Careful What You Wish For

Chapter Six

The spring sun is especially warm on her bare shoulders this morning. The olive-green sundress she has chosen is a colour she's hoping will blend into her surroundings for what she needs to accomplish. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sophie wishes she had thought to put on sun cream. But this is a passing thought. The better part of her attention is focused on the scene before her.

Jonas Morgan is sitting in the quadrangle on the grass, his books spread out around him. He is alone now; although this is the first time he has been all morning. And Sophie would know because she has been following him all morning.

She is surprised by how many people Jonas knows. He appears to be in a constant state of greeting - waves, smiles, hellos. Until ten minutes ago he was with what looked like a study group of five people, whom he met here on the grass at 10.30 am. They stayed for an hour. Sophie watched them the whole time but could not for the life of her figure out what they were studying.

Before that, Jonas stopped at the cafe on Staff House Road and met a couple that Sophie hadn't recognised. She made special note that the barista seemed to know his drink order, which would explain why she never saw him at Delilah's on the other side of campus, the coffee shop Sophie worked in and frequented. Jonas and the couple had coffee together at a table near the window. Sophie sat in her car outside, feeling very much like a cop, watching them, and scrutinising Jonas's face from underneath her cap. He was in the cafe for 45 minutes.

Before that, he walked to the university from his house with one of his housemates. Jonas lives in a four-bedroom about five and a half blocks from campus. He has three housemates – one of which is Evan. Sitting outside Evans's house from 7 am that morning had been a particularly low point in Sophie's day. She could hardly stand the shame radiating from her skin, and she had deftly ignored the excitement and curiosity she also noticed vaulting around her stomach. That only added to the shame.

As she sat in the safety of her car, eyeing the familiar timber house on the heavily tree-lined street, a plethora of memories surfaced over and over again. She batted them away for a while, but in the end, it was useless. There were too many, and they were too strong.

One specific memory continued to materialise, it had been a party late one night when she had been waiting for Evan... she gave in and let her mind wander along its painful journey.

The house party is finally winding down, with stained carpet now visible between the remaining people dancing and swaying in the living room to Pink. Stragglers hang around the makeshift bar, constructed from stacked bedside tables and a flattened cardboard box across the top. They talk loudly over the music as they finish up the dregs remaining in the bottles strewn across the bar and floor.

Sophie stands in the open doorway of Evan's house, leaning back against the door jamb. She has positioned herself here for two reasons, one is to catch the late-night breeze and the other is because she is ready to go and impatiently waiting on Evan. Maybe if she stands here long enough, he will get the hint.

Her stomach rumbles loudly, reminding her of why she is waiting so impatiently. It's late, she's starving, and there's no food in Evan's house.

It's also their thing to go down to the Kebab and Pizza place on Saturday nights at midnight and get kebabs. Then they walk along the river and head back to Evan's place.

Generally, Evan rarely leaves her alone at these parties. Although lately...

It's now 1 am, and Sophie has passed up two other opportunities to duck out and grab dinner. She should have left with Brianne. Or Jonas when he offered. Or even called an Uber. But every time she attempted to leave, Evan insisted that he was coming. "Five minutes, Soph!." But there was always someone or something else to talk about.