Amelia

On her king-size, luxurious bed, Amelia finds it hard to sleep, which is awkward because she's used to sleeping exactly 2200 hours.

When the night gets long, which is rare, Amelia fixes herself coffee to help get rid of insomnia. She is skeptical about it, though, as she appreciates sleeping naturally. Tonight, she called and ordered her coffee from the hotel downstairs.

While drinking coffee, she watched the late-night news on how bad climate change was heating Europe and causing destructive wildfires.

A string on her chest made Amelia recall that fine afternoon when she was giving a speech on how to protect the continent and the potential of young people towards the fight.

Not exactly what she was saying, but who was in the crowd listening?

At that moment, she got less and less interested in the climate change issue drifting through her thoughts. It was a very hard thing for her to do as a concerned global citizen, and she felt sad thinking about how selfish she was.

Since childhood, Amelia has known herself to have an eidetic memory. She inherited the rare mutation from her grandmother; nobody else in her family has it. Her family calls it a gift, but not Amelia.

She hates that she doesn't know how to forget because that means even those moments in her life she wishes to get past are stuck in her brain for life.

She had seen many students at the university and hardly forgot a face once she encountered one. But that's it; she doesn't have to see those faces again or think about them.

Noah was different; she saw him being bullied by Alex and his sophomore bullies and sympathetically helped him.

She didn't do it because of Noah; she is the only one Alex and his goons fear. Amelia is used to saving them.

Days later, she saw Noah again in the cafeteria taking late lunch as she slipped on her evening coffee, then again the following day in the evening talking with friends.

By then, she hadn't thought much about it, or Noah for that matter, but she still remembers it like it's happening right now.

Amelia even called Alex aside one day and asked him what his deal was with that freshman boy, to which Alex replied, "I don't think I know the boy you're talking about."

Since Noah was in the cafeteria, Amelia reminded Alex about Noah as she made eyes toward his direction.

"That one? Oh, the same kid from the bridge; I have a gut feeling about him. You want me to beat him up for you?"

Amelia inwardly laughed at Alex for talking nonsense, but now she remembered how right Alex might have been talking about him like that.

The thought brought a smile to her face as she walked to get her coffee and got back on the couch.

In minutes, a waitress brought up her decaf and wished Amelia a good night. Naturally, Amelia gave an assuring smile, knowing the poor girl might sleep at midnight, or perhaps because she was still occupied with her thoughts.

Each day they had encountered him, Amelia remembers, and even on those days she saw him but he didn't see her.

Like those days, she was in her tinted car, and he was talking on the phone with someone.

On the day of her speech, Amelia had everything under control, as she always had. Halfway through, she spotted a familiar face.

Right now, she can tap into the relief she felt knowing that at least someone in the crowd didn't care about the climate more than herself.

She had known by then of Noah's fascination with her. Amelia didn't care much about it and still doesn't, as everybody she meets seems to look at her like she's a goddess.

Fast forward to today. Amelia was up there attending a class. She stayed back after the end of the lecture to look at the selfies and short video shared by her boyfriend about how much he was missing her.

She missed him as much and snapped a quick one to show him that she was in class and how much fun she was having with her books. He knows that already.

When she came out, she was struck by seeing a familiar figure talking to a girl.

She knew about Noah, but she never spoke to him, mostly because they had nothing to talk about and because of her higher status. Gabby, the girl Noah was talking to, Amelia remembered seeing around the campus.

Inwardly, she knew Noah was way below anything she could make out of anyone. He is too young to be acquainted with, a freshman, and probably in here through some scholarship, hence his low status when compared.

With that, Amelia can't make a friend out of him. That she knew from the start without having to find other reasons not to.

Out of curiosity, she decided to say hi to him but ended up spending hours talking about their respective lives.

Since then, Amelia has investigated him. It's very simple now that everybody has an online life. He is nineteen, only two years younger than her at twenty-one.

Weirdly, Amelia and Noah share a birthday. She thought of the odds; it's like she was destined to meet him. She almost brought it up tonight, but then Noah would panic if he knew how much digging she had done on him.

Thinking about Noah took Amelia aback; why did she care about that stupid boy that much? She regretted wasting those hours with him but was happy to brag about it to her brother when he called her phone, interrupting her stream of thoughts.

Amelia's brother wanted to know how his little sister was doing, and to his surprise, she was making moves. She told him that she had made a male friend, which he suggested was leading to something romantic.

After the call, Amelia jumped on the bed for a second round. She didn't dwell much on Noah; she slept like a bear in hibernation.