Study Break

The Prompt: Eavesdrop on a conversation and write what happens later.

She hastily brushed her thin brown hair out of her eyes as she bent over the book, intent on her studies. There was a test on Wednesday and she couldn’t seem to focus on the vocabulary. The words were beginning to swim together in her head. It didn’t help that whatever idiots lived on the floor above her were blasting some kind of heavy metal, the words dulled by the walls until nothing but the thumping bass remained. It wasn’t so much that she minded the music itself, she just wanted a break from it while she studied. It was apparent that they didn’t have a test any time in the near future, or at least they didn’t care if they did. Meghan didn’t have that luxury. French was one of the hardest classes she’d ever had to take, followed shortly by biology. This was her last semester of French, but biology was going to follow her for the next two years unless she managed to stand up to her father.

“Okay, you definitely need a break,” Jackie said. She pulled out her headphones and moved away from her computer. “I know that sigh.”

“What sigh?” Meghan asked. She hadn’t been aware of making any noise.

Jackie ignored the question. “Your dad called again, didn’t he?”

Meghan shrugged and glanced back down at her notes. “I just have to focus on this French tonight. I can’t afford to, well, you know.” Formulating the word ‘fail’ was sometimes too much for her. She’d done well enough in high school, but college classes were different. Freshman year was the first time she’d ever failed anything in her life. Now she was constantly worried about French and biology. She’d done poorly enough on some tests and labs already. She had to shape up or risk her GPA.

“You’re stressing too much. Don’t psych yourself out. Take an hour and unwind.” Jackie surveyed her roommate with a critical eye. “And get your damn father out of your head.”

“I had my unwinding time earlier when I went to dinner. Now it’s time to focus.” Meghan smoothed the edges of her vocabulary list and read the first line over again. She just needed to get these words down so she could move onto verb tenses and prepare for her bio lab on Thursday. The paper was pulled from out of her grasp and Meghan shot out of her chair, a scowl on her face. “Oy!”

“You are going to relax for exactly one hour before I give this back, capiche?” Jackie held the paper over her head and Meghan rolled her eyes. It was more than a touch dramatic, although Jackie had tendencies towards melodrama. “One hour of your life, it’s not a lot in the long run.”

“Go to hell,” Meghan muttered. She could have easily switched to studying verb tenses or even to her bio lab, but it irked her to leave a task unfinished.

“Just an hour, I swear. Put all this school stuff out of your mind and enjoy a Friday night for once,” Jackie pleaded. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

The offer should have been tempting, but all Meghan wanted was to move on with her studying. There were more important things than an evening of relaxing alone. Classes, for one. “Give it back. Now.” Her tone was harsh, but there was a long moment when she thought Jackie would keep the vocabulary hostage. Instead her roommate shrugged and let go, allowing the paper to fall back to the desk and land askew on the textbook.

“Fine. Be an old stick the mud boring adult.” Jackie jammed her headphones back on and turned up her music so loud Meghan could hear it from across the room. She sighed once more and shook her head. Maybe she was a boring adult, but Jackie could sure act the immature child at times. Yet still she managed grades that were at least as good as Meghan’s. Some people didn’t have to work as hard as others.

She fixed the paper on her desk, laying it straight before she went back to memorizing the words. There would be time for fun later, Meghan promised herself. After the test.