Diary Of An Introvert

18| Back with him

Friends, Joanne thought about it. Patricia had helped her out when she was in a bad place. Joanne had helped Patricia out once too when she was in a pickle. They hadn't even had a fight this semester. "Hey, wanna be friends?"

Patricia leaped on her bed. She looked at Joanne as if she had misheard her. But eventually she smiled cheekily and responded, "Yeah, would love to."

That was it. The beginning of a beautiful friendship between two roommates. They went to class together. Ate at the cafeteria together. Joanne introduced Patricia to anime. She remembered the first time she told Patricia about it and she went 'uhnime?' Joanne had laughed her head off. Now they binged watch episodes of Tokyo ghoul together. For the first time in years, Joanne felt truly happy.

"Geez Joanne, you couldn't have just apologized to that old man?" Patricia pouted. She looked at Joanne expecting her to say 'sorry' any minute even though it was unlikely.

"You saw he was trying to steal that candy! I don't suck up to no candy stealers." Joanne and Patricia exchanged looks before they ended up laughing.

"Weirdo," Patricia smirked.

"Creep." Joanne retorted.

"Can you give me your advice on something?" Patricia asked. Her tone had shifted from jovial to more serious.

"I'm listening."

"Okay it's about Jim."

Oh no, Joanne thought. Why would Patricia bring up her ex now all of a sudden. "Yeah what about him?"

"It's just I feel like..." Patricia glanced at Joanne. She breathed out. "I still like him. He didn't exactly dump me you know, we had an argument that day. He was pretty drunk and so was I. We said a lot of things that we can't take back. But I miss him and I don't know what to do about it."

Joanne folded her arm against her chest. She tilted her head. "What do you mean you don't know what to do about it? I'll give you the advice you gave me a week ago: tell him how you feel."

Patricia smiled. "I figured. I should do that but at the same time I'm still so mad at him."

Joanne rolled her eyes. "You're impossible. I'm thirsty let's get water or something."

"I think there's a Starbucks shop around here somewhere."

"Let's go then." Joanne clutched her friends hand and helped her get to her feet. They walked arm in arm to the Starbucks coffee shop. Joanne yanked Patricia's arm back. "Where are we going?"

"What do you mean? We're going to get lemonade from Starbucks."

"Are you sure you want from that one specifically, let's go to another one. I'm sure there's plenty on campus."

"Nonsense!" Patricia overpowered Joanne and pushed her through the front door. "Why go to another? When this one is perfect-"

Joanne was seeing it too. Jim was in his Starbucks apron selling three shortbreads to a middle aged man. His gaze met Patricia's. Joanne glanced at her.

"We're leaving." Patricia said.

Joanne followed immediately. Jim followed after them too. "Pat wait."

She did wait. Only to turn around and cuss him in front of the customers leaving the building. "For what? So you can tell me how much fun fucking Britney was for you? I bet you had fun with Stephanie too."

"Really? We're gonna do this right now?" Jim said.

Joanne tuned them out. As much as she loved Patricia she wasn't going to stay in the middle of all that. In fact she was just about to leave the place when a golden haired boy ran into her.

"Ow, watch where you're going-" Joanne stopped midway. The golden haired boy with green eyes was towering over her. He looked a bit different. His hair was slightly parted and for as long as Joanne could recall, his hair was always messy.

"What's your head made out of Snow White, coconut?" Cory groaned. He rubbed circles around his chest with his palm.

"Shut up." Joanne scowled. She looked behind him. "Thank Christ, what are you doing here?"

"I came to get Jim. He's driving us home."

Us? Amanda. The blonde bitch whose hair Joanne was going to rip out if she heard her high-pitched voice wasn't here. "I'm not sure now's a good time."

Joanne and Cory strolled back to the spot where Patricia and Jim had been arguing earlier. They were no longer there. They were seated calmly in the shop at a table in the back. Patricia was smiling at Jim and Jim was looking earnestly at her. They look really good with each other, Joanne thought.

"Hate to break your love drama going on here but Jim we need to go home, it's getting late." Cory stood at their table. He dragged Jim by the arm and out of the coffee shop.

"Bye Joanne." Jim waved at her.

"Bye Jim." She waved back. And then to Cory. "You too."

Cory smiled. "Bye Snow White."

Patricia came out of the coffee shop and laced her arm with her roommate's. "We talked things out. We decided to give it another try."

"I'm happy for you." Joanne said. She really was. Seeing Patricia beaming like this was all Joanne could ever ask for.

"Back to dorms then?" Patricia inquired.

"Back to dorms." Joanne confirmed.

They got back to dorms. Immediately Joanne slumped on the bed while Patricia had a bath. They were both tensed up from the day's activities. Just then Joanne decided to check her messages. She had a ton of messages from the group chat with Cory's friends and two from Jim and Cory.

Hey - Cory

Still down for our meeting this Saturday? - Jim

Joanne replied Cory first with a 'hey' and Jim with 'two pm, we're still on.'