The Hipsters

Bea & Silas's Romantic Adventure

For Valentine's Day.

--

"Hey, Silas."

"Bea, hey. Um, I've got bad news. The campus is open today, despite all the fucking snow that decided to pour down on us."

Silas and I had planned to see each other, because it was that time of the year again.

"Can you still drive down?" I still didn't have a car, and definitely didn't have money for an Amtrak ticket down there.

"No, I don't think so. I've got classes today, and some assface nicked my car keys," he sighed. I laughed at this. Silas joined in. "I know, it sounds absolutely ridiculous."

"It's just...well, who steals car keys? You've got so much work to do afterwards. Maybe I'm just lazy."

"So, what are you doing right now?", Silas asked. I sat up, suddenly guilty for staying in bed when my next class was 20 minutes.

"Um, I'm study-"

"Sleeping, right?"

"You know me so well."

"Well, it was practically all you did when we were at Penrose."

"Okay, see, now you're lying. I did other things. We did other things."

"Like what?"

"Like Weapons of War."

Silas burst out laughing, and I covered my face, even though he couldn't see it.

"It's Gears of War."

"I just realized that. In my defense, your explanation of the game wasn't interesting.", I tried.

"Did I bore you?"

"No, you can never bore me, Silas."

"I love you too."

My face reddened at his words. Why do I still blush when he says that?

"Okay, I've just arrived at my class."

"But I'm bored. I need someone to talk to."

"What about your roommate?"

"I don't think I've seen her all week, actually."

Silas laughed. "Bye, babe."

"Bye." I pressed END, and sighed.

My dorm room was like the size of a shoebox. It was the smallest thing I had lived in since my old room in San Francisco. Our room was set up in a way that our beds were squeezed together, but I personally dreaded the day when her foot would graze over onto my bed when she was sleeping. Our closets were directly across from us, and my Argus now resided on my nightstand next to me, which I didn't know if I liked, because I was accident prone.

I decided to take a shower, because I didn't like the way that I was smelling. And because Omar had promised me a free hot chocolate, because he loved me, and it was Valentine's Day. I had no one else to visit or talk to, so Omar was the highlight of my day.

                                 + + + + +

An hour later, I faced a depressed Omar, who was staring at pictures of his ex.

"Why don't you just call him?", I finally suggested, and then took a sip of my hot chocolate.

"We broke up two weeks ago. He's probably already moved on.", Omar replied.

"So you choose today of all days to look at pictures? Why depress yourself? He lives in the same fucking building. Go talk to him. Silas is 162.5 miles from me, but I'm doing okay. I can't visit him, but I can call him. Which I did."