Chapter 18

I was in my bed in my penthouse trying to hype myself up, trying to convince myself that I should get up and do something useful.

My morning class had been cancelled. The professor had an infection and lost his voice, so I'd been able to sleep in.

I was scrolling through Instagram when my phone rang. There was no caller ID.

I answered right away.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hi, you picked up quickly," Esther squeaked.

I pressed my face against my pillow for half a second not to laugh. "I was holding my phone," I explained.

"Oh, okay, sorry. It's Esther."

I smiled even thought she couldn't see it. "I know."

Wait. Ugh.

I know? I know? What kind of answer was that? A normal one, I thought, but for some reason, it felt wrong.

For the love of god, when would I ever have social skills?

"I was wondering if you wanted to meet up so we could work on our project a bit, and maybe study for our test in two weeks since our class was cancelled," she asked in a rush.

I wanted to ask her to speak more slowly, so I could fully appreciate her voice, but that would definitely make me sound like a socially inept creep.

"I'm not on campus right now, I'm home," I told her.

"Wait, I thought you lived on campus," she said.

"Oh, I do. But my dad's place is close by, and Tyler, my roommate has been annoying me all week long, so I decided to hide from him. He needs to miss me a little, so he can stop being a little bitch," I explained and then slapped my hand on my mouth.

I shouldn't be saying bitch.

"So, you're playing hard to get?" she asked, sounding amused and not bothered by my swearing.

"Exactly."

"Okay, well sorry for bothering you," she said, like she was about to hang up.

"Wait, wait, wait," I said in a rush, "We can study and work on our project. I can be on campus in fifteen minutes."

"Are you sure?" she asked, her voice small. "It's really no bother, I just have time to kill before my next class and thought I should at least work on something for the cancelled one. You don't need to come to campus if you have no reason to."

Seriously, I should record her voice. It was so nice. I had no idea what it was about it, but I could listen to her talk for hours.

"I do have a reason, to study and work on our project," I replied.

"Okay... well I'll wait for you at the library," she answered, sounding happy about it.

I smiled alone again. "Perfect."

"Alright, see you in fifteen minutes then Sputnik."

I laughed. "Oh, still wrong, but you're getting slightly closer."

"Wait, really? How?" Esther asked, her voice rising. She hadn't expected me to say that.

I shook my head. "Nah ha."

"No, no you can't say that and then not say anything," she whined, sounding more amused than annoyed.

"See you soooooon," I just said an hung up.

After that I literally ran around the penthouse to get dressed, and gathered everything I needed in my bag. I brushed my teeth and looked at myself in the mirror making sure I wasn't too much of a mess.

A few minutes later, I was almost sprinting to the campus.

My next bus would have been in ten minutes. Waiting for a cab would have been too long, and taking my car would have been a hassle because of the parking.

So, walking-but-really-almost-running was the best option.

I was trying to hurry up so much that I almost ran past Esther waiting for me, sitting on a bench by the entry of the library.

She got up instantly when she saw me, "How? How am I closer? Is it because I put your nickname at the end of the name? Does your name not begin in Nik? Is that it?"

"Why would I make it easy for you?" I replied, trying not to sound out of breath.

"Because you're a kind person?" she offered.

I grinned and shook my head. "Not in this particular situation."
"Why not?"

"Because I'm finding great amusement in seeing you try to guess my name," I explained.

Maybe I shouldn't be this honest. I couldn't help it though. I was feeling more and more comfortable around this girl.

"I actually think about it at the most random times," she admitted and looked like she was shocked she had just said that.

"I'm playing with your miiiiind," I teased her. "Honestly though, I'm hyping it up too much at this point. If you ever do figure it out, you might be disappointed it's not as awesome as you'll have thought."

"If? Not when?"

I laughed at her outraged expression. "That's all you got from what I said?"

"Please, you'll tell me your name at one point, right?" she asked, looking worried.

"Who knows?"

Suddenly she grinned, like she'd gotten the answer. "I know. You'll have to put your full name on the written part of our project. I'll know your name then."

I blink slowly. Shit. She was right. "I'll just put Nik."

She kept grinning because she knew she was right. "You can't though. Not if it's not your legal name."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "I should not have underestimated you."

"Grave mistake," she agreed.

I shrugged. "Well, it just means there's a deadline now. If you can't guess it by then, you'll see it on our project. Buuuuut. Do you really want that? Do you want to lose?"

She narrowed her eyes too. "Hmm... I should not have underestimated you either."

