The first day of class came bright and early along with the sun shining through the windows and onto the silent alarm clock. Eight forty-seven

Nicole woke up swiftly jumping from her bed and running to get dressed. Late again. What a great way to start the year. She thought to herself. Nicole internally scolded her past self for signing up to take nine o’clock classes and thinking the early time would keep her responsible.

After scurrying across the campus to get to her class on time, she ran in to find many other equally-as-exhausted people slumped over notebooks. They were swiftly writing what the professor was saying verbatim onto their papers.

“Take a seat and start writing”, said the professor in an agitated manner. Nicole stayed frozen in shock of his snippy response. It was only when a guy frantically rushed into the room, nearly knocking her over, that Nicole realized she was still standing in the doorway.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!  Excuse me!’, the rushed boy said, “Have I missed anything?”

“Besides the last straw of my patience remaining intact, no. Go sit down.”, spoke the professor. The students all stifled a laugh at his acrid remark while the two standing teens rushed to their seats.

It wasn't until then that Nicole actually took time to observe the boy sitting next to her. she noticed the boy’s disheveled appearance. He had light, lifeless eyes which were pretty but bloodshot. Paying attention to the darkened bags under his eyes, it didn’t seem like he had gotten much sleep the night, or few nights, before. His dark hair was knotted into a mess upon his head. The brunet’s shirt was buttoned wrong and only half tucked into his jeans--which seemed to be the only thing in order about him.

The disordered boy turned to her slowly, knocking his notebook off of his desk in the process, calmly saying, “I haven’t slept in three days.”

Nicole noted the slight southern edge to his tired voice, “Oh really? I would’ve never guessed.”

“You’re not very good at lying, you know?”

“And I’m going to guess you’re not very good at managing your time?”, Nicole fired back swiftly.

“What gave it away”, He questioned slurring together his words.

“Probably the fact that you’re about to fall asleep and you haven’t even told me your name yet.”

“Josh”, he responded.

Josh, she thought, the name oddly matches him.

“So, Josh”, Nicole began breaking herself from her thoughts, “Why haven’t you slept in three days.”

The long pause signaling that Josh had fallen asleep sparked an idea in Nicole’s mind. She had only met the sleeping boy less than 10 minutes ago, but she felt responsible to wake him. Nicole reached over, shaking Josh’s shoulder lightly, “Want the rest of my coffee? It looks like you need it more than I do.”

He groggily raised his head from his desk, “You’re a life-saver. Thanks…”, he trailed off trying to remember her name.

“Nicole”, she finished for him, “and it’s really no problem.”

Nicole focused on the chalkboard rushing to write down everything, but that was only before a note was slipped onto her desk.

I feel like I should repay you for the coffee. Lunch sometime?

As the class ended Nicole turned to him and said, “Definitely, but if I were you I would get some sleep first.”