The air in Campbell hall was parched by the radiators. It stung his skin as soon as he walked in. The thirst had gotten worse after the double espresso. He had drunk the last of his water bottles the night before. The caf was closed and for some reason the reverse osmosis water dispenser in the lobby had been out of service.

Fuck he thought. For a moment he thought about going out to the store for some bottles of water but his bank account was really low. He'd just have to make do with tap water.

He went to the bathroom. He couldn't hear anything in the halls. Maybe even Juan was gone tonight. He went to the bathroom with a feeling he hadn't felt since he was a kid. The fear of going someplace alone at night. He kept telling himself this was silly but he kept repeating the words in his head in order not to succumb to the fear.

The water from the bathroom faucet was not good. It reminded him of the air. Hard and unclean. He drank it anyways. Thinking it was better to drink bad water than to be dehydrated.

He felt bad now. Spending money on those pizzas the night before. The espressos that were completely redundant. None of these things he'd needed. He should've instead relaxed at a bookstore and just read. He could be maybe in a text conversation then with Ashleigh by now. Instead he was alone in this dorm, mildly hungover, hungry and with no money.

Before the break he had budgeted enough money to get by eating out until the caf opened again. However he had unexpectedly gotten into that card game the night before at Michael Bo's frat house. That table had swallowed all of his money. He was hoping Michael or Spencer would bring it up and tell him "oh yeah we'll get you your money back." but neither had mentioned it. Howard was worried. Thought he might give it a few day before bringing it up.

In bed he laid against his pillow and imagined how nice it would be to tell all of this to Ashleigh.