Untimely Love (Book 3)

♠Chapter 23♠

♠CHRIS♠

"Tomorrow's a special day," Julia said randomly.

We'd been sitting in this coffee shop for about half an hour, our faces practically buried in books and the screens of our laptops. And now she chose to bring it up.

We had finals and final projects due next week, so whatever it was she had planned, I was more than ready to shut it down.

I was pretty much on schedule with all my work, but I still wasn't in the mood to stop for anything or anyone until I was officially done with every final and assignment that had been thrown my way since last week. Technically, we all knew about our finals since the first week of classes, but that didn't count. This was the make-or-break point.

"Would you like anything," Jules dragged out, "specific?"

"No, don't worry about it," I grumbled, pinching my bottom lip between my thumb and forefinger while squinting at my computer screen.

It didn't take long after that for her to drop her ruse. "Oh, come on, Chris," she whined. Her hands slammed against the edge of the table. As much as they could anyway, with all the books and her open MacBook. "It's your birthday! Can you at least be excited for a present?"

I glanced up at her long enough to say, "It's finals, Jules. I really don't have time for it. We'll celebrate some other-"

"Don't you dare," Julia growled, "finish that sentence. You come to college and all of a sudden you don't know what a birthday is? It is the day of your birth, Christian. You can't and won't celebrate it on another day."

I blinked. "I'm aware," I got out hesitantly. She looked ready to bitch slap me. "But like I said, I just don't have time for it right now, that's all. Besides, it wouldn't be as fun without everyone else here to celebrate with us."

I hadn't been back home since the beginning of the semester, so it's been months since I'd seen the rest of my friends in person. Ever since I made it a priority to get back on the right track with my friends, I'd started calling and texting them more so it wasn't like I hadn't spoken to them since. Still, we made it something of a tradition to do birthdays together. Even if someone had to do it over FaceTime. That's what we'd had to do for all the birthdays that happened this semester.

Julia called my bluff though. "Yeah, and we've semi-fixed that issue with this thing we got these days." She lifted her phone and dropped it back onto the wooden table with a loud thunk.

Sighing, I glanced around the room as I sat back. "I'm not feeling it this year, okay?"

Julia's expression was one for the books. She glared at me with a pout that took over her entire face. It was the cutest and brattiest thing I'd ever seen. I couldn't help my slow, wide grin.

"Is that supposed to change my mind?" I mused at her round cheeks and narrowed eyes.

She exhaled heavily and took great care in trying to be normal again before she asked, "Why?"

She'd been working on her pushiness this past week or so and tended to take on a softer tone when she caught herself being too demanding.

Smiling, I shrugged. "Finals." She raised her eyebrows at me. "It's... it's all so different now that it doesn't feel the same. The people I usually celebrate with aren't all here, so it doesn't really feel like there's anything worth celebrating." All she did was frown. "Plus, it's college and it's finals- there's too much going on. I can't think about anything else."

She folded her arms but not in the usual way that said she was going to bulldoze me until she got her way. "Chris, you've done half of your final projects and have another week and a half to finish up. I know it's all weird now because we're all not here but that doesn't mean we can't have fun. Just because you're making new friends it doesn't mean you're throwing away the ones you already have. It only means they're not here."