Girls Like Boys

Morning Ever After

Ramsy’s alarm when off at six thirty in the morning. Accustomed to sleeping through her earlier alarms, I curled into my bed to go back to sleep for awhile. Travis groaned and I felt him shift beside me as he woke up. He was between me and the wall, so there was no where for him to go without climbing over me and no room to stretch without invading my space.

I’d fallen asleep before him last night, stayed up until I was too tired and the passed out next to him. From what I remembered, it was nearly two and we were nearing the end of our movie.

“Cody, get up and turn that off,” Travis complained in my ear, shuffling so he could bury his face into the side of my pillow to block the noise. “Seriously, what time is it?”

“Six thirty,” I answered groggily. “Stop talking and go back to sleep.”

Travis, outraged by the time, was suddenly awake. He got up quickly, jostling me as he climbed over me. “Ramsy, what the hell,” he muttered as he stomped across the room. Her phone was on the edge of her desk and I rolled over to see as he yanked it from its charger and slid the alarm to sleep.

Ram glared at him. “Go away,” she muttered, taking the phone from him as he forked it back over. “Stop being such a grouch, you have to drive me to class anyway.”

“Yeah,” he said loudly. “At eight forty-five, not six-thirty. There’s a big different between now and then. Why the hell do you even need to be up this early. It’s ridiculous.”

I sighed and blinked my eyes back open to look at him. “Travis, shut up and come back to bed,” I demanded, rolling over to the wall. “You’re being too loud.”

The room was lit from the sun but subdued by the white blinds that hung over the wide windows. It was bright enough to see everything, especially Travis standing in the center of the room, looking between Ram and I like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You two are insane,” he muttered. He stormed back over to my side of the room and dropped back into bed. I was turned towards the wall, so he climbed in behind me.

“Night, Travis,” I said. “See you in two hours.”

Ramsy woke us back up before my alarm went off since it was set for my ten o’clock and she needed to be to the other side of campus before nine. Travis, although still annoyed by the early hour, was less contemptuous than earlier. He got up and got dressed by the closet without a word or warning. He stripped his shorts off and pulled his jeans back on before bending down to slip back into his shoes.

Ramsy shot me a look. “Next time, let us know when you’re about to take your pants off, Travis,” she said, turning away. She was put together already. She curled her hair for the day and did her makeup. She began throwing her books into her bag as I stepped over to the door and opened it.

I crossed the hall and peered into the bathroom. I turned around and walked back into our dorm. “Trav, the bathroom’s clear if you need to pee,” I told him, watching as he stood up and followed me. I grabbed my caddy from the floor so I could brush my teeth.

In the bathroom, Travis deviated to the stalls while I went to the sink to wash my face and fix my hair. I’d just pulled my face wash out of the caddy when Tegan walked in with a towel in her hand.

“Tegan,” I said quickly, loudly. “Good morning.” I glanced back to the stalls, hoping she wouldn’t notice Travis. Hoping he’d know well enough to stay put until I cleared him.

“Morning, Cody,” my RA greeted, stopping beside me. She set her caddy down on the sink next to me and turned on the water.

I took my time, hoping to wait her out. Luckily, Tegan just brushed her teeth before heading over to the showers. I spit and rinsed my mouth before walking over to Travis’s stall and knocking on it lightly. I left the water running and that, compounded with the sound of the shower, was hopefully enough to hide my whispers to the boy.

“Lets go, lets go,” I said quickly, ushering him out of the bathroom. He frowned and peered around to the other side of the room. You couldn’t see the showers from this angle, but he realized that she was still here. He stopped at the sink and ran his hands under the water.

“I need to bring a toothbrush over,” he complained, glancing down at me.

“Shut up and get out,” I demanded, literally shoving him towards our door. “You’re going to get me in so much trouble.”

He rolled his eyes and pushed through the door. It opened under his weight and we crossed the hall together. Travis chuckled once we were safely back inside. “You’re fine, Code,” he mollified. “Relax.” He turned his grin to Ramsy, sharing a secret smile about me.

