Once Claire had finished her exam she went to the student café and bought a small coffee and a warm bagel with cream cheese. She sat by herself in the corner until her bagel was gone. She couldn’t walk and eat it while holding her coffee at the same time. When she was done she threw out her trash and left with her coffee cup. She walked smoking a cigarette back to her dorm but went up to the 4th floor instead of the 5th. She knocked on a door. It was 8:30. The door opened and a Hawaiian girl stood on the other side. She wasn’t tall, but she wasn’t short. She had her long black hair tied behind her head in a big, sloppy bun. She wore a small blue surfing t-shirt that her belly peeked out from under and some long, baggy khaki shorts.
“Hey mamma,” she said, greeting Claire. “Come on in.” Claire smiled at her as she entered the girl’s room, which had the exact same layout as Claire’s. Claire sat on the girl’s desk chair and the girl sat on her bed. There were clothes and papers littered everywhere.
“I thought you were going to come by last night,” the girl said.
“Yeah, I got your note, and I would have, but I was with a boy,” Claire explained.
“No way!” The girl got excited. “You’ve never ditched me for a boy before. He must be some piece of work to get your attention.”
Claire grinned, blushing a little. “Yeah, he’s um, really hot.”
“Nice,” the girl said, packing a bowl in her glass pipe. “Does he go to school here? What’s his name?”
“Hollis. He doesn’t go to school, he’s a mechanic. We’re the exact same age,” Claire told her.
“When did you meet him?” The girl asked, hit the pipe and handed it to Claire, choking back smoke.
“Sunday. At the Lost Map. He lives over here and he gave me a ride home.”
“Did you give it up to him?”
Claire laughed in the middle of her hit and said, “No, Mina, we only had one date.” She blew out some smoke and sucked the rest back in before blowing it all out.
Mina grinned. “Well, maybe next time then?”
Claire handed the pipe back to Mina and she realized she may not see him so soon. “Shit,” she said. “We didn’t exchange phone numbers.”
“You dork,” Mina teased after she hot the pipe and before she let the smoke escape her lungs.
Claire took the pipe from her and smoked while thinking about how she could find where he worked. She was having a hard time getting him out of her head.
“So anyway,” Mina said, taking the pipe back and smoking the last hit, clearing it through. “I got the stuff yesterday.”
“Oh yeah?” Claire asked, returning to reality.
“Yeah. We can fucking trip balls this weekend.”
“Awesome,” Claire said, “that would be great.”
“Yeah,” Mina agreed. “It’s been a while. For me, at least.”
“Me too,” Claire said, with the thought of Hollis still in the back of her head.
“Shit,” Mina grunted after spacing out for a minute and looking at the time. “It’s 9:00. I gotta go to class and see what I got on my last project.” She got up and started putting on her shoes.
Claire stood up and picked up her tote bag. “Yeah, I should go take a shower anyway.”
“No shit, I can small man musk on you.”
Claire laughed. “Shut up!” she said.
Mina laughed with Claire and they left Mina’s room together. Once in the stairwell they parted, Mina going down and Claire going up.
In her room Claire took a hot shower, got dressed in fresh clothes and left to make her 10:00 class after smoking another bowl
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