la campanella

five

accompanying music for this chapter: illuminate by jon winterstein

"So, he basically went off on you for having feelings?" Audrey snorted the following week after I explained to her the entire Christian debacle.

"Essentially," I mumbled through a mouthful of cafeteria muffin. Audrey shook her head.

"Men really are the inferior species."

I chuckled half-heartedly at her remark, but I couldn't quite shake the strangeness of the entire encounter. I also felt a tiny bit guilty about exploding on him the way I had.

"Uh-oh. I see your mind working over there – do not make excuses for that sort of toxic behaviour," Audrey smacked my hand almost causing my muffin to fall on the gross cafeteria table. "He should be the one apologizing."

"I guess, it's just now things are all awkward." I sighed thinking about the weird tension in the house.

I hadn't really even seen Christian but it was enough to make me feel on edge. That night, after I stormed out of the car, he had left the house for a few days. I only knew he was back when I started hearing piano music in the studio again. On top of that, Matt and I still hadn't talked about our weird conversation on the couch.

"I think you live with too many men," Audrey sighed, a little wistfully. "Definitely not something I thought I would ever say."

I reached across the table and smacked her this time.

"I just want things to go back to normal."

"You know what might make you feel good as new? Copious amounts of college drinking," Audrey wiggled her eyebrows at me, I laughed. "I'm serious Nov. You need to get out of that house and it's Halloween this weekend!"

I thought about it briefly but maybe she was right. I hadn't had much time out of the house in a while, or really made any friends other than her or my roommates, a party seemed like the perfect opportunity. Plus, Halloween was a hall pass to drink and let loose.

"Okay fine! A Halloween party might just be what I need." I giggled seeing the look on her face.

"What's this about a Halloween party?" The voice behind me startled me enough to drop my muffin on the table. I turned around quickly to see Matt looming above me. Beside him stood two of his guy friends that I had seen kicking around the house occasionally. "Are you throwing a Halloween party?"

I was shocked to be interacting with Matt on campus, I rarely saw any of my roommates outside of Fox Hall and if I did it often didn't lead to a conversation. Additionally, I was surprised he wanted to speak to me at all after our fight.

"Uh ..." Was about all I could manage and I looked over at Audrey for help.

"Maybe – but who's to say you're going to get an invite." Audrey snapped. Matt chuckled.

"Well considering I live with her it might be hard to uninvite me." Matt raised an eyebrow and gave Audrey his classic snarky face – I remembered Audrey didn't know any of my roommates personally, other than vaguely Christian who had been present for our orientation ceremony. Of course, she didn't know what Matt looked like.

Audrey bit her lip and narrowed her eyes.

"I wasn't planning on throwing a party, Matt," I said after a moment, breaking the tension.

Matt reached out and pushed me gently on the shoulder. "Only teasing. Because I'm having one anyway and I want to make sure you're there," he glanced over at Audrey and tossed her a teasing wink. "And I guess you can get an invite too."