don't call me that

1: Meeting

"Hey, Blue? Let's go out for pizza."

I painstakingly typed my name at the top of a blank word document: Indigo Parker. The only thing I was sure of on this blank slate of ideas.

"I can't," I sighed. "I have to finish this entire paper for class tomorrow."

"You can't take a little break? For pizza?!"

"Jaaaade," I whined. "I have ten pages to do in a few hours, I can hardly take a break to pee."

"What am I supposed to do?" My curly-headed roommate Jade flopped back against the couch.

"Why don't you call Evan?" I asked, turning in my chair. "Remember? Your boyfriend?"

Jade glanced at me, forced a smile. "Evan," she repeated. "Right. I guess..."

We sat in silence for a moment. Then, at the same time:

"Not even pizza?!"

"Call him!"

In the next half hour, Jade disappeared to meet Evan at the pizza place down the street. Finally left in silence, I pressed my lips together and hovered my fingers over the keys of my laptop.

A few feeble plots floated through my head, disappearing as fast as they arrived. Two smoothies and a piece of cheese later, I gave up and called Jade.

"No ideas. None!" I cried into the phone, slamming my laptop shut. "I'm not going to have anything to hand in to Mr. Smith tomorrow, and fail creative writing."

"Blue, calm down," Jade said evenly. "You've come up with a hundred stories for this guy before, right? What's one more?"

"That's the problem," I said, resigned. "I have no more ideas left."

Suddenly, I heard Evan's voice. "Hi Blue!"

Deep breath. "Don't call me-you know what? Hi, Evan."

"So you need an idea for Smith?"

"Yeah." Evan was an undecided major at uni with Jade and I, but he was in Mr. Smith's creative writing class with me.

He and I chatted for a few minutes, and by the end of our conversation, I had a greater idea of a piece for our class. Then, Jade pulled the phone back from him.

"That's enough out of you," I heard her say. "Got an idea now?"

"Yeah, your idiot was surprisingly helpful," I replied, re-opening my laptop. "You gonna be home tonight?"

"Um..." Jade paused, and I heard the low hum of Evan's voice in the background. "I'll be at Evans tonight, apparently."

"Do you want to be at Evans tonight?" I asked slowly.

"Sure," Jade said quickly, and I heard Evans voice again. "Yeah, of course I do."

"Okay..." Jade and Evan were a little wobbly. He tended to pull guilt trips that got him his way, and she tended to let him. Since it wasn't my place to tell her to dump his sorry ass, I didn't. But I did think it a few times.

"I'll be by in the morning to get dressed and we can go to school, okay?"

"Okay. See you tomorrow, Jadey," I said, holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder and beginning to type. "Sleep tight!"

"Love you Blue."

"You too!" I hung up and tossed my phone onto my cluttered desk. Then, with fresh mojo, I began to write.

---

The next morning, I woke up, made a chai latte in my travel mug, and pulled on a sweater and jeans that appeared first to my bleary morning eyes. I responded to my mums text and threw a few things into my purse just as Jade walked in the apartment door.