This last one had totally kicked my ass, and after three hours of fighting the clock in a desperate attempt to at least FINISH the damn thing, I was completely exhausted. The entire first quarter had flown by just as fast, and I felt Like I was at the end of a marathon trying to suck wind.

"Soon," I said with just a trace of hope laced into my bitching tone.

“Soon we'll be done with all our general ed classes and be able to focus on taking electives that we actually LIKE."

“Maybe,” she answered.

“But ‘soon' is not ‘now’. So put up with it just a little Longer."

“Yeah... Hey, thanks for all your help this quarter. I'm still not convinced I passed. But if I did, it's only because you tutored me.”

“Don't sweat it. See you later." Jen waved and then turned about.

We had reached our intersection. From here, Jen split off to go to meet up with Kevin. I would turn the other way and slowly trudge over to

E-Beth's dorm. Being on-campus, it was much closer to the academic area than my apartment, and it had become a comfortable hanging out point between classes.

After ten minutes, I got to her room and knocked. A few seconds later,

Amber swung the door open. She looked unbearably cute in wire-rimmed glasses and her hair in a functional ponytail.

“Hey,” she said casually, then turned and went back to her desk.

Per usual, I glanced her up and down, taking in the tight outfit that showed off her fit body to maximum appeal. Hey, my ogling was automatic. And she was used to it by now. I hadn't heard the phrase

‘What the hell are YOU looking at?' in quite some time. A second Later

I went inside and then closed the door behind me.

E-Beth had not yet returned from her final. I assumed she would be arriving any minute. As it was, I dropped her bag next to the wall and dropped myself onto my girlfriend's bed.

Amber was already at her desk, hunched over her books.

“What final do you have this afternoon?" I asked.

Amber got the cricks out of her neck and then swiveled her chair around to face me. She Lazily slouched with one elbow on the desk and massaged the bridge of her nose with her other hand. "Bio. I should be fine.

It's not that tough.“

“Speak for yourself. I got a ‘C' in that last year.”

“Oh, it had better be easy for me. Otherwise I'm in the WRONG major,”

Amber smiled at me briefly. She was Pre-med. "You got a final this afternoon?"

“Yeah. But I don’t think I'm going to get in any studying before lunch.

I'm too fried right now." I let myself relax a bit. While I very much doubted we would ever be close, Amber and I had gotten used to one another's presence. I would always be around as long as I was dating her roommate, and it just took too much effort on her part to constantly maintain the ‘Heights’ bitch persona she used to keep people away. Yeah, she could still be rather snooty and condescending at times. But at Least she wasn't sneering at me on sight.