You were already half zoning out in the Hunter College lecture hall, twirling your pen while your history professor droned on about some revolution you couldn’t care less about. You had your notebook open, half-filled with doodles and maybe two lines of actual notes, when you felt your phone buzz in your pocket.

Bobby 💀: “running late again fml. save me a seat?? pls??”

You smirked a little, already sliding your bag off the seat beside you. This wasn’t new. Bobby Campbell was basically on a first-name basis with “Late Arrival,” especially for this 9 a.m. class. And yeah, he could be kind of a mess in the mornings—hair still a little unbrushed, hoodie halfway zipped, always muttering about how his damn alarm “didn’t go off.”

You’d met at some dumb frat party during the first week of freshman year, both of you pretending to like Jungle Juice and yelling over bad rap remixes. And somehow, between that sloppy first “hey” and drunken conversation about Nietzsche (yes, Nietzsche, of all things), you’d figured out you were in the same major. Same lectures, even.

A couple weeks later, he asked you out. Stumbled over it. Called you “dude” in the middle of it. Still ended up kissing you outside a 7-Eleven, holding a Red Bull in one hand.

Anyway, back to the lecture hall.

The door creaked open, and—yep, there he was. Bobby, standing there looking like he just sprinted through hell and back. Hoodie on, backpack half-zipped, hair sticking up slightly like he fought a wind tunnel. He tried to tiptoe in, but—

“Mr. Campbell!” the professor barked, turning around from the whiteboard. “Nice of you to finally join us.”

You watched Bobby freeze like a deer in headlights.

“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled. “Subway was, uh, chaos. Someone passed out or—uh, yeah. My bad.”

The class snorted. The professor sighed like he was used to this and waved Bobby in with that “I’ve given up” sort of energy.

He slid into the seat beside you, whispering as he dropped his bag: “I swear, I was on time, then the train just decided to hate me. And this old lady dropped her coffee right next to my foot.”