Unintended Wishes - Tumblr Posts

College Is Transformative: The Lecture Hall

This has been a long-gestating collaboration that I’ve been working on for months with my good friend @visceral-stories. To check out his section of the collab, click here. We both hope you enjoy, part two will be coming soon!

As the start of a new year at Oak Point University quickly approached, Sam Pearson couldn’t deny that he was already feeling rather ambivalent towards the upcoming semester. The previous year had been absolute hell for the 22-year-old, as his part-time job when paired with his intense course load left him feeling stretched too thin. To make matters worse, his attempts at trying to balance school and work had been completely in vain as the blonde-haired 6’0’ man found himself still failing to receive grades that he felt he deserved. After a full semester of work and classes, the threat of burnout was still quite prominent within the young man’s mind as he made his grand return to campus. 

However, as he arrived a week early to move into his apartment and beat the near-constant traffic of move-in day, there was one aspect that kept Sam willing to persevere through the mental strain: his friend Nate. The pair had first met during an English course last year, where Sam had quickly bonded with the shaggy haired brunette over being the two most anxious and awkward individuals in the room. Ever since, their bond had only grown stronger with each passing day. In fact, their friendship had become so special that they decided to move in together to escape the horrors of university housing.

Throughout their year-long friendship, that bond had allowed them to share both the great and terrible aspects of their life. While they were relieved to have similar interests in terms of television and music, the duo were absolutely overjoyed when they both revealed their ill feelings towards college. As Sam ranted about his issues of not feeling appreciated enough, he also was able to learn more about Nate’s interesting history as a man pursuing his third undergraduate degree due to his extreme indecisiveness.

The next semester date grew closer and closer until it was suddenly the day before classes. With their stress now exponentially rising, the two men opted to go out into the crowded college town to drown their sorrows at a local gay bar. While watching some local drag queens perform, the two of them had a blast tipping the girls and getting absolutely wasted. By the time they had reached their cut-off by the bartender, it was only 10:30 PM and the duo were still eager to do stuff around campus. 

Despite hearing the faint murmur of traffic along with the tapping of their soles against the paved pathways, the two drunk men felt oddly serene as they stumbled and staggered throughout campus. Even as they said nothing while continuing to walk, the warm radiating heat of friendship was still present by having the other’s presence around them. Before long though, Sam’s identity as an absolute lightweight caused him to completely lose one of his shoes after tripping over a sidewalk crack. After Nate came to help his friend up, the two men made their way towards a nearby bench to allow the former cross country runner to put his shoe back on. 

After putting the shoe back onto his foot, the two men took a moment to just close their eyes and listen to the sounds of a bustling city. They heard the rustling of animals running through the thick shrubbery, the symphony of horns as cars desperately attempted to escape the college traffic, and even the sound of other students talking as they passed by the two men. However, there was one sound that felt oddly out of place behind them - the sound of water flowing. As their curiosity was piqued, the two men turned their heads slowly behind them, catching sight of the source of the strange noise: a grand fountain. 

Although Sam had walked down this path countless times when heading to classes, the sight before him seemed completely brand new. Could I really have missed a huge fountain, Sam asked to himself, wondering if his head had somehow been shoved so far into a book or his phone to notice such an extravagant piece of art. “Wha- how have I never seen this before?” Sam slurred aloud, turning towards his friend in absolute shock. While he waited for his friend’s response, Sam soon found himself transfixed on the reflection on Nate’s glasses. Within the rectangular yet sleek glasses, he watched as a mix of moving water and metallic specks were reflected back towards him. The sight reminded him of his childhood as memories of heading to the mall with his family reemerged along with visions of using any spare change that his mother gave him to toss into the fountain in order to make a wish. If only wishes could come true, Sam thought to himself, stopping himself as Nate finally began to speak.

“The fountain?” Nate asked, his response suddenly interrupted with an intense hiccup. As he looked towards his friend, he took a moment to adjust the glasses that had slipped past the bridge of his nose due to the intensity of the hiccup.

