The Virgin and the Whore

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

During the weekend, I emailed Esther but never got an answer. I didn't make a big deal out of it though. The project wasn't due any time soon. I just didn't want to put it off until the last second like the last time.

When I got to class that morning, I wasn't that early, but Esther wasn't there yet. I headed for the table where she usually sat, hoping that she wouldn't mind. I sat by the aisle, leaving her her usual seat by the wall.

She finally arrived when most of the class had filled up.

"Hi," I told her, when she stopped beside the desk. I got up to let her get to her seat.

"Hello," she answered, and sat down.

"Did you have time to see what I sent you?"

"No sorry, I was a little busy," she replied, digging for her things from her bag.

"No worries. We can talk about it later."

Class started then so I left her lone and I tried to stay focused, but I was jacked up on caffeine again and my mind wandered.

I kept sort of analyzing the girl sitting beside me.

She was wearing a similar getup as every time we'd been to class together. Long skirt. Long-sleeved sweater. Cardigan over it. Cross hanging from her neck. Big glasses on small face.

She wasn't wearing any make-up, I noticed too. I wondered of her fashion sense was a religious decisions, or if it was her actual taste. I really didn't care what people decided to wear for their religion, I just thought it needed to be their own decision, and not the one dictated by someone else.

She kept touching her cross, now and then, like she was making sure it was hanging right. I mean, I wasn't staring at her like a creep to see her do that, I just kinda noticed it because I was a little bored. And a little was putting it mildly.

I was seriously in need of a distraction if what passed as entertainment at the moment was the number of times the girl beside me was touching her cross.

When the lecture was finally over and we were getting up from our seats, I asked Esther, "do you have a class after this?"

She shook her head. "Not for another hour."

"Did you want to go to the library and start working on ideas for the project?"

She was looking at her shoes, playing with the strap of her bag resting on her shoulder. "I actually needed to grab something to eat..."

"Perfect, I could eat too. We can go to the cafeteria."

She started to nod a little, but she seemed uncomfortable. "Okay, alright," she agreed.

I hoped I wasn't overstepping my boundaries. Maybe she didn't want to spend her lunch time with me. The thing was, if she didn't want to hang with me, she needed to tell me. I couldn't guess it. And anyway, I wasn't planning on staying for too long, I just wanted to get the ball rolling on our project. I would have had the conversation in the classroom, but there was another lecture in there right after ours, so we couldn't really stick around.

"Lead the way," I told her, smiling encouragingly.

We walked in silence side by side with a good three feet apart. It was kind of amusing to me.

When we got to the cafeteria, Esther was kind of twitching, looking around herself constantly and obviously unsure as to what to pick.

The medical part of my brain wondered of she had an eating disorder, if maybe the fact that she was putting on so many layers of clothes and eating so little was because she had a problem. A more pragmatic part of my brain figured it was probably a money thing. She was poor, she couldn't afford more.