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  “No, your honour.”

  “Then I have no choice but to grant Mr. Rhodes’ motion to dismiss.”

  Professor Wishbourne took his gavel and was about to sound it.

  Taylor raised his hand. “With that being said your honour…” He looked back at Emily who nodded. He winked and looked back at the judge. “I will also like to file a suit against Mr. Marlon for the emotional distress of my client.”

  “What client? Don’t tell me Emily is coming after me now.” Mike said with his hands open.

  “It is not Emily. It is Chloe.”

  Taylor handed the file to Maris who gave it to Professor Wishbourne.

  “What?! Why?!” Mike was not sure what was going on. “You don’t even like her.”

  “You know why Mike and you should have thought about that when you decided to falsely accuse me of breaking my promise.”

  “That’s enough.” Professor Wishbourne said. “Mr. Marlon, your trial begins at 4 p.m. this evening.” He sounded his gavel. “Dismissed.”

  Mike turned to face Professor Wishbourne. “But that isn’t enough time for me to prepare.” He argued. “I need at least a whole week to get my defence ready.”

  “You didn’t give Mr. Rhodes enough time to prepare. Why should I give you that privilege now?”

  “It’s not my fault he didn’t ask for more time but right now, I am asking for it.” Mike pleaded. “Professor Wish… I mean your honour; the circumstances are different. I need more time.”

  “Like I said, my decisions are final. See you at 4 p.m. or your punishment will be doubled.” Professor Wishbourne stood and walked towards the exit.

  “All rise!” Maris seemed to be enjoying his job.

  Taylor packed up his things and walked out the class. Everyone was clapping, people were patting him on the back and he shook hands with way too many people. His cheek muscles ached from all the smiling he did but he really enjoyed the fact that he was getting acknowledged for the work he had done. There was simply no better feeling.

  ***

  Mike was enraged at the sight of all those people cheering Taylor. It was supposed to be him they cheered. Why did Taylor always have to get the better of him? This was the second time in two days Taylor had gotten one over him and he was tired of it. He stormed after Taylor; it was time to get even.

  He saw Bob and Taylor talking. Taylor had seen him and walked towards him.

  “Yo Mike. How did you like th…”

  Mike did not let him finish the sentence. He struck Taylor’s jaw, sending his glasses flying. He saw that he had cut him, and he liked that. Let’s see you call me weaker than him now, May. Taylor was dazed so Mike got in some body shots and feigned to his left. Taylor must have thought he was trying to punch his face again because he put his hands up to block the punch. Mike took the opening and quickly speared Taylor to the ground and got in three punches to his face before Bob pulled him off.

  Taylor writhed in pain and spat blood. Mike looked at him and cracked a smile. He had said his piece, and this was payback for the fight earlier. He just needed to find a way to win the suit.

  “Whoo!” Mike looked around and clapped as he walked away. “Yes!”

  Bob was already with Taylor. He carried him and took him to the clinic where the nurses started tending to him.

  ***

  Emily had only just come out of the lecture theatre and saw the crowd that was gathered. The crowd grew and made it hard for her to get through. She had tried asking someone what was going on but got no reply as the person ran off. She was working her way through the crowd when Alex pulled her aside.

  “What’s going on?” Emily shouted so he could hear her over the commotion.

  “Let’s go talk somewhere else.”

  They walked to the other end of the hallway and Emily stared at Alex. “What is going on? Why is there a crowd gathered outside and please, tell me it has nothing to do with Taylor.”

  Alex put his hands in his pocket and looked at his shoes.

  “You had better start talking, Alex. What is going on? That’s the last time I am going to ask you.”

  Alex sighed. “Mike attacked Taylor and he left him pretty bad” He winced when he looked at Emily and saw she was holding back tears. “Bob took him to the clinic. He should be fine.”

  Emily did not say anything. She just walked off.

  “Emily!!!” Alex called after her.

  She did not look back. She kept walking, got into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. Mike had gone too far this time and she would find time to deal with him later. Right now, she had to go be with Taylor.

  “Why didn’t you fight back, you fool?” Emily asked an invisible Taylor. She knew there was no way Mike would have won in a fight against Taylor and so the only logical explanation was him not fighting back. The elevator bell dinged so she wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks, got out of the elevator and headed for the clinic.

  ***

  The clinic was not like any other school’s clinic. It was a single building isolated from the others. It was big, unappealing and did not really look safe at night with its orange and brown paint that gave it an eerie glow in the night light.

  The interior was a lot more impressive. The reception was 10m x 5m and was painted turquoise. There was a single table at the end of the room farther from the door and it had a built-in aquarium. Chairs lined the walls opposite the receptionist’s desk and there was a TV on the wall by the receptionist desk.

  Bob had been asked to wait in the reception and he was currently watching the news. He hated the news but he had no other options as all the other channels were not airing anything interesting. He had tried reading one of the magazines from the receptionist’s desk but he got bored quickly; they were either magazines on medicine or women lifestyle. He was just glad that there were snacks he could eat while he waited.

  The door opened and Emily came in. She headed straight to the receptionist.

  “I need to see Taylor. He was brought in here not too long ago.”

