The second semester courses have all but finished and the dreaded time of exams have finally arrived. For Nola, she couldn't wait to get it over. There was the after exam party, Eleanor's and Allie's concert in the city theatre and last but not least, a corporate paid vacation to the USA coming up. There was a whole slew of summer events waiting for her.

In her free time when she wasn't out drinking in the pub with her college colleagues, she read through her neatly written notes and researched beyond what the courses covered. Her notes were written in beautiful neat female handwriting.

After the humiliation she considered in the research project module, she upped her game tenfold regarding her thesis. She rang up her company writing with the urgency of a cry to war. With her supervisor and team, she worked them aggressively to the bone. There was such fury and fire from Nola's mania that two team members transferred themselves to a different team wanting out. The end result was a thesis plan so fully formed and well written that it had in its own right become a perfectly submittable thesis.

Her roommate that possessed incredible mass, Lauren, walked into the kitchen. Her flabs wobbled like jelly as she waddled to the sink. Her stubby short arms reached for the cupboards for a glass and she filled it with tap water. Despite her looks, she was a neat person on the outside. She'd clean her glass after using it instead of dropping it into the sink as Nola would have done in her old home. She'd wash the dishes the rare time she didn't order takeaway and she hardly came out of her room so she didn't make a mess outside. She worked at home in her room all day. She had a motherly and considerate personality. She leaves her room door open for Allie when Nola was out and she was approachable in case he needed anything. Nola and Lauren were good friends and she would invite her out to the college parties when Eleanor was over to look after Allie.

Lauren caught Nola looking at her with an empty bliss.

"How's studying going?"

Nola threw her head down on the table and breathed out a hefty sigh.

"I need to study with a drink in one hand and notes on the other."

"Sure, there's beer in the fridge."

Lauren did not catch her sense of humour at all.

"If I start now, I'll be knocked out before Allie even gets home from school. What a bad example I'll set," she paused, seeing if Lauren at least knew how to smile. She didn't. "What about your work?"

"Oh, it's going so-so." She bobbled her head as she spoke and her flabs jiggled like a wave. "It's tough, organising the team's Jira and Confluence and picking up the messes they leave. I'm currently learning how to use JAVAX on the side."

Nola gave a look of feigned understanding.

"I've also been planning my wedding."

Nola's life revitalised at this point. That, she understood.

"Sit down, tell me if you have time."

And so Lauren described her dream wedding that she was seeing through, a mediaeval fantasy themed wedding. Nola's knowledge of fantasy only went as far as the Lord of the Rings movie. She imagined the groom and bride in chain armour while saying their vows at the altar in a fashion of being knighted by the priest.

Nola sat and listened with wide eyes and her heavier than usual eye bags. Lauren was such a land whale and managed to bag somebody considering her uptight personality. She would dawdle on and on with women chatter but on tech. She was stern, righteous and commanding. Nola guessed that her boyfriend was held on a leash like a dog. She felt envious.

"We have a house by the lake eyed."

"Things are moving fast," Nola commented. "Are you thinking of having children?"

"No. Well, maybe. Twenty-nine is still young. There's tons more time to mull over. I'm in no rush at all."

Tons more was right, Nola thought. Twenty-nine though; it seems most marriages with people she knew were married by then. Beauty had an expiration date. Nola's sister was three years older and she learnt she was engaged a few months ago.

Lauren excused herself to go stare off at her computer again. Allie came home not so long later and now the two of them sat at the kitchen table doing school work. She looked at him quietly doing homework. He looked back at her. They traded looks every few seconds like a game to see who how long they could look before the other spotted the staring.

"What~?" He giggled.

"Just thinking."

"Thinking 'bout what?"

"Thinking about-" and she jumped over to him and lifted him up, took him to their bedroom and had a sibling wrestling match where Nola always lost due to exhaustion. This was all she needed. She flicked on the TV in their room and watched an afternoon cartoon mindlessly with Allie before falling asleep.

The five exams took place over a period of two weeks around the college. Most of them were sat in the large event halls of the college gym. For one of the exams, she came in ten minutes late. Everybody in the class breathed a collective sigh when they saw her grab her seat.

The electronic bell rang to signal the end of the exam. While the examiners collected the papers. Mark, who was sitting in front of her, turned around to give the predictable banter at Nola on her usual tardiness.

Ben was two seats behind her and had always left thirty minutes before the exam was over so he wasn't trapped to stay to the very end. Not many decided to leave before the exam was over. She had not spoken to him since the study period started. He said he was busy studying.

She headed home to study more and the days repeated like a drunken stupor to her. Study, eat, study eat, study, eat study, study eat more sleep study eat study eat sleep...

