Wait so she’s a key character of this shitty book. How many female leads are there anyways? Agh my head hurts already. But why is she the 2nd female lead? Well, taking a look at her she is gorgeous and has that important character charisma. 

 

“You know, it’s easy to tell when you’re lying. You never make eye contact when you do.” 

 

Alicia sighed while dramatically leaning to one side, putting her hand on her hip. 

 

“Stop acting like a disappointed mother and tell me why you’re here please!”

 

“Obviously to check up on you! Like I said, you’ve been absent for two days and Professor Bell is asking questions. I’m worried about you. But seeing your current state I guess you’re fine enough!”

 

I paused. Professor Bell? The English Professor, Right!  Elliot was his pseudo-docent. Emphasis on the fun-word-to-say “pseudo” because none of the work I do is that of a docent. I don’t even have the credentials for it. I was his student. Usually, after his lectures, he’d ask me to stop by the classroom and I’d help him sort through his very unorganized paperwork. 

 

“Well, you are correct. I am fine! I’ll email Professor Bell and tell him that as well. Anything else?”

 

I may seem like an asshat, but I assure you Alicia is used to it and understands I don’t really mean it and it’s all in good fun. Huh, this feeling is really weird. I’ve just met this person and yet I felt like I spent almost my entire youth with her. 

 

As I unknowingly continue my unnecessary monologue in my head, Alicia claps her hands together as if she remembered something important.

 

“Yeah, actually! Do you wanna go out to eat somewhere? There’s this new chicken wing place that opened up near here. There aren’t really many reviews, so where the food will be good or not is kinda a gamble. It’d be fun to try it out never the less.”

 

I guess I never noticed it until the mention of food, but I was hungry. Might as well take the opportunity.

 

“Sure, I could eat. Wait, what time is it?”

 

“Uhh, let me check.”

 

Alicia takes her phone out, showing an impractical but cute pink silicone case with small bunny ears on the top of the phone. 

 

“It’s 2 PM.”

 

Okay, yeah. I’m extremely late to Professor Bell’s class. His lectures start at 11 AM. Which means I’m about 3 hours fucked.

 

However! As previously stated before, I simply do not care. I just came into this strange world and my closest friend invited me out to eat hopefully good food. When life gives you lemons and stuff.

 

“Alright yeah, let’s go.”

 

I took a step out the door, my mind already on what I was going to order. But just as I was about to walk past Alicia, her arm blocked my way.

 

“Hold up! Your shoes? Phone? Wallet? Do you realize that you’re in your pajamas right now?”

 

Oh yeah. That’s when it dawned on me. Elliot literally slept for two days straight. Sure, his face certainly got the beauty sleep, but currently, he was in poorly fitted wrinkly gym shorts and a tank top.

 

Going outside like this would be social suicide.

 

“Ah! Damn you’re right. Hold on I’m gonna go change. Wanna come in? I don’t wanna leave you outside while I get ready.”

 

“Seriously I have no idea how you survive every day.” Alicia scoffed in amusement. 

 

I quickly turned and walked back into the house with Alicia following suit. 

 

“You can just wait there for a second, give me like ten minutes.”

I point to the grey couch in the living room as I quickly walk to what I remember was the door to the bathroom. I hear a distant “Okay” from Alicia. 

 

Walking into the bathroom and closing the door, I take a second look at my appearance. Dark brown eyes greeted me again as I take a look at my messy hair. My disheveled appearance definitely would make me apprehensive to go outside in public. I’ll have to take a quick shower first and hope my hair can style itself.

Thankfully, I was currently in a bathroom so if my hypothesis was correct, there should be a shower right next to me. And it was correct, a shower was to my right. Thankfully, the almighty being gave me memories to figure out how to operate the shower so I wouldn’t have to live and learn the mechanics of another stranger's shower. 

 

Twisting the knob, the showerhead rushed in with water. I took off the little clothes I had and hopped in. It was refreshing and when I was done I felt like I was truly reborn. Unfortunately, my memories still remained. 

 

However, as I was about to reach for a towel, I realized that currently, this bathroom is currently towel-less. 