  The receptionist pointed to the chairs. “Please have a seat. Mr. Rhodes is still being attended to.”

  “How long before I can see him?” Emily asked.

  “I don’t know but I’ll let you know when the doctor is done.” The receptionist smiled.

  Emily put her head in her hands and tried to stop herself from crying but it was not working. She flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Bob.

  “Hey.” Bob smiled at her. “Why don’t we go sit for now?”

  Emily did not want to do anything but see Taylor and she was about to refuse when May burst through the door.

  “Where’s Taylor?!” May demanded.

  “Please, no shouting. There are students that are resting and it would be nice if you didn’t disturb them.” Miss. Gray, the receptionist, was still smiling. Emily wondered if she was always this cheerful.

  May mouthed sorry and walked up to where Emily and Bob were standing.

  “Why are you here?” Emily asked, her words carrying a bite in them.

  “I came to see how Taylor was doing. Is he ok?”

  Emily scoffed. “What do you care?”

  “What do you mean? I don’t give a shit about anything but Taylor right now and I came to make sure that he wasn’t badly hurt.” May sounded sincere. “I also came to apologize for how Mike acted. You of all people should know that I care. Don’t let your being hurt make you forget that.”

  “I am sorry.” Emily sighed and took May’s hand. “I know how much you care about Taylor. I am just really worried about him.”

  Emily started crying and May hugged her. She knew exactly what Emily was going through. They stayed that way for close to five minutes and then Emily wiped her tears.

  “You good now?” May smiled. “You shouldn’t worry too much. Taylor will be fine.”

  “Yeah.” Emily looked at May. “I am sorry about what happened in class earlier. I hop
e I didn’t hurt your hand.”

  May laughed. “You hurt my hand, a lot, but it is fine. I deserved it.”

  “I don’t know how long the doctor is going to be with Taylor so I am thinking of grabbing a cup of coffee while I wait. Want to come?”

  “Yeah sure. I hate hospitals or clinics anyway so I would rather not have to wait here.”

  Emily turned to face Bob. “You coming?”

  “I’m good. I’ll just wait here.” Bob went back to his seat. “I’ll text you when we’re free to see Taylor and it wouldn’t hurt if you brought a cup of coffee for me on your back.”

  “Sure.” Emily smiled and walked out of the clinic with May.

  Bob turned his attention back to the news. He could not help but wonder about the friendship those four had. They were always biting and clawing over the dumbest things but they were still able to put their differences aside to be there for each other when the time came. He could only imagine what it felt like. “Well, it’s back to the news now.” He murmured.

  ***

  Emily and May had just finished ordering their drinks. They had both gone with their favourites: Emily got the double espresso and May got the piccolo latte. They were walking back to their seats when Emily started laughing.

  “What has got you all giggly?” May could feel herself starting to laugh as well.

  Emily quickly sat and threw her head back, still laughing.

  May also started laughing. “Ok. Now you’re starting to scare me.”

  “Oh my God.” Emily managed to stop laughing so hard. “I just remembered the day you and Taylor first formally met.”

  It was May’s turn to laugh uncontrollably. “That is one day I doubt I’ll ever forget. Do you still remember what we were talking about?”

  “Every single word.” Emily sighed. It was time to go down memory lane.

  FIVE

  It was the twenty-fifth of October 2014. A month had passed since the school year at OakCreek College began and there was still a liveliness to the freshmen that made the students in the higher levels look at them with pity, saying only if they knew, but the freshmen did not seem to care. They were going to be good students that obeyed all the rules; they would go for their classes, get all their assignments done on time and still not get tired. Some of them realized they were being naïve but yet they tried to match the level of energy and zeal their classmates had.

  They had only had a class today so far. Their professors had been called into a meeting and it had been running for three hours. A lot of them had gone to the library to study while some went to their dorm rooms and napped since they did not know how much longer their professors would be in the meeting.

  Emily and May had stayed in class to talk. The both of them were the closest of the girls and they hung out when Emily was not hanging out with Taylor, who May had a giant crush on, and would not let Emily rest till she told her all about him.

  “Look May, there really isn’t anything interesting about Taylor.” Emily was getting tired of every girl talking about Taylor. He was good looking but he was not the greatest looking guy on campus. “He is smart, he is tall, he can dance, he sucks at singing and that’s practically all there is to him. You really should get over this thing you have for him, whatever it is you have for him.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I would have said you were trying to make me lose interest in him.” May still sounded star struck. “Come on Emily. I want to know more intimate things about him and not his résumé or his bag of tricks. Tell me what his favourite colour is, who’s his favourite musician, what’s his spirit animal? All the sappy things”.

  Emily smiled.

  May stood. “You know Emily, if I had the chance, just one chance, I would lick him all over and suffocate him with kisses. Then, I will gaze into those brown eyes for etern…”

  Emily broke into laughter and May froze.

  “He’s at the door, isn’t he?”

  “Yes I am.”

  May turned her head to find Taylor leaning on the door frame, a big smile on his face. Her knees became weak and it took a whole lot to force herself to keep standing.

