Something About Sarah

Chapter 5

Benjamin

Great. My friend Miranda was now dating someone. It's not that I wasn't happy for her. I was. It just reminded me of the fact that I was alone.

After a wonderful time spent at the book store with Sarah, I came home to emptiness. My parents were still out of town and it wasn't like I was going to call Layla and tell her to come over after what happened. 

How great would it be for Sarah to just come over and hang? To just sit on the couch next to me and watch a movie. Or watch a cheesy tv show and openly mock it for fun. 

So I opened up my laptop and scrolled down the page only to see: 

Dahlia is in a relationship with Jamie.

Blah blah blah . . . random junk. 

John is in a relationship with Rachel. 

All these new couples, they bugged me. They all seemed to be unknowingly slapping me in the face. Why couldn't Sarah just be single? 

The sound of the door opening broke me out of my thoughts. Layla stood next to the giant fish tank built into the wall, looking sheepish. 

"I should really start to lock the doors." I glared at her.

"Don't be like that." She sat next to me, and when I still didn't pay attention to her, she jabbed me in the arm with her finger. 

"Ow! What was that for?" 

"It's because you weren't paying attention to me, and I can't apologize if you're not paying attention," she said. I turned towards her, silently telling her I was ready for her to continue. "I'm sorry," she sighed. I raised my eyebrows. That was the best she could do? "I'm super duper sorry," she managed. 

"Really?" She shrugged. "I hate that I can't stay mad at you."I said, fake pouting as I pulled her in for a hug. She put her arms around me and squeezed as hard as she could, like she did when we were kids and she was visiting me in London. 

"Now that you're not mad, we should celebrate with a movie."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea."I put in a movie and we watched as cars vaulted off of the edges of highways at each other and yet the main character remained completely uninjured. 

"You know," Layla began, during the quiet and boring scene where everyone thought the main character was dead, "Sarah really wanted me to tell you. She made me promise to tell you as soon as I got home from her house." 

"Really?" I was hoping this wasn't some lie to make me feel better after it felt like two of my closest friends betrayed me.

"Totally," she said, holding out her pinky. I wrapped mine around hers.

"So tell me, how did this all happen?" I knew I probably didn't want to hear the answer, but I asked anyway. 

"Oh, you know, the usual. Stolen glances across crowded classrooms. Secret love notes slipped into lockers. It was just like a romance novel." 

"That's a load of crap."

"Oh, totally," she said between bursts of laughter. "We had been talking a little and then he grew a pair and asked me out."

"That sounds far more realistic."

We ended up ordering out for Chinese food. After a couple of movies, Layla fell asleep on the couch. The last thing she said as she was drifting off was, "You should grow a pair."