Second Lanark

Digging - Part 20

I walked over to Faith, coming up beside her to bump our hips together. "Hey stranger," I said.

She turned her head and grinned at me. "What are you going here? I thought you'd still be sleeping it off," she said, hitting her dining card on her hand in a repetitive motion.

"I wish I was still sleeping it off," I admitted and then I couldn't help glancing over at Rob, who was watching me curiously. I still couldn't believe I got to keep him.

"Are you two finally together?" Faith asked as we moved forward in the order line. "I thought I saw you kissing Tim last night," she said, scrunching up her face. "I guess I was wrong."

"Not wrong." I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed. "Like most of my life right now, it seems overly complicated. Basically, Tim kissed me, Rob saw, and now we're together."

"You must be out of this world happy right now. I saw the way he looked at you init—er the night we hung out, and I couldn't believe he hadn't made a move yet. It was so obvious."

"About that night," I started to say.

"Mark talked to you, too?" she asked, arching her eyebrows. "I thought it was only me he accused."

"He accused you?" I asked, surprised.

"No, not really. But, it felt like an accusation with Katie standing beside him glaring at me. I don't get those two – like, at all. Their relationship is the weirdest. I was there with my boyfriend." She rolled her green eyes and took another step forward in the line. "I said I'd talk to other guys on the team, try to get the scoop."

"Me too!" I turned so I was facing her, instead of looking forward. "I was sort of hoping you'd come with me to Tim's room to talk to him? If I remember my conversation with him, he said he thought some of the things the guys did were fun and some of the things they did were really not fun." I searched my brain for the right words. "You know about the newspaper?"

"Yeah, they told me all of it, I think." She searched my face. "Is this because you don't want to be alone with Tim?"

"Well, I feel weird about talking to him after I just ran out on him last night, and now I'm with Rob..." I trailed off, looking back at my dark haired, dark eyed dream come true. He was stealing fries off my plate and dipping them in his leftover gravy. When I caught his eye, he grinned and stole another one without a hint of remorse.

"I'll just eat and then come up to your room to get you. You'll be there?" Faith asked, flicking her dark hair off her shoulders. She was wearing sweats like me: the classic hung over outfit. 

"I might be in the common room; my roommate situation kinda blew up this morning."

"With Tricia? I liked her," Faith said, frowning.

"No, Lark and Jill," I clarified, looking at Rob and giving him the 'cut it out' signal for stealing almost all my fries. This time, he had the grace to look at least a tad remorseful and he held up his hands, caught in the act of stealing more of my food.

"I thought Jill seemed really nice," Faith said and then she turned away from me to order.

I ordered some more fries before turning to her and saying, "I think they are nice, mostly? I don't know. I can't figure out what's going on. Jill wants to be Lark's friend, I think, or at least she did want to be her friend. Lark has no patience for Jill. None. At all."

"Is Lark mean to her?" Faith asked, taking her food when her order came up.

"I don't think so. But some of the things the RA said in the meeting today made me wonder if I didn't know everything. You know?"