Tap.

Tap…

Tap.

I keep a beat by tapping my pencil on the wooden desk. My head is full of thoughts, about anything but the exam. Ahead of me, the teacher glares.

Beside me, students slouch on the desks, their pencils scribbling lines on the white papers. I squirm, a bead of sweat rolling down my brow. I sigh, squirm some more- it’s really hot in here.

I haven’t slept in I don’t know when, I’m trying to balance time with my girlfriend and exams and studying- I sleep four hours then wake and jump back into study mode.

I rub my eyes and pick up my pencil. I know the answer to this question- I write it slowly, pencil running along the page.

Okay, good. One question down. Now, another. I push the pencil to the paper as if in a trance and write the next answer. It’s longer, but it’s exact. I think of her again- and shiver, trying to push her back out of my mind. My fingers itch to check my phone.

I look up, a skull is laughing at me. I look to the head of the class, the teachers jaw is open, white bone clacking as she laughs.

I laugh too, haha, there are skeletons in this class. Isn’t it funny? Oh god- I haven’t slept in-

Clack,

Clack,

Clack…

The fan spins overhead, blowing hot air all over my steaming body. Jaws clack- all my fellow students are skeletons.

I laugh nervously, pulling at my collar and puffing the hot air out. I squirm in my seat, hot air creeping up like a phantom.

I pick up the pencil shakily and write another answer, glancing at the skeleton in front of me, who has turned around in his seat to laugh.

Then, I see her walk into the classroom- my girlfriend. At first, my eyes go wide and I stiffen in my chair like a frail corpse. But then she looks at me and smiles shyly.

As I stare, the skin on her face droops, then falls to the ground like pale orange skin, exposing the lower part of her jaw. I jerk, and scribble another answer, sweat lining my brow.

“Here,” she says, her mis-matched eyes still there as she makes her way to me, skin peeling and dropping off like raindrops from the eaves of a house.

She stands by my desk, a flower in her bony hand, the flesh already gone from that part. She smiles and her eyes roll back into the back of her head, bouncing down her rib cage and rolling off her toes.

I don’t take the flower, instead I scribble more on my paper. Something pokes me in the back and I jerk, spinning around.

“Man, you were going crazy, you okay?” At first it looks like her again- my girlfriend- but I blink and I see that it’s just a classmate.

“Yes, yes. I’m fine,” I turn back around, to my normal class.

My desk is scribbled on, lined with wild rambles and codes that I don’t know the answer to. Beside me, the teacher stands holding my exam, one eyebrow raised.

I take it and exit the class, embarrassed, but not sure why.

Are you sure the skeletons aren’t real? My foreign girlfriend didn’t come here? Huh… that’s confusing.

I head to my room, open the door and plop on the bed. I glance at the exam in my hand. One mark. That’s okay.

I throw it on my desk, where it lands neatly in a stack. Something catches my eye, so I glance back. And you… you won’t believe what it is…

A rose.