Finding Perfection

Chapter 3

The knots are back in my stomach and they're even worse. I see my brother walk over and hug Josiah. So many questions and thoughts are slamming around in my head, "What...?! Zach knows Josiah? How did I not know this? Wait, Josiah attends here. Oh my gosh. What am I going to do?" I take my time and walk over to Zach and smile as I enter the conversation.

"Oh hey Josiah, this is my si---"
"Do I know you?" Josiah interrupts. 

I play it cool, like we've never met.

"Uhm, I don't think so.. Do I look famil--"

"You work at WalMart!" He belts out.

Crap. He remembers me. Wait... he remembers me? I feel a smile sweep across my face.

"Remember, I was buying cookies for my grandma!" He explains.

"Oh! I do remember you!" I say as if I didn't remember him and his cute self.

"How's your grandma?!" I ask.

"She's doing great!" He responds.

I then look over to remember my brother was once apart of this conversation.

Zach chuckles, "Ha, whats going on here? You've met?"

"Yeah dude, she checked me out at Walmart."

"She checked you out?" Zach looks at me with a bratty smirk.

My face goes red and I can't help but blurt out an explanation.

"No. Not like that Zach. You know I worked there. You're such a brat." I laughed.

As I laughed with Zach I realized Josiah kept glancing at me with soft eyes which made me giddy inside.

"Hey Mer!" Someone calls from the front stairs of Hawkins. "Want to go grab dinner?" It's Emily, my roommate.

I glance over at Zach and Josiah, smile and then look back at Emily, "Yeah! Let me grab my ID."

Emily starts walking over to meet us, "No worries, I have it already."

"Well, aren't you the best." I laugh. 

"I'll see you guys around." I say looking at Josiah.

"Mer, text me if you need anything." Zach stated.

"I will Zach, love ya." I say as me and Emily walk away.

As me and Emily are walking away I hear Zach and Josiah continue their conversation, so I turn around to see Zach softly punch Josiah in the chest. I was kind of shocked at first until I saw them both laughing. 

"I saw you checking my sister out!" Zach smiles.

"What?" Josiah blushes. "No.. no I wasn't." He stumbles his words.

On the walk to the cafeteria, I felt butterflies. I've never known anyone to feel like that about me. I've always struggled with self-confidence because I'm slightly overweight and I'm super tall compared to everyone else. So with those insecurities I also didn't feel as pretty as everyone else. So the fact that someone was looking at me, thought I was pretty and blushed when they were caught, made me feel incredible. I've never dated anyone and I've never even had my first kiss and I always used my confidence issues as the excuse, but maybe I just needed to wait a little while.

"Mer, you good?" Emily interrupts me from my own thoughts.

"Yeah.. I'm great." I smiled.

"Ooh, you're blushing. Who was that?!" she persistently asks.

"My brother and his friend Josiah. I met him while I was working and haven't seen him since, actually never thought I would again, and he attends here." I answered.

"What year is he?" she continues to prod. 

"I'm actually not sure. I'll have to figure it out." I state.

The night ends after dinner and we get back to the dorm and fall asleep. We have two days before class starts and I'm so nervous.

These two days we have to just get used to the campus and relax. So on Tuesday morning me and Emily get up and decided to skip breakfast and grab coffee at the cafe around eleven. Emily and I talked months before we moved in so we know each other well enough but we spent three hours in the cafe talking about everything in both our lives. Our ups, our downs, what we like, what we hate, our family, everything. We're laughing at each others pictures on Facebook from eighth grade when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn my head and look up to see Josiah. 

And the knots are back.

"Oh, hey!" I grinned.

"Merritt, right?" He asks.

"Yeah." I smile from ear to ear, hoping he doesn't realize how big my smile is.

"Oh, uhm, this is my roommate Emily."

He reaches a hand out, "Nice to meet you Emily. Can I steal your roommate for a second?"

I feel like I'm about to throw up. I look at Emily as if saying "I don't know what to do!?"

"Yeah! Definitely!" Emily says basically kicking me out of the cafe.

"She'll be back in ten." Josiah promises.

He swings his arm up, letting me go first through the cafe french doors. We walk to a bench a few yards away from the cafe and we sit.

All I can do is smile. "What?" he smiles back.

"I should be asking you that question.." I smirk.

"Okay, so if this is weird please let me know, but I couldn't stop thinking about you since I met you. That whole conversation we had last night, was all fake. I knew who you were."

I feel my face get beat red and I look down at my crossed legs. I'm speechless.

"I just want to get to know you." he states.

I chuckle slightly under my breath. "Oh.. okay." he says defeated.

"No, no, no! I'm not laughing at you. You just said the sweetest thing anyone has ever said. It's just... I remembered you too.." I look down and laugh.

"Wow, we're pathetic." he laughs.

I pause for a second and smile, "But, I'd really like that." I say as I push my blonde hair behind my ear.

He smiles out of relief, which is weird to me because I saw how nervous he was to say that to me. Normally, guys just don't talk to me.

"So how about 7 tomorrow? Dinner?" he asks. 

"S-sure.." I say. "I can meet you---"

He interrupts, "No, no, no. I'll come to Hawkins and I'll pick you up."

"Oh, old fashioned I see?"

"Just a little." He grins.

My phone goes off in my back pocket which pulls us back into reality. 

"So, uhm, I'll see you tomorrow, Merritt." he smiles. "That is your name right?"

"Wow!" I laugh. "And Definitely." I assure him. 

I walk back into the cafe and grab Emily. I drag her back to the room so we can freak out about what just happened in private.