“Uh y…yeah. I’ve never seen it before, but I s…swear I walk by here all of the time.” Sam replied, his mouth fumbling over his words until he was finally able to complete the phrase.

“Yeah, it’s called the Wishing Fountain,” Sam’s friend said, continuing to inform his friend about the apparently well-known college landmark. As he swayed while doing his best attempt to stand upright, the man continued to reveal information to Sam. “D… did you know that people here think it’s magical? Apparently it grants wishes,” he said, stopping to direct his attention away from the fountain and back towards his friend.

At the first mention of the fountain being magical, Sam couldn’t stop himself from erupting into hysterical laughter. “Pff, no way dude. Magic isn’t real. That’s just a normal fountain. I don’t know who told you that, but I really can’t believe that you were that gullible to believe it,” he retorted, continuing to laugh as Nate stumbled closer to the fountain. While he was easily amused, Sam soon found himself silenced as his friend pointed a finger towards a plaque near the bottom of the fountain.

“Oh yeah? W… well why don’t cha just read it here thennnn?”, he stammered, causing Sam to lean in closer to the plaque to read it. 

To his complete surprise, the plaque perfectly summarized what Nate had been saying: “Oak Point University’s Wishing Fountain”. As Sam continued to read the plaque silently to himself, Nate took the opportunity to sober up temporarily so he could read part of the plaque aloud and prove his friend wrong. “Whoa, it says here that it’s common knowledge for the locals that the fountain can fulfill any wish. What do you have to say about that, Sam?” Nate declared, a clear hint of sarcasm and teasing in his voice as he awaited his friend’s response.

Despite being shocked that his friend hadn’t made up some silly story in his drunken stupor, Sam remained unfazed in his stance that magic wasn’t real and that this was all just dumb superstition. “Yeah, if only that were true bud. Do you actually think it’s real?” Sam said, his eyebrows raising as he awaited his friend’s response.

“I mean, it could be. I dunno, anything’s possible right?”, he declared, his smile widening into a Cheshire-like grin as his eyes gained an excited-looking appearance. “I suppose there’s only one way to find out,” he said, “You got any quarters?” As he waited for his friend to answer, Nate quickly reached his hands deep into the pockets of his shorts in search of any coin he could use.

As he patted his pockets for a moment, Sam was quick to inform his friend of the bad news. “Nah, I gave away all of my cash when tipping those queens at the bar,” he said, chuckling as he thought back to his experience with them. While it was clear that they lacked the same sort of polish as queens he saw on television, he still had a great time and enjoyed their performances. 

His trip down memory lane was quickly interrupted though as Nate cleared his throat and attempted to get his friend’s attention. As Sam turned his head to stare directly at his friend, his eyes once again caught sight of the reflections of the water and coins littered across the light blue bottom of the fountain. Thinking back to his memories of tossing coins into the fountain of his hometown mall, inspiration struck as he slowly sat himself up and sat on the ledge of the fountain. “Since we don’t have one, why don’t we just grab a quarter already at the bottom?” he said, looking up towards his friend with a devilish grin.

To Sam’s surprise, his friend wasn’t on the same wavelength as him for once as he took a step back and inquisitively raised an eyebrow at the notion. “Why in the hell would you do that? Isn’t that bad luck or something?” he remarked. 

But before he knew it, it was too late as Sam replied with a simple “Eh, I doubt it,” and reached his arm deep into the fountain. While he still wasn’t entirely sold on the idea, Nate followed suit as he reached into the shallow pool. Now with each of them having a quarter in their hand, Nate motioned towards Sam to start his wish.

Taking a moment to close his eyes and figure out what he wanted to wish for, Sam took a deep exhale before opening his eyes and beginning to speak. “I wish to finally be recognized for all of my hard work in college”, he said with a serious tone, flipping the quarter off of his thumb and watching as it dropped right back into the fountain. Turning towards Nate, Sam uttered a simple “your turn” before moving away from the fountain.

