Prideful Shirts

4: Hi

We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.
~ Orson Welles

Imogen and I walk to the building where the club is being held, talking about nothing in particular. We flit between topics to fill the time. Once we get to the building, Imogen freezes. I open the door and look back before I realize that she's no longer following me. She's simply standing there on the sidewalk in front of the building, looking at the doors with fear in her eyes.

"Hey, you alright?" I ask her, letting go of the door to walk to my friend. She takes a shaky breath in and nods rapidly, still looking at the door in a petrified manner. I tell her, "We don't have to go if you don't want to." Imogen shakes her head and replies,

"No, we're going in. I'm fine, I swear. I'm just nervous. You know I'm not good with new people, I get anxious." I smile at her and say,

"I know, but don't worry. I'll be there with you. If you ever get nervous talking to someone, just excuse yourself and come over to me, okay?"

"Okay." Imogen says with a smile.

"After you." I tell her, waving my hand forwards towards the door. Imogen takes a deep breath in, hopefully calming her nerves, and walks forward. She flings open the door and walks into the building. I follow behind her as we walk through the building, searching for the room where the club is being held.

After about a minute, we find an open door with a poster reading 'Prideful Shirts' in a variety of colors next to the door. Sounds of peaceful chatter come from the room. Imogen looks at me
in confirmation, a bit of fear in her eyes. I take her right hand in both of mine, looking into her eyes as I reassure her,

"Don't worry Imogen, everything will be fine." She slightly smiles at me and nods once. Like before, she takes a few moments to breathe and calm herself down before entering. I watch her enter before following behind. Instead of following her, I go to find someone to start talking to. Across the room, I see a man wearing an asexual shirt. He has blonde hair and hazel eyes. I decide to go talk to him. When I walk over, I automatically introduce myself,

"Hi, I'm Freya. What's your name?"

"My name is Luben," He says with a slight accent, I'm not sure where it's from. "Nice to meet you Freya. I haven't seen you here before, is this your first time?"

"Yes, indeed it is. It took awhile for my shirt to come. So how long have you been coming here?" I reply.

"Only for a couple weeks," Luben tells me with a smile, "I haven't found someone very interesting to talk to yet."

"Well I consider myself very interesting, hopefully I can change that for you." I retort, grinning. He laughs loudly and tells me,

"I like you, Freya. I'd love to talk to you more."

"Then let's talk. Got any questions for me?"

"Yeah. What's your number?" I can't help but laugh slightly at his question, shaking my head slightly amusedly.

"That was kinda smooth, I gotta admit that." We exchange numbers and continue talking for awhile. I feel a tap on my shoulder a few minutes after we continue our conversation and turn around to see Imogen standing there looking nervous.

"Hi Freya." She says in a small voice.

"Hey Imogen, everything alright? The person you were speaking to wasn't mean to you, right? Did you get nervous?" I question her.

"I'm okay, just got anxious and wanted to take a breather. Please continue, I'll just listen." Imogen responds, smiling at me. I hesitate but say,

"Okay." I turn around back to Luben, introducing Imogen to him, "This is my friend Imogen, she gets nervous talking to new people. Would you mind if she hangs out with us for a bit?"

"Sure." He smiles softly, "I understand. My younger sister has severe social anxiety."

"Oh, you have a sister? How old is she?" I ask him.

"She's 19. I also have another sister between us that's 22. I guess my parents like three year differences." He answers with a chuckle. I reply,

"My parents must like three year gaps as well, I have three older brothers and there's always three year gaps between us." I pause as I realize a strange coincidence, "Wait, there are three years between us!"

"What a weird coincidence!" We both laugh for a bit and continue talking. After awhile, Imogen pokes me and says,

"I'm going to try talking to someone else."

"Okay, good luck!" I respond, patting her on the shoulder and grinning. She smiles nervously at me before walking off to another part of the room.

I continue talking to Luben with Imogen popping to join us occasionally when she gets too overwhelmed or wants a break from trying to socialize. We spend around an hour there and Imogen is ready to go. I promise to text Luben. I enjoyed talking to him, he seems very kind and someone I can get along with. Whether this will develop into romantic feelings, I'm not too sure. I will have to see what happens in the future.

Imogen and I start making our way out of the room when suddenly, Imogen halts in place, making me accidentally bump into her. I frown when I see she didn't react at all and seems frozen looking at the doorway to the room. I walk in front of her to see if her facial expression can clue me in as to what is going on. When I look into her eyes, I gasp as I see an emotion that I've never seen in her eyes before, not like this. It breaks my heart to see it, especially since I know it's not directed at me. I turn around to look in the same direction as her to try and figure out who caused her to have love in her eyes.

Suddenly, I see a boy and a girl enter the room. They seem to be close, since they are smiling and laughing together. The girl is wearing a shirt displaying the lesbian flag and the boy is wearing a shirt displaying the gay flag. But when the pair are fully in the room, the girl turns to look towards me and Imogen. Imogen then lightly pushes past me and starts walking forwards to the girl. I take the time to study her appearance.

The mystery lesbian is short, even shorter than Imogen's short height of 5'3". She has long golden blonde hair falling to her waist and amber eyes. She is extremely beautiful and radiates gentleness and elegance.

I hate her.

I practically stomp over, following the path of my best friend while simultaneously ignoring all of the people around me. I don't know if some of them are watching or not, and frankly, I really don't care. When I reach them, I stand to the side of Imogen, looking between her and the girl. Both of them are simply staring at each other, seemingly in awe.

"Hi." The girl says in a soft, smooth voice. Imogen then echoes that one word, further breaking me at the fondness already evident in her voice,

"Hi."