The last day of exams took place and plans of drinking had been on the table since the beginning. Tonight will be the last big one since the hDips will be graduating and they made up two thirds of the classes. She felt a bit depressed but that may be because today's was the hardest exam. The exam was the social marketing module taught by the cowboy strapped American. She had created a very social class with multiple group projects that Nola greatly enjoyed. Some projects actually involved real start-ups looking for strategies. Hard working college students, who paid expensive tuition fees, were giving them ideas for free! Nola felt she took a bite of the infamous non-paid internship of the great states of America. Annoyed as she was, she felt at home with real business scenarios compared to the theoretical nonsensical Marxist theory that the Texan taught in class.

There was only one question for the exam and that was: 'Describe Social Media through Marx's Gobble Gook'. This was not how it was phrased but it was indeed an accurate interpretation of the one question of the exam. Easy, she thought. She put her pen to paper.

“Well, the knowledgeable labour aristocracy derives...and the rate of exploitation depends on the varying...finally, by Marx (1867), it is given through proven mathematical theory that... profit rate is equal to the surplus value divided by the fixed costs plus variable cap...” As she wrote, she wondered if Marx and Engels were appalled to see their precious philosophy applied to social media and causing suffering for the poor marketing students.

The Texan lecturer's class involved the study of a textbook that sought to apply the theory of communism to social media. It was an apt model, she thought. However, the text was the most pretentious and coercive, academically abstractly dense as one could write, jumping from far-fetched hyperlinking of dense references and written in the most peremptory and obtuse mangling of words as possible. It was without doubt, the worst book she had ever laid her eyes upon.

After her intense study on the communist manifesto of social media, she felt ready to compose her thesis for next year in flowery abstract language that academics flaunt in.

Not once did the pen waver and when the final bell tolled, the ink cartridge was drained to the tip. Two whole exam books were filled up in its entirety with fast, sloppy cursive. Her normally neat handwriting was sacrificed for speed.

She came out of the hall and shielded her eyes when the summer sunshine struck. She saw her close group of friends in her marketing course and her usual beta orbiters chatting to each other in a circle.

Nola slinked into the group and saluted Asim beside her with a casual wave. The Korean was speaking rather hotly about the exam.

"The whole theory of Marx's is so stupid. I have never read something so stupid in my entire life," Jeong said.

"Yeah, I agree," Nola nodded.

"What I'm saying though, is you have to force yourself to write what the examiners looking for," Keith said.

"Yeah, that's common sense," Jeong agreed.

Nola knew why Jeong was probably so annoyed. It was because he was South Korean and he hated the commies in the north. Jeong didn't like communism because it opposed his religion. Jeong had told Nola in one of the many drinking parties that he was a devout Christian. It surprised her. He proudly told her that he was part of the Shinsheonji Church of Jesus. He believed that the founder of the church, Man-hee Lee, was the second coming of Jesus Christ, our lord and saviour.

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"Did you see her?" Jeong was talking about the cowboy strutting lecturer. He did not let his grudge go away easily, "We call that cosplay where I'm from."

"I think it looks exotic. She's Texan and that's how all Texas dress up, I'm sure."

"Yeah, of course. They all strut outside wearing a wide brim hat, long brown cowboy coats and those boots with those spinning stars at the back. Yeah, I'm sure they all look like they jumped out of a Wild West serial." They laughed.

Nola asked them all for a picture. There were some in this little group, like Keith, that weren't part of the marketing master's. For them, this was their last exam. Nola was going to make sure she'd get pictures of everybody. She had taken Ben's advice. She would post it in their class' group chat. But mostly, it was for herself to look back on.

They headed in their group of four down to town for some grub that would line their stomach for the alcohol tonight. It was going to be the biggest party of the class.

They went to a pizza joint that Keith recommended after searching for the best pizza parlors in town online. It was nice, a bit rundown. It was ran by actual Italians that made pizza that wasn't anything like actual Italian pizza.

Nola fiddled with her phone, scrolling through the messages in the group chat and put out a message if anybody would like to join them. She had seen Ben in the corner of her eye as they exited the student building. Even he had stayed to the very end of that exam. She was about to message him privately and saw his profile; he had not been online for over a month.

Last time, he didn't go to the party after the Christmas exams as well. Everybody did. Except him. So be it. She went up to the counter to grab two more slices of pizza and shoved it aggressively into her mouth.

"No drinks?" Jeong asked.

"Oh, we're be drinking soon Jeong-ny boy. The bar's just a short walk from here,” Keith said. "We won't be parched by the time we get there."

