Urban Wolf | ✓

3 | MAKING A FRIEND

     "Sorry, I zoned out a bit," a voice from the other end finally said. I stayed quiet, chewing on my thumb's nail as I waited for him to add something. I didn't know this person, but I had a weird need to understand what he was trying to tell me last week. What had him so worked up and weird?

     "So, you called," he said, breaking the silence. I couldn't hear the barking or music anymore, so I assumed he had moved to somewhere quieter. "I thought you wouldn't," he added, making me chew on my thumb's nail.

     I thought I wouldn't too. I closed my eyes before opening them up again. "Yeah, it seems like a waste of time to state the obvious though," I said, and a chuckle rang through the receiver. I wasn't sure why, but it shook me up a bit. He had a nice laugh—clear and smooth.

     "Sorry, I'm still surprised you're calling me after..." he trailed off before sighing. "It's embarrassing, sorry," he said, referring to how he had acted that day.

     "It's okay," I said, suppressing the urge to ask him why he'd been staring at me in class days before he even did that, but I assumed we were getting to the point, so I held myself back. "Do you mind telling me what all that was about, though?" I asked. "That's why I called," I emphasized when he didn't speak up fast enough.

     "Len?" I called, testing out the name he'd typed up when he had given me his phone number. "Hello, Len?" I said it again, feeling a bit weird about how excited I was to say his name.

     "Yeah, so, for the most part, I just wanted to make sure I knew you from class," he said, and I frowned.

     "That's it?" I asked, pressing him. That was the worst put together lie I'd heard in a long time, and that was saying something since I had people that didn't put effort into their fabrications lie to me a lot. Maybe he didn't want to tell me what he'd been making a big deal about? "You were going on about wolves and pheromones. How did that have anything to do with me and us having classes together?"

     "I—"

     There was nothing after that, just a pause on the other end before a sigh. Len was probably trying to think up a more believable lie. I started laughing. I couldn't help it. I just couldn't handle being told bullshit.

     "Hey, will you ever tell me what all that was about?" I asked, getting out of my bed and heading to stand by the small window. The view was boring—just white snow and empty streets. The campus was tame, the wild stuff happened downtown and off-campus main city. Sometimes some floors in my dorms had parties, but I hadn't become friends with anyone in the building—I hadn't even talked to my floormates, not to talk of people on other floors.

     "Hmm?" I said into the receiver, waiting for Len to say something as I traced the frosting on my window. The glass felt cool, and I reminded myself to turn up the heater before I went to bed.

     "I—how did you know?" he asked in a soft voice, and I chuckled, shrugging as I licked my lips.

     "You're not very good at lying," I said, putting my phone between my shoulder and cheek as I walked away from the window and headed to my small desk to flip through my assignment sheets.

     "Okay, I'm still not sure I can tell you what that was about," Len said. "Well, I'm not sure you need to know either. You can pretend I never said anything..." he trailed off. The other end went quiet again, and I was starting to feel a bit impatient. I wondered if I should hang up, but something in me didn't want to. Len had his dumb words from the other day were still stuck in my head, and I didn't want our correspondence to end here.

     "We have a few classes together," I said, changing the conversation since he didn't seem to want to talk about what had happened the other day. "Creative writing, a math class, and one of our architecture prerequisites," I added. He already knew that. I just brought it up to keep the conversation going. I stopped looking through my drawings as a small frown formed on my face.

     "Are you okay?" I asked, holding my phone properly before heading back to sit on my bed. I should be asleep now. I had track practice early the next morning. Another thing I had to do for scholarships. Lots of people took out loans or asked their parents for money. I didn't want to take any loans because I knew I'd be stuck paying them forever when I graduated, and I didn't have any parents to ask for help, seeing as I got shuffled out of the foster care system immediately I turned eighteen.

     "I'm alright," Len said from the other end. I heard the crunching of snow after that. "I'm just heading home now. I went out for some Pizza," he said, and I smiled. He must have realized I was trying to keep the conversation going.

     "Have you done your assignment?" I asked. "You know they're due on Friday, right?" I added when Len didn't say anything.

     "Wait, really?" he seemed shocked. I laughed, muttering a 'yeah' as I rested on my bed.

     "Holy shit," he groaned as the sound of music blared through the receiver. He was probably walking past a bar. I wondered if he was one of those kids that partied all day. From all the sounds I was picking up and the information he gave me it seemed like it.

     I kept laughing. "You haven't started?" Unbelievable. 

     "I have. I just haven't finished," he replied.

     stared out into my room for a while, wondering if I should say what I wanted to say next. Since I got to this university it's been practicing, studying, practicing. I hadn't made any friends, and I was starting to feel a bit lonely if I was being honest. I stayed away from my other teammates because of the jokes they made in the locker room. If they knew I was gay they would freak out. I didn't think Len would freak out about that if we became friends. If anything, I had a feeling he was also gay—or at least attracted to me in some way. It was hard to miss from the way his face got red when I caught him staring in class.

     Too bad he isn't my type.

     Are you really this lonely? A voice said in my head, scolding me for even considering befriending someone that had stalked me for the past two weeks.

     Yeah. Was what my mind came up with in response. I took a deep breath as I traced invisible lines on my pillow.

     My lips parted, and the words came out before I could make myself see a reason not to, "Do you want to work on your assignment with me?"

     "I—" There was a pause on the other end. "Sure?" Len's reply came off like he wasn't sure of what he was saying, but I took that as a yes. 

     "Okay, we can meet in the library tomorrow. I like to seat at the far back. You should be able to spot me. I have the ancient MacBook laptop and the baggy winter jacket. Len burst out laughing, and I felt a sort of victory at making him laugh. 

     "Okay, see you then," he said. You don't talk a lot, huh? I wanted to say, but I told him 'goodnight' instead, before listening to the tone that was left after he hung up. I scolded myself when I realized I had just been staring at my phone before putting it away and crawling under the covers.  

     Tomorrow then. I said in my head as my eyes closed. That night I thought of Len, and the image of him just sitting and staring remained in my mind even after I woke up.