(Sequel to Watty Award Winner "Dear Sydney")
College isn't for everyone. Sometimes school is meant to end after the twelveth grade.
So when Sydney Porter decided to leave James Madison University after her sophomore year, her boyfriend of t...
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"I didn't realize you were in town."
I had heard the door open and assumed it was Katie returning to start the study group she had promised Shelby over a month ago, but the first words I heard out of Shelby's mouth indicated that that wasn't the case.
"I didn't realize I would be running into you in my old living room."
Crap.
Shelby had shown up just a few minutes earlier, expecting to find Katie answering the door. When it had been me instead, she had seemed surprised but not terribly upset about it. Remembering the conversation I had had over the phone with her just two hours earlier, I felt a tad bit uncomfortable letting her into an apartment that wasn't mine, but I had done so nonetheless.
I had assumed that Katie would be returning home after her dinner with Sydney and company. But apparently she had forgotten to come home.
I braced myself for entering the living room and walked out from the kitchen, carrying a bag of microwavable popcorn that I had planned on eating in Katie's room by myself.
The scene that met me was one I had never wanted to find: Sydney Porter and Shelby Toth, both staring at me with the most accusatory glares I had ever been greeted with.
"This looks much worse than it is." I started out with.
"Who are you talking to?" Sydney snapped.
"Both of you."
There was a small silence, and I later wished I had appreciated that silence more.
Before the storm broke.
"You know, I really didn't expect to find your ex-girlfriend in your life just a few hours after you invite me to the engagement party."
They were the only words Shelby managed to squeeze in throughout the next few minutes.
"You invited her to the engagement party?"
"What did you expect me to do, after you walked in here with Captain Orchestra on your arm?"
"'Captain Orchestra'?"
"I'm on the spot, you couldn't have really expected me to come up with something better."
"Yeah you're right, "not a con man", I should have expected more from that."
"Don't even start, you changed your name and it's all boring and adult now."
"We're in our twenties, Connor!"
"That doesn't mean we have to be adults yet. Some of us are still in college."
"And some of us are beginning our careers."
"No one asked you to move to New York."
"No one asked you to end our relationship, and yet here we are."