"Some of them are already there," Asim checked his phone.

"They headed straight there after the exam."

"I'm full. Let's get this party started," Nola growled with hunger for the drinks. "They'll be on round three by the time we get there."

"You'll catch up in no time."

Nola leaned back and rubbed her tummy like a big momma bear. Her eyes swirling in craze for alcohol. Her college friends thought she was a beer meister due to her fridge-like build that suggested a large calorie intake. She was actually a cocktail person. She liked the colourful taste and looks of those little dainty drinks.

When they arrived at the bar, they found one of their classmates buying a pint. He was tall, handsome and blond and a fine Aryan specimen.

"There's five of them out at the back."

Nola gave a sly pat on the buttocks of the tall, stoic man which made him twirl and spill some foam from his pint.

"Nola, you big perv," said Asim. They all laughed except the prude Korean who shook his head and muttered, "Westerners" beneath his breath.

Soon the beer garden crowed with students from the marketing discipline and some others but it remained predominantly a turf for the marketing students. Nola went around taking pictures of the final day. She knew when she would look back further along the years that time seemed to have flung by. The year had passed slowly in the beginning, life in a new city, meeting new people, a new home and a refreshing restart from the stagnant office life of withered old men.

Next year would be lonelier, there would be no classes, and the whole year was focused solely for writing their thesis. She couldn't believe people paid for the course. A year of nothing with an expensive college fee. She was lucky that the company paid for all of her expenses.

A tall, bald man went over to Nola's table. He had deep sunken eyes and heavy eye bags, no doubt from studying, she assumed. His ears was pointed and the top of his head was pointed. He had a Van Dyke beard and wore a long, thick, black overcoat. His whole menacing appearance resembled some mook from a mafia or a vampire movie. He stood a head and a half taller than Nola. Nola had learnt that he was from Latvia from past conversations with him. That made sense, she thought, a former Soviet country just like myself.

The bald thug of a man had let them know of a music competition in the club beside this bar. There was a DJ contest held tonight and one of the marketing students had entered. With enough people, they could rig it. Nola and her crew went in with full intent to help them. The music was awful and she left with a splitting headache. She left alone and went back to the original bar. She had hoped to see Ben there. Ben was the first person she met in college, the only one that seemingly eluded her. There was no surprise when she saw the same familiar faces at the bar. She decided to go back home. At least Allie was always there.

The exams were over, college life has halted. There was the paid vacation to look forward to.

She had received an email with all the details regarding the work convention in San Francisco. This was the third time she would go on a corporate trip and she had learnt from a friend on how the reimbursements were handled. The friend was one of the employees who handled the accounting for corporate trips. She told Nola that as long as it didn't surpass one thousand euro, they didn't inquire deeply into the expenses. Added in with a little photoshop to doctor two airplane tickets into one expense, she could travel with a companion. Every year, hundreds of millions disappeared mysteriously for the poor global behemoth of a company.

She planned to take a friend with her, all airline expenses paid for the lucky one.

But before that, Eleanor and Allie were preforming at the City Hall Theatre next week. Eleanor, a world renowned pianists, was drawing huge news for the music festival in the modestly sized city. Nola had invited her beta orbiters but not Ben. There has never been a person that annoyed her so much as him from doing nothing.

....

Eleanor looked across to Allie who had the honours of finishing off Mozart's Sonata for 2 Pianos in D. A roar of applause erupted from all five hundred in the audience of the concert hall.

There was an after party in the small bar in the upstairs lobby. Allie was surrounded with journalists interviewing the little prodigy. Some jested lightly about him being in a wheelchair. I'll give up my legs to play as well and so on. Eleanor fended them off, becoming disgruntled in her quick tempered manner after that joke. Nola stood across from them and watched with a colourful cocktail in hand. Nola didn't mind the jokes. Pity was the thing she hated the most.

There were professional music producers who attended the event for Eleanor and they were arguing over each other with Nola in the middle about signing recordings and collaborations. She appeared meek to their offers and thought to herself that she might ask Eleanor later. She wasn't planning to give up Allie to anyone.

She looked at Allie, now chatting joyously to a group of girls his age, playing some game whereby he placed his hand on top of theirs, moving their little fingers in unison to play an invisible keyboard.

"What's the matter?" Eleanor popped over to her standing table after relishing in front of the press and soaking in appraisal and then kicking them all away. "You look a bit melancholic. Are you sad because Allie's coming over with me for a month."

"It's more than that Ellie. Take care of him for me and send pictures regularly to me." Nola listed her lengthy requirements to Eleanor. Eleanor's eyes rolled up for the whole duration. She decided to change the subject.

