Impavid

The Food Court

     "Carson! Over here!"

      I glanced over my shoulder, my eyes attempting to settle on the owner of the voice. They landed upon Rachel and a few other girls from my floor who were standing in line in the food court. I smiled, waving at them. I closed the book I was reading, tucking it into my bag that was resting on the chair beside me. I stood up, swinging the bag over my shoulder. My flip flops flattened on the tiled floor as I made my way across the almost empty food court. Rachel had just finished up paying, turning to face me as the others finished up behind her.

      We had agreed to meet up for lunch after the girls went to their advising appointments. It had been assigned alphabetically, meaning mine was later in the day.

     "Hey!" She was beaming.

     "How was your meeting?" I questioned, returning the smile.

     "It was boring." She still had the biggest smile on her face.

     "You look awfully happy for a boring meeting," I teased, nudging her.

     "You should be awfully happy!" I was thoroughly confused at this point. She must have sensed the confusion, as she started talking again. "Chase sat next to me today at the meeting!"

     "Awesome!"

     "Yeah. He asked about you."

     "He asked about me? Does he even know who I am?"

     We started walking back to an empty table on the opposite side of the room that I had previously been sitting at. I traded in my four person table that I had been reading at to pass time to a table of 8. I dropped my bag on the floor beside me as I settled into a seat across the table from Rachel. She set her tray down, waving over at the other girls who were scanning the room for us.

      I turned to look over my shoulder, noticing the 5 other girls heading toward us. I looked back to Rachel, leaning forward on my elbows. I was still waiting for more information.

     She took a bite of her burger, staring at me.

      "Well?"

     "He just sat down next to me and said 'where's your roommate?'"

     I laughed. "That hardly means anything! He was just being friendly!"

     "Then he asked if him and his friend could get dinner with us tonight."

     "Sure."

     "Just the two of them and the two of us."

     "So?"

      "So that's like a date!"

      "Not necessarily. Did he say who his friend was? I don't want to date a weirdo."

      She rolled her eyes. "He was asking you out, Carson."

     "You totally can't say that."

     She only nodded. We let the conversation drop as the other girls filled in around us. I listened to what I had to look forward to at the appointment as they complained about boring powerpoints and frustrating camp leaders. Then, they pulled out their activity schedules, comparing what groups they had been put in for certain "classes." While we weren't expected to do hard work or study, we were still assigned to a variety of classes to fill our days. After all, this was an academic camp.

     "Aren't you hungry?" Leah questioned. I shook my head, explaining that I had already eaten. This earned an eye roll as each of the girls tossed something in front of me. I looked at the pile before me selectively grabbing a bag of chips and opening it. I had just stuffed one in my mouth when two guys came up to our table. I recognized them from my building, but I didn't know any of their names. I think they lived on the floor below me, but I couldn't be sure.

     "Hey." One was talking before any of us could say anything, "I'm Trevor."

     "I'm Rachel." I looked up and noticed Rachel and Leah staring at me.

     "I'm Carson," I said next.

     Leah introduced herself next, followed by the other guy next to Trevor before the other four girls surrounding me said their names.

     "Any of you have your advising appointment in an hour?" Trevor questioned. All of the girls looked at me.

      "I do. They all had theirs this morning."

     He nodded, gesturing to the boys beside him. "So did he. Do you want to go together? I'm going to get lost."

      I hesitated slightly but Rachel took the liberty of answering for me. "She'd love to. Besides, she's going to pretend like she won't, but she'll get lost too."

      I folded my arms, shooting Rachel a look. I mumbled under my breath, "I will not."

      Trevor was still staring at me, ignoring Rachel entirely as she spoke. "What do you say?"

     "Sure, I'll go with you. When do you want to leave?"

      "Maybe 20 minutes? We're just sitting over there." Trevor gestured to a table behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see a table full of guys shoving each other and tossing food. My eyes landed directly on the one who was staring at me. Chase.

     I turned back to face him, nodding. The guys exchanged goodbyes, explaining where they lived -- I was right -- before heading back to the others. Rachel was staring at me when I looked at her. "Stop that," I groaned, tossing a chip at her.

     She squealed, throwing it back at me. We all were laughing within minutes, and looking back, I think that was the first time in months that Luke wasn't anywhere on my mind.