‘Fuck’, he screamed as he threw the blankets off and jumped out of the king size bed he had posted up inside of his 2 bedroom loft apartment. Now Jerry lived there by himself, not by choice, if Jerry had it his way, he would have a roommate, male or female he wouldn’t care. If anything, his bank account would show more love to him and that horrendous feeling of loneliness would stop driving him crazy. ‘I can’t believe I slept in’.
Jerry was a full time student at the University of Texas and this was the final week of classes. And today, Friday, was the day he had his final exam for his Psychology class. It was the only test left. And if he passed, then he would be able to walk down that aisle in a few weeks knowing he was the only one in his family to finally have a college degree.
Scrambling all of his things together and hoping he wasn’t forgetting anything, Jerry rushed out the door and as he was fumbling the keys in his hand he gave up and said ‘screw it’, there was no time to lock his door. He needed to get to class, he HAD to get to class and hope he wasn’t late. Because he knew the teacher had one rule ‘DO NOT BE LATE’. If a student showed up even one minute late, Professor Matt already had the doors locked, which meant an automatic fail.
Failure was not something Jerry handled very well. And neither were speed limits. Pushing down on that gas pedal gave him a sense of power, a sense of control, a sense that no one could stop him. As he worked his way in and out of traffic and reached the perimeter of the campus, he drove that Dodge Challenger like a NASCAR driver rubbing neck to neck with another driver in the final lap of the Daytona 500.
Screeching his brakes and shoving the car into park he quickly looked down at his watch, hoping, no, praying, he made it there in time. 9:28AM. His watch read in bright green neon colors. “I’ve got 2 minutes”!! But he definitely wasn’t going to stretch it out. No, he took off sprinting like his life depending on it because if you think about it, it really did. His life, his future; everything he wanted to do depending on this one test.
Cutting through the courtyards and occasionally running into other students on the way to Professor Matt’s classroom only delayed Jerry and for that he wasn’t happy. But he didn’t have time to be happy or sad, only time to get to class. He could see the maple colored double doors up ahead and one of them was still propped open which was the only hope he could rely on. When out of nowhere Jerry felt something catch on his foot and on his way to the ground he watched that one door. That one sliver of hope, closed right before his eyes and at that moment his face hit the concrete walkway.
‘RIIIIINNNGGGGG!!!’ His alarm went off. Jerry woke up so confused. ‘It’s Saturday, why is my alarm going off?’ It was at that moment he realized the running, the speeding, the tripping and watching yourself fail the only thing your life depended on, was all a part of that psychotic dream. It really was 6 am Friday morning. Meaning he still had three and a half hours before the test. Time to study, time to eat and feel refreshed. Time to…..go…back…to..sleep!