Inspired by his friend’s behavior, Nate also closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he formulated his wish in his head. A similar serious demeanor emerged from the man’s voice as he began to finally state his wish. “I wish that I could just stay at this college forever so I could always learn,'' he calmly stated, tossing his coin into the fountain and watching as it quickly sank to the bottom.

With their wishes now complete, the two men turned away from the fountain and faced each other. For the most part, they had been able to keep their composure during the whole experience. But as soon as they looked into each other, their inebriated selves came back in full force as they immediately started to cackle at the superstitious scenario. Putting one arm around each others’ shoulders, the two men turned away from the fountain and slowly began to finish the journey back to their apartment.

“I really hope that this fountain is actually magical,” Nate said, chuckling to himself immediately as he heard how crazy his statement sounded.

But to his relief, Sam shared the same sentiment as he uttered a simple “you and me both” before leading the duo back to their home.

* * * * *

As the droning of his alarm clock stirred him awake, Sam uttered a guttural growl while sitting up to stop the noise and return the room to its natural state of silence. But as his hand came down upon the top of the clock, the college student was surprised by the resounding slap that immediately filled the room. Holy shit my bad, he thought to himself, awkwardly standing up and moving away from his bed as he caught sight of his clock. Somehow, the man had put enough pressure into the palm of his hand to dent the plastic alarm clock with a handprint!

While he wanted nothing more than to try and ponder how this could have happened, the fact that the clock displayed the time 8:45 AM quickly woke Sam out of his drowsiness. In just over an hour, he was going to start his newest semester at Oak Point University with a 100+ person lecture. The mornings were Sam’s personal kryptonite, so the man knew that he needed some extra time to mentally prepare for the course and also to give himself enough time to get ready. Nate often loved to taunt Sam about just how sluggish the man was in the morning, especially when he hadn’t had any coffee yet.

Given their close-knit friendship, both Sam and Nate had opted to start every week with the 10 AM English course. While neither one of them had really paid much attention to what the class was about, both of their counselors had confirmed that the class would fulfill one of their degree requirements. Despite the early time slot, the option to have a class together and thus spend more time together was a no-brainer for the two of them. 

It wasn’t until Sam had quickly paced into the bathroom and begun to undress that he began to recollect the previous night’s events. He remembered getting absolutely wasted doing a shot contest with Nate at a gay bar to the point of losing his shoe and tossing a coin into a fountain to make a wish, but he for some reason felt no hangover effects. His mind had complete clarity and there wasn't even the slightest hint of a migraine rattling around his skull.

While this was strange all by itself, Sam found himself even more perplexed by the strange tightness spread around his body. As he took a moment to look down and observe himself, he quickly realized that both the sleeves and chest area of his shirt felt quite tight. Groaning while assuming that the old community washing machines in the apartment complex had shrunken one of his favorite shirts, he quickly peeled off the shirt and shorts before entering the shower. However, as Sam began to wash his body, he could still feel the strange tightness all around his body. Could it just be from wearing that shirt all night?, Sam asked himself while grabbing the body wash. Upon lathering up the soap in his hands and beginning to scrub every inch of his body, the man soon found himself constantly misjudging his own body’s size as he kept pressing too hard into places like his chest, arms, and legs. The biggest area where this occurred were his arms, where he felt the firmness constantly while lathering up his body. Was it possible that I had irritated some muscles after tripping and stumbling all of the way back home? 

His arms felt surprisingly thicker, which posed some problems for Sam as he found the limbs constantly bumping against the wall and shower door as he twisted and turned to fully clean himself up. Yet as he continued to feel up his body and massage those areas of tightness, Sam’s mouth involuntarily opened as some deep moans and groans escaped from his lips. He hadn’t worked out at all, especially since the stress of the incoming semester had been quite debilitating towards his daily motivation, so the situation was quite peculiar to him. 

