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Brianne just smiled at me.
BRIANNE
T here were some picnic tables near the spot Kaitlyn liked to play, and my friend group had recently taken over one of them. We sat here for lunch every day that it was nice outside.
Today was one of those days, and Kaitlyn had a lot of passers-by giving her money. I’d have offered to play with her, but I’d just had an exam that morning.
Emily, Kaitlyn’s girlfriend, sat next to me. “She’s just so good, isn’t she,” she said.
Tracy laughed out loud. “You’re so lovesick! It’s too cute.”
“Yeah, Emily, I’ve never seen you like this before. It’s super cute. A good change of pace,” said Miriam.
Emily scowled at them, but her expression quickly dissolved into a smile. “Yeah, I feel pretty sappy sometimes. It’s nice.”
“Hey! Mind if I have a seat here?”
I turned to see Margie standing in front of me with a tentative smile. As soon as we all figured out what was happening, people started scooting over to make room for her. She sat down across from me.
“This is Margie, guys,” I said. “New friend of mine. She, unlike all of you, made it out to the Shadetree show.”
Now that I knew Margie was a nervous kind of person, I could tell when she was nervous. And right now, she was deeply uneasy, but she’d been brave enough to ask to sit here anyway. I was proud of her.
“Nice to meet you,” said Tracy sweetly.
She, Emily, and Kaitlyn were pretty nice, but I wasn’t so sure about how the others would treat her. They could be… prickly—as I’d proven when I’d first met Kaitlyn. They weren’t the kind of people I’d choose to introduce Margie to, considering she was shy about social interaction and didn’t have the skills to deflect their barbs.
But she was here now, so we were going to see how it went.
“So how do you know each other?” asked Tracy.
“It’s kind of a funny stor—” I started, but Margie cut me off.
“We met randomly after class,” she said curtly, with a smile. “I thought Brianne seemed cool and wanted to be friends with her.”
Okay, so she didn’t want everyone to know about the coffee blunder. I thought it was a great story, but given her social anxiety, it was understandable.
“Didn’t realize you were one to randomly make friends like that, Brianne,” said Miriam.
“Me neither,” I said cheerfully, “but I’m glad we became friends.”
“So what do you study?” asked Tracy.
“Biology.”
“No wonder we haven’t seen you around,” said Tracy. “All humanities majors here, except Emily, who’s doing engineering.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen any of you guys around,” said Margie. “I actually did my first two undergrad years at Amherst and transferred this year.”
She was doing well so far. I was even more proud of her. Maybe befriending me had been the push she needed to get out of her comfort zone and actually interact with people. I found myself rooting for her. She was sweet, and deserved to succeed at this.
“Oh, nice,” said Tracy. “So how do you like Beasley?”
“It’s nice,” said Margie tightly. “I’ve had a bit of slow start socially, but things are getting better. I love my classes.”
“You in any clubs?” asked Miriam with a skeptical look. Knowing her, she wasn’t going to be that nice to Margie. She could be a bit of a snob.
“The EAC,” said Margie. “I like animals and nature and stuff, you know.”
