Lost in the Shadows

12

Once I woke up in the morning to the sound of my alarm clock, I couldn't think straight. Was last night real or was I dreaming? As I got ready for class I remembered that I have a test today so I decided to dress down. Some people swear that they perform better when they dress up for test, maybe because they like to dress for success. I'm not sure. I on the other hand dress for comfort, when I'm taking a test I like to be able to move around easily and my outfit goes well with my stress. With that said I decided on a large long sleeve t shirt with a Georgia Peach on the back and legging.

As I walked out of the apartment complex I was greeted by a familiar curly haired boy. "I thought it would be nice for me to walk you to class," he laughed as he walked to meet me.

"How did you know what time my class was?" I asked.

"You told me." Did I? "So what are you doing later?" He asked.

"Not sure. What about you?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to come over to my place later. I can make dinner or something and I have a heated pool if you want to come over."

His offer shocked me. He wants to make dinner? When did he become sweet, it's like he made a 360. Just last week he was rude and made me turn around and head back home after walking over half way to his house. "Are you sure?" I asked thinking that maybe it was a joke or he's pulling my leg.

"Yeah, what do you like to eat?"

"Anything," I told him without caring what I eat tonight, everything sounds good. And it's hard to have a nice home cooked dinner in college whenever you're broke and don't know how to cook.

Wes walked me all the way to the school. We talked about the weather and the tall building, he even gave me a short history lesson on a couple of roads we passed. We didn't talk about last night though, but I think he realized my mind doesn't work well in the morning. It takes me a couple hours to gain the ability to have an actual conversation, maybe even longer when I run out of coffee.

Before stepping foot on campus he said goodbye and that he would text me later. I nodded and headed to the door. I went to open the front door when Charlie came up behind me. "Why were you with that guy?" He asked me with a hint of anger, at first I was confused as to why his tone was aggressive, but then I remembered we did kiss a few days ago. Which I felt guilty in forgetting, but the only thing that's been on my mind has been Wes and how nice he treated me last night.

"He just walked me to class," I told him, but he wasn't amused.

"Did you tell him you kissed me? Does he know that you and me are kinda a thing?" He asked struggling to get his words out. But who says that? And who said we were kinda a thing? Don't people kiss each other all the time?

"Charlie, it was one kiss. We're not a "thing"," I said to him putting air quotations around thing. I continued to walk through the door, because I like to be at least 10 minutes early to class, especially on test days. It's a ritual really, I sit down get all of my stuff out and try to calm my nerves before being handed a test.

Charlie followed me but didn't say a word until I got to the door of the classroom. "So what, you just played me or was I just a ploy to make that weird guy jealous."

I didn't like the way he said he was a ploy to make Wes jealous, it wasn't like I was playing chess and thought out this big plot to get back at Wes, it just happened to turned out that way. Also, Charlie calling Wes the weird guy was amusing, since Wes was far from weird, yeah he's closed off and wears black all the time, and doesn't really speak to many people, but that's not weird, right? Mysterious maybe but not weird.

"You weren't a ploy to make Wes jealous," I told him trying to make him feel better about himself. One of the things I had always admired about Charlie was his self confidence. And if I had any feelings for Charlie what's so ever, this would surely be a turn off.