However, as he turned the water off and exited the shower, the vision he saw upon wiping away the condensation from the mirror was quite flattering. Immediately, that still-prominent tightness fell to the wayside as he focused more on checking out his own visage. While it was the same face he saw every morning, there was definitely a certain kind of fresh youthfulness that made an already young adult seem younger. He looked incredibly well-rested despite his tendency to be a night owl, as made clear by the faint dark circles around his eyes completely disappearing. In fact, his skin looked more vibrant than ever before, which made Sam both quite happy yet confused.

But remembering that he still had a class to get ready for, the man quickly stopped admiring himself before exiting the bathroom while making his way back to his room. Just as he began to shut his bedroom door, the faint noise of Nate’s alarm clock informed him that his best friend and roommate was finally stirring awake.

Upon drying off and searching through his closet, Sam made his way through his closet in search of something that could endure multiple classes stuck in tight and uncomfortable lecture seating. With his mind now focusing more on comfort rather than style, the man leaned into his cross country past by relying on his go-to comfort look: a sweatshirt and pair of athletic shorts. Luckily, he had a light blue sweatshirt that he had been eager to finally wear around campus, so upon pulling that on along with a black pair of running shorts, Sam’s look for the day was complete. 

Thinking he was running late due to his focus on his reflection in the bathroom, the man quickly turned towards his alarm clock to see how much time he had to spare before the two of them needed to head towards the lecture hall. To his shock, staring at the warped alarm clock revealed that it was only 9:05. With so much free time before his first lecture (which was only a few minutes away by foot), the man cheerfully made his way out of his room and downstairs towards the kitchen to have some breakfast.

Upon brewing a pot of coffee and getting a bowl of cereal, Sam made his way over to the kitchen table while merrily scrolling through his various social media feeds. It was a pleasant surprise for him to feel so energized and upbeat while being up so early, so much so that it made him question whether he should start doing it more often. Just as he started to watch a YouTube video involving two of his favorite drag queens, the sound of shuffling upstairs caused him to pause it and set his phone down.

Taking a sip of coffee in between bites of cereal, Sam gave a wide smile to his friend as Nate sluggishly dragged himself down their set of stairs. “Hey Nate, how’d you sleep last night?” he said, his voice oozing in chipperness that was a surprise to even him.

As his friend reached the bottom of the stairs and began to make his way towards him, Sam’s smile failed to falter despite taking a moment to observe his friend. Something about him looked different, but Sam couldn’t narrow down what it could possibly be. Even as his friend began to speak and provide a negative response to his question, Sam tried his best to remain optimistic and enthusiastic about the day.

“Not great,” Nate said with a yawn, ”I feel hungover and bloated. How about you?”

After breaking his joyful expression to take another bite of his cereal, Sam turned towards his friend and enthusiastically responded. “Oh, I actually feel great,” he said, taking another bite of cereal to punctuate his sentence. “Honestly, I don’t feel hungover at all. I feel absolutely ready to take on the day, boring first-day classes and all!” 

As he sat there and looked at his friend’s solemn expression though, Sam quickly replayed what Nate had said prior to asking how he was doing. Realizing that his response wasn’t a good one, the energized man took a second to look over his friend. While Sam hadn't been able to specify what was different about his friend, he found that the words “hungover” and “bloated” perfectly described the state of Nate.

“Whoa, not to be rude or anything, but you really do kinda look bloated”, he said aloud, still directing his eyes to catch every detail that stuck out to him. His best friend’s eyes were surrounded by intense circles and his skin looked in poor condition which, when paired with his slow-moving actions and constant squinting, made it extremely clear that the man was suffering an intense hangover. Usually the roles were reversed when the two of them went out drinking, so Sam couldn’t help but find some slight amusement by seeing his friend suffering the same way he usually did.

