The Story Doesn't End With the Book

The "support group" and real friendships

Asher, September 2020

It looks like a support group. The way she's set it up, four camping chairs placed in a circle. I'm not questioning her, but it makes me wonder why she's invited me here.

Maryn spots me. She's talking to a shorter girl with dark hair.

"Asher! I'm sorry, this is probably confusing, but I wanted to explain everything to you guys all at once. This is my friend from elementary school, River. River, this is Asher, I met him over the summer."

"Oh, so you're that guy." The girl named River looks at me, her face in a smirk. I realize she's waiting for me to say something.

"Um, yeah, I'm a guy." I say expertly. Really smooth, Asher. Top marks in Awkward Conversations. 

River laughs, and sits down in one of the chairs, her intimidating stare softened for the time being. 

Maryn looks over at me, and I expect her to explain her friend's remark, but instead she just smirks at me too, and sits beside her friend, resuming their conversation.

Great. Now I'm standing here, doing nothing.

"Don't be an idiot, sit down." Maryn gestures to one of the chairs she's set out in her garage. I sit down, shaking my head, and look around. There are a few bikes, and a bunch of camping things. Various other items are strewn on the sides. Not the ideal place for a gathering in this chilly weather, but, like usual, Covid prevents us from doing anything fun.

"We're waiting on one more. She should be here soon- oh! There's Ayla."

Another girl steps into the garage. I notice a book in her hand. No, a notebook. A sketchbook? I don't know. She smiles shyly and waves at Maryn. I guess Maryn knows everyone here, but we don't know each other. That would make sense.

"Hi Ayla! You can pick a chair. Sorry, it's not that nice, but it was the best I could do. This is Asher," she waves her hand in my direction, "and River."

"Hi." I say, with a small wave. 

Ayla nods, "Hi. I suppose neither of you know what we're doing here?"

She's very observant. Somehow she deducted that from our faces. I kick my foot along the floor, brushing some dust from the concrete.

"Yeah, that's it. Thank Maryn, she's always being mysterious." I say with a teasing frown.

"Hmm." She sits down and rubs her hands together. "So you guys don't know each other?" Ayla looks at me and then River.

River looks up from her phone and shakes her head. "Nope, just met him a minute ago. He's said about two sentences."

Maryn hits her friend on the shoulder. "It's not his fault. You are kind of intimidating at first glance."

I take the opportunity and defend myself. "Two things. First of all, you aren't intimidating, second of all, I was just trying to spare you, sometimes I blind people with my awesomeness."

River narrows her eyes at me, "Doubt it. You're more boring than an unsalted pretzel."

I smile at her. "We'll just have to see about that."

Maryn's looking at me, assessing my reaction to her best friend. I shrug my shoulders. 

River gets up, takes the extra chair, and proceeds to use it as a footrest. "So. You gonna tell us why we're here, or what?"

"Yes, I was getting to that. Give me a second to breathe. Okay. I have this project for English, I have to choose an experience that changed your life, and interview people about it. I chose Covid. So I decided to ask you guys, taking a variety of people, some new friends and some old ones."