It should have been an evening of watching football with the old gang one last time, but it had turned into an impromptu graduation party. Martin had only gotten the phone call two hours prior. He’d been relieved that his thesis had been accepted and deemed good enough for him to be granted his title, but he had also felt somewhat lost, uncertain of what his next move should be.

While the gang had almost religously followed the matches of the weakest team they could find, none of them had felt too much regret at missing the match to throw Martin a party. Most of the blokes had brought their girlfriends, avoiding the familiar, rough vibe the football evenings usually had in a not unpleasant way.

Martin had called his mother to tell her the good news. Halfway through the conversation, Anna had lunged for his phone and hid it somewhere. Martin’s mother had barely had enough time to congratulate her son and ask him to bring some groceries along when he’d come by the next day.

As he stood up, his eyes surveyed the compact flat he’d soon be moving out of. Underneath the framed poster of Robin Hood, two people he vaguely recalled seeing at a lecture once had fallen asleep on the floor. On the couch were the remains of a Latin textbook, torn in two in a drunken attempt at humour on Frank’s part. Frank himself was nowhere to be spotted, as he’d quietly left at 4.28 in the morning to try and get some sleep in, before he’d start his badly paid desk job.

Martin made for the door, wondering where the hours of being carefree had snuck off to. On the table, next to his keys, was his phone. A note stuck to it, announcing: ‘Well, I couldn’t bloody well keep it in my bra forever! Love, Anna’. Checking his messages, Martin discovered their team had actually managed to win the match, though they’d evidently needed a penalty to accomplish this. Martin chuckled. Suddenly, there seemed to be a hint of possibility to the beams of blue morning light poking through the blinds.

As for Martin’s next move, well, at least he had half a grocery list.