I couldn’t lie to myself and say that I wasn’t nervous to see Micah on campus today. I felt shitty ending our hang out the way that I did. Leaving with Prescott was the smartest move to make in this situation. For starters, I didn’t need Micah fighting my battles, but I also know that if Micah did anything to Prescott, he’d be just getting out from being locked up for the weekend. Prescott didn’t fight with his fists, he fought with his money.
I knew there was a big chance that if I saw Micah today, he would’ve started a fight with me about Prescott, which I hated. Not only did it take so much energy out of me, but I felt like whenever we were on good terms, we would fuck it up and start hating each other again. I didn’t like to admit it, but Micah was truly my only friend these days. I didn’t hang out with anyone else from school, and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed hanging out with Micah until I actually hung out with him outside of school. I just wanted Micah to be my friend.
I walked into the library at our usual hang out spot; the back table on the first floor closest to the big window. Micah sat in his usual spot; his laptop on top of the table and his bag on the chair next to him. I took a deep breath before entering the library, and started to walk towards Micah. He noticed me as soon as I got closer; I immediately smiled to ease into the conversation.
“Hey, Micah,” I greeted him, finally to the table.
“Hey, Roe,” Micah said back as he was typing on his laptop. He’s calling me Roe; that has to be a good sign. “Did you ever get to type up the proposal for our project?”
“Oh,” I said, sitting down at the table and placing my bag on it to take out my binder. I handed over the paper to Micah. “Hopefully it’s good enough.” Micah began to read the paper, smiling in the middle of it. “What?” I asked.
“Yo, this is really good,” Micah looked up at me. “I think this would be a great project to link art with music perfectly. How’d you come up with it?”
“I started to out it together when we were at Dani and Tanner’s place,” I said, taking the paper back from Micah. “I saw the connection while you guys were rehearsing and shit.”
“I also have a great beat to use for this experiment too,” Micah said, scrolling through his laptop. “I can play it for you after class this week if you’re not working afterwards.” I looked at Micah, trying not to give it away that I was still questioning why we aren’t talking about what happened this weekend. Micah would’ve normally said something as soon as he saw me walking toward him. I didn’t want to say anything about it; isn’t this what I wanted? For him to not care about what goes on between Prescott and I?
“Yeah no, I don’t work after our class this week,” I mentioned. “You can come to my place later that day if you don’t want to bring all of your equipment on campus.”
“You sure?” Micah asked. I nodded my head.
“Yeah, it’s nothing,” I reassured him. “I have the space, so why not?” Micah nodded his head, agreeing with my reasoning.
“So it’s a date then,” Micah teased, beginning to pack his things up. I rolled my eyes as he laughed.
“I’ll see you in class, Micah,” I said to Micah. “Remember to get my iced coffee this time; you’ve been slacking these last couple of classes.”
“It’s the middle of February, the fuck are you drinking iced coffee in the middle of winter?” Micah said as he began to walk away.
“Extra caramel swirl; please and thank you,” I shouted back, which made everyone in the library turn their head toward my direction.
…
“Rosie,” Natasha said my name as she started walking toward the register. “They want you in the back for inventory after your break later.”
“No problem,” I said, counting the Scantron test sheets at the register counter. “Is there a a lot of shit back there?”
“Just a couple of boxes of the drinks that came in on Friday,” Natasha said. I rolled my eyes; I hated dealing with the convenience stuff in the backroom. “I know, you’d think those that closed on Fridays would’ve have that done by now.”
“You said it, not me,” I said, laughing afterward. “How was your weekend though? Did anything fun?”
“I studied for my Math exam all weekend,” Natasha recalled. “If I fail this test, I could kiss this job goodbye.”
“Your parents would literally make you quit your job if you failed any classes?” I asked. “At least you’re not failing your classes and selling drugs for money or some shit.” Natasha raised her eyebrow up; she seemed confused. “At least you have a legit job is what I’m saying.”
“Exactly,” she said. “How about you? You spent the weekend with Prescott?”
“Ehh,” I said, trying to put together what I was going to say. “I went to some event with Prescott but I didn’t end up staying. I went to hang out with some friends.”
“You? Hanging out with friends?” Natasha crossed her arms, questioning me. “You don’t even like hanging out with me outside of school.”
“Well, I didn’t make plans to hang out with him,” I mentioned.
“Him?!” Natasha emphasized. “Prescott was okay with you hanging out with a guy?”
“He didn’t know I was hanging out with him, and besides; I’m allowed to have guy friends, Nat,” I said, organizing the counter.
“Does he go here?” Natasha asked, leaning over the counter. This bitch was having a field day with this shit.
“He’s in my art history class,” I mentioned. “The guy that comes in here and buys all of the energy drinks whenever we restock them?”
“The guy with the septum piercing and long hair?” Natasha asked. I nodded my head.
“Yeah, him,” I answered. I didn’t want to give his name away to Natasha; I feel like she would then begin to make it super awkward whenever he would come into the store next. “It was really nothing. We’re working on some assignment for that class and decided to work on it this past weekend.”
“Oh, well that’s boring,” Natasha said, disappointed at the outcome. She gets off the counter and backs away, sorting out the messy sweatshirts that the students did not bother to put back in place. “I thought you had like a secret fling with him or something.” I didn’t answer Natasha back as I pretended to not hear what she said. The hardest thing about being friends with Micah was that we already pushed that boundary. For fucks sake, friends aren’t supposed to know how to turn each other on and hook up.
“Nope; still very much going out with Prescott, which he’ll be picking me up from work later today,” I added, trying to convince Natasha as much as I could. Natasha rolled her eyes before walking away from the front counter. I wasn’t looking forward seeing Prescott today, but here I am; doing just that as if it’s my secret part-time job or something. It is, Rosie.
Letters From Liz. 