However, there wasn’t any real form of amusement from Sam in regards to Nate’s puffier-looking appearance. He sympathized with his friend, especially as he saw the man’s distended stomach straining against one of Nate’s favorite t-shirts. Did he have some sort of allergic reaction? Sam thought to himself as he continued to stare at his friend.

As Sam was continuing to observe every possible minute detail that seemed off on his friend’s body, his attention was quickly broken by his friend beginning to speak once more.

“I do?” Nate asked. “I was hoping that it was only me who thought that,” he said, trying to lighten the mood with a sincere yet awkward sounding laugh. But just as Sam had taken a moment to closely observe his friend, he soon realized that his friend was doing the same thing to him. “Whoa dude,” he said, moving in a sort of waddle-like stride towards his friend. “You look… kinda buff,” the man continued, his mouth going wide in shock due to such a crazy observation.

While his friend was ogling at his body, Sam was quick to dismiss such a statement. “Nahhhhh,” he scoffed, waving his hand away while blushing at the positive comment. “You actually think so?”

“Yeah, I swear your arms look larger,” Nate said, a slight tone in his voice that Sam felt indicated both shock and slight jealousy. As he took a breath to continue speaking, he was suddenly interrupted by a deep and loud cough. “Whew, sorry about that. Are you sure you haven’t been working out?,” he continued, inquisitively raising an eyebrow while looking at his friend.

The whole hecticness of his friend’s behavior could only cause Sam to laugh as he said a simple “Yes, I’m positive”.

As Nate turned to fill up his water bottle to hopefully remedy his dry throat, Sam took a moment to grab the pot of coffee and pour his friend a cup. Yeah he definitely needs this more than me, he thought as he set the cup to the side for his friend to grab. By the time Nate had taken a seat next to him with the water bottle and bowl of cereal in hand, Sam was already finishing up his own bowl. But despite finishing up, the man continued to sit there with his friend and occasionally sip from his coffee cup.

Upon draining the bowl of the remaining milk, Sam got up from his seat and deposited the bowl and spoon into the sink. As he turned and began to walk back towards the table, he continued to speak once more. “Hopefully the first day of this semester isn’t as boring as all of the other first days. I hate having to go through the syllabus and all of that junk every class”. 

“You know it will be,” Nate pessimistically said as he took one more spoonful of his cereal before realizing that the bowl lacked any cereal. “Hey, could you grab me that cereal box?”, he quickly asked, causing Sam to stop dead in his tracks and turn back to hand him the box. 

Upon returning to the table and setting the box in front of him, Sam watched with curiosity as his friend immediately filled the bowl back up with cereal and dove right back into eating it. Continuing to keep his focus trained on the bowl that was constantly being drained of both milk and cereal, Sam took some more sips of coffee. 

“I don’t know though, I feel like the English classes at least try to spice it up rather than repeating the same old stuff,” Sam interjected once more in hopes of restarting the conversation that had been paused. But as his friend only gave a simple answer of “I suppose” in between spoonfuls of milky cereal, Sam could only watch in slight annoyance as his friend once again refilled his bowl and devoured its contents within a few massive bites. Opting to just sit there in silence, Sam ultimately pulled out his phone and began to wait for his friend to finish up his extra helpings.

Luckily, Nate had quickly devoured his fourth bowl of cereal and finally finished slurping down the now-colored milk remaining in the bowl. As Sam took a moment to check the time on his phone, his heart began to rapidly beat upon realizing that the duo only had  15 minutes to make the 5 minute trek to the lecture hall. Attempting to remain calm, the college student took a moment to put his hands on his hips and stare at his friend who was still just sitting at the kitchen table but now scrolling through his phone.

So as he slowly made his way closer to the table, Sam put his hands on his hips and coughed to get his friend’s attention. “Alright Nathan, let’s get a move on. We need to be out of here in less than 10 minutes. I won’t let myself be late for my first class!” he sternly said, narrowing his eyes as he watched his friend’s mouth go agape at his suddenly unfriendly demeanor. 

