The clock on the lower right corner of my computer marks ten o'clock in the morning and I stare at it until the double zero turns into a zero one. I've been sitting on this chair looking at the computer for two hours straight. My hand hurts from the amount of notes I've taken and the speed at which I'm writing to catch everything my teacher is saying. I crave caffeine.

My phone buzzes, and I reach for it, finding a text from Nina lighting up the screen.

What u doing?

In class

Skip

I downloaded Deadpool

I roll my eyes at her dismissal of classes and type back that I'm not going. I assume she understands that my school education is way more important than her personal mission to force me to watch TV. Maybe that's wishful thinking.

Come on!

I wont stop texting u til u come

Dont u dare ditch me!

Im bored

School sucks

I dont

I mean...

I'm not going

Is that really funnier than Deadpool?

It's not supposed to be funny

PLEASE

I

WILL

NOT

STOP

UNTIL

YOU

COME

!!!!

You know I can turn off the notifications, right?

Ill go there and kidnap u!

Im not joking

I sighed. I mean, it's my last class of the morning and my teacher would probably not notice if I left...

No! I can't go! I have to stay here. Nina can watch it by herself.

Getting up...

Opening the door...

On my way to kidnap u...

Calm down, I'm coming

Bring a cake

I smiled at the last text.

It's fine. Maybe I need some time to relax and forget about school. I can't spend all my days inside this apartment studying. It's just for today.

I grab the cookies I had baked last night and head to her apartment, knocking twice. She takes a little too long to open the door and I'm already rocking on balls of my feet. Doesn't matter how much more at ease I am with her now than I was last week, sometimes I still feel like I'm intruding.

"Oh, that dress," she says once the door opens, looking me up and down. "Why do you always dress like you're going out?"

Nina lets me in but is quick to sit on the sofa, legs crossed, with her computer on top. I lost her attention in a matter of seconds and it makes me feel neglected. She asked me to come here, but she doesn't even care.

"This dress?" I ask.

"Mhm. That's one you wore when you knocked on my door for sugar, wasn't it?" She looks at me for a split second before going back to her fast typing. I blush, looking at my shoelaces. She didn't seem the type to notice the little details. "You're making me feel sloppy with your..." She waves her hand in my direction. "Fancy dressing."

I smile shyly. "I have to keep a routine, or else I'm letting lockdown win over me."

She looks up at the computer for a minute, locking eyes with me. "Well, then it's a good thing my routine was always spending the day in pyjamas. Also, give me the cookies."

I smile and place the plate on the centre table before leaning over her shoulder to see what she was doing. The screen is all codes I don't quite understand, nor do I want to.

"What's that?" I ask.

"I'm trying to make a program to close my classes when they finish instead of setting a timer to wake me up every time," she explains, eyes still on the screen.

I raise my eyebrows in awe. As someone who can barely use Word, I have a certain admiration for anyone who is knowledgeable in this area. It seems like so complex I can't help but think, "Damn, she's really smart." I won't say t out loud, though. She seems the type to get cocky over it.

"I thought you were taking Marine Bio?" I say.

"I am."

Silence falls as I wait for her to add something else. She doesn't.

"So..." I continue, "you're not taking any computer stuff course?"

She shook her head. "What? No, my dad taught me this."

"Oh."

I don't know what to say to keep the conversation going, so I watch her instead. Her slender fingers move fast against the keyboard, and a bit aggressively, too. I'm not sure she's trying to get it done for me or it's just how she normally does this. She's frowning. It's not a good look on her. It makes her look mean and unapproachable.

"Done," she says. "I hope. It'll probably lag when I test it and I'll cry for hours. So, Deadpool?"

"When you said you were opening the door, you were lying, weren't you?" I ask.

Nina looked at me, lips twisted into a smirk. "Maybe... I was going to bang on your door if you didn't show up before I finished this." She placed her computer on the centre table and grabbed a cookie. "I enjoy your company. In small doses."

I sat beside her, body facing her. "In small doses?"

"Yeah." She shrugged. "Don't take it the wrong way. I just need my personal space. But I like being with you."

"I don't."

She frowned. "You don't?"

"I mean, I do. But if all we do is watch movies, it'll get boring at a certain point."

"Mmm, you're right. We might need to spice it up," she said. "What do you have in mind?"

I shrug. "I don't know. We can play games."

She nods. "But after Deadpool."

"Yes. After Deadpool."

I spent the movie scandalised by the language of the protagonist. Within the first five minutes, I realised the movie was not what I thought it'd be, but I still sat through it because Nina was interested in it.

Honestly, I watched her more than I watched the TV. I am used to small smiles from her, but she laughed throughout the movie.

"This is indecent," I complain once the movie is over.

"Oh, calm down, it's just sex," she brushes it off, biting another cookies. "You barely saw anything explicit. Besides Ryan's butt. But that's considered a blessing in many religions. Even by straight men."