 

How the fuck could I forget the towel?? My hair was wet so the water was annoyingly dripping on my face. I swept my hair back to temporarily prevent the uncomfortable feeling. My first thought—admittedly stupid— was to quickly walk out of the bathroom without a towel and avoid the living room. Thankfully I wasn’t completely braindead. There was an obvious solution right in front of me.

 

Just yell for Alicia to find a towel for me. Easy peasy. 

 

“Alicia!!” 

 

…

 

No response, so I tried again.

 

“Aliciaaa!!!”

 

I heard some shuffling somewhere in the house, definitely not from the living room. Was Alicia moving around the house? No response yet. I was about to try a third time when Alicia finally responded.

 

“Y-yeah?! What?” 

 

The location of her voice was still in the living room. That’s weird, did she move back to the living room? Whatever I can think about it later. I just want to be dry.

 

“I forgot a towel! Could you fetch me one?”

 

“Seriously? Do you have the brain functions of a 5-year-old or something? Fine!”

 

Alicia quipped back, probably revenge for my attitude at the front door.

 

“Thanks!” 

 

I waited for a few moments before finally, a knock came at the bathroom door. I opened the door slightly and stuck my hand out through the crack. A soft texture went on my hand. Obviously, it was a towel. Godbless Alicia. I took the towel back to my dwelling in the bathroom while thanking Alicia. A small grunt in acknowledgment replied back. 

 

I heard her walk back to the living room and I wrapped the towel around my waist after drying myself off and exited the bathroom. The next step was to get dressed. 

 

I didn’t want to dress up too much since I was just going on a casual outing. Thus, I chose something simple. A plain sweatshirt over a zip-up hoodie and sweatpants. Judging from the weather when I almost went out in public in my pajamas, it was chilly. So, this was a good amount of cover for me. 

 

Entering the living room once fully dressed, I found Alicia on the couch typing something on her phone. Hearing my footsteps she turned her head towards me and got up.

 

“Ready to go?”

 

“Mhm, I got everything now. For sure.”

 

“Good, because I’m not paying for your shit again just ‘cause you lost your wallet.”

 

“Fair enough, though that was only once.”

 

“More like three times. And all in the span of two months!”

 

Alicia rolled her eyes and walked towards the front door.

 

Exiting the house, I locked the door and took a deep breath in, taking in my surroundings as I stepped unto the sidewalk. A regular urban city setting appeared before my eyes. Because of Elliot's memories, I knew this area like the back of my hand. However, through my personal eyes, it was a completely new place. It was pretty unsettling. Imagine if you studied a map for a place you’ve never been to. You knew every corner and where it was placed and saw every single image, and memorized that. One day, some giant godlike being drags you by the ass and slams you down into said place, and left you to deal with it. Basically that; very jarring.

 

“Come on, let’s go.”

 

Alicia grabs my hand and drags me to a bus stop. I guess the place we’re going to is not within walking distance. 

 

Hopping on the bus, me and Alicia sat down on some of the empty seats. We began to talk about random things, new episodes of Tv shows, complaining about college workloads, etc. Though as we talked, I felt uncomfortable sets of eyes on me. It might just be my imagination, maybe the social awkwardness of going outside, but the uncomfortable feeling did not go away. Every now and then I’d look around the bus to try and see if anyone was looking at me, but apart from some accidental eye contact from the other passengers, I didn’t find anyone actively staring at me like a creep. Thankfully. 

 

Alicia tapped my shoulder when we got to the final stop to our destination. We got off the bus and walked a couple of blocks more till we finally arrived at the chicken place. As we were about to enter the restaurant, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around and found a tall man with dark hair. His calm black eyes stared down at me with his mouth in a slight smile. A very domineering yet calm presence he was.

 

It was Professor Bell.

 

“Ah, Elliot, I thought that was you. Are you here to check out this restaurant as well? Alicia is with you as well?”

 

His voice was smooth and comforting, but for some reason it made my hairs stand up on its end. 

 

“Oh! Professor Bell! Sorry, I was absent for a couple days, I was going to email you soon about it.”

 

I scratched the back of my neck. I have no idea why, but there are no good vibes from this handsome man.

 

(Crappy sketch of what Alicia looks like)