As Nate followed his friend’s orders and began to finally sit up and deposit his bowl into the kitchen sink though, the man finally got up the courage to speak up. “Dude, I know you’re excited for class and everything, but what’s up with using my full name? You’ve never called me Nathan before. Do you think you’re my dad or boss or something? How would you like it if I called you Samuel then?” he inquired, a look of understandable confusion emerging on his face as he awaited his friend’s response.

For Samuel though, there was a simmering rage that was slowly forming inside the man’s mind as he clenched his fists and attempted to remain calm. He certainly didn’t mind his friend calling him by his full name, but he did in fact have issues with Nathan suddenly questioning his behavior. “Well, given the fact that you want to just wait around and eat nearly a box full of cereal, one of us has to be the adult here to make sure we make it to class on time. Now I’m done arguing about this, let’s get going before we’re late,” he curtly said, giving no time for Nathan to respond before quickly rushing up the stairs of their apartment and leaving his extremely lethargic friend by himself.

* * * * *

As the two friends made the short trek towards the lecture hall, Samuel was feeling even more enthusiastic with each passing step. Continuing to have the same wide grin on his face, the man immediately stood out from the slew of other college students with dower expressions on their faces. It was shocking to him to feel so absolutely stoked to begin classes, but given the fact that the alternative of being stressed and risking burn-out, he wasn’t willing to deeply question it for his own mental and physical stability.

Throughout the journey, Samuel found himself getting so overeager and excited that he found himself breaking away from Nathan due to his passionately rapid pacing. Almost every time he passed a corner or traversed up a set of stairs, the man often was left stopping and patiently waiting for his friend to follow him. It wasn’t uncommon for Samuel to be faster than his friend, especially given his history as a cross country runner with decent stamina, but Nathan was seemingly moving at a snail’s pace compared to him. Clearly their night of drunken hijinks was negatively affecting him, but this was even more so given Nathan’s usually dislike of early morning awakenings. 

Upon catching sight of the lecture hall, Samuel once again rushed up yet another staircase before turning to his friend. Seeing Nathan in such an abysmally lethargic state, the man once again tried to lighten the mood with his charming personality. “Well, here it is,” he merrily said, outstretching his arms to gesture towards the building as if it was a brand new car. As his friend gave a slight yet forced smile and passed by Samuel’s extended limbs, the overeager student pulled open the door for his friend before following him inside.

Passing through a sea of students trying to leave the building, the two felt like salmon swimming upstream as they struggled yet ultimately managed to make their way to the designated lecture hall. Walking in, Samuel smiled like a kid in a candy shop as his mouth dropped at the sight of the room. Usually, these English courses were rather small in terms of class size, but this hall had at least 100 students in it already with more still trying to make their way inside.

The size was quickly becoming intimidating and irritating for the duo though as they desperately scanned the room in search of a place where they could sit together. Luckily after a few times of scanning the room, Samuel was able to locate two empty seats up towards the upper rows in the back of the auditorium. Pointing towards the seats to indicate where he was going, the man used his stamina to his advantage to quickly secure the seats so no one else could take them.

While his friend slowly lumbered up the stairs, Samuel took the opportunity to quickly unzip his backpack and begin to pull out the necessary items for the course. While he was too busy leaning in to rummage through the bag to search for Nathan, it quickly became clear that he had arrived based on the resounding creak of the chair next to him. Turning towards his friend, Samuel watched as his friend’s cheeks turned a pink shade and he quickly wiped his brow. Jeez, he really is looking bigger than I remembered, Samuel thought to himself as he looked at the sight before him. Not only was sweat continuing to drip down the man’s face from such light physical activity, but the man’s bloated stomach was now fighting against the tabletop attached to the chair. Maybe I can convince him to start going on runs around campus with me, he thought once more, thinking about how great it would be to expend some energy with some physical activity.

