Chapter Text
El Hopper was usually the perfect student. Whenever she received an assignment, she would return to her dorm that night and would create a spreadsheet that detailed every instruction, every key theory involved, when the deadline was and would get started on her wider reading straight away. She adored everything about her Child Psychology classes, and had always received high grades and had been praised in her feedback for the level of effort that was evident in her work.
However, the past week had been pure chaos. First, it had been her best friend Max’s birthday, and El had spent the day with her and Max's boyfriend Lucas and had unexpectedly fallen asleep on their sofa after they had drunk multiple bottles of wine together. Max and Lucas had been bickering all night long that they each knew a guy that would be perfect for El, and were placing bets on whose blind date would go better. El had been laughing along, rolling her eyes as the two of them were pretending to be in a real argument over this like El couldn’t see their hands clasped under the table.
Watching them filled her with such happiness for her best friend, but also with an aching loneliness. El had always been a hopeless romantic, probably due to her fondness for over-dramatic teledramas from the 80’s. She would love to meet someone; to experience the heart-stopping, breath-taking, soul-consuming love she sees all around her, but she has yet to find her special person, which is probably why she tipsily agrees to go on dates with both Max’s friend and Lucas’s friend to settle this argument once and for all.
El had expected them to have forgotten about it by the next day (like she had), but in true Max fashion she had instead done the exact opposite by arranging the date with her friend in two days time, and a date with Lucas’s friend the night after. It had meant that El had a lot less time than she had originally allocated on her spreadsheet to work on her report, but she worked on it whenever she could nonetheless.
For the first date, she wore her favourite pale purple sundress, white heels, and had the cutest little butterfly clip pinning her hair half up. It had been a long time since she had an excuse to dress up, and she spent hours getting ready, making sure everything was perfect. She had to work hard to ignore the disappointment curling in her stomach when the guy showed up in neon green shorts and a t-shirt that was slightly stained.
The date itself went okay. Dan was friendly enough, paid for everything, and complimented her a few times throughout the night. It was clear to see why him and Max had hit it off as his eyes lit up when he started to talk about skateboarding, but after a full thirty minute monologue about it with no reference to her whatsoever, she knew that unless Lucas’s friend was an absolute creep, Max would not be winning their bet. The only butterflies present was the one in her hair.
When Dan dropped her off, he leaned in and she had to swerve to avoid it, him planting a wet kiss on her cheek. She had mumbled something incoherent and made her way back to her apartment, feeling slightly gross, disappointed, and lonely. She knew watching her comforting teledramas tonight wouldn’t help her one bit, so decided instead to force herself to work more on her assignment, even if her mind was constantly wandering to the date and how much she hoped tomorrow's would be better.
The following afternoon, she opened her laptop to make the final edits of her assignment when she finally acknowledged that this piece of work was utter shit. It was nowhere near her usual standard, and most of the references she had used weren’t even relevant to the topic she was discussing. She had been so distracted all week, feeling sorry for herself last night, that she had let it affect her studies and now the deadline was 9am tomorrow. There was no way she was submitting this work. She sent a quick text to Max letting her know she wouldn’t be able to make it to the second date tonight.
That is how she found herself doing something she had never done before in her entire academic career: an all nighter at the campus library. She had arrived around 8pm when it was still fairly busy, but as the hours went on the numbers slowly dwindled until she was one of the few remaining, hunched over her desk reworking her entire assignment. She had managed to find a space with a comfy chair that was hidden under the grand staircase, tucked away from everyone else, so that if she needed a power nap she could do so discreetly.
Around 1am, she could feel herself crashing, and made her way over to the squeaky coffee machine in the corner. She knew it would be nothing compared to the iced caramel macchiatos she usually ordered but it would have to do as there was no way she could power through without a caffeine intervention. The coffee smelled burnt, and the appearance could only be described as brown sludge, but it was better than nothing. She braced herself, and took her first sip.
“Awful, isn’t it?” A voice said to her left, startling her so much that the flimsy disposable cup slipped from her hands. She watched in horror as the sludge splashed all over her black Doc Martens as well as the stranger’s white Converse. She was instantly grabbing for napkins and dropping to her knees, trying to minimise the damage before she’d even fully registered what was happening.
