6

Observing

I lay back and was trying to go back to sleep when I heard the message notification on my phone, I picked it up and looked at the screen, it was a message from an unknown sender.

It read: hey, with a smirking emoji

Hi, please who is this? I asked

Unknown sender: “take a wild guess”

I sat and thought for a while, “who did I meet recently that’ll send me this type of text?, and it clicked

“Oh it’s you” I texted back

Unknown sender: “well that didn’t take long, seems like I’ve been on your mind since I left”

“Seems like you’re full of yourself” I replied, what do you want and why are you texting me?

Jordan: I was thinking of making it up to you in regards of your phone.

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” I asked

Jordan: how about I come pick you up at 3 in the afternoon tomorrow?

“Fine” I texted with an eye roll emoji

Jordan: alright then, it’s a date.

“It’s not a date, goodnight” I replied and smiled, “what kind of person was he?” I thought before going back to sleep

I woke up to strong rays of sunlight on my face, I looked around and realized that Maya had already left for class, I yawned and picked up my phone, “s**t” I screamed jumping from the bed, it was already 8:50, and lectures began at nine, I quickly brushed my teeth and ran to the bathroom, I hurried through the process, got dressed and left at a few minutes after nine.

I entered the hall panting, and quickly ran to find a seat, under the watchful gaze of the class. “hey, you can seat here, there’s room for one more person” a heard a voice say, I turned around to find a pretty red haired girl beckoning at me, i moved over and sat down, “thanks” I said with a smile, “yeah it’s no biggie, it was empty so….” she trailed off, I smiled again and brought out my notes, trying to focus on what the professor was saying and quickly catch up as he had already gotten into the topic before I arrived.

********

Class ended about an hour and half later, and I packed my things into my bag, getting ready to move on to the next one, “do you also offer the next class?” The red haired girl asked , “yeah I do” I nodded in reply, “okay then let’s go together, I’m Paris, you?” She asked offering her hand, “Mariel” I replied taking it, and It was at that moment our friendship clicked.

We walked together to the next one and the one after, and she offered to drive me home, we talked through out the journey and she had a really good sense of humor, she seemed to me like a genuinely good person at heart.

*******

We pulled to a stop in front of the dorm and I got out “thanks again for dropping me off, it means a lot”, I said, “yeah anytime” she said with a smile and zoomed of.

got in and looked at the time, it was a few minutes after 2pm, I slowly undressed and decided to take a short nap before meeting up with Jordan, I lay on the bed and before I knew it I was fast asleep. I woke up to a knock on the door, I stood up and walked sluggishly to answer it, I removed the lock on the door and opened it to reveal jordan standing there, dressed in a grey sweatshirt and cargo pants, with a black jacket to match the look, and vans shoes, “don’t tell me you’ve been sleeping, is that all you do? Sleep?” he asked in mock annoyance, “I wasn’t sleeping I was just taking a nap, a short nap, there’s s difference okay?” I replied with an eye roll, “well can I least come in?” he asked, “no” I replied, I don’t need you staring at me while I get dressed, “why will I stare at you? You’re not even my type” he said with a smirk, “Well, you’re not my type either, so can you please just wait in the car?”, “fine” he said and walked away

I searched frantically in my wardrobe looking for what to wear, and I quickly settled for a low rise jeans which I paired up with a crop sweater and hoop earrings, I let my hair down and put on some lipgloss, I looked into the mirror, and thought “not bad, not bad”.

I came out and locked the door, walking towards the place he parked his car, she stood there leaning by the car and waiting, he turned and looked at me and kept on staring till I got to the car.

We drove on for a while in silence until I couldn’t bear it anymore, “where are we going” I asked with curiosity, “somewhere” he replied, his eyes fixated on the road, “if you won’t tell me then stop the car, I don’t trust you”, I said exasperated. He looked at me with an amused expression and burst out laughing, “Is something funny?” I asked with a frown, He didn’t reply and kept on laughing. I decided to ignore him and leaned back on the seat, staring out the window.

“Let’s stop over there, I haven’t eaten all day and I could do with some lunch”, I said pointing to a Mc Donald’s across the road, he pulled over, and we walked over to the restaurant, we found a table and a waiter came to us to take our order, I ordered the double combo cheeseburger with a plate of extra large fries and a Diet Coke, while Jordan ordered just a glass of water. The food came and I dug in, deeply engrossed.