Studying at home just wasn’t going to work today. Shannon’s house was a hot mess, the chores piling up on every surface, souring the energy she had to finish this paper once and for all.
It had been a whole week of progress, and sacrifice. The house had taken the biggest toll. If she spent one more afternoon here researching and typing away, the scales would tip, and an avalanche of dirty clothes would cascade down the slopes of her mind engulfing her in responsibility, ultimately suffocate the completion of this paper. She had to get out.
It was a fairly long drive to the campus library. And although the downtown library was very spacious and quiet, she usually chose the local book store for some hours of solitude. A ten minute drive as opposed to almost an hour drive to campus.
Plus, the guy slinging coffee there was very pleasant to look at, bookishly quiet, but with friendly blue eyes. It made the study breaks more frequent, but also calmed her nerves to stare at someone for a few minutes. Her eyes could relax for a spell once the pages and letters began to blur. Her mind could escape the cold grasp of scientific journals and recoup from a few sips of coffee.