I heated up my leftovers from Firefly to eat for breakfast. It was so unlike me to indulge in non-breakfast items in the morning, I had always thought it to be so unconventional. Breakfast was for breakfast items like eggs and bacon and toast. But something changed in me this morning and I didn't mind it.

    Today I had called in sick to work due to me being incredibly exhausted. Last night, I had gotten home at almost 2 in the morning, thanks to the 3-hour drive from Traverse City. Although, I regretted nothing about last night. Everything had been phenomenal, including Harrison's favorite restaurant where we dined. It was definitely earning the 17th spot on my list.

    This year must have been the year of all things 17.

    I woke up at noon, clearly having been slightly sleep-deprived. Jason wasn't up until around the same time as me, too, as he had been sleeping in late and going to bed incredibly early. Something about the way he was acting told me he was losing it, but I didn't want to bring his behavior up to Harrison last night because I didn't want her to get too worried about West. I wanted the night to be about us.

    "Spring rolls for breakfast? Or lunch I guess?" Jason asked, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge. He pulled out a carton of orange juice and poured some into a rather large cup, then grabbed a beer and proceeded to pour the entire bottle into the orange juice cup. Typical Jason.

    "Beer at noon?" I asked, shaking my head.

    He shrugged, "It's five o'clock somewhere," and took a big swig of his weird concoction.

    "That doesn't give you the free will to drink all day. What are you doing, anyway? Don't you have actual work?" I asked. Jason was supposed to be working a part-time job as a sort of an internship situation for the university to get his nursing license, but lately, he hadn't been leaving the house much.

    Jason downed the whole cup, then let out a burp that lasted just a little too long. Sometimes he could be pretty repulsive. "Nah. I got fired," he stated, taking one of my spring rolls.

    "Seriously?"

    He nodded. "Yup. Guy says I show up too late, I'm not friendly enough, blah blah blah, whatever. Shit like that."

    "He's probably right, Jason," I said. "You can't just be so calm about losing your internship, you need to have one. And you have to start showing up so that you get paid or else you're gonna be knee deep in student debt."

    "Whatever," he grumbled. "So why aren't you at work today?"

    "I was up late last night. Just woke up," I replied.

    "You're never up late." Jason sat down on one of the bar stools on the other side of the counter from where I was brewing coffee. His hair was crazy, with random hairs sticking up in obscure places. It certainly wasn't his best look and I could tell that he hadn't showered in at least a few days. "Where were you last night by the way?"

    "Traverse City." I hadn't yet mentioned my date, but by the way his lips curved up into a smug smile, it told me he already knew.

    Jason took another one of my spring rolls. Rude. "You were on a date," He drawled. "Did ya get laid?"

    I shook my head. Honestly, getting laid was all he really cared about sometimes. "No, Jason, I didn't get laid-"

    "That sucks," He interrupted mid-sentence.

    I finished, "-and I didn't want to. It was just a chill night with Harrison, that's all."

    "Your student again? Dude..." Jason teased, shaking his head.

    "She's the only girl I've liked in a while," I said. "And I don't know why you're so bent out of shape judging me. I like her. It's as simple as that."

    "We both know that's a lie," Jason said and he stood up. "Now stop lying to yourself and get laid tonight, man. It's gotta happen at some point. We're men, we like sex. We need it."

    "Not lying," I muttered. "And since it's apparently your place to be giving me advice, why don't you actually do something for a change? Get dressed, go out with West or something, I don't know. Oh, and take a fucking shower, you wreak."

    "I'm not going out with West tonight, I've got plans."

    I scoffed. Plans? That was ridiculous. If he had any plans at all, it was him sitting in his bedroom jacking off to gay porn. Or binge-drinking to the point of a complete blackout. Other than that, Jason's only other hobby was hanging out with West. So obviously something was off.

    "Stop lying to yourself," I retorted. "What's going on with you and West? Harrison brought it up last night and she said West's been acting weird. She thinks it has something to do with you."

    "Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with me! Stop trying to pry shit out of me cause I'm not in the fucking mood today, Otto! Forget about it!" He yelled, and on that lovely note, Jason stormed out of the kitchen and slammed his bedroom door shut behind him. I could hear him locking the several locks he kept on his door, which definitely sent me the message to fuck off. I took that as my cue to forget about his issues for the day and focus on grading papers (fun plans, I know).

