Elysian

Fate

"Twenty quid," I say as I lean against the jagged wall of the tech block.

"What? It was only a tenner last week," He huffs, the agitation evident in his voice. "Inflation," I shrug, taking a deep inhale from my blunt.

He rolls his eyes but hands over his money regardless, probably knowing that I'm the only dealer on campus.

I pocket it before handing over the baggie. "Piss off then," I tell him, confused why he's still standing here.

He looks as if he want's to argue but he bites his tongue, mumbling under his breath as he walks away. 

I lean against the wall for a few moments longer while relishing in the feeling of the smoke travelling deep inside my lungs, instantly calming me.

My peace is soon interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing in my pocket, I pull it out and immediately roll my eyes when I see that it's Dex calling. I'm still mad at him because last night he puked all over the interior of my car after a party.

"What," I say bluntly. "Come to class it's about to start," He replies, hanging up before I have time to say anything else.

I sigh, leaning off the wall and circling around to the front of the building.

I have no motivation or enthusiasm for any of my classes. The only reason I bothered going to uni was because my mum broke down when I told her I was considering not going.

My mum is a polish immigrant and brought me and my sister to England with nothing but the clothes on our backs. She worked so hard to be able to give us the best life possible and always dreamed for us to have proper careers so I figured going to university was the least I could do.

So I've just been slugging my way through my classes, always handing in the most bare minimum work and selling on the side to afford food and to help my mum with my accommodation payments.

"Sy," I call out towards Sylus who's entering the same building in front of me. He turns around, stopping when he realises that it's me.

"Fuckin eight am classes bro," He sighs before spudding me. He looks exhausted, with prominent eye bags adorning his face and his hair extremely disheveled.

"You look like shit," I tell him honestly.

"Charming." He rolls his eyes. "How do you actually look decent after last night," He groans, running a hand through his messy hair. 

Last night we got absolutely irreparably shit faced at this party down the road. We returned back to our dorms at around four am where Dex, Jay and Sy immediately passed out but I couldn't sleep, the guilt after I drink always being too overpowering.

My father was a horrible, abusive drunk who thankfully died when I was just a baby. Although he didn't have time to traumatise me or my sister, he left my mum with many mental scars.

She would always drill into the two of us the importance of remaining sober and before I started uni she made me promise that I wouldn't drink, terrified that I had received the alcoholic gene from my father and would become just like him.

I swore to her that I wouldn't but obviously I didn't live up to my promise, consuming drugs and alcohol almost nightly.

"It's already started lets just go back to bed," Sy says, peaking through the door of the lecture hall before turning around and heading back the way we came.

I pull the back of his hoodie, flinging him back around before I push open the door and enter the hall. Trust me I want to go to sleep as much as he does but with all the classes we miss I can sense that there's no way we're going to pass any of our exams.

The hall is almost barren with only around twenty people scattered across the vast rows of chairs, everyone probably bunking because of the party last night.

Our lecturer nods at us, never really caring when we're late. We spot Dex who's completely inthralled with whatever's on his phone, not even bothering to write down any notes.

I slap the back of his head before sitting down, alerting him of our presence. "Finally," He mutters before returning his attention back to his phone.

We sit down, listening to the lecturer talk for another ten minutes before the door cracks open. A girl I immediately recognise as Juliet Kingston enters, sending an apologetic tight lipped smile towards the professor before hurrying up the aisle.

Even though I've never had any interest in learning her name I know it, everyone does.

She pretty hard to ignore when everyone is constantly marvelling about her celebrity dad or when every boy across the university stops to admire her when she walks past. 

I roll my eyes, her presence offending me. I don't know why she even bothers coming in, she misses pretty much all of the classes and it's not like she needs uni to create a stable future, we all know she's set for life.

Dex being the thirsty individual he is, sends her a sly smile as she walks past causing her to shyly look away.

The lecturer drones on and on for the next hour. No matter how hard I try to listen I just can't internalise the information, it's almost as if the harder I try to concentrate the less sense the lecturer makes.

"I've put together the groups and I've tried to put you with people you surround yourself with but in some cases I had to split up friends to even out the numbers," His voice echos through the hall.

"Your deadline is on the twenty fifth of November, so you have over a month to complete it," He explains, this sentence now catching my attention.

"Come down and check your groups before you leave," He dismisses, gathering his things and exiting the room.

"What just happened," I ask Dex, completely zoning out everything the professor said. "Group project I guess," He replies unhelpfully.

I sigh heavily, knowing that since we're taking robotics engineering projects take a lot of time and effort and it'll be even worse if I'm stuck in a shit group.

We gather our things, heading down the stairs towards the hoard of people surrounding the paper listing off the group pairings.

I shove a few people that were taking too long out of my way and peer down at the paper. Relief floods through me and I mentally thank my professor as I scan the paper but my happiness is soon deflated when I read the last name. Carter Salem, Dexter Lewis, Sylus Kamal

And Juliet Kingston.