I laughed at that, and she did too.

"Anyway, we've got serious things to work on. I just need to stop by the cafeteria first, I need to eat something and I need coffee," I say and headed inside the building and then downstairs, to the basement level where there was a cafeteria, "Do you want something?"

"I always feel bad eating in the library," Esther replied, following me.

"It's fine, we'll take a study room," I reassure her, as we got in the cafeteria. I headed straight to the coffee brewer.

"It's okay," Esther just said.

I looked at her, tilting my head a bit. She didn't sound convincing. "If you don't say what you want to eat, I'll just take one of each."

"Please don't," she replied, her eyes widening.

I grinned. "Then pick what you want."

"Fiiiiine," she replied, like she was annoyed, but she was smiling a little too, so I guessed she wasn't really.

She made herself a hot cocoa and grabbed a muffin and an apple, while I took a sandwich and a cookie.

We got in line for the cash register together and I paid for everything, feeling bad about the fact that this was probably a frivolous spending for Esther, while I never even thought about money.

I never wanted to take this for granted, the fact that money wasn't an issue in my life. Out of all the shitty things in my life, money was not one of them.

After that, I went to the front desk and got keys to one of the study rooms. Esther followed me silently.

I didn't mind the silence. I just enjoyed having her standing beside me. There was something comforting about her quiet figure beside me.

Most of my friends were really loud.

She was a nice change.

Once we got in the room, we set up on each side of the desk and started to share and compare notes for the exam.

If the exam looked anything like it had been the last time I had taken that course, I remembered most of the questions, so I told Esther, and I ended up mostly just answering her questions and helping her remember the right information.

After a couple of hours of that, I left to go to the bathroom.

When I came back, Esther's cheeks were a little red when she said, "Your wife called," pointing to my phone that I had left on the table.

I laughed. Did she think I was actually married? How hilarious? "Oh, that's Tyler's ID on my phone actually. We're essentially an old married couple. He's not really faithful though, he cheats on me with his girlfriend."

"That's very unfortunate. He should think of the children," she said, looking somber.

"Ah yes, Bartholomew and Donalda, our pride and joy. But we don't talk about Mort," I added, making a face.

"Because he's dead?" she asked.

"No because he's decided to get a business bachelor," I replied and shuddered.

She did too. "Dreadful."

And then we both laughed.

I looked in her eyes, feeling grateful for this unexpected friendship.

It was nice to think I was making a friend on my own.

Tyler was my first friend and he was the one that introduced me to all my other ones, but technically, I hadn't really done anything to become his friend.

Tyler had done it all on his own, and before I knew it, he was my best friend.

This, with Esther, it was different. It felt like I was building something, brick by brick, and each moment together were forming a better picture of the final product.

Esther dropped my gaze and asked me another question about the exam.

An hour later, it was time for her to go to her next class.

We gathered our stuff, and headed out.

I dropped the keys to the room back at the front desk and walked side by side with Esther.

I didn't have a class of my own today, so I guessed I should go back to my dorm room and deal with Tyler.

"Thank you so much for answering all my questions, I really appreciated it," Esther said once we were outside.

We'd stopped walking and were facing each other. "It was my pleasure. And it made me study at the same time, so that's good."

"I'm going that way," she said pointing behind her with her thumb.

"I'm going that way," I said, pointing behind me with my thumb too.

"Okay. Well, bye Arsenic," she said.

"Nope."

"No?

"No."

She narrowed her eyes. "Am I still close though?"

I shook my head. "Oh, I'm not helping you anymore. I'll see it as a win if you only learn my name through our project."

"I shouldn't have mentioned that. You were being slightly cooperative."

I smirked. "Now I'm just going to give you mix signals. You'll never figure it out."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Oh, it's on Annik."

"Yeah, it's on. And you're still wrong."

"Leave now, before I kick you," she said, pointing behind me.

I burst into laughter while she scrunched her nose and stuck her tongue out at me, but still smiled.

We waved at each other, and went in opposite directions.

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Have I mentioned how much I enjoy writing Esther and Nik together? They're sooo adorable. I love them. Cuuuuties. XD I don't even feel like I'm writing them, it's like they're telling me their story. 

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry if it came a little later than expected. It was my best friend's birthday on Thursday and it ended up a lot later than I thought so I didn't get to finish the chapter. 

Thanks for being patient and understanding! I reaaaaaally appreciate it! <3

See you all again in two week! :D