  “Snap out of it May. Flies might get in your mouth.” Emily was still laughing.

  May quickly shut her mouth and buried her face in her hand. “This is embarrassing.” She mumbled.

  “It is just really funny.” Taylor walked into the class and sat beside Emily. “You are Maya Davies, right?”

  “Please call me May.” May lifted her head to see his outstretched hand which she shook all too eagerly.

  “I cannot promise I will call you that” Taylor smiled “I like your actual name better. It just rolls off the tongue. Maya.”

  “Just great.” May rolled her eyes and sat.

  “By the way, Pink, Ed Sheeran and the Wolf.”

  “What?”

  “My favourite colour, my favourite musician and my spirit animal.” Taylor said. “You wanted to know right?”

  May smiled sheepishly. “I did and now I have another question.”

  “Ask on.”

  “Pink. Really?”

  Emily grimaced. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Well, she did E.” Taylor turned to face May. “For your information, Pink was originally a masculine colour and Blue, a feminine one. The Barbie era came and changed that, making Pink out to be a feminine colour and Blue, a masculine one. Now, we have people, people like you, who think pink is too girly for a guy to like and that, my fair lady, is wrong.”

  May stared at Emily who just shook her head and smiled. “Okay. I am sorry?”

  “It is alright. I was just trying to change your perception of guys who like pink and educate you about colours..”

  “My perception is officially changed. One last question.”

  “Let me have it.”

  “What’s your zodiac sign?”

  “Is she being serious E?”

  Emily shrugged. “Don’t drag me into this.”

  Taylor sighed. “Well, what zodiac sign does November 19 fall under?”

  “Scorpio. You’re a Scorpio and I am a Taurus”

  “I do not know what that is,” Taylor chuckled and May’s stomach did backflips. “but how about we go get coffee?”

  “What?” May’s voice cracked. Did he just ask me out?

  “Is she always like this?”

  “Only when she’s thinking about you”. Emily snapped her fingers. “Snap out of it May.”

  May’s face was red and it made Emily laugh at her even more.

  “What were you saying about coffee?” May’s voice was still betraying her. Just great.

  “Well I asked you if you would like to go get coffee with me. If you are going to lick me all over, suffocate me with kisses and gaze into my brown eyes for eternity, we have to start somewhere first.” Taylor teased.

  “That’s funny.” May faked a laugh. “Sure. Coffee is fine.”

  “Alright then.” Taylor stood and walked to the door but stopped when he noticed May was still sitting. “You coming?”

  “Now?”

  “No Maya. Maybe we will go on the coffee date two years from now.” Taylor laughed. “Of course now.”

  May frowned at Emily who just sat there laughing. She stood and walked off to join Taylor.

  “So what is your favourite coffee type?” Taylor asked with a cheeky smile as they left the class.

  “I wouldn’t answer that if I were you!” Emily shouted after them.

  ***

  Back in the cafeteria, Emily and May were laughing their hearts out. Those were the good old days and it was nice to walk down memory lane once in a while.

  “I should have taken your advice when you said I shouldn’t answer his question.”

  “I did warn you.”

  “How was I to know he was going to lecture me on how a piccolo latte didn’t compare to a double espresso because it wasn’t as strong? I mean, who does that on the first date?”

&n
bsp; Emily drank from her espresso cup. “It’s an experiment Taylor cooked up to determine who he becomes friends with. If he likes you, he’d try and negate your opinions on a subject matter you are interested in as much as possible and if you beat him in the argument or you stayed to talk, you’re friends, if not, he wouldn’t regard you. He would have found something to say even if you had said you liked to chew coffee beans.”

  “He never said anything of that to me.”

  “Well May, Taylor isn’t really the sharing type and I had to figure that out myself.”

  They both drank from their cups and stayed quiet for a while.

  “Listen Emily, I know I am on the one side of this lawsuit and you’re on the other but after it is all said and done, let’s do this again.”

  “Of course we will.”

  “That’s great.” May smiled.

  Emily stared at May. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “If it’s going to be about what happened between Mike and myself, no.”

  “Why?”

  “I am just not ready to talk about it.”

  Emily wanted to press her until she got some answers but then her phone buzzed. Bob had messaged that they could come and see Taylor. “We can see Taylor now.”

  “You go on ahead. I’ll see him later.”

  “You sure?”

  May nodded. “Positive.”

  “Alright May. See you later”. Emily kissed her on the cheek and walked off to get Bob a cup of coffee before heading to the clinic.

  May slowly sank into her chair and let her tears fall. She missed Taylor a lot and she hated the fact that their relationship had ended after 3 years. She had thought it would last for longer but she was just being childish. She wiped her tears and drowned the contents of her cup. She knew she should not be crying because it was her decision to end the whole thing after all but she still felt the pain deep in her soul. Her phone buzzed and it appeared to be her turn to receive a message. She checked and saw that it was just Mike calling.

  “What do you want now?” She asked as she stared at her phone.

  ***

  Emily stood beside Taylor’s bed and stared at him for a long time. She had never seen him look so peaceful. She was glad Bob had left to go get Taylor’s glasses.; now she could talk to Taylor openly.