I slipped past him and went to the mirror that hung on the closet door so I could fix my hair. Tegan’s appearance threw off my routine. I’d slept in too late to shower, so I had to make do. I smoothed my hair down and tied it back into place. The blonde strands ran straight down my spine.

“Travis, turn around,” I said, moving to the closet to pick out clean clothes. I figured my grey joggers were fine since I’d only slept in them once, but I pulled a black, off-the-shoulder t’shirt to replace the baggy one I wore now.

“We’ve gotta go,” Ramsy reminded us impatiently. “It’s almost eight-thirty.”

“One sec,” I answered, shooting her a look. Travis stood facing the wall, phone in hand. “Alright, I’m done,” I said. I grabbed my low-tops from the bottom of the closet and slipped into a clean pair of socks. Ramsy moved to the door, hand poised on the handle, urging us both to hurry up.

Travis swiped his car keys off my desk. He’d left his backpack in the car yesterday, so he was good to go. I pulled my bag out from under the bed and swapped books quickly. Ramsy asked me to please ‘zip it faster’ and once I did, the three of us headed out the door.

“Ramsy, you’re really not a morning person,” Travis commented as we headed down the corridor to the elevators. “I mean, you get up early and shit, but you’re grouchy as hell about it.”

“I’m grouchy because someone promised to drive me to class today and you both refused to get out of bed at a reasonable time. I got dressed in the bathroom because I kept thinking you’d wake up.” Ramsy stepped up and jammed the elevator button a few times before turning her attention to Travis’s reply.

He shook his head. “When I’m out, I’m out,” he answered. “It takes a lot to wake me up. Like that alarm this morning. That sound comes straight outta hell, I swear.”

“I slept pretty well considering you were there,” I commented. The elevator doors opened the the three of us walked in, stepping around a couple of girls who looked like they were heading out to class too. They looked at Travis for half a second, but didn’t say anything.

Travis nodded, shrugging into me. “Me too. You don’t take up too much space. I’m surprised by how comfortable it was, actually.”

The lobby was full of people heading every which direction. We ducked out as quickly as we could and headed down the street to the parking lot. I glanced across the street to the dining hall and practically whined at the thought of missing out on breakfast.

“What’s your schedule like today, Ram?” I asked, walking between her and Travis.

“Same as Monday and Wednesday,” she answered. “Poli Sci and then science. Done by noon. What about you?”

“We’ve got Psych today,” Travis told her. “She’s got something at ten, I can’t remember. I’ve got Mechanical, and then we’ve got Psych from eleven to one.”

Ram stared at him. “How do you know that?”

“You had my schedule for like ten seconds,” I recalled. “On Monday. How the heck do you remember it?”

We side-stepped a group of students coming up the path to the parking lot and we let Travis lead the way to the BMW. He shrugged as an answer and then added, “I don’t remember all of it, but we have class together Fridays, so.”

The car was only a couple rows back and Travis unlocked it before we even got to it. I watched Ramsy for her reaction and wasn’t disappointed by the look on her face. To someone who had absolutely no idea about cars, it didn’t look that flashy, but we knew enough to know that it was worth something. Ramsy was already fawning over the BMW label.

She walked past me to the backseat and turned to me. ‘Drugs? she mouthed, grinning as she laughed and opened the back door. I chuckled and got into the passenger’s seat. Travis opened the backdoor on his side and leaned in. He checked his backpack.

“I doubt we’ll need it on day one, but if we do, can I share your psych book?” he questioned, looking to me between the seats.

I shrugged. “Yeah, we won’t need them, but sure.”

He slammed the backdoor shut and got up front. He started the car up and waited until another car pulled out a couple spots down. Then he backed out and headed to the exit.

“You two want to stop for something to eat?” he asked, glancing at the time on the dash. “We’ve got a minute. If anything we can just run you through a drive through, Ramsy.”

She checked the time on her phone. We were going to cut it really close if we got stuck in any kind of line. “You can go without me,” she said. “Next time we better leave early enough, though, because I’m starving.”

Travis pulled out onto the main street that cut through campus and nodded idly at Ram’s words. His eyes scanned nearest side streets as we passed them and I couldn’t figure out what he was looking for. Finally, her words seemed to catch up with him. “Next time, I’ll get out of bed earlier,” he agreed, “but you’ll have to silence that alarm quicker because that thing just pisses me off and it’s harder to get up when I’m pissed off.”