“Oh my god,” She said. “I am so sorry. I thought I was the last one here -”
“No, no. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that, especially not at this time. I wasn’t even thinking.” The stranger scrambled on their knees too, helping El mop up the excess liquid. When she was satisfied they had managed to clean up most of it, she finally looked over at the stranger and her breath caught in her throat.
It was a boy her age, and he was, well, beautiful. The word cute did not even come close. He had black hair that curled up around his shoulders; sharp, elegant cheekbones and a splatter of freckles across his face. His eyes were brown, and he was looking at her apologetically.
“Did the coffee burn you?” He asked.
She finally snapped out of her daze. “Oh! No, no, I’m fine. Did it burn you?” She chewed on her lip nervously, ashamed she was so caught up in looking at him that she didn’t even think that he might be in pain from the hot coffee.
The boy shook his head. “No, I’m fine. Just a little squelchy.” He picked up his feet one by one, demonstrating the disgusting squelch sound that accompanies the movement.
She tried to apologise again, but he interrupted her. There was a small smile on his face. “Maybe it’s a cosmic sign you shouldn’t risk your health drinking that stuff.”
El tried to smile at the boy, but she could feel whatever her mouth was doing right then was more of a grimace. Her mouth felt like cotton, and there was a roaring in her ears. She knew she needed to respond in order to keep their conversation going - to ask him his name, his course, anything - but as the seconds slipped by without a word, she watched the smile fall from his face as he took a step back.
“Right. Obviously you’re super busy with work. I’ll leave you to it. Sorry again.” The stranger nodded at her once more, then stiffly turned the corner, muttering something under his breath.
El thought about calling out after him but knew she would just make the whole thing worse, if that was even possible. She silently returned to her desk, coffeeless, feeling more awake than she’d ever felt. She was determined to get straight back to her assignment, to get it done, and to get into her bed as quickly as possible. She was also determined to not let her thoughts dwell on the fact that she had spilled coffee on the cutest boy she’d ever seen, and then completely ignored him when he had attempted to speak to her. Now that he wasn’t looking at her, supporting a grin that was half apologetic and half amused, she could think more clearly and felt absolutely mortified, her cheeks bright red, burning to the touch. What was wrong with her?
After what felt like a hundred proof-reads, she managed to submit the completely reworked version of her assignment at 3:53am. When she later crawled into bed, she felt the embarrassment of the encounter with the beautiful stranger at full force. She knew there was no way she could ever fall asleep unless she told someone, so sent a text to Max, knowing Max would be getting up around then to go to the gym and would see it, maybe offer her some comfort and reassurance.
Met the love of my life in the library today. I spilled coffee on his white shoes and then didn’t respond when he talked to me, so he walked off.
The reply was practically instant. Can’t believe you bailed on Lucas’s friend to meet some other guy. Shame on you.
Not much comfort there, then. She sent the same text to her stepbrother Will, hoping he would be a bit kinder to her, but his reply was arguably worse. Of course you did. I don't blame him.
After a night of tossing and turning, and an entire weekend of feeling like an idiot, El woke up Monday morning and tried to put the entire thing behind her. She had a full day of classes, and if the previous week had taught her anything, it was that she couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything or anyone. When her lecturer in one of her other classes announced a new assignment, she had already started working on her spreadsheet.
She returned to the library the following Wednesday, laptop and energy drink in hand, and made her way to the cosy desk space under the stairs. It was the first time she’d returned since That Night, and she was feeling on edge, constantly looking over her shoulder in case the guy was anywhere near. It was the seventh or eighth time that she spun around in her chair that she managed to knock her entire pencil case off the desk, the pens and highlighters spread haphazardly on the floor. She knelt down, collected them all, and just before she climbed back up onto her chair, she noticed a folded green sticky note, wedged in the crack between the desk and the wall. She managed to pull it free, and unfolded it.
You wouldn’t think it, but the ice cream place across from Oakland Building actually has amazing coffee. I think they shut at 5pm though, so I don’t know if that’s any use to you.
P.S. Did you meet your deadline?
- (Not so) White Converse