I frown. "You could've warned me about it, couldn't you?"

"I didn't think it would bother you," she says with a shrug. "I'm probably a terrible person, but now I want to watch Fifty Shades with you."

I don't know what that is, but I don't want to find out either. "I'm not bothered. But a heads up would've been nice."

"Okay. I'll keep that in mind." She gets up, stretching up her outrageously slim body. I bite my cheek, wishing I was as slender and tall as she was. "Lunchtime? I can order a pizza?"

Definitely not greasy pizza. I haven't eaten junk food since lockdown started and I'm not starting now.

"Or something else," she adds, looking at my hesitant expression. "There's a vegan takeout restaurant downstairs. I think they're taking take out orders. I can go grab something."

"Yeah, that sounds great. I like their stuff."

"Okay. Wait here for me?"

I nod and she leaves, but not without me trying to get my wallet in my apartment. She ends up winning, but I make sure she agrees I pay next time.

I find myself alone in her apartment, suddenly very self conscious, so I start setting the table for us to have lunch. She didn't say I could touch her stuff, but I don't think she'll mind, so I look through the kitchen to find the table wear.

It's hot outside, so I open the door to the balcony, and throw a towel on top of the table that's taking up most space, so we can eat here. The view is grey and dirty with concrete buildings, and I can't help but think how much I would prefer to live in the countryside.

Minutes later, I hear the door open again and rush to the living room again.

"Jade?" she calls, and I smile because she's not calling me 5E.

"Here!" I help her carry the food and we sit on her balcony.

"I knew you weren't completely useless." She waves at the table.

"Hey!" I complain and she laughs. Her smile is pretty, as everything in her is, and I grin too. "This is nice," I say. "If we ignore everything outside this balcony."

"I know, but on the nights the city is alive, it's pretty," she sighs. "I had an ex that loved this view. It's bullshit, though."

I swallow. "He was out of his mind."

"She."

"What?"

"She was out of her mind."

She takes a bite of her food, not caring about how I am staring at her. I don't know what to do with that information. I don't want to make her uncomfortable, but I'm not sure how I should act.

"Is that a problem?" she asks, after a while.

"No," I say, a little too fast. "I just didn't think you look the type."

"There's a type?" she asks. "You mean the stereotype?"

Okay, great, she's hostile now. I didn't want to poke the bear like that.

"Yes, that's what I meant. I'm sorry I offended you," I say.

She rolls her eyes. "You didn't offend me. I just don't like that people assume we all look the same just because we all like girls."

I nod, looking down at my food. She's not mad, but I'm not comfortable. I don't know what to say, but I also don't want silence to fall over us. She'll never talk to me again, and I'll have to go back to my white walls and endless sighing. I can't do that. I like being at her home with her. There's still so much we don't know about each other and we could be great friends.

"Can we watch Step Up?" I ask. She knows I'm just trying to change the subject, but she goes along with it.

"Step up? I have to download it but yeah, sure. I have never seen it."

Me neither, but it's AJ's favourite. I know it's a dance movie she watched as a kid and what made her become a dancer. She's always been more talented than me in every aspect. Not only was she a more promising young actress, but she had many other attributes, such as her dancing and how sociable she was.

"I should go back home, though," I say. "I still got classes."

She rolls her eyes. "You're so boring. I'm way more interesting than your classes."

"No, you're not," I say between bites. "You spend your days watching TV. You're just as boring as I am."

She points her fork at me, frowning at my audacity. "I guarantee you if we weren't stuck in this goddamned building, you would love to go out with me."

"If you're fun outside and boring inside, I think the fun part isn't you." I try not to laugh at her scandalised expression.

"Is that so?"

"It is decidedly so."

She leans back in her chair, staring at the depths of my soul with her soul sucking, sky-blue eyes. I stop eating, feeling awkward for a moment. Having Nina watch me chew lunch was not on my bucket list for today.

"I'm going to make this the best quarantine possible," she promises. "Or else I'll eat my hat."

"You don't have a hat," I mutter.

"I have plenty of hats," she complains and then seems to rethink it. "I have two hats. That's plenty."

"Sure. Are you going to season it or eat it raw?" I ask. "You should consider. The faster you get used to the thought, the easier it will be."

She rolled her eyes at me. "I won't eat anything, 5E. You're going to love my activities so much you're going to cry of happiness."

I was just poking her, but she seems to have taken it really serious. Nina seems the type to take offense at anything easily, especially if it is about her own skill. She's proud and stubborn from what I gather so far, but it doesn't bother me as it did at first.

"Let's see," I said.

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a safe Christmas and didn't go all Covidiot during this season. Please ignore the fact that Nina and Jade are being careless.

Hope you all like this chapter. Don't forget to vote and comment!

Happy New Year!