The week approaching fall break was exceptionally busy. Kristen didn’t see Emily again until Friday except in passing and in the class they shared. Even Alessandra, who she shared a room with, had become somewhat of a stranger. Finally, she, Allie, and Emily were able to sit down and talk. Kristen was especially glad of this as Lewis was arriving that evening, and she desperately needed to calm down and get her mind off it.
The three of them were sitting in a circle on Emily’s bed – Cassidy had gone home for the weekend – complaining overdramatically about the amount of work they’d done that week, and emphasizing their shock that they’d already reached midterms. It would be Thanksgiving break in no time, yet it felt like they’d just arrived.
Suddenly, Kristen stopped talking, mid-complaint, and grinned at Emily with this sneaky look in her eye.
“What?” she asked, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear self-consciously.
“You never told me about last weekend, missy. You and your little soul mate, Aiden.”
Alessandra looked up, halfway through tying her hair back into the stump of a ponytail she could now manage.
“He’s not my soul mate,” Emily mumbled, but she was beet red already, and probably cursing the red-headed tendency.
“Okay, whatever. Shoot. What’d you two do, because I know you hung out with him more after William and I left.”
Emily refused to look up for her lap, and kept twirling her hair around her fingers for something to do. “I dunno… we just- we just walked around and stuff. Talked.”
“I’m sorry, who is this guy?” Allie asked, confused.
“William’s friend Aiden,” Kristen explained. “He wanted to introduce them because apparently Aiden’s got a thing for-“ she stopped suddenly as Emily’s head snapped up. Immediate eye contact. “Crap, I wasn’t supposed to say that.”
“Got a thing for what?”
“Zipping my lips and throwing out the key!” Kristen squeaked, miming the process, and rolling her lips tight together for good measure.
“Retrieving the key,” Emily deadpanned, pretending to hold it out to her. “Now open up and finish what you were going to say.”
Kristen let out the breath she’d been holding in. “Redheads…” she said miserably.
Emily just blushed further. “Why didn’t you tell me that?!”
“Well I figured it was sort of obvious, the way he looked at you, and how he wouldn’t stop talking to you and stuff…” she muttered, obviously trying to avoid any more questions.
Emily just stopped. “I- he- what? What do you mean the way he looked at me? He was just- he was just being friendly,” she frowned.
“Emily, come on. You’re a smart girl.”
Alessandra’s eye flicked back and forth between the two of them, following the scene like a movie. She might as well have had a bucket of popcorn to top it off.
Emily still seemed shocked so Kristen sighed and added, “He’s totally into you. Anyone could see that. He wouldn’t stop staring at you right from the start, and he completely ignored William and I. Did you not like him or something?”
“No- I- I- I did. I just thought he thought I was annoying him or something and he was trying to be nice because you guys obviously wanted to be… by yourselves…” she finished slowly.
Here it was. The conversation had finally turned to the topic she’d been dreading. “Kristen, do you like him? Will?” she asked.
Emily’s ice blue eyes were hesitant as she awaited the answer. Allie’s dark brown ones were piercing, eager to hear the response.
