The Quad

Heading to the hall, his steps crunch leaves that were at one point healthy. Covered by clouds, the sun cannot touch the grass of the quad. A lone chick leans against the lightly foliaged tree not too far from the little hall. He sees her. His calculus class begins in five quick minutes, but he can spare time. He veers off course to voyage toward the uncharted veridian island.

"How are y-" he says before his mouth is brought to silence.

"Why didn't you call me this morning?" she says, the tone in her words too strained to hide her pain. Her arms crossed over the other, and she creased her eyebrows. Still leaning against the tree, she tried to find a tree ridge that would scratch an itch on her back.

He carried a brown leather laptop bag in with stately bearing. He felt. He felt something. He felt some compassion for his lover.

"I sent you a text message about me being in class all morning, amor," he says with tongue pushed forward on his tees and dees. His accent had the attributes of the speed of his native New York and the spice of having grown up in a Hispanic household.

"Don't amor me!" she says as she pushes herself forward away from the bark of the tree with pruned branches. Each of her feet stands firmly in this patch of dusty topsoil on the university's quad, making her seem fixed like an Egyptian temple statue of Isis.

A big storm cloud passes over the sun, a blanket with no clear boundaries.

"I asked you to do a simple thing. I wanted to hear your voice," she says.

He wanted to smirk, but knew better than to make known even a smattering of contempt. The right corner of his mouth twitched as he tried to suppress that sign of contempt.

"Well-well, I don't think it's that serious," he says, shifting his weight between his legs with sheepish awkwardness.

"You're right. It's not that serious. I'm wasting my time." She turns around to face the far side of the green square, and she begins walking toward a group of girls sitting in the grass sharing tales that incite laugher.

"I'm sorry!" he says.

Without turning to face him, she raises a middle finger and keeps on walking.