Fall Like Rain (Preview)

Chapter 2

Mark Velasco was my college best friend. If you’re a stickler for details, however, I actually met him the summer after my senior year in high school. So we didn’t meet during college exactly; it was just easier to explain it that way when people asked. We met in a summer youth camp at church that my parents forced me to attend, and I gave in despite my misgivings. Mark arrived late and took the seat beside the girl sitting by her lonesome near the back of the room. Which happened to be me.

I had always been a little shy, and I had always needed a little time to warm up to new people. I was the kind of person who would rather be with a small group of friends that I really trusted, than be in a big group. I knew no one there, and I had already accepted that I would spend most of camp alone until Mark started talking to me, totally missing my “I don’t know how to talk to you so you can leave if you want to” vibe. He didn’t stop talking to me even if I gave one-word answers half the time. I finally started feeling comfortable around him when he made me laugh with a joke about how his name was so boring compared to mine, and after that, I stuck with him for the rest of the camp.

Later that day, we found out that we lived just a few blocks away from each other. I also found out that he studied in the high school inside our village, which explained how he knew so many people at the youth camp. I wasn’t so surprised that we had no mutual friends because most of my friends were from school, and I spent my primary and secondary educational years twenty minutes away from where we lived (on days with little traffic). If we had run into each other at any point before the camp, I couldn’t remember because I never paid attention to people I didn’t know, even in our neighborhood.

By the third and final day of the camp, we found out that we were both incoming freshmen at the same university, and about to take the same course.  We exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch after the camp, but a part of me was doubtful that we would really do that.

But Mark showed up at our house a few weeks later with his college forms, and asked if I was done with mine. We helped each other out with the rest of the requirements, and went to enroll together. Even if we didn’t turn out to be in the same freshman block, he was still my first official college friend, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Everyone who knew this story told me that Mark approached me first because he was attracted to me. I never believed them. First, he was really just a nice guy; and second, he had a girlfriend at that time. Sure, he was cute in a way that most girls at the camp frequently stole glances at him, but I was just happy that I had a new friend who made entering college feel less terrifying.

Of course, no one believed me when they learned my side of the story. Everyone who met us for the first time thought we were together. When they found out we were not romantically involved, they assumed that we would get there eventually. But we had been best friends for eight years and we never got there, even though I often wished we did.

* * *

“Wait, what?” I exclaimed, looking at Meah and Faith, who wore identical looks of concern. “Where did you hear that? How did you know?”

“Facebook, where else?” Meah replied.

I could almost hear the silently implied “duh”. A relationship was not official until it was Facebook-official, they said. I guess that applied to break-ups, too.

Faith whipped her phone out from her purse and started clicking. A few seconds later, she handed me her phone with a flourish, and there I found she had opened Mark’s profile. Written, plain as day: Mark Velasco. Relationship: Single.

I swallowed hard; seeing that made it more real. My best friend is single. Again. And this time, I didn’t even find out about it first. The urge to call him was back, more pressing than ever, but I resisted it, unsure of what to say. I handed her phone back.