Chapter 20:
"It's been a week!" Ryan yelled as he barged into my room and slammed the door shut, throwing himself on Cassidy's vacant bed.
"What has?" I asked him, not looking up from my laptop where I was writing a report I had procrastinated on.
"Since I've seen Abigail! Okay, well I've seen her since then, but I haven't hung out with her!"
I finished up my sentence I was writing before looking at the poor, whipped Ryan.
"Why don't you call her?" I asked him.
He gave me a look, "You don't think I have? She always has some reason why she can't talk, or some reason why she can't hang out!"
"Ryan," I sighed, shutting my laptop, "I really don't know what to tell you."
"Call her," he said.
"Excuse me?"
What was that going to accomplish?
"Call her! See if she'll talk to you! See if she wants to hang out!"' he practically begged.
"I don't know Ryan, we're really not friends. I mean I only talk to her because you're dating her."
He grinned, "And that's why you two should get together to hang out! Get to know each other!"
"Ryan!" I said, exasperated, "Why do I have to be involved in your love life?"
"Pleasseeeeeee Monica? It would mean everything to me!" he begged.
I hesitated for a moment. I really didn't want to do this, but Ryan was my best friend. He would probably do it for me.
"Okay... fine, Ryan. But don't ask me for anymore favors for a while."
He was grinning as I was talking, before jumping up and grabbing me.
"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" he said, swinging me around in circles until I was dizzy.
"Ryan!" I cried, "You're going to make me puke!"
He promptly set me down before grabbing my cell off my nightstand.
"Here you go," he said, handing it to me.
I sighed as I grabbed it, pulling up my contacts. Abigail was at the beginning.
"You owe me," I mouthed to Ryan as I clicked call and it started dialing her number.
He nodded excitedly.
"Hello?" Abigail's voice asked on the other side.
"Abigail! Hey," I said.
"Monica? Is that you?" she asked.
"Mhmm. You know, I was thinking. We never really hang out, and since your dating my best friend, I figured we should get to know each other better."
"Oh umm... okay. Yeah, sure." She said, hesitating.
"So, you want to get together for lunch tomorrow?" I asked her, smiling at Ryan who was practically jumping with excitement.
"You know, I really can't. I umm... am going to be... I mean, I have somewhere that I have to be tomorrow. So it's not a good day for me," Abigail replied. She sounded kind of nervous.
"Oh alright. Well how about on Sunday then? We could have lunch at Harmony's." I asked.
I heard shuffling on the other side before she replied.
"Sure, Monica. That should work."
"Great, Abigail! Well I'll see you then! Does 1 sound good?" I asked.
"That's great."
"Alright, bye Abigail!"
I hung up the phone and set it on my nightstand before looking at Ryan.
"Well?" he asked.
"We're having lunch on Sunday," I told him.
"Why not tomorrow like you asked?"
I shrugged, "She said she had somewhere to be."
Ryan didn't reply for a minute, he just sat there thinking before saying,
"I'm going to follow her."
I spun around from where I was cleaning off my dresser.
"What?" I asked him incredulously.
"I said that I'm going to follow her."
"Why?" I asked him. 'He's a psycho,' my mind responded.
"I want to know what she's hiding from me!" he declared, "She's been acting so strange!"
"Are you nuts?" I asked him, "If she finds out you followed her she'll never want to talk to you again!"
"I need to know! It's killing me!" he said, falling onto my bed.
"Fine, do whatever you want," I said, "But leave me out. I want to pretend I don't know anything about it."
He gave me a look, "I was kind of hoping you would come with me."
Is he serious?
"No," I said, shaking my head, "Absolutely not. No way."
"Come on, Monica. Please? It'll be fun! It'll be like we're spies!" he reasoned.
"No. No. No. No. NO!"
"Please? Pretty please with artificial cherries on top?" he begged.
"NO RYAN!"
After 20 minutes of begging, I finally agreed. Against my wish.
"I hate you," I told Ryan. It was the next day, and we were parked outside Abigail's little apartment 20 minutes away from campus. We had been sitting there for two hours, just waiting for her to come out so we could follow her.
"No you don't. You know you love me," Ryan said, crunching on Funyuns.
I made a face of disgust.
"Those are the nastiest things ever. And you are stinking up my car."
"I'm sorry," Ryan muttered, continuing to eat them.
"Ew put them away, Ryan!" I cried.
"Why?" he asked in fake shock, "These are the most delicious snack they make. Here, try one," he said, cramming one towards my face.
"Stop, you Butt!" I said, punching his arm.
"Ow! You bully!" he groaned, rubbing his arm.
"Give me that!" I cried, grabbing the Funyuns out of his hand and rolling down the window. I dumped them into the bush I was parked next to.
Ryan gasped. "Why would you do such a thing?" he asked me.
"Because those are the nastiest things. And they're full of crap and not good for you," I told him.
"Well fine," Ryan said, crossing his arms and looking out his window.
We sat there ten minutes in quiet before Abigail stepped out of the door to her apartment, pulling it shut behind her. She then proceeded to head towards her car.
"Look, Ryan. There she is."
"Okay," he said, crouching so she wouldn't see us, "Let her pull out of the parking lot before we follow her. We don't want her to get suspicious."
She backed out of the space and headed out of the parking lot, us about 50 feet behind her.
"I'm nervous," Ryan complained.
"Don't be," I said, taking the turn Abigail had taken a minute before.
"What if she's cheating me?" he asked, ripping Tootsie Pops out of my glove compartment.
"Probably not," I replied.
We followed Abigail for about fifteen minutes before she pulled up to some office buildings. She parked and got out of her car, and we parked about ten spaces away. We climbed out quietly and started walking after her. Right before she pulled the door open, she turned around, scanning the parking lot.
"Duck!" Ryan whisper/yelled, pulling me down behind a bush.
"Did she see us?" I asked, out of breath. This was kind of exhilarating, I'm not going to lie.
"I don't think so," he replied, pulling me up.
"Okay, lets go," I said.
We walked towards the door she went in, slowly so that we could make sure she would see us.
We approached the big door. It wasn't glass, so we couldn't see through it. But written on it in big letters said:
Elmer Dudd PhD
Pulmonologist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryan laughed, "Haha! His name is Elmer Dudd! Like Elmer Fudd! That's funny!" He turned to me and saw my shocked face.
"What?" he asked.
I blinked, taking it in.
Ryan grabbed my arm.
"Monica, what is it?" he asked me.
I turned slowly to him.
"A Pulmonologist is a doctor who specifies in lung diseases."