Tutoring? He'd have my professor fired.
Doctor's Appointment? He would have me reschedule.
Tuberculosis? He'd tell me to buy extra Kleenexes.
Shit.
Meredith was royally fucked. She knew the game was important but so was her well being and if she saw Gabrielle, she might die. She didn't even want to think the possible scenarios that could happen. After Meredith’s brisk jog, she decided to go around the track a couple of more times until she was ready to face the world again. She grabbed her duffle bag and sipped her Gatorade out of pure boredom on her walk to her dormitory. She slid her card and took the elevator just this one time because her legs were too tired for the stairs. Meredith knocked on the door and sure enough Keliah was on her bed, sketching out a plan to get Professor Kerouac to like her.
"Hey you're back. Took longer than I thought."
Meredith dropped her gym bag on the floor of her bed and found herself tugging at her shirt, a nervous habit of hers she never learned to break or find one that wasn't as noticeable.
“Yeah, I just decided to run a couple of extra laps.”
Keliah placed her notebook and pencil down on her bedside and stared at Meredith.
"Hey, we can talk about—"
"Actually I'm just gonna head for the shower and then go to my class early."
"Meredith."
Keliah whined.
"Keli I'll see you later."
***
"Meredith went to her English class late afternoon and was the first one to arrive. Professor Kerouac looked up from her computer screen and raised her reading glasses on her head.
“Oh, Meredith, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Afternoon Professor Kerouac.”
“You couldn't possibly need help with anything. You have the highest grade out of all of my Composition classes.”
Meredith shrugged her shoulders and smiled stuffing her hands inside of her blue jean pockets, looking down at the floor.
“Nah, I'm good. I just had a little extra time so I came here. But don't let Keliah hear you say that. She's hell bent on being your best student."
Georgia turned facing Meredith, giving her full attention.
“Keliah? Nelson?”
Meredith nodded.
"I didn't know you two were friends."
"Have been since middle school."
Georgia hummed in response.
"Why would she want to be my best student?"
Meredith chose her next words carefully. If she outed Keliah in any way she knew Keliah would kill her.
"She just has this feeling that you despise her. I told her she's crazy. I mean, you're my fave professor!"
Georgia smiled thinly before staring down at her heels and furrowing her brows.
"I could never despise Keliah."
She whispered softly.
Meredith headed to her seat and tapped her pencil lightly on her desk, strumming a beat as she waited impatiently for her classmates, who she never spoke to, to show up. Sure enough, the rest of Meredith’s classmates came pouring in, one by one and Meredith was glad that she didn’t have to talk to her Professor anymore. Her assignment write a poem using figurative language. With Gabrielle still resting fresh in her mind, Meredith decided to write it about her. words flew easily on her paper but it only made Meredith experience all the pain she so desperately tried to ignore again. After skimming over it a couple of times she realized the poem was decent enough to turn in. But no matter how good it was, she wished it were a lie, something that she had made up. Meredith didn’t think that anyone could make up such real pain. Meredith handed her paper in to Georgia and left before class was over. She grabbed her keys out of her messenger bag and headed for the parking lot. Hopping in her Jeep, she drove to the beach. She turned on the radio on her way in hopes of drowning her loud thoughts that were attacking her heart. When she arrived she took her flip flops off of her feet and rolled up her jeans as she walked towards the ocean. Meredith stared at the sunset and wiped a tear that managed to escape her left eye. Breathing in shudders, Meredith sat down in the sand and pulled her knees to her chest. She closed her eyes tightly in attempts to block out any thoughts regarding Gabrielle. She listened to the ocean instead. She couldn't live like this, Meredith thought. With any mentioning of Gabrielle plummeting her mood to zero. It just wasn't healthy for her mind body and soul.
***
“Oh my gosh, why are you so loud?”
Keliah’s eyebrows wrinkled as she strained her eyes to stay open and see a gangling figure standing in front of her. Meredith removed her headphones from her head, sliding them down to her neck and pressed paused on her loud music.
"Sorry, I didn't expect you to be sleeping at seven o'clock. Did you have dinner yet?"
"Yeah, I already ate."
"Damn."
"Well you took longer than usual to come home. How was Professor Kerouac’s class by the way?"
“Good, she
