayah proceeds to have a mini one man mosh pit in her seat.

Despite my calm demeanor, I'm actually so ready to let loose.

*4 hours later*

I'm lost.

In my head.

Where am I again?

Oh yea...

I look to my right to see Amayah jumping up and down along with me to the beat of whatever song the dj is currently playing. We make eye contact as we hear the beat about to drop before going even harder once it ensues.

Amayah is my safe place and being surrounded by the throngs of sweaty bodies at a club at 1 am is my home.

After a few more minutes of vibing, Amayah begins pulling me out of the crowd and I follow willingly. We find some empty seats and immediately crash down on them in an exhausted mess.

"This is so much fun, isn't this so much fun?!" Amayah screams in my ear as she drags me down on the cushioned bench with her.

I laugh out loud in my drunken daze and nod happily. "The funnest. W-What do you wanna do next?"

Amayah's face suddenly looks pensive as if she's deep in thought and then looks me directly in the eyes.

"Boys?"

I give one sharp nod. "Boys."

Letting out a gleeful squeal, she shoots up and pulls me along as we go on our quest to find some boys to hang out with.

After a good five minutes of patrolling the seating area of the club, Amayah screams out.

"Bingo!"

And suddenly I am being pulled in an unknown direction.

"Hello boys." I hear her drawl as I try to catch my feet from her pulling me along.

"Well hello there." A deep, excited voice answers back.

"Can we join you?"

"By all means."

At that point, Amayah releases me and goes to sit near one of the boys. Finally having control over my feet, I look up. Amayah is seated to who I assume is the one who replied to her before. They seem to hitting off as Amayah seems to be talking a mile a minute and the guy is just smiling while listening. My gaze drifts to the only other person in the vicinity only to find his eyes already on me.

Oh.

He's cute.

I shift nervously before slowly heading in his direction before taking a seat next to him on the cushioned bench. His eyes following my every move. Looking up, I smile.

"Hi what's your name?"

He tilts his head inquisitively before smirking. "Simeon. Yours?"

"Ayah. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Insert awkward silence.

I clear my throat.

"So are you-"

"It look-"

We started at the same time before pausing and then smiling. He gestures his hand out.

"You first."

I laugh shyly. "I was just gonna say it looks like our friends are getting along well."

Simeon looks over his shoulder to the left and spies Amayah and his friend dancing by themselves a little ways off.

"Yea. Good for him. He's had a rough night. Needed to loosen up." He mutters.

I nod in false understanding. "Well tell him not to loosen up too much. Amayah is not in a sober state right now."

Simeon frowns. "He's not like that."

I shrug. "I'm sure he's not. Nevertheless, it has to be said."

Simeon nods along in agreement before giving me a questioning look. "What about you? Are you in a non-sober state?"

"Maybe. So what if I am?"

He shifts to fully face me. "What kind of non sober? Whisky? Beer? Rum?"

I screw my eyes tight at the last one and shake my head. "None of the above. Good ole vodka. I AM a college girl you know."

Simeon laughs out loud before tsk'ing me. "I should've known. By the way none of those are the way to go if you want to get the best experience."

"The best experience you say? And what would that be?"

Simeon holds a glass that I just noticed was in his hand. In it, seems to be a red liquid.

"Is that-"

"wine." Simeon finishes for me as I say,

"-blood?"

My eyes widen in embarrassment and Simeon lets out a barking laugh that causes a few people around us to turn their heads to inspect the cause of the sudden eruption. I quickly shield my face behind my locs only to have Simeon push them away.

I look up at him and pout.

"Don't laugh. I'm intoxicated."

"Adorable is what you are." Simeon muses, his laugh long gone with traces of it still upon his face.

"So wine!" I say with a sort of fake enthusiasm that he see's right through but goes with it anyway.

He clears his throat. "Yes. Wine."

"What kind is that that you're drinking right now?"

He takes a sip before handing over his glass and I take it willingly. Studying it for a second, I finally take a sip.

He watches my reaction silently.

"Huh."

"Huh?"

"Huh."

"That's it? How was it? What do you think?"

I stare at him openly before downing the rest of his glass.

Amusement floats onto his face. "So you like it?"

I nod happily and admittedly a tiny bit sloppily. "Yea what kind is it?"

"Merlot. Probably the most basic wine out there. But it does its' job."

I frown in confusion. "What's its' job?"

Simeon shrugs as he takes my glass and reaches for a bottle on a table that I neglected to notice before. "Gets my mind off of school enough for me to wake up in the morning fresh and ready to go."

I gasp in shock and slap his arm rather hard. He fumbles the bottle and almost drops the glass before catching them both and sending me a mock glare.

"Sorry." I mutter. Then remember what he said and get excited again, bouncing in my seat. "But whatever because I do that too!"

"Do what exactly?" he asks as he refills the glass and then taking a sip.

"Whenever I get writer's block, I go party and then when I wake up the next morning, the writer's block is gone."

Simeon nods slowly, seemingly deep in thought. "That's cool. So you're a writer."

He passes me the glass.

"Yea. An aspiring one anyway." I shrug while I sip.

"That's dope. I guess you could say I'm an aspiring engineer. I have a huge project due and no idea what my topic is gonna be."

I nod in understanding.

"Welp. Then it's settled." I surmise confidently while standing up.

"And what's that?" he asked obviously tickled by my woozy state.

I pass him the glass before taking my seat once again.

"Me and you. Let's do this."

"Do you what?"

"Drink wine together."

"Until...?"

"Until we acquire the smarticles!" I declare.

"The what-icles?" He laughs out before downing the rest of the glass.

I smile sheepishly before smiling. "You know. Do our process together and then tomorrow we get to work and once we both finish our respective projects, we share our grades with eachother."

"Wow." Simeon nods. "That was a lot of words for a drunk girl." he jokes.

"Shut up." I huff as I shove him playfully. "So what do you say?"

He gives it some thought while looking at the empty glass.

Eventually he reaches over and grabs the bottle before filling it to the brim again. Sitting back, he looks over at me while holding the glass up.

Smiling, he says, "Let's get to work."

I grin excitedly and Amayah takes that moment to saunter back over with Simeon's friend close in tow. Both an obvious sweaty mess from all the dancing.

"Hey what are yall up to?" she inquires.

I take the glass from Simeon and take a huge gulp before smiling at her slyly.

"Study prep."

The end