Now, I just need to make it till then without doing something stupid.

BEN

The lined paper should be filled with notes. That was the whole reason I shut myself in my bedroom with my textbook. Instead, my pencil has been creating doodles that are now morphing into full-scale drawings.

This is how it always happens. I plan on being productive, but my hand has its own ideas.

At first, it’s a few swirls and shapes here and there. Then, my eye catches on something in the room, and I start translating it onto the paper.

So far, I’ve got my discarded sneakers and the cover of the textbook I’m supposed to be reading chapters from. But I’ve moved past distraction and on to full-blown procrastination.

I’m stuck on a portrait of Holly laughing. It’s a rough sketch of her sitting cross-legged in that chair she dragged into my treatment room. My memories bring back all the little details, like how her tight jeans showed off the smooth curve of her calves and the V-neck T-shirt that shifted enough to the side to reveal a simple white bra strap. My pencil traces her neck in the way I want my mouth to, bringing me up to those petal-shaped lips. The sight of her laughing, eyes closed, hand in her hair, is burned in my brain. I bring it all back to life on my notebook paper.

Then, I crumple the picture in a ball when there’s a knock on my door.

“You decent?” Jasper calls out.

“Yeah!” I respond after shoving the evidence of my obsession under a pillow.

He pushes the door open and leans against the frame. “When do you wanna head out?”

When I texted Holly this morning to ask about my car, she suggested I visit her at work. Some bar called Both Ways. I’ve recruited Jasper to give me a lift again.

“Can you give me twenty minutes?”

“Sure. And I think we need to get Sammy to come with us.”

“Is something up?”

Jasper gives me a laugh with little humor. “Something up? Yeah, there is. His fucking blood pressure. I don’t know what those professors are saying to them this semester, but he’s on edge. Has been for weeks. You haven’t noticed?”

“I mean, yeah. But Sammy is always really intense.”

I try to think back on the recent times we’ve talked. There haven’t been many. Even though we’re the same major, he’s a year ahead of me, and he has twice the course load. Doesn’t leave much time for chitchat.

“It’s gotten worse though. He doesn’t do anything other than shove his head in books all day. He needs to take a break. By trickery or by force.”

I move to stack my unopened textbooks off to the side of my bed. “Okay. I’m on board. What’s the plan?”

Jasper takes a beat before answering, “Well, we’re already heading to a bar, so that’s a start. We just need to get him to come with us.” He pauses again before continuing, “I’ll think of something. You just be at the car in twenty minutes and go along with whatever I say. Got it?”