Roommates

47

Happy New Years Eve! And thank you for all the happy birthdays. When are all of your birthdays?

Monday, December 9

[Narrator]

Mine

Caitlin would never forget that word coming out of Barry's mouth

She was his? 

Was he hers then?

Her brain was overthinking this simple word, since they haven't talked about their feelings to each other yet

"Caitlin?"

She was zoned back by Natalie, who was sitting across from her in the cafeteria that morning. 

"Did you hear me? I asked you what I should major in. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. Everything's okay. Now, what are your interests?"

The two began to discuss Natalie's future all while Barry was with Patty talking about Caitlin.

"When are you going to tell her how you feel?"

"I have a plan for that. But it's not anytime soon."

Patty gave him a look. "The sooner you do it, the more you secure that she doesn't go off with someone else."

"I don't think she will."

"Oh really? What's different between you and any other guy here?"

"She's already captured my heart from the moment I met her."

.

.

.

"Jess."

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"What are we?"

Jess lifted her head up from Finn's chest and glanced at him. "I don't know. I've never really thought about it. But that's a good question."

"I mean, we both feel the same way, and want to be together. But I know it's hard for you to do that."

"I guess we can take things slow for now."

"I'm good with that. I'll go as slow as you want to if it means that we'll end up together."

Jessica glanced at him and pressed her lips to his, and that's the moment in which they had their first kiss.

"I've been waiting to be able to do that."

"Well, now you don't have to wait."

"It was worth it, though."

"While I find this whole moment cute, are you guys going to come back to study or not?"

They were in Jessica's dorm room and supposed to be studying. Finn and Jessica went back to study with Simone, who was looking at them. 

"What?"

"I'm glad that we patched things up."

"I am too."

The two girls glanced at Finn, who was silent. 

"You know, for the longest time I've been wanting you two to become friends. I've known you both for awhile and you're both my best friends. It just was breaking my heart that neither of you wanted to be friends with each other. I never understood why until now. And as this year's ending, I'm really glad that you guys worked things out."

"I'm glad that you and Jess worked things out. I've always been behind you in everything, but this was difficult. As you said, we weren't friends, so I didn't really know much about her. I didn't know about her past which is why I didn't like it that she just played with your feelings. But when she finally told me about her past, everything made sense. And maybe if I had gotten to know her years ago, then maybe things would be different now."

"Who know how things would be if we were all friends in high school? But we're here now. We're all friends. And I know we're going to make some good memories."

.

.

.

"What's going on between you and Caitlin?"

Barry was currently on his free time between his classes with Blaire, and glanced at her after she questioned him. 

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Barry shook his head. "No."

'Not yet'

Well, look who's back

'I was always here. Just letting you make your own mistakes'

"Do you want a girlfriend?"

'Yeah, he wants Caitlin as his girlfriend.'

"I don't know. Maybe later on?"

Blaire stepped closer to him. "Well, maybe I could help you get one."

Before Barry could reply, Blaire pressed her lips to his. Barry was in shock as she continued to kiss him and across the campus heading in their direction was Caitlin. One look was all it took for Caitlin's jealousy to explode inside. 

She walked off, the kiss replaying like a broken record in her 

Barry stepped back and Blaire stopped kissing him. 

"Blaire-"

"Just think, okay? I gotta go."

Blaire walked off, not knowing the damage she had just done. Barry walked off a dew seconds later and all but walked off to the direction of Jessica's dorm. He knocked rapidly on the door and Simone opened it. 

"Barry, what's going on?"

He rushed into the dorm and sighed. "My teammate kissed me."

"Did you kiss back?"

Barry shook his head. "No. I couldn't."

"So then what's the problem?"

"I didn't want her to kiss me. I don't know why she kissed me. She was asking me about Caitlin and-"

"Is that why you feel guilty? Because of how you feel about Caitlin?"

"You feel bad because you know how you feel about her, and in a way, it's like you're cheating."

Simone sat Barry down and took the seat next to him. "Here's what you're going to do. You need to set her straight. Tell her you're interested in someone else that isn't her. Also, you're on the team together. It would be awkward and weird if you both started dating. And more importantly, you have to start being honest to yourself."

Jessica sat on Barry's right side and placed a hand on his arm. "I think it's time you actually admit out loud how you feel about Caitlin. We don't know. I don't know if anyone really knows."

Barry sighed and stayed silent for awhile. "If the first time I saw Caitlin was different, then I probably would've checked her out. I would've been chasing after her. But we bumped into each other the first day of classes. And she was in my mind the whole time. When I found out she was my roommate, I was annoyed but I think deep down, I was excited. She's beautiful. When you live with someone, and you share life experiences with that person, it almost becomes impossible to imagine a life or any moment without them. And living with Caitlin has been the best few months. She's amazing. She has a beautiful smile, a beautiful personality, a caring heart. She's the reason I'm on the track team. We've shared moments together and I just feel so lucky to be able to share moments with her. Getting to know her and finding out everything about her makes me just want to stay up all night talking to her. I know we have a rough patch but we've talked through that and right now, I just want to keep her as close as I can. She's the part of me that I didn't think, or realized, I needed."

"You have feelings for her."

"I have a connection with her. And I don't just have feelings for her. I think it's more than that."