priorities-2

9

Carrie and I eagerly drive in together for our first day of University. She finishestwo hours later then me, but I'm sure I'll find something to do while she's in class.We park in one of the last spots, ridiculously far from the buildings. It's hard tobelieve they can charge so much for parking when it's this inconvenient. We carry ourlaptops in our backpacks, "We have half an hour before school starts, you want to go tothe bookstore and pick up our books?" I suggest."Sure," she agrees. We enter the main building and follow the signs for thebookstore. The entire place is a buzz, students rushing everywhere to get to class,professors dressed nicely walking with an air of sophistication, I can smell the literacyoff the walls! 

We arrive at the bookstore to be faced with a huge, line. Did I say huge line, I meanunimaginably huge, "We don't have time for this," I tell her. "Give me your list and I'llcome back later for our books.""Are you sure," Carrie asks gratefully."Positive, I have two hours to kill anyway," I tell her. Today's classes can constitutemy electives to get into the pharmaceutical program so I don't worry about dropping orchanging today's courses. I don't bother with the registrar's office if the bookstore is anyindication of how busy it will be.I attend my two classes, each two hours long and then reattempt the bookstore. Theline seems to have increased rather than decreased. Resigned to getting it over with, Iwork diligently through both our lists, before finding my place in line. Two hours later,there are five people ahead of me when I spot Carrie looking for me in the store, "Overhere!" I wave.She smiles and joins me in line, "Did you come right after class?" She asks."Yup!""And you wanted to go to the registrars office?" she chuckles. "You thought thewalk to the car was long!""Move up," orders the guy behind us.We both look at him, "Rude," I say under my breath.

He hears me, "Sorry, I'm just tired of being in line and my girlfriend just texted abreak-up."Carrie who is too forgiving says, "Oh that sucks," to him.He shows us his phone:

Ashley: Ted? 

Ted: Hi 

Ashley: Hi, I tried in person, but I just can't do us anymore.

 Ted: What do you mean?

 Ashley: I'm breaking up with you. 

I gasp, "That's so nasty, but at least you didn't walk in on her when she was withanother guy, which pretty much happened to me, I went to visit my husband and he waswith another girl who looked like me." I divulge information to a complete stranger in alineup at the bookstore..,liberating."And she, this is Mya by the way, was in love with him," Carrie adds to the drama."My name is Carrie." 

"Okay, you don't have to go on about it," I tell her."And you were carrying his baby," she continues."You look to young to be a mother," Ted comments."She lost the baby," Carrie speaks for me.I laugh at the ridiculousness of the conversation, "Can we go back to not knowingeach other?""Impossible," Ted says."Right!" Carrie says,

 "You're our new friend. Why don't you come to dinner and I'lltell you how I fired my future fiance, it sounds like a book!"

"There you go, a new story idea! Write the Carrie/Hunter love story, and get itpublished by a different publisher, and a different editor, I hope it flies off the shelves, itwill show Hunter you can do it without him!"Carrie considers it, "I might as well, since I got fired from writing the rest of thetrilogy," Carrie decides. "Sure! Why not!""She's a published author," I tell Ted."That explains it," he says like nothing in this conversation can shock him

Carrie gives him our number and address. The dinner date is on. Before we know it, it's our turn to check out. Time goes by so fast when you'redistracted. We get walloped with a two-thousand dollar bill, nice way to start off theyear. I'm more relieved than ever that I picked a high paying profession, I'm going toneed it to pay off the student loans.We lug our books to the front of the building, and I volunteer to walk the fortymiles to get our car, that I almost forgot where we parked. By the time I return, it'sstarting to get dark out. We have to rush home and make dinner for our new companion.Carrie and I work together in perfect harmony, we're finishing off when we hearthe buzzer. We allow him entry and wait for his knock. "Hi Ted!" I greet answering thedoor. He's changed into different clothes and he's come with a bottle of wine. We havetwo leftover bottles ourselves so it should make for a fun night!"Hi," he smiles. He follows us into the kitchen, "You guys really made me feelbetter today," he says.

Right!" Mya agrees. "Did you hear back from what's her name since we left you?""No, do you think she'll text me?" He asks innocently."Probably not," I say not meaning to get his hopes up."How long did you go out with her," Carrie asks stirring the sauce."A few months. We hooked up at our high school graduation, I liked her for a longtime, just didn't have the nerve to approach her.

Too bad you did." I say. "But what's come from it, you've seen her true colours,and pretty shades they are NOT!" I choose the bright side."True," he says. I take his wine and pour three very tall glasses, handing him one."What are you taking in school?" asks Carrie."I'm thinking of business, probably an MBA in Economics, how about you guys?"he asks.Carrie strains the water from the pasta, "I'm going into physiotherapy and she'spharmacology.

"That's great," he says encouragingly. We sit at the six-seater table across fromeach other. Whenever I look at this table I think of when we first all hung out togetherand it was Landon, John, Jake, Leonardo, Me, and Carrie. Now we're lucky if four chairsare taken. Life changes so much in so very little time.

I finish my wine kind of quickly and pour the rest of the almost empty bottle in myglass. Both of them look at me, "We've got more," I reassure."Can I crash tonight?" He says referring to the amount he can drink."If you don't mind the sofa, it's only a pull out but it doesn't have any brokenwires," Carrie offers."It's cool," he shrugs, finishing his glass off. He nods asking to get more wine."In the fridge," I tell him. He gets up and helps himself to our fridge bringing bothopened bottles to the table."Thanks," Carrie says topping up their glasses."I know this is crazy forward, and I just met you but if you're looking for a thirdflatmate let me know, I can help out with the rent. We could get a bigger place, be likethe t.v. show with the sassy brunette and the dumb blond."I know that show! I think my grandmother used to watch it," I say excited."Let's get through dinner first before we make life altering decisions, but we dokind of need a bigger place," Carrie says."I need a job," I say, "It's bad enough Carrie's paying for almost everything. A twoor three bedroom will be more expensive than what we're already paying."I don't mind paying a bit extra until you find something," Ted suggests, "I need toget away from my parents.""Between the three of us, we should be able to find something bigger," I suggest."You look for a job, we'll find a bigger place," Carrie suggests."They're always hiring where I work," Ted offers."Where do you work?" I ask."The Toronto Sports Centre."I never thought of a job like that, "Do you get to see all the hockey games?""And concerts!" Ted brags. "You never have to pay for another venue!""You so have to get us hired there." I plead."It's amazing, last year I got to see Toronto lose a seventh game play-off againstBoston: the biggest hockey game ever, and Slasher live in concert, if you calculate howmuch each ticket cost, it's like I'm working for mega-bucks.""Great! Let's apply after dinner," I say enthusiastically."Before or after we finish our wine," Carrie reminds me. "I want to work there too; Iwant a regular income.

What about writing?" I ask Carrie."I can do that during my free time if I have any, we're going to need me to make aregular income. I don't want handouts."I look at Ted, "Maybe tomorrow morning we'll do it."He chuckles, "Sounds like a plan," he sweeps the sauce up with a dinner roll."Dinner was great." he compliments.The dishes are a group effort before we settle down in front of the television tostream a movie. We finish off the wine and eventually call it a night.