❛ one moment with you
changed everything in me. ❜
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
RONNIE SAT AT at her desk, chewing down on her pen that was placed in between her teeth as she stared at the round clock on the wall. She was supposed to be listening to her professor and taking notes for the upcoming test they had next week, but her mind continuously wandered elsewhere.
For the past week, she's been walking by the alley near the coffee shop hoping to run into the young man again. She didn't know his name or anything him but she couldn't help but worry about his well being. She wondered who was the person that roughly bruised his body and left him for dead in the blistering cold. She also wondered why he was so against her taking him to the hospital or calling the police? Was he in some kind of danger?
Ronnie's thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of someone calling her name. She blinks, bringing herself back to reality before turning her head and meeting the eyes of her best friend, Carmen who was looking at her with a concerned expression written over her face. "You okay? You seem out of it." The girl whispered lowly, stealing a glance at her friend.
Ronnie sighs as she runs her fingers through her thick hair. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's just—" She hesitates, wondering if she should tell Carmen about her concerns. She knew that her friend would probably scold her for bringing a stranger back to her apartment.
"I'm worried about someone, a friend. I haven't seen him all week and I'm starting to think that something's wrong."
Carmen's mouth hung agape and her eyes doubled in size. She let out a small shriek that caused a few of their classmates to whip their heads in her direction. Ronnie sheepishly smiled, apologizing for her friends obscure behavior. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you squealing?" Ronnie whispered lowly, trying not to disturb the others who had their eyes glued to the board.
"Because," Carmen smiled. "You have a boyfriend that you didn't tell me about!"
Ronnie's face twisted in confusion at the absurd statement. "What—boyfriend? Car, I clearly said 'friend' how could you possibly get boyfriend from that?" Carmen rolls her eyes and waves Ronnie off dismissively before curling her red coated lips into another smirk.
"Everyone knows that friend is usually the secret code for boyfriend when they want to keep the relationship lowkey. Besides, I know all your friends. The only guy friends you have are Trent and Corey. So that means you obviously met someone knew that you haven't told me about. Oh my God! Is that why you missed class last week because you were having sex—"
"No! God, Car!" Ronnie interjects, trying to hide the embarrassing blush that filled her cheeks. She couldn't believe how absurd her friend was being. Here she was genuinely expressing her concern about his well being and somehow, Carmen managed to completely misinterpret her words and assumed that her departure from last week's class was because she was having sex with him.
"What? Hey, I'm just asking. You've never missed a lecture before and now you're suddenly missing class and worrying about some guy?" Ronnie responds with a roll of her eyes. She forgot how extra her friend could be at times. Though it was true that prior to last week she's never missed a class, her voicing concerns were only about his safety not because she was secretly having sexual relations with him. She didn't even know the guys name, for Christ's sake.
"It's not like that, honestly."
Though she didn't believe her, Carmen decided to drop the topic of conversation for now as she sees that it's making her friend a little emotional. The two girls pick up their pencils and averts their attention back to the board. An hour later, the lecture was finally over. The professor released the class after giving them information about what they needed to know for the test.