"Have you found somebody to travel to your work convention?"

"No. Sarah's working and all my closer classmates are gone on their own paths and holidays." She sighed.

"Did you ask Ben? I thought I saw him earlier. He has good taste in music to say the least," she said to Nola but she wasn't listening. She was looking lethargically around the room.

Her Korean friend Jeong was by the bar counter flirting with a lady in a red dress, abandoning Nola. Lauren was here with her hubby and Matt was here as well. He had developed quite an infatuation with Eleanor since they met when he drove them over to their new home. Eleanor saw him as a handy butler. Behind Eleanor, she saw a phantom. She was sure of it. A phantom that appears whenever she averts her eyes.

It jumped and darted down the stairs. Nola brushed passed Eleanor, nearly toppling her drink, pushed herself across the crowd only to find the man walk back up the stairs. The man wore the black and white formal attire and a masquerade mask.

"Ben!"

He slowly took of his mask. His handsome, young face, tanned skin, flaxen hair, lean physique and unmistakable eyebrows had caught Nola. What drew her in the most out of his attributes was his strangeness. An eccentricity that Eleanor had noticed.

He paused, looking unsure of what to say, “What are the chances? I'm here as a photographer for the event.” He raised up his professional looking camera with a large flash attachment and a lens that protruded seven inches of air in front of him. “I saw the event on the papers. Thought I'd come, ha-ha. How's it going?”

"You should have told me. I could have gotten you tickets for you for free." She wanted to scold him, the fact that he didn't show up for the final party as well. She furrowed her eyebrows. Why didn't he just say so if he wanted to come?

She dragged him away downstairs and outside. They walked down the cool, empty night street.

"Don't you have to stay by your brother?" he asked. "What's wrong?” he asked again when she didn't reply.

"My brother's fine," she let out a sigh and then continued, "he's going over to Eleanor’s for a few weeks."

"Oh."

"Let me see your photos."

Ben sweated in the cool, night air, keeping up with her as she walked with a vigorous pace and purpose.

Ben turned on the camera and passed it over to her hands while it still hung around his neck. He had swapped the memory card when he dropped down the stairs and was perfectly content with her swiping through the photos.

"These are amazing!" There was a photo that showed Allie up close angled from the bottom. "How did you even get this angle?"

"I was hiding beneath the floorboards for that one."

She laughed not believing him. "Send me all of them. You have some serious talent." She looked at him, he was much closer now; he had thick eyebrows that balanced the masculinity of his youthful, delicate face. He wore an expression of sly innocence that Allie did often, like when he's hiding something.

"Things like art are wholly subjective,” he answered.

They discussed the music performance, music they like, surprisingly they both liked to listen to movie soundtracks, talked a good length about the art they like, of her friends and his photography adventure. A man had broken into his home once and he vowed to find the culprits. He went through extreme lengths, studied criminal profiling and broke into nearby surveillance cameras. Once he deduced as much as he could, he waited patiently for the culprit using the hacked CCTV cameras. He even snuck into a neighbour's house suspecting them. In the end he failed to find the culprits, he said this all with icy coldness. His final year project came from this experience and his obsession with photography stemmed from this event as well.

He kept her second guessing at every turn as he told her. What he lost in the burglary, he had gained something else. It was the same with Allie, she thought. He had the night of his life tonight because he couldn't walk. She decided to tell Ben about his brother's disability.

There were complications during their mother's pregnancy that the doctor could not explain. He was taken out by an emergency C-section. He suffered an unexplainable neurological disorder. Anything below his waist, he couldn't move except his toes.

"Isn't that weird? How does it happen that the toes can wiggle but not the upper parts! I just don't know," the frustration crept into her voice. Ben could only look at her.

"World's fucked," he casually lets out. She laughed. A laugh that she used to veil her sadness.

They arrived onto the cobblestone street of the main shopping district. It was bustling with happy couples, groups of trashy, dolled up girls in tight, short dresses and two happy drunks staggering and shouting obscenities at a copper statue.

"I have a proposal to make."

Ben listened and could not believe what he heard. Nola had invited her to a trip abroad to San Francisco, airline tickets paid.

"Are you sure you want me?" he asked, eyes wide in disbelief. Eleanor seemed to be the natural choice but she was staying with Allie. He roughly estimated how much it would cause for the other expenses. He came to the conclusion it was a once in a lifetime out of the deal.

"I think you'll make for a good travel companion." she looked at his clear cut features trying to guess his thought process. "I think I'm pretty dependable and hassle free if you're worried," she reassured him. "Come, and bring your camera."

He accepted. He was starting to like her as a person.