Two is Company

Alice

So one evening, I decided to head Andrea and Ryan's advice. I hung out with the Diya girl from Candy's. She had just turned 18 and was in the undergraduate program for pre-medical studies. She was still years from starting to medical school and had been on the island for a year.

She was very, very short and small. She was in fact Indian so my guess wasn't wrong there. She had dark, wavy hