Whenever You Remember

Chapter 2

Gavin tried to give me a sympathetic smile, but it almost came across short, "I know what you mean."

"You do?"

"Yeah," he began. I was beginning to think he was going to tell me about how he left his family to go to college, and how he rarely went back, and how he felt uncomfortable and out of place when he went to visit them. He continued by saying "Whenever I stop playing baseball for a long time, it always takes me a little bit before I can get back into the groove again."

Well, not quite.

Internally, I sighed. I guess he did understand what I was saying, but in his own weird and boyish way.

"I'm so glad you understand," But I really felt differently. Guys aren't very good at connecting the dots. Oh well, I guess it's the thought that counts.

Gavin gave me one of those crooked half smiles that guys always do, "Hey do you maybe want to grab some coffee after work or something?" He asked me smoothly while his arm rested on the file cabinet.

I continued to file the papers, which were at a rather inconvenient height for my shorter frame. "I'm sorry, I can't. I have to head out right after work to leave for Massachusetts."

"Oh okay, we can just do it next week. No big deal," Gavin shrugged it off as I continued to file.

"Yeah, that works," I said nonchalantly while shoving yet more papers into the cabinet that I was growing to hate.

"Alright, well I've got some meetings so I'll see ya round." Gavin nodded at me before leaving.

I flashed him a smile, "See ya." He returned my smile.

I exhaled upward to blow any dangling curls out of my face. Time to give all my focus to this stack of papers so I could get out of here and enter a new kind of hell.

*****

"Elise, seriously. Pick up the pace. Our flight leaves from JFK in like, two and a half hours! We have to get a taxi and make it all the way there. And it's five thirty right now! We are going to miss our flight and if we do, my mother will have my head!" I shouted while tapping my foot impatiently against the floor.

Yeah, we were flying to Boston and then Mom would pick us up there and take us to my house. It's really not an awful drive, about eight or nine hours, but since we were guests at a wedding and she was so excited to see me (and meet Elise) that she insisted on paying for us to fly. Plus, leaving New York City at five o'clock on a Friday is basically a wish for a waste of time granted.

"Stop rushing me, Sophia!" Elise put extra emphasis on my name when she burst into the room with her small, carry on suitcase beside her and her hair perfectly straightened. Of course, her little suitcase was turquoise with pink sequence flowers. Why don't her eccentric features even surprise me anymore? "You're staring into space again." She snapped her fingers in front of my eyes and giggled childishly at my reaction before resuming her frantic appearance. "Oh god, we're going to be late! Go go go!" Elise was practically shoving me out of our apartment, so fast that I didn't even have time to double check my mental check list.

Elise is more prone to lateness than anyone I have ever met in my whole twenty two years of existence. I've actually considered setting all the clocks in our apartment forty five minutes behind so that way she will actually be on time for once. But I, unfortunately, haven't gotten around to that.

I'm freakishly punctual (a delightful OCD tendency of mine) which helps counterbalance Elise's extreme lateness. We really are the perfect roommates, because we fill in for whatever the other lacks. She's the straw to my berry, the ying to my yang. The core to my apple. In a straight way, of course.