AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I watched her as she did. She was dressed so well. Her thick black tights offset the gray chambray of the dress, and she had these cool boots and a trendy backpack… God, what in the world was I going to do during this lunch? What were we even going to talk about?
And why had I even asked her to go to lunch? Maybe it was the first thing that had popped into my mind because it was the only thing I could offer. The strip was what we called a row of restaurants right next to campus, and I could buy her a meal there. In fact, I’d often daydreamed about offering to take a new friend to lunch there, because there were so many cool restaurants and I didn’t want to eat alone like I did at the dining hall every day. That was probably the reason it had popped up in my head.
And now I actually had a lunch date with a potential new friend. Or maybe Brianne was doing it just to humor me—that was way more likely. Who’d want to be friends with someone who started off spilling coffee on them?
I was shaking slightly as I walked away, and I turned back just once, but I didn’t see Brianne. I had to collect myself again and figure out where I’d been intending to go. I’d been trying to leave campus and go back to my house, and now I really wanted to because I wanted to change my shirt. Most of the coffee had fallen on Brianne, but there was some on myself too, making my shirt sleeve uncomfortably stiff and sticky.
I sighed and made my way back to my house. I was done with classes for the day, thankfully, and I just had some homework to do. Tomorrow would be busier, as I had a meeting for the Environmental Action Coalition. I’d joined it with the hope of making new friends, but that hadn’t panned out. I’d found that most of the people who were heavily involved in the club were already friends with each other and didn’t need any new ones. They were friendly enough, but they didn’t seem to want to socialize with anyone new. And they invited me to their parties, but I’d gone once and felt too awkward when I realized I didn’t know anyone there.
It had been a bust. But that was the way my life was turning out lately. The only thing going decently well for me was the fact that I was doing well in my classes, though I wasn’t even sure I was passionate about my major, Biology. I’d had dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist, but it seemed so far away right now.
I turned onto my street, entering the cluster of student housing. There were a number of small houses here that could be cheaply rented, as well as small apartment buildings, and the proximity to campus and the somewhat rundown quality of the neighborhood meant it was only students who lived here. I should have been able to make friends with my neighbors—I’d hoped I could, anyway—but they’d turned out to be girls that partied hard 24/7. They’d invited me to a couple of hang outs, but the emphasis on drinking and flirting with passing frat boys made me uncomfortable.
Boys. That was another area of my life where I was floundering. I’d thought I could meet a nice guy here… And there were many who seemed cool and cute, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask any of them out. If no one wanted me as a friend, then how in the world would anyone want me as a partner?
I opened the door and found my roommate, Cass, sitting on the couch. Cass was the closest thing I had to a friend, even though we didn’t actually hang out all that much. She had her own friends.
“Hey,” I said, sitting down on the couch across from her.
She looked up from her laptop and raised an eyebrow. “Bad day, huh?” she asked.
“How did you know?”
“The stain on your sleeve,” she said. “Looks like you spilled something.”
I leaned back against the couch and groaned, remembering the stupid lunch I’d asked Brianne to. And it was happening tomorrow! How was I going to survive that?
“I bumped into this girl and her coffee went everywhere,” I said, shrugging. I wasn’t really in the mood to explain further about the lunch date. Cass had early on taken an interest in improving my social life, but she’d given up when she’d seen how unsuccessful I was.
“Wow. That sucks,” she said, turning back down to her laptop. “Marnie’s coming over tonight, by the way.”
“Word,” I said. Marnie was here every night, it seemed. I wondered if she and Cass were dating, given the number of sleepovers.
I picked up my stuff and went up to my room. The space seemed a little dark because I hadn’t pulled the blinds open, but when I did, the light barely filtered in. It was a small room, and I was paying for it proportionally, but it made me feel even more pathetic, somehow. Like I was a hermit, holing myself up in this room.
But maybe, I thought, Brianne could become a new friend. Just maybe. She seemed way too cool for me, but something had made her say yes when I’d asked her to lunch. I didn’t know what something was, but I intended to milk it for all it was worth.
BRIANNE
I had no idea what to expect from this lunch. I slightly regretted agreeing to it, partially because I had way too much to do, still, and actually spending time talking to Margie was going to cut into the time I had to do it.
Truth be told, the main reason I’d said yes was that Margie intrigued me somehow. She was cute, for one thing. Objectively adorable. Sandy blonde hair contrasted with a moody, aloof expression. She was cute when she was nervous, too. I couldn’t really get a good idea of whether or not she was into women, but I was hoping I’d find out soon.
And if she wasn’t a potential romantic interest? I wasn’t sure I had the time for more friends, considering I barely had time for the ones I already had, but if she turned out to be cool, maybe she’d fit in with my social circle.
I was a little nervous as I walked down to the strip. There was a small courtyard with benches at one end which was used as the common meeting place, and as I’d expected, I found her sitting there. She stood up and smiled tentatively as I approached, and I smiled back and remembered why I was so nervous.
Margie was ridiculously cute.
She looked away bashfully when I came near, and then she looked up at me again with sparkling brown eyes, so deep that they drew me in. And she was dressed smartly too, in a nice blouse and dark jeans.
“Hey,” I said. “How are you doing?”
“All right,” she said, shrugging. She picked her backpack up and stood. “Was there anywhere in particular you wanted to go?”
“I’ve been to all these places like, a dozen times,” I said. “It’s up to you.”
Margie’s eyes lit up briefly, but she veiled them again, putting on this façade of aloofness I couldn’t quite figure out. “I’m partial to the Thai place… I keep walking past it but I’ve never had a chance to go in.”
