Southern Boy Charm | ✓

Chapter 39

The next morning, I wake to someone violently shaking my shoulders.

"Go away," I mutter, rolling over on my side and clutching at my plush blanket. This bed is way too comfortable to get up now.

"For the love of all things holy can you turn off that alarm!" I jump awake to see Katy hovering over me. Nick stands in the doorway of my dorm room with a coffee in each hand.

"Your alarm has been going off for the past twenty minutes. It's driving me crazy," Katy says. She flops back onto her bed and pulls a pillow over her head. "I don't understand how you are such a deep sleeper."

My alarm still rings in the background and I fish through the mess of sheets and blankets on my bed to find my phone and turn it off. This sadly isn't the first time that this has happened. I seem to have a pattern of sleeping through my alarms and waking up Katy instead. I'm surprised that she hasn't killed me yet.

The time on my phone is enough to instantly alert me. "Nick, we only have ten minutes until our final!" I jump out of my bed as fast as I possibly can. I currently am wearing my favorite Santa Clause print pajama pants and a sweatshirt, but it will have to do. My hair certainly looks like a bird's nest, but the only thing I have time to do is sling my heavy backpack over my shoulder.

"Nice pants," Nick snickers as I jog out of my dorm with him at my heels. I jab my finger at the elevator button over and over until the familiar ding of the arriving cart sounds. Once we are on our way down, I allow myself time to breathe. I lean against the wall from my exhaustion.

"You only ran for like thirty seconds. How are you so out of breath?" Nick laughs. I shoot him a death glare.

"What I want to know is why you aren't more concerned. We are about to miss our final. That is a fat zero!" I grab one of the coffee cups out of his hands and take a sip. My face instantly scrunches up. It tastes like burnt leaves and chalk.

"Gross. This is yours." I switch cups with him. Now when I sip I taste the familiar vanilla and hazelnut taste of my coffee. "Much better. I don't know how you drink that stuff."

"Yours only has like a drop of coffee. There is no caffeine in there. How does it even keep you awake?"

"It's not the caffeine that wakes me up. It's the sugar." The elevator doors open to the lobby, and I am on the move once more. Despite my speed-walking, I am still able to chug my coffee on the way to the lecture hall. By the time we reach the classroom we have two minutes to spare.

"Just in time. Like always." I say, turning towards Nick. Despite his constant harassment about my tardiness, I am still on time. When I tug at the doors, however, they are locked.

"Fuck!" I say, yanking at the doors with all my body weight. "We're too late. We're going to fail this class!" I fall to the ground, hugging my knees. "I can't believe this. All of that studying, and for what?" When I look up towards Nick to see his reaction, he is laughing.

"Are you serious? This is not a laughing matter!"

"Totally," he says, trying to hold in his laughter. His resolve doesn't last long however, because soon he is doubled over, clutching at his stomach as laughs erupt from his body.

"Are you a psychopath? We are getting F's! Fat F's!"

Nick's laughs subside just enough for him to squeeze out a few words. "Okay. I'm done playing with you. Check your phone."

Did he not pay attention to anything that has happened within the last twenty minutes? "I did, stupid. How would that change the fact that the final that we need to take is currently happening without us!"