unOrdinary: An Old Friend Returns

A Step In The Right Direction

"So ... what did you guys talk about?"

John stopped walking and leaned towards me. I moved in closer, waiting with bated breath.

"None. Of. Your. Business. Eloise."

Then he began to walk away, leaving me staring at his back with my jaw dropped. I ran towards him and grabbed his arm swinging him around to face me.

"Don't be a jerk. Tell me! Are you guys friends again?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe! What does that mean?" I yell, raising my voice at the sky in frustration.

"It means I don't know Eloise. She said she needed more time when I wanted to meet up with her tomorrow to do some studying. And she turned down going to bubble tea with me. But she is speaking to me, and she was giving me the silent treatment up until now."

"Then don't be distraught. She is showing you that she wants to hear you out. Now is the time to tell her the reasons for your actions."

"Yeah. I guess so. We mostly talked about you, though."

"Me?" I said slyly. What on earth could have caused her to ask about me, I though with a grin. John needed to spend more time around girls, then he would know why a new girl popping up out of nowhere was cause for concern. If its one thing girls do natively its make judgements. Ever heard of "Pride and Prejudice"? Well, the guys have the pride and the girls have the prejudice.

"She wanted to know who you were and how we knew each other."

Wanting to tease John a little bit, I replied, "Did you tell her that we go way back and that we are super close?"

"No. I said we were childhood friends and that we were just catching up now that you transferred to Wellston."

"I guess that's fine." I said with a wink. Now it was my turn to skip ahead and leave John to puzzle out my actions.

He jogged up and enquired, "So how much time do you think she'll need?"

I looked down at my watch, traced the path of the sun in the sky, licked my pointer finger and fell the wind direction, and pondered. Well, that's what it looked like to John, I was just teasing him.

"I think it will probably take at least a fortnight, until Mercury is out of retrograde."

John, totally confused, said, "Huh?"

Then coming to the realization that I was being silly, nudged me off the sidewalk into the grass.

"Hey! Be serious!"

"I can't. Its just too much fun to make jokes right now. You need to lighten up."

We had by now reached the dormitories and continuing the path to the right would lead to the boys' dorm while the left would lead to the girls'.

Twirling my hair, remembering that I had not given Evie back her hair tie, I waved goodbye to John.

"I'll text you later tonight. Do you want to do something tomorrow?"

"Can't. I have a project due Monday afternoon and I need to spend all of Sunday working on it."

"Ok! Text me if you need any help."

As I walked to the girls dorm, I had already began making a mental list of my own "homework". I needed to get caught up fast to the goings-on in Wellston.