He pulled to the right, taking a turn quickly as the streetlight turned red. There were students crossing every fifty-feet or so, so after a few minutes of stopping and going, Ramsy thanked Travis, said goodbye to me, and got out. She was a two minute walk from her building, so it was faster just to hike it over there.

Travis grinned at me as he took the nearest left and headed back to the parking garage. “Breakfast?” He swerved around a group of students who were bunched together on the side of the street across from the math building and hooked another left into the garage. We took the ramps to the third floor and pulled into the first spot he found.

“Do you want to eat in one of the dining halls or walk to one of the places down over there?” I motioned to the left of us. There were multiple fast-food restaurants on the edge of campus. It made it easy to stop over there before class or on our way home. I knew once we got started, it would be a hard habit to break.

Travis got out of the car and came around to me. His shirt was wrinkled from sleeping in it, but he looked pretty much the same as always. He’d smoothed his hair with his fingers sometime between leaving the dorm and now, so there wasn’t much out of place with him. “You’re going to use up all your dining hall guest passes before week three,” he commented, leaning against the BMW.

“You can always put more on,” I retorted, “All the other people I know live in the dorms, so it’s not like I’m going to spend your guest passes on somebody else.”

Travis smirked at me. “I hadn’t thought about that. Lets go to that food truck near the Psych building. My treat.” He pointed in the direction of the truck and set us into motion. The Psych building wasn’t close to the English building, where I had to be at ten, but there was enough time.

This early, there wasn’t a huge line at the truck, but there were a good amount of people. There were tables and chairs set up in front and Travis threw his bag down onto one as we passed. They’d set up a chalk board outside and written down their menu on it. Travis and I stopped shoulder to shoulder to look at it.

“Their steak tacos are delicious,” he commented, pointing to the item on the list.

“What’re you getting?” I questioned, noting the prices along the right edge.

“Either the tacos or a Philly.” He glanced up at the short line and then side-stepped around the menu board. He stood behind a couple and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. I joined him a minute later.

We both ordered the tacos and ate so quick that neither of us had a chance to get a word in before we finished. I threw our trash away while Travis saddled up to the truck and stuffed a few dollars in their tip jar. I stood around the other side with his backpack in my hands until he made his way back over. He grabbed the bag from me and slipped it onto his shoulders. He was distracted as he started walking, untucking his shirt sleeve from the strap of his backpack.

I followed him soundlessly since he was heading in the direction of my building. We crossed through the commons and he still couldn't get his short sleeve unrolled from under his strap. "Jesus, Travis," I muttered, stepping up in front of him. I smacked his hands away and slipped my fingers under his strap to lift it. I yanked his sleeve down, being less careful than he had, and shot him a look.

He beamed at me. "Thanks, Code." He dropped his arms to his side and pressed on, heading towards the bridge to the buildings on the other side of the creek.

"You know you should probably go to Engineering,” I reminded him. We walked close together, keeping to our side so other students could get past us. The way we were headed over, Travis would have to circle back to the Engineering building. They were a couple building apart.

"I'm walking you to class," he countered, shrugging his shoulders at me.

The English building was just as packed as it had been Monday and Wednesday. There were students squeezing themselves into the building and between groups as they tried to force themselves another direction. Travis walked me to the doors and then kept walking, heading back down the stairs so he could make it to class on time. "See you later, Code." He pulled a smoke out as he left me, tucking it behind his ear as he grinned in goodbye.

I echoed his sentiments and pushed my way inside. There was a current of people coming down from the stairs, so I dipped between a couple and headed the direction they'd just came from. I was halfway up the second flight of stairs when a familiar face met me in the middle.

Jack greeted me with a smile but stayed quiet until we slipped into our classroom one after the other. Landon was already seated in his same spot and Jack headed over, motioning for me to follow. He stepped past his friend and I climbed past them both, careful not to trip over them.

The people that usually sat on my other side weren’t here yet, so I pulled my bag up onto the chair beside me and yanked my notebook out, flipping open to the page where we left off Wednesday.