forgetting charlie

four

four ::

Sue Yi was still up when I walked into our room the night of the party. The room was dark and I took my shoes off before attempting to reach my bed as quietly as I could. But despite all of that, she was wide-awake, laying in her bed in the dark, waiting for me.

"So how was the party?" she asked when I slipped out of my dress and pulled a long t-shirt over my head. Her soft voice breaking the silence startled me a bit, and squinting in the dark I turned to look at her.

"Oh, you know. It was okay."

"Okay," she then said. "Goodnight."

And with that, Sue's bed gave a slight creak as she rolled over to her side and fell to sleep.

I never really got to know Sue very well. I think at the start of the new school year, I had meant to. I met her parents and her younger brother on move-in day and they seemed nice enough. Sue was very quiet—as in the whole introvert thing like me—and we had similar habits, studying on a Friday night being one of them. I figured it wouldn't be so hard for us to get along and be friends, and to be quite honest it wasn't hard. We were so similar in certain ways that it took no effort to actually get to a point where we tolerated each other and didn't mind the other's presence. We were okay with just being us and being in the same room, but not really interacting. It wasn't awkward; it was comfortable.

Emily on the other hand was the complete opposite of me. I honestly don't know how we ever became friends. I know it was during some orientation thing that she complimented a ring I was wearing and we talked for a bit, but that was pretty much the extent of it. It wasn't until we had classes together that we conjoined and became friends. We do things together outside of school and she really isn't bothered by my social awkwardness. In fact, she'd made it her mission to socialize me, whatever that meant.

It's interesting whom your friends end up being. Sometimes you can have tons in common and be just friends. Whereas you can have virtually nothing in common and be the best of friends.

Emily found me sitting on the quad the following Monday eating my lunch alone. The cool September air was slowly turning into October chill, and as the leaves began to fall and scatter about the campus, most students just took their lunch inside. I, however, liked being outside for as long as I possibly could without my fingers freezing off my hand. Granted, not everyday in autumn did the quad look so destitute, but that day it was exceptionally so, possibly because it was a Monday.

"Yo," Emily said as she plopped herself down on the bench opposite me. "Where did you go after the party? I was looking for you the following morning and you were nowhere."

"I went back to my dorm," I told her taking a bite out of my bagel. "Charlie walked me."

"You took Charlie back to your dorm? Was Sue there?" I sometimes did wonder what went on in that blond head of hers.

"I said he walked me back to my dorm. We said goodnight and I went into my room alone and yes Sue was there."

"Oh," she said obviously disappointed. "Well, did you at least kiss him?"

"Why wo—oh never mind."

"What?" she asked quite innocently. "I know that you like him. You guys have this weird thing going on, I'm almost sure he likes you too."

"Yeah?" I asked. "How can you tell?"

"Well, he's been reading that Shakespeare stuff you like, he calls you things like my lady, and he hasn't as so much as looked at a girl—let alone been interested in one—since his last girlfriend, who's a complete bitch and broke his heart," she said all this matter-of-factly. "That's how I can tell."