Stranger Than Fiction

chapter 11

The next few days were pretty straightforward, I went to school and then went home again, I started to think that Pete must have been quite lonely. Classmates would talk to me but it was clear that Pete didn't have friends here.
I really felt sorry for him, he'd been going through so much alone. Did he understand how strong he was to have done that? I was impressed with his resilience, I couldn't have coped with all of that alone.

I looked around for Ae when I was on campus but never saw him, I even found myself driving past the engineering building and the football field in the hope I'd see him.
The problem with a tv series is you're never quite sure how long it is between scenes, it could be minutes, hours, days or weeks. I didn't know how long it would be before I saw Ae again.

It had been a week since I saw him, I had a feeling I was going to be stuck here for longer than I first thought! I hadn't been able to find a parking space near the IC building so I ended up parking near the engineering building. I was really hungry because I left home without having breakfast, there was a coffee shop nearby so I decided to grab a sandwich and a drink.

Just as I sat down I heard the door open and Pond walked in, I kept my head down but could hear his conversation, it made me giggle listening to him flirting. He was completely shameless.
Then I heard Perth, sorry I mean Ae, come in. He was obviously surprised to see me but he looked pleased.
He came over and we started talking, (its funny when you're talking to someone you know so well but actually you don't know them at all.) This was the first time I met Pond and honestly liked him straight away, he was definitely a joker a bit like me.

Ae had a confidence about him that was very attractive, we left the coffee shop and went to the canteen for what Ae considered proper food.

It was so busy when we got there and I didn't know what I wanted to eat, I stood there for a while trying to decide. Ae assumed that I was too nervous to order it myself so he did it for me.

He teased me about it after we'd left. I wanted to correct him but decide against it.
This was going to be the hardest part for me, I'm used to doing everything for myself, I'm 20 years old, I've been studying at university for a while now, I know how things work and I know what to do if I want it. But Pete was, well he was Pete!

***

I was surprised by how easy I was finding living as Pete (Yeah was I in for a shock!) His life was straight forward, getting to know Ae was fun, although at times he was a little too straightforward for me.

It was clear that Ae was falling for me, I mean Pete but I'm straight, it's one thing kissing a guy for a role its another thing when the person you have to kiss actually like you.

Tin was ..... how can I put this nicely? Tin was a jerk. How were him and Pete friends? He spent most of his time scowling or glaring at people. The only time he was polite was to the teachers. He was such a snob and totally believed that he was better than them because he had money.

I met Ae for breakfast which had started to become a daily habit for us. Today the canteen was unusually busy so it had taken longer to get our food and as a result I was running late to get to class, luckily I arrived before the teacher but as I looked towards my seat I saw Tin had already arrived. He didn't look happy (although come to think about it, I'd never seen him happy). I took my seat next to him, but didn't say a word.

"What's the matter?" He asked "are you still mad because of what I said about those Thai Programmes?"

Here we go again I thought "I don't think we should discuss that Tin" I said, his ignorance really annoyed me.