When Sydney Sherwood was thirteen, she fell in love. She was utterly enamoured with Carter Pearson - the cute, enigmatic, brilliant fourteen year old who lived across the street. But, after only a few months, Carter and his family disappeared, leavi...
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When I got home, the apartment was apparently empty, and I was about to head to my room when I heard Alice's voice call out from their bedroom. "Sydney, is that you?"
I pushed open the door to find Alice sat on Maya's desk chair, whilst Maya lay in bed. Both smiled as I walked in, although Maya's lacked Alice's energy.
"Hey, guys," I said, taking a seat on the end of Maya's bed. "What's up?"
"Maya has a cold," Alice informed me.
"I'm fine!" Maya insisted, although her vehement response triggered a coughing fit, instantly disproving her point. "I don't get sick. Anyway, how was your date? Did you get a picture of him for me?"
She was clearly trying to shift the conversation away from her supposedly non-existent illness, but Alice latched onto it anyway. She looked across at me, an expectant grin already on her face.
"Sorry, no picture yet, Maya. But anyway, it wasn't a date," I insisted, rolling my eyes. "We just got coffee together and chatted for a bit."
"Sounds a lot like a date to me," Maya mumbled, in response to which I shot her a glare. "Plus, that looks a lot like a guy's sweater."
She was referencing Carter's dark grey sweater, which I'd picked up after he left it behind, and had totally forgotten I was holding. Both my roommates were looking at me expectantly, but I shook my head. "Oh, yeah, he left it on his chair. I brought it back with me so that I could give it to him some time. Nothing romantic there."
"He left?" Alice echoed.
Sighing, I informed them of how it had been going well, how we'd clicked, but then he got a call from his girlfriend and left. They were sympathetic, insisting that he was an idiot for not staying to talk to me for longer, but I could sense Alice's disappointment; she'd really had her heart set on her whole fate thing.
After a pause, Alice asked carefully, "Did you want it to have been a date?"
At this, I hesitated, before deciding to just go with the truthful answer. "I don't know," I admitted, then, more resolutely, added, "Actually, no. I don't want to date anyone right now; I'm focusing on settling in here, first."
"I mean, I've found that my technique of finding cute girls to help me settle in has worked very well, personally," Maya commented, a hint of a smirk in her expression. "I'm sure you could find some decent boys to do the same for you."
Expecting Alice to back me up that dating was not what I should be doing - surely, she'd want me to wait for Carter to be single, so I could pursue true love, or whatever - I turned to her. To my surprise, she agreed with Maya.
"Actually, I think dating could be fun. Plus, there's this gorgeous guy in one of my classes and I happened to overhear him mentioning he was newly single, so I got his number."
"Alice!" I gasped. "You have a boyfriend!"
Alice burst out laughing. "Not for me! I got it for Maya, actually."
