A Friendly Experiment

Good Friends and Goodbyes

TANNER:

"Let me fix that for you." Petra said, turning me around and beginning to mess with my tie. "You are kind of hopeless with these things."

"Don't laugh at me." I told her, noticing the grin on her face.

"I'm not." She said. "I'm just thinking that you're going to have a lot more event where you'll need to wear a tie, so you should get better."

"Maybe." I shrugged. "Why does this have to be formal, though?" I asked.

"Semi-formal." She corrected. "And, because it's a big deal for David.  His parents and family are here, and you know that they're a classy bunch."

"True." I said, knowing that David's parents were the classiest and most sophisticated people that I've ever met.

"You're all done." She said.  I looked down at my tie, perfectly tied and everything.

"Good work, I wish you could be there to tie all my ties." I joked, giving her a smile. 

That smile turned to a frown soon for both of us though.  We'd broken up a couple weeks ago, but had stayed friends.  Still, it was hard seeing her and talking to her without wanting her to be mine again.  It wouldn't have worked though.  Long distance rarely ever works, and when it "works", it's never healthy.  It's not like I'd cheat, but I just think it would've made college a less fun experience. 

"We should go back to the party." She said, giving me a faint smile. "No reason for us to sit here sad about something."

"Yeah.' I said softly. "I wish--"

"We should go back." She said firmly, beginning to walk away.  Before she left, she turned back to me. "I wish that too, but we both know it wouldn't work."

"No need to say that if it doesn't work now, it won't work in the future." I said.

"True, I guess we will just have to keep each other in the back of our minds." She said.

"It'd be impossible for me to loose the thought of you." I said walking towards her.

"A party awaits." She smiled, opening the door and letting the sound of chatter slow into the room.

"Let's go steal some champagne." I suggested, which made us both laugh.

PETRA:

"You look nervous as hell." I giggled, looking at David, who was basically sweating through his suit.

"Astute observation." He said sarcastically, beginning to fidget with his tie.

"Dave, you're going to be fine." I said, putting my hand on his shoulder.  I seemed to relax a little and turned to me with a smile.

"Thanks, Petra.  It's just that I feel like there's a million pounds of pressure pushing down on me." He explained.

"Well maybe if you told someone the big news right now, it would alleviate some of that pressure." I said with a sly smile, trying to pry information out of him.

"Nice try, Pet, but I'm not going to spill that easily." He smiled. "Besides, you're not going to have to wait much longer; our last guest has arrived, so we can start."

David looked over to the front door and I glanced over as well.  Carthridge was fumbling in through the door, half buttoning his shirt and tying his tie.  As always, he was a total mess, but it made me smile seeing him again.  I hadn't seen him since the last day, but he looked good.  He'd gotten a haircut and styled his hair up, which made his face look slender and chiseled.  I was looking around the room to see Avery's reaction, but I couldn't spot her.  There weren't a lot of people, mostly David's family, but there were enough that I couldn't find a lot of people.