Chapter 3: Stress

"Every day for a damn week! What the hell!?" Erika muttered angrily as she approached the door to the roof. She opened it and in front of her was a boy with his shoes off standing at the railing. "What the hell are you doing!?" She asked angrily as she walked over to him. He looked back at her with surprise.

"Ah..." He spoke. "I was just thinking..." He said.

"Yeah, that right!?" She asked as she angrily walked up to the railing and began resting against it. "Who sits around and thinks on a rooftop without shoes?" She asked. 'Every. Damn. Day. For a fucking week.' She thought annoyedly.

"Ah, well..." He said awkwardly. "Truth is..." he paused. "I was planning on jumping..." He continued. Erika sighed as she calmed down.

"Yeah, why's that?" She asked blandly.

"Recently, I failed a rather important test... It's incredibly likely that I screwed my future over..." He said.

"And why's that?" She asked.

"Well, for what I want to do, I'll need to go to college, and it's not like I can get into any without passing it..." He said.

"Yeah, and what is it that you want to do?" She asked.

"Oh..." He said. After a moment he sighed. "I want to be an engineer. Without passing that test first try, I won't even get to the door." He explained.

"Yeah? And what about online colleges?" She asked.

"Those..." He mumbled as he went into his thoughts.

"Most of them are go at your own pace and let you take and retake tests whenever, as long as you show understanding of what you're doing at some point, they don't care how long you are in their program." She continued.

"Yeah..." He mumbled. "I guess I was being pretty stupid..." He added. "I was so scared of telling my parents I failed and overstressed myself that I got too focused on a negative outcome." He said.

"Guess so." She said blandly.

"Thank you." He said as he walked away and through the door. When the door closed, Erika looked over the skyline and gave a sorrowful sigh.

'Guess I was finally lucky enough to get the mood right.' She thought as she got ready to take off her shoes, but was quickly interrupted when the rooftop door opened, making her stop completely. 'What the fuck!?' She thought to herself as she looked back and saw the guy she had been talking to before.

"By the way, my name is Koen, nice to meet you, miss." He said.

"Right, nice to meet you..." She mumbled. "I'm Erika..." She added. He gave a smile and nodded, then left. 'And the mood is gone now...' She thought as she felt her heart racing. She sighed and calmed her nerves, then, after a few minutes, she left.