Codes shouldn't have their own mind, but sometimes Anthony feels that they could get pretty treacherous. The afternoon sun glared through every space they could find on Tony's blinds, making beads of sweat form on his neck. To one side of the oddly tidy dormitory room, his cheerful Spanish roommate Antonio was deep in his siesta. Tony jabbed at the backspace key with one hand and ruffled his already messy hair with the other. He wished he could toss everything aside and sleep too, after all, that was why he scheduled all his classes in the morning.
The rattling noise of his vibrating phone gave both him and his roommate a start. Tony grabbed it, fumbled a bit and finally picked up the call. "Dad?"
"Hey. Just checking in." Theodore Rushmore was a busy man but always had time for random weekly calls. "Your mum's got a meeting in your area, just to let you know."
"Mum? Oh, yeah. Alright." Tony loves his mum, but she's the kind of tiger mom that usually happens in memes. She's very caring in her own way but Tony is rather afraid of her.
"Why don't you go see her? She misses you." Theodore chuckled, knowing that Tony would be rather wary. The latter looked around for an excuse and saw his roommate stirring awake and giving him a sleepy grin.
"Yeah um, I can't exactly because my roommate-you know, Antonio-yeah, he's helping me with my codes and he's only free now and I have a deadline and-"
"Just give her a call, Tony. If you're too quiet, she'll think you're on drugs or something equally ridiculous." Theodore said, his background gradually becoming noisier.
"Yeah, I will." Tony murmured as Antonio blinked blankly at him. They said their goodbyes and Tony put the phone down with a sigh.
"Sorry, Tony." Antonio laughed. "I can't help you with your codewords or whatever. They don't teach that in culinary."
"Yeah, sorry Toni. My mom's scary." Tony got up to stretch and pick up some food wrappers on his desk.
"Oh but didn't you have that band audition today?" Antonio got up and grabbed his towel from the rack. Tony nodded. "Yeah at Reiner's place. You wanna come?"
Half of Tony wished Antonio would come for moral support but the other half hoped he didn't so it would be one less witness if he failed. The latter half rejoiced when Antonio shook his head. "I have to get my paper somewhere. I'd love to though. Good luck!"
"Yeah, thanks. You too." Tony waved as Antonio turned to leave. Alone, Tony let his music player sing out loud as he tidied his area, preparing himself to get back into his work.