When I arrive to Joshua's room to meet him for foosball, the only person present is Josué. He is lying in a hammock, which he has bolted to the wall above his bed.
"Natalia!" he exclaims, his voice cheerful. He somehow maneuvers himself out of the hammock, though I do fear for a moment that he will topple out and slam to the floor below.
Instead, Josué lands graceful as a cat directly in front of me. Behind his glasses, pine green, mosaic-patterned eyes glimmer into mine, and I take in the unique color of his dark skin. His rich, thick hair hangs messy around his face at various angles. He appears strong and gentle and artistic and academic and kind and deep—so many things wrapped into one human figure—yet, I really don't know him at all.
"I'm meeting Joshua—do you know if he's back from his study group?"
"I've yet to see him return, though I'm sure he will be here momentarily. I doubt he would miss a meeting with you."
My insides smile in smugness when I inform Josué that I'm waiting for his roommate, a silly fantasy of provoking jealousy flickering in my subconscious. Now, my consciousness is battling against the realization that I may have a slight crush on the roommate standing in front of me. Crap.
"Did you enjoy your apple?" asks Josué. The question is nonsensical, though I imagine I know what he is referring to.
"What?"
"The last time we saw each other, you were deliberating between Granny Smith and Red Delicious in the Bon."
This is untrue; I despise Red Delicious apples.
"Um, yeah... it was good." Ugh, what else am I supposed to reply to his ridiculous question?
He continues saying things to me—at me—and every random phrase feels like a baseball that I am too slow to catch, so they hit me in the forehead, smack my face, slam into my gut. I muster up generic responses to all of his comments, wishing I could flee from the room.
"Come on!" he finally exclaims. His intonation has changed into an imploring bellow, though he continues to smile. "Engage! Hit me back." Literally, he is hopping from foot to foot like a boxer as he hurls nonsense at me, tapping my arm, gesturing towards me, closing in on me.
Squinting my eyes closed tight for an instant, I shut off my brain and pull some kind of magical bullshit from my soul. I say something back to him. Words, snarky and unsweet. More words—louder—raw and unpolished. He slugs me with unprofound banter, and I slug him back, uninhibited.
"Yes! There you go, you're doing it!" Josué calls out, grinning ear to ear.
"Great," I say back, deadpan, flashing a strong, sarcastic thumbs up. I collapse into Joshua's desk chair, exhausted and content.
Joshua jogs into the room, winded, and I greet him with an eye roll and slight gesture of the head towards his roommate. His lips turn up in the corner with a sly expression of recognition.
"Sorry for the delay!" he apologizes. "Ready to go?"
I nod, hop up and wave to Josué, denying him the generosity of a spoken departure. Internally, I'm annoyed at the notion that the rigorous banter of the previous ten minutes has likely caused me to lick off all my sparkly lip gloss. You're so weird, I think to myself. Everything this month is so weird.
"Let's go to the science building. They have a better foosball table, and no one is ever in there, so we won't have to worry about it being occupied," Joshua explains.
"Sure."
As we make it through the lounge doors of Forest and into the crisp night air, I sigh audibly.
YOU ARE READING
A New Reflection
Teen FictionNatalia Stevens is smart, nice and shy-and this is exactly how everyone sees her. Even day-to-day conversations with friends and classmates are difficult, and guys certainly don't pay her any attention. During her senior year, Nati begins to notice...