Although he felt like he wanted to be a good friend and think of a plan to help his friend feel and look better, Samuel didn’t want to run the risk of having his self-conscious friend see him intently staring at his bulkier body. So, he quickly averted his eyes away from his friend and back towards the backpack while finishing to grab and pull out the necessary items for the lecture. 

But as he continued to do this, a sudden groan came from his friend and caused Samuel to look at his friend. To his shock, he watched as his friend found himself unable to move below the tabletop to grasp onto his backpack. Staring at Nathan’s stomach, he quickly realized that the thick and bulky stomach that he had was severely restricting his flexibility.

Setting his notebook onto the table, Samuel attempted to turn and check up on his friend. “Whoa, are you okay?” he asked, feeling quite sad for his friend due to the extreme look of discomfort plastered all over his still-sweaty face.

“Y..yeah… I think,” Nathan replied, but it was quickly clear that neither one of them believed what he was saying. In an attempt to remedy the issue, Samuel watched as Nathan tried to sit up and adjust himself to hopefully alleviate his discomfort. Watching as Nathan’s face shifted to slight relief as he took a deep sigh, Samuel himself mimicked the same expression.

However, this relief was ill-fated as Nathan’s gut began to loudly gurgle. In many ways, Samuel felt as if the gut was resisting the concept of finding any sort of relief or comfort.

“Uh, are you sure?” he asked, clearly unconvinced as his words were spoken over his stomach’s continued gurgling. 

As if the universe was trying to respond for Nathan, a loud “PING!” rang out throughout the entire lecture hall to give Samuel an immediate answer: No, Nathan was not ok. Watching as a dark object flew out from the chair and ricocheted up from the chair in front of them, Samuel’s eyes immediately transfixed on its journey as it quickly fell to the ground and skidded across the staircase. While his friend gave a simple “oof”, Samuel leaned past his friend and looked down to see the object now that it had settled down onto the ground. It was a button, and more importantly, the one from Nathan’s khaki shorts.

Turning to look at his friend once more, Samuel was understandably shocked to see a sliver of Nathan’s gut fully exposed in between the slight reveal of his boxer briefs from the pants popping and the riding up of his shirt due to the continued bloatedness. While it wasn’t scientifically possible, Samuel couldn’t help but feel as if the man was bigger than he was after breakfast.

But when the man suddenly grimaced and groaned, Samuel let out an audible gasp as his hands quickly moved towards his stomach and grasped onto it. “Holy shit, are you ok?” he inquired, wide-eyed and confused by what was happening to his friend. 

As Nathan moved as fast as he could into an upright position, the bright red cheeks he had quickly informed Samuel that he was feeling self-conscious and embarrassed. Trying to think of the best course of action, he assumed that a sudden exit from the classroom would only draw more lingering eyes on his friend. As such, he believed that the best thing to do would be to get his friend to calm down and explain what’s going on.

“I… I think I need to leave Samil,” Nathan nervously said, turning away as he began to slowly make his way into the aisle to rush down the staircase. 

Knowing that this wasn’t the best idea, the lankier man quickly hopped up onto his feet  in an attempt to help calm his friend down. In his haste, Samuel was completely oblivious to the different name that Nathan had called him. As such, reality further altered until the man believed that his name had always been Samil. “Whoa, whoa, Nathal tell me what’s going on. How can I help?” he interjected, moving one arm to place a hand onto the overweight man’s broad shoulder. As he did so, he was blissfully unaware of the fact that he had also called his friend a different name and further altered reality to fit that new name.

The move didn’t work though, as Nathal turned to let Samil’s hand fall to the side while making his way down the staircase and out of the classroom. As Samil made his way back into his seat, he silently wished that his friend was able to exit the room quickly so he could come back and return before the class officially started. Luckily, the professor was a few minutes late, which could work in Nate’s favor. But unfortunately, the lethargic pace Nathal had moved with earlier had seemingly slowed down even more as it took him several minutes before finally descending the staircase and exiting out of the classroom. Now completely alone, Samil awkwardly awaited and hoped that his friend would return soon…

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