The Last Muffin
🎧 Phoebe’s Playlist: My Ugly Clementine - Never Be Yours
At the beginning of October, Graz wasn’t properly cold yet, but summer had definitely gone. Finn noticed it most on his bike. In the shade, cool air slipped mercilessly through his open jacket, the first brown leaves clung to the still-damp tarmac, and whenever the sun broke through between the old facades, the harshness of autumn briefly tipped into an almost deceptive warmth.
Around the university, the start of term was impossible to miss: tired-looking bicycles crowded every available rack, cold hands curled around coffee cups, and unfamiliar faces kept passing by with their eyes fixed on their phone screens because apparently no one knew exactly where they were supposed to be going.
Finn came out of his last class before lunch absolutely convinced he’d had more than enough time.
Until he remembered downstairs in the foyer that his water bottle was still up in the lecture hall.
So, all the way back again.
By the time he finally unlocked his bike a few minutes later, Phoebe had already texted him. Exactly five minutes before they were meant to meet.
His gaze paused briefly on his lock screen. A cat lay half-curled on his dark blue blanket, radiating the kind of confidence that suggested not only the blanket but the entire flat belonged to him. Only then did Finn glance at Phoebe’s message.
here and hungry
Finn typed a quick reply into the cold screen while standing there.
on my way. please don’t starve without me
Her answer came almost instantly.
i’ll try
Finn put his phone away and started pedalling.
The ride to the RESOWI was short. Long enough, though, for Phoebe to already be waiting impatiently by the bike racks while fresh autumn leaves gathered around her shoes. Somewhere deeper in the campus, the heavy smell of freshly brewed coffee drifted over.
Phoebe was standing there with her phone in one hand, her dark curls pinned half up while the rest fell wildly around her shoulders. Her light jumper stood out against her brown skin. The name Mum flashed briefly across her screen. Phoebe studied the message, rolled her eyes theatrically and shoved the phone back into her bag.
“Hi. Family?” Finn asked as he got off his bike.
“Unfortunately.” Phoebe tucked her phone away. “Mum’s planning Christmas.”
Finn glanced at her. “It’s October.”
“Exactly my point.” She raised an eyebrow. “Hey, four minutes. That almost counts as punctual. Lecture run over?”
Finn pushed the blond curls the wind had completely wrecked off his forehead and wheeled his bike towards the rack. Two strands immediately fell back into his face. The freckles across his nose and cheeks were still clearly visible from summer.
Phoebe raised one eyebrow expectantly.
Finn sighed and noisily threaded the lock through the spokes. “I forgot my water bottle upstairs.”
Phoebe nodded knowingly. “Ah. There he is.”
“Who?”
“The real reason.”
Finn clicked the lock shut and straightened. “Do you actually want to eat, or are you just here to evaluate my organisational skills?”
“Both.”
“Remind me why I love you.”
“I know,” she said, entirely unbothered.
They went inside together. The warm, stale lunchtime air hit them at once.
A moment later Phoebe was already halfway through recounting a theoretical text about gender, power and social institutions. She had a rare talent for sinking so completely into subjects like that that her enthusiasm became almost contagious—provided you were still at least halfway awake yourself.
“You do know you’re not actually enrolled in Gender Studies yet,” Finn said.
Phoebe raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Not yet. But basic preparation has never hurt anyone.”
“Sometimes I genuinely admire your unwavering determination.”
“I’m just reading up a little.”
“For the master’s?”
“For the revolution.”
At lunchtime, the huge RESOWI shrank into a backdrop of voices and the constant clatter of cafeteria trays. A little further away, a few first-years were loudly dissecting an assignment none of them had apparently prepared for properly.
They found a quieter corner. Finn sat opposite Phoebe, cutlery already in hand, eyes on his food as he tried to give his brain a minute off.
“Have you actually started studying for statistics?” Phoebe asked, breaking the brief silence.
Finn looked up from his plate. “Please not while I’m eating.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“True. But it is a very clear boundary.”
“I just don’t want you suddenly realising two days before the exam that statistics exists.”
“I would never.”
Phoebe held his gaze. Finn held hers. One second. Two.
“Okay. Maybe.”
She grinned triumphantly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For confirming my completely unfounded concerns so reliably.”
“Anytime.”
Later, they reached the dessert counter. Phoebe decisively grabbed a banana from the fruit basket while Finn’s gaze caught on the display. There was one vegan chocolate muffin left.
Exactly one.
He leaned closer to read the little sign. “Do you know if there are nuts in that?”
Phoebe leaned in too. “No idea.”
“It doesn’t say anything at all.”
“Then ask.”
Finn half turned towards the serving counter. “Ask who—”
A hand shot past him from the side.
The muffin was gone.
Finn stared first at the sudden gap behind the glass, then at the guy beside him who had just deposited the dessert on his own tray.
“Hey.”
The guy turned around slowly.
Alex.
Dark, slightly longer hair, strong brows and that heavy black jacket. He stood there balancing his tray casually in one hand, entirely unhurried. Finn knew him by sight. Nothing more than that.
“I wanted that,” Finn said, a shade sharper than he’d intended.
Alex looked at the muffin. “You didn’t have it yet.”
