College Fund

//I Object//

I walked into Margaux's kitchen after my appointment. I hadn't had time to eat breakfast before I'd left and I was starving.

"Oh Cassidy." Margaux's mom entered the kitchen, laundry basket balanced on her hip. "You left your cellphone here and someone called you a little while ago."

That's weird. I couldn't think of anyone who would have tried to call me. Maybe Eric was wondering if I had made up my mind from last night? I wasn't sure, but I shrugged it off, figuring it was no big deal. "Thanks for letting me know. I'll go see if whoever it was left a message."

With that, I made my way to the room Margaux, Bria and I stayed in and spied my phone lying on the bedside table, still plugged in where I left it to charge last night. When I turned it on I immediately noticed the missed call notification from an unknown number and the fact that I had no other messages. Wow, wasn't I popular? Hard to believe that Eric's little nickname for me had been derived from the term Social Butterfly. If only he was here to see me now.

As I unlocked my phone and scrolled through it I noticed that whoever it was that had called me hadn't bothered to leave a message. It was probably a wrong number, I concluded. Unconcerned, I decided it was time to take a nap and catch up on the sleep I missed by being forced out of bed so early in the morning. I was just getting comfortable back in my bed when Sage walked in, rather loudly I might add.

"Oh good, you're not napping yet!" She declared as made her entrance. I rolled over to glare at her, but my glare quickly turned to a look of confusion at the whiteboard in her hand.

I gestured to it. "What is that?"

"This? Oh, it's a just a little something I like to call 'Reasons Why Cric is Meant to Be'!" Sage announced dramatically while turning the whiteboard around. The title that she had just read aloud was written at the top in blue bubble letters. It was followed by a bunch of point form scribbles that I couldn't read from the comfortable location of my bed.

"What does Cric even mean?" I mumbled. "Do I want to know?"

"It's Cassidy and Eric, duh." She rolled her eyes. "Haven't you ever come up with ship names before?"

I thought back to when I combined Bria and Will's names to make Brill. That was a good one; I was proud of that. "Of course I've made ship names before, but is it really necessary for Eric and I to have one? Cric sounds so stupid."

"Of course it's necessary! And it was either Cric or Erassidy, and I picked Cric. It's not my fault you guys have the hardest names to combine, geez."

I rolled my eyes. Sage was irritating, but I was curious about this list she had. "Alright, what do you have scribbled on that board?"

Sage cleared her throat. "Reason number one: you make each other smile."

"We do not make each other smile. I smile because whenever I'm around him I'm also around my friends, and my friends make me smile. Not him."

"Oh Cassidy, give it up. We all know he makes you smile. Moving along. Reason number two: he's willing to make sacrifices to make you happy. He drove you to the hospital and he flew all the way here to see you."

I stayed silent. Everything she said was true.

"Reason three: you promote each other to do your best and accomplish your goals. Like, when you convinced Eric to get back into acting and he managed to get you to agree to go on the bus to see the Eiffel Tower," Sage continued.

Again, I remained silent. Also true.

"Reason number four: Eric is super compassionate and is basically willing to do whatever you want him to. He was willing to just stay friends with you if you weren't ready for a relationship and he's a really good listener."

I bit my lip. What was I supposed to say to that?

"Reason five: I was forced to give Margaux ten bucks this morning, and you know what that means? It means you and Eric kissed last night! And that also means you both like each other. That's reason number six: you guys are in love with each other.

"I wouldn't say we're in love-"

"Don't deny it." Sage held up her hand to silence me. "And that brings us to number seven, my personal favourite: you guys have a really cute height difference! He's like, the perfect height for you."

"I object!" I stood up from the bed suddenly. "What do our heights have to do with us being 'Meant to Be'?" I put air quotes around the title of Sage's little list.

"It means you'll look super cute in your wedding photos, duh." Sage rolled her eyes. "I think we're done here. And don't be a lawyer, by the way. You'd never win a case; you're not very convincing." She tucked her whiteboard back under her arm and left the room.

I sat back down on my bed and sighed. Oh Sage. She might try to play match maker, but it wasn't going to work on me. I had seen the effects of a relationship firsthand in Margaux's little drama last night, and I had thought her relationship with Spencer was perfect. So how would things end with Eric and I when we were both already imperfect?

Definitely not very well.

Just as I was starting to get lost in my thoughts as I often do, my cellphone rang. Caller ID told me it was the same unknown number that had called me before. I decided it would probably be a good idea to pick up, considering this was the second time they had called this morning.

"Hello?"

"Hello," a male voice on the other line replied. "Is this Cassidy Clark?"

"Yes it is."

"Good morning, Cassidy. I'm calling from the Bank of Montreal about some recent withdrawals from your account."

My heart rate quickened. "Is somebody using my card to buy illegal fur or something?"

The guy chuckled on the other end; I don't know why, illegal fur trade was no laughing matter. Neither was the fear of my card being stolen. "No, nothing to do with fur. However, we have noticed that rather large sums of money are being withdrawn from your account to pay a cellphone bill, and we were wondering if you were aware of that."

"Oh, yes, of course. I had to change my plan to be international so that I could use my phone while I travelled through Europe." I relaxed when I realized it was nothing serious.

"I'm glad to hear that. Now I'm not sure what your source of income is at the moment, but I would recommend that you deposit some money in your account fairly soon. At the rate you are spending right now, your account will be depleted in a little under a year."

My heart sank. In under a year, the sum of money I had spent my entire teen years saving would be completely gone. And it wouldn't have been spent on an education I would have for my entire life. No, instead I had thrown it out on plane tickets, dinners out and a cellphone plan. What had I done?

What would my mom say if she saw me?

"Yes, I'll get on that. Thank you for calling," I forced out weakly.

"Any time. Have a great day, Cassidy, and thank you for choosing BMO." A click was heard as the unknown bank worker hung up, but I couldn't put the phone down. I just let the dull beep of the dead phone line carry my thoughts.