Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 81252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Yeah right. She’ll run away before she says a word to him,” Nick scoffed.
I gave Nick a pointed look. “We’re supposed to be supportive,” I told him. She was already nervous enough. I didn’t need Nick piling onto her nervousness.
“He’s right,” Hannah said with a pitiful look on her face. “I get so nervous around him.”
“The best way to get over that is to just force yourself to talk to him. He’s not as scary as you make him out to be in your head,” I pointed out before sliding her laptop closer to me. I typed in the web address to our student portal and started typing.
“What are you doing?” Hannah asked me.
I hit the Enter key before pushing her laptop back over to her.
“There. Your student account is locked out. Now, you have to go see him,” I said with an overly sweet smile, prompting Nick to break out laughing.
“What the hell!” she gasped as she tried to log in to her student account. An error popped up on the screen in response. Hannah stared at me with wide eyes before giving me a light push. She tilted her head back with a groan. “Both of you suck.”
I took her arm, leaning against her with a smile on my face. “You’ve got this. Now, you have an excuse to talk to him,” I pointed out. She didn’t have to figure out some sort of icebreaker now that I gave her one.
“What do I even say that isn’t related to IT?” Hannah asked me.
“Ask him how his morning has been,” I replied with a shrug. Any sort of question was a decent way to switch subjects. Tyler and I didn’t exactly start with questions. We started with insults and sharp remarks. At least things had improved on that front.
Hannah rolled her eyes and stood from her chair, hastily grabbing her laptop. “If I embarrass myself and he never talks to me again, I’m killing both of you,” she told us before walking toward the support service area.
“Why am I dragged into this?” Nick smirked as he watched her head off.
“Because you doubted her,” I said as I turned to face him. “I hope this goes well.”
“He’d be an idiot not to like her,” Nick replied.
I nodded my agreement. I wanted both of my friends to find the same happiness that I felt, and I wanted us all to share success when it came to UniVerse. We had worked so hard on this idea, and we were so close to the finish line with graduation looming just ahead of us.
“Do you think we have a shot with our business?” I asked him, wanting to hear his honest opinion. We were about to be thrown into the real world. Things were really going to get serious.
Nick drew in a deep breath through his nose before answering. “It’s going to be hard as hell. We’re going to want to give up, but at least we all have each other to encourage us to keep going,” he replied. “But I believe we can do it.”
I lowered my eyes as I chewed on my bottom lip, feeling nausea start to ramp up again. I placed my hand on my stomach, closing my eyes to try to fight the feeling. I hated feeling sick like this, especially when I needed to focus. We had so much work to get done.
“Are you sure that you’re okay? You don’t look so good,” Nick asked me.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s go ahead and print out our business plan,” I told him as I turned on my laptop to bring up our extensive document. It felt good to finally be able to print it and turn it in, but that good feeling didn’t mask how awful I felt this morning.
“I’ll start on the PowerPoint for our presentation,” Nick said, eyeing me in a concerned manner for a few seconds before focusing on his laptop.
I breathed in steadily through my nose, praying that I didn’t have to throw up this morning. If I was sick, I couldn’t go to my internship or see Tyler, and it would be so much harder to prepare for my classes. I couldn’t deal with this right now. Before I could stand to go to the printing stations, Hannah plopped back down in her seat, hugging her laptop against her chest.
“I got his number!” Hannah exclaimed.
“No way! Seriously?” I replied with a bright smile. I had to force the smile a little because I felt awful, but I was also incredibly happy for her.
“Yep!” Hannah said as she waved her phone around happily. “I told him about a party happening next week and offered to text him the details.”
“Nice move,” I laughed before subtly gritting my teeth as another wave of nausea struck me. It kept rising, now hitting the back of my throat, and threatening to make me gag. I rose to my feet, which only made the uncomfortable sensation worse. “I’ll be back.”