“I was checking whether there were nuts in it.”
Alex glanced at the muffin. “Are there?”
“No idea. That’s exactly what I was trying to find out.”
“Well. You looked too long.”
Finn stared at him for a heartbeat, dumbfounded. Alex looked back, unimpressed.
“Seriously?”
“What?”
“I was standing right in front of it.”
Alex didn’t so much as blink. His gaze flicked to the sign, then back to Finn. “Allergic?”
“Yes.”
“Then we probably shouldn’t take any chances.”
Finn blinked at him. For a brief moment, he genuinely had no words. By the time he opened his mouth for a sharp reply, Alex had already turned away and was walking off.
Finn stared after him. “What an arrogant arsehole.”
Phoebe snorted softly beside him. “Typical.”
Finn surveyed the remaining desserts. Nothing looked even remotely as good as the chocolate muffin he’d lost. Eventually, he grabbed a piece of apple cake in frustration.
“What do you mean, typical?”
“He just takes the last one and walks off. Why bother asking? Feels like half the university belongs to him.”
“He was just faster.”
Phoebe turned towards him. “No. You were standing right in front of it.” She pushed her tray on with determination. “Men see something they want and immediately think: mine.”
Finn slowly turned his head towards her. “Phoebe.”
“What?”
“I happen to be a man too.”
She looked him up and down. “But you’re one of the good ones, darling.”
Finn shook his head, smiling. “That sounds like a system with absolutely no transparent criteria.”
Phoebe grinned. “I have very clear criteria.”
“Which are?”
“You don’t steal food off my plate.”
“That’s all?”
“No. But it’s a damn good start.”
They moved on towards the till, where Phoebe nodded subtly in Alex’s direction again. “That was Alex, by the way.”
“I know.”
Now she looked at him from the corner of her eye. “How?”
He shrugged. “The university isn’t exactly huge.”
Phoebe studied him for a second. “So you know him by sight.”
“Like roughly half the student body.”
Finn didn’t even need to look over to know why. Alex moved through the crowded corridors with the kind of effortless certainty Finn had noticed before. The heavy dark jacket probably helped.
Phoebe pushed her tray towards the seating area. “Someone I know said the other day that she’d had a thing with him once.”
Finn placed his student card on the reader. “What exactly does ‘a thing’ mean?”
Phoebe gave him a meaningful look. “You know. The usual.”
Finn waited.
She rolled her eyes. “They fucked.”
“Okay.”
“More than once, if I remember right.”
Finn glanced involuntarily towards Alex again.
“She apparently thought at some point there might be more to it. He didn’t.” Phoebe shrugged. “Ended pretty quickly after that.”
Finn picked up his tray. “Right.”
Earlier, they’d only dropped their backpacks at a corner table before detouring towards dessert. Now they headed back there. Phoebe was already talking again halfway across the room, gesturing wildly with one hand while balancing her tray with the other.
“…I mean, just think about that for a second!” she complained as she let her backpack slide to the floor. The moment she sat down, she leaned across the table. “The lecturer spends ten whole minutes talking about how important it is who gets space in seminars, and five minutes later he interrupts the very student who’s trying to say something useful about it.”
Finn cut off a piece of his apple cake even though he didn’t really want it. “Mhm.”
Phoebe kept going. “And then some guy two rows back puts his hand up and says practically the exact same thing. Just with twice as much jargon.”
Finn took a bite without really tasting it. “Classic.”
Phoebe narrowed her eyes. “Finn.”
He looked up. “What?”
“You’re not listening to me at all, are you?”
“I am.”
“Fine. What did I just say?”
Finn chewed, thought for a second and tried to remember the gist. “A man was being extremely annoying again.”
Phoebe was silent for a moment. Then she nodded, almost appeased. “Okay. Good enough.”
Finn grinned.
His gaze wandered distractedly across the large room. Alex was sitting a few tables away. Someone was trying to squeeze between two chairs with an overloaded tray; Alex hooked his backpack out of the way with his foot and shifted aside before the other person even had to say anything.
Finn looked back at Phoebe. She’d taken out her phone by now and was typing absent-mindedly while biting into her banana. Finn took another bite of overly sweet cake.
When he looked up again, he caught Alex’s eye.
Alex had unwrapped the stolen chocolate muffin by now. He looked at Finn for a moment.
Then bit into it.
Very deliberately. He held Finn’s gaze while chewing slowly, with an almost provocative air of complete self-possession.
Finn gave him the finger without a word.
Alex merely raised one eyebrow, as though Finn were the one making a fool of himself. Then he turned back to the people at his table.
Finn stared down at what was left of his apple cake. “Arsehole,” he muttered.
“What did you say?” Phoebe asked with her mouth full.
“Nothing.”
Phoebe knew immediately who he meant. “Don’t get worked up over that idiot.” She held out her banana. “Want a bite?”
Finn looked first at the banana, then at his best friend. “You are an incredibly empathetic person.”
“I know,” she said, completely serious. Then she pointed the fruit at him. “Potassium is extremely important for your nerves.”
Finn took the last piece from her hand, smiling. “You really are one of the good ones.”
Phoebe grinned. Finn bit into the banana while the rest of the apple cake sat untouched on his tray.
