PERFECT PLACES

Cole (6)

"So how have your first two weeks here been? Have you made any good friends?"

She had finally asked a question prompting Cole to say something, who had spent the past hour listening to more of her wonderful stories she had collected from her trip.

"Yeah I made a pretty good group of friends. I've hung out with them most days, actually"

"Oh yeah? What are their names?"

"Caleb and Kyle and then three girls who hang out with us sometimes too"

"What are the girls' names?"

"Jess, Abbey, and Lisa"

"Nice! What have you been up to with them?"

Cole was unsure where the conversation was going to head. He hadn't made up his mind yet about how to tell her and he was hoping that it would just spill out of him when the time was right.

"Oh not much, we went to the clubs twice. I chill a lot in Caleb and Kyle's room, they share a double. They have this bean bag chair, and they now call it "Cole's bean bag", cause I literally come in every day and relax in it. They're pretty nice guys, a bit on the wild side, but super friendly and pretty interesting I guess."

Cole's heart started beating really quickly, because he was trying to naturally bring it up with her. And if she asked him then how it is that they were wild, then he would tell her.

"Ok, cool. They don't sound much like your high school friends, they're a little more exciting maybe?"

"Yeah for sure, they're more sociable at least. I still miss Drew and Carl, though."

"So you just went to the club twice, no other fun stuff?"

"Not really, I smoked with them a couple times cause they're into that, which was pretty fun. Kinda what the bean bag is made for, it's all comfy and nice when you're high."

He was starting to talk somewhat awkwardly, not as naturally as he usually would with her.

"Oh yeah, getting high in college, finally away from the parents," she said mockingly, "You didn't skip class to do it did you?"

"No, but I did once when I was super hungover on a Thursday, but that was from drinking."

"Niiiice going!"

He didn't know if there was any way to bring it up now, without just telling her that he had something to confess to her.

"So can I meet them?"

"Yeah sure. But Sarah, they're pretty crazy, just warning you."

"Crazy how?"

He had set it up now, finally ready to talk about it with her. All the things he had seen and the one bad thing he had done. Maybe if he mentioned the molly and shrooms that he hadn't agreed to join in on, then his deed wouldn't come off as bad. They do all these drugs and he had only tried one of them.

But the words couldn't seem to come out.

"Caleb is always blasting music, and they just swear a lot and play hours of video games. It gets pretty loud, I think all the time about how their neighbors sharing a wall with them must feel."

"OH NO, they're obnoxious, aren't they?"

"You could say they are, yeah, but it's not as bad as it sounds"

But really it was much, much worse. And he had to tell her the truth, before she saw it with her own eyes.

...

By the time three weeks had passed since Sarah's plane had landed, she was well integrated into the college environment. She got three A's on three different assignments from three different classes, one of which she had completed while soaring over the Atlantic ocean. She made quite a few friends on her floor, despite having missed the first two weeks of activities and relationships.

She became her floor representative for her residence council, to plan fun events throughout the year. She attended two volunteer fairs, and signed up for four different clubs, two of which she actually started attending the regular meetings for.

A few things were going wrong, too. She hated the cafeteria food, even though it was practically a buffet. She missed Europe, and started wishing that she could go on exchange for a semester as soon as possible. Her usually occasional insomnia had started to become more frequent in her noisy residence. The biggest problem she had, though, was Cole. He just didn't seem himself. She couldn't pinpoint exactly why, but she could sense something was wrong.

One on one, everything was still the same. They ate together at least once each day. They found a cute independent movie theater near campus, where they resumed their weekly movie adventures. This new theater had the best popcorn she had ever tasted, especially the magical white cheddar seasoning. She liked his new friends, they all seemed really nice. Caleb's room smelled like weed most of the time, and the music was loud, but Cole had warned her about this. She noticed that he would get somewhat quiet with them when she was around, at least quieter than he had been with his high school friends. Maybe it was because of the new environment; he just hadn't completely opened up to these new people yet.

But at the same time, that didn't seem likely, because as soon as Cole introduced her to them, they had so many fun stories to say about Cole. About his dancing at the clubs, about his bean bag chair obsession, about his craving for McDonalds after he had smoked, which was a gruesome 20 minute walk away from campus. They seemed to know him pretty well, and yet he only said a few sentences for the entire half hour that she was there with them.

She hadn't seen his friends since that initial visit, which she also found a bit strange. Cole had met Sarah's friend three or four times now, since they were around her room a lot whenever he would come and find her on her floor. And this was only in the past two weeks since arriving back from her trip.

She started to get suspicious, even though she didn't want to, because she trusted her boyfriend. But she also knew him, perhaps more than any girl knew a boy at their age. She knew that something was probably really bothering him.

She brought it up with him, finally, one day at lunch.

And he started crying.