    That was the second time Jason had blown up on me in the past week, and I knew that couldn't have been good because he only ever got super mad when he was getting ready to make some dumb mistakes. Given, I've made a lot of mistakes, too, but Jason always did the same thing. He would usually flip out at me approximately four times before going off and pulling his usual shit, which would undoubtedly ruin his relationship with Weest. But I wasn't prepared to let that happen again. Whatever he did now could affect my relationship with Harrison since her and West were best friends and I really liked being with her, so I didn't want Jason to do something stupid again. Yes, it sounds selfish, but it wasn't just about me and Harrison, I was also looking out for what was best for Jason. Although, he would never listen to me, anyway. Jason always insisted that he was the one watching over me. But I had a hard time believing that.

I picked up my phone and scrolled until my finger landed on Harrison's contact. Maybe it was dumb to call since we had just seen each other last night, but I didn't care. So I called her and waited while it rang, but she didn't pick up. Figures. She was either in class or she had slept in just like I had.    Sighing, I grabbed my coffee and went to sit at the table where hundreds of essays on The Tipping Point sat waiting for me. Today was going to be a very long day.

•••

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

    My eyes slowly began to open up to the incredibly annoying sound of my alarm clock. I yawned, taking my time before I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I'm so fucking tired. I picked up my phone and turned my alarm off, only then realizing what time it was.

    "Holy shit!" I yelled. "It's fucking three o'clock!"

    Last night I finally fell asleep at just past four in the morning. I had gotten home a little later than two, but I was (for some reason) strangely determined to finish my chemistry lab report that wasn't due for another two days. I found that the best time to write important reports or essays was when it was super late. The good news was that I had gotten it done. But I had set my alarm and I rarely didn't wake up to it, so waking up this late for me was not normal and definitely not good. I still had school today.

Checking my phone again, I noticed the crazy amount of notifications. Why in the world did I have nine missed calls? Eight were from West and one from Otto.

    Maybe West calling was a good sign and maybe it meant that everything was okay with him and Jason and I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Even if things weren't okay, maybe West was trying to move past it and we could go back to normal. I hated when West and I got into little spats where we wouldn't talk for a day or so. It killed me not being able to talk to him. If anything, him calling me made me hopeful that we were okay.

But why had Otto called me? I unlocked my phone, deciding to call him back.

    "So did you just wake up?" He answered, skipping the usual, Hello, how are you?

    "Fuck..." I grumbled, standing up and slowly making my way into the bathroom. I turned on the light, looking in the mirror at the tangled bun on my head. Great. That needed to be washed.

    "Wow, seems like you've got your life together," Otto said and chuckled.

    "Sorry," I apologized. "I'm a lot more cuss-prone when I wake up at three in the afternoon, realizing I missed an entire freaking day of school. More specifically, I missed fucking chemistry."

    "That's what you get for pushing on Traverse," He commented, almost as if he was scolding me. What a typical teacher thing of him to do. "Hey, don't sweat it. I didn't go to work today either. I was too damn tired. Woke up at noon."

    "Well at least you can have a substitute teacher. There's no possible way to get a substitute me," I groaned and turned around. I turned the knob on my shower to get the water running.

    He laughed. "So why did you call?"

    "Seriously?" I asked. "You called me, so as a normal human being, I thought I would call back to see why you called."

    "Right, right. Well, I was wondering if you were up to anything today? If you maybe wanted to get a bite to eat? I'm pretty hungry and you must be too since you just woke up. We could go somewhere else. It is Friday after all," Otto suggested.

    "That doesn't mean you don't have to work on the weekend," I mocked his disciplinary teacher-tone.

    "I called in sick today, so they won't be expecting me until I make another call," he said. "So what do you say? Hungry enough?"

    "Yeah, I'm starving. Where?"

    "Ever been to Grand Rapids?" He asked. "It's about an hour and a half drive from here. We can just take my car and head up there for the rest of the day. Well, the rest of the evening, I guess."

    "Let's do it," I said. "Just let me shower real quick because my hair's an actual insane mess right now. But I'll call you once I'm finished."

    "I'll wait towards the back of the parking lot of the coffee shop," He informed me. "See you later, Harrison." And he hung up.

Say my name again, I pleaded in my head.

    I walked back into my room and plugged my phone in, then hooking it up to my Bluetooth speaker before hopping in the hot shower. I set 5 Seconds of Summer's newest album on shuffle and hopped in. Scalding hot water hitting my shoulders.    One thing was for sure: my hair wasn't going to be a bitch today.

•••