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“I don’t know but it’s not too terribly hard. I mean maybe someone I know gave it to him. I don’t know. He could have got it in one of our classes, that’s not the point. I don’t know what to say to him. I mean does he want to ask me something, is he just being friendly? What do you think?”
Meg puts her hands on her hips but keeps her eyes on the computer. “I think he went to a lot of trouble to be able to message you on here and it’s been less than twenty four hours since you saw him.” She pauses, then turns to look at me. “Are you sure there’s not something you aren’t telling me from last night? No judgment.”
“No, there’s nothing. I swear. I ran into him, we talked for a few minutes and then I got the hell out of there.”Other than me ogling his lips like a stalker and he noticed.
“Well… now, you’ve got Brad hot to trot because he wouldn’t be messaging you if not. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him making the first move.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What do you meanfirst move? He knows me, we’re just friendly acquaintances.” I attempt to get her to see reason because honestly, I don’t want to get my hopes up about this, Meg has the ability to make you think something’s there that isn’t. She’s the ride or die type and she’s my hype friend so I can’t get too excited.
She purses her lips and tilts her head to the side. “Don’t playdumb Nik, you’re smarter than that. It means exactly what you think it means. He has girls always throwing themselves at him at the frat house. I’ve seen it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him go after a girl first. And honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take any of the girls upstairs.”
Oh.But he doesn’t even live there.I should feel relieved that he’s never been seen taking a girl upstairs. I love Meg, but just because she hasn’t seen him hooking up with girls doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. He’s too well known, too good looking, and it’s not like we’re in our thirties. He’s a twenty-one year old guy, of course he’s got to be hooking up with someone. He probably just takes this back to his dorm which is probably cleaner than that cesspool I entered last night and that was just the first floor in the common areas.
“Answer him!” She exclaims in my ear.
“Alright, alright. I have to think what to say.” I sit back down at my computer desk, fingers poised over the keys. “What do you think I should say?”
“Something casual.”
Helpful. I decide that I’ll just acknowledge that he proved that he is who he says he is.
NMMUtwirler:Well, you’ve proved it’s really you.
MatthewsB22:Damn, Malone. That took you long enough. What’d you go make lunch?
This time I don’t need Meg to help me. I go with the truth.
NMMUtwirler:Har har. No. I was so surprised it was you and that you were messaging me that I didn’t know what to say.
MatthewsB22:Don’t be so surprised.
MatthewsB22:Sorry for the cheerleader comment last night. I could tell you got annoyed. I may have been slightly intoxicated but I could still tell and you tried to immediately bolt afterwards.
So hehadnoticed. He’s intuitive, I’ll give him that. I decide to let him off easy.
NMMUtwirler:It’s alright. Most people don’t get it either. Or they have jokes.
MatthewsB22:No jokes here. It’s cool. I’ve seen you at the games.
My heart rate speeds up at his words. It’s then that I realize Meg is still standing behind me. I turn and look over my shoulder at her. Her eyes are firmly on the screen but she glances down at me and smiles like the cat who ate the canary. “Ok, you are no longer needed.”
She starts to walk away but pauses at my door. “I won’t say I told you so but I told you so.”
I pretend like I didn’t hear her but there’s a smile on my face when I look back at the computer monitor.
THE RUN IN
January 8, 2005
Three months later.
Brad walks through the classroom door and I would say that I’m surprised to see he’s in yet another one of my classes but I’m not. This university isn’tthatbig and we have the same major—we’re practically thrown together at this point. We’re bound to have a lot of crossovers as we get closer to graduation next year. At this point most of my classes are full of juniors and seniors, people that I’ve seen in most of my undergraduate courses and who major in Criminal Justice. Given the fact that we’re both juniors it was bound to happen that we’d have more courses together.
I haven’t seen Brad outside of a classroom since that one night back in October at his frat house. That was three months ago. He would tip his head or give me a wave when he entered our classes but we never spoke in person since that night. Now here he is in the flesh. We’ve finished a semester, finished school break for Thanksgiving and Christmas and now we’re in a new semester with all new courses. My athletic responsibilities are far lessduring spring semester than in fall. I’ve chosen to throw myself completely into my sorority’s activities and it’s been a great experience so far. Over Christmas all the local girls got together and visited the children’s hospital and dropped off books for them to read.
The sorority hasn’t had any “mixers”as they like to call them. A posh word for a themed party with booze and the only people in attendance being the brothers of a fraternity and the sisters of a sorority. I went to several last semester but I was always ducking out early because of my commitments for my scholarship. My family is too poor to pay for my schooling and since I’m the first person in my family to attend college, it’s a very big deal.
My sorority had their first meeting since school was back in session last night and there was no mention of us hanging out with Brad’s fraternity this week. I for one am glad, but I could see some of my sisters were quite put out by that fact. They are also the ones that I feel came to college looking for a husband and not really a degree. They’ll earn their degree but they double major with one that has the initials MRS.Just saying.I know a lot of them have boyfriends in that frat so they love to hang out with them in “official” settings but since I’m still single and waiting for my ownJake Ryan to sweep me off my feet, I always feel a little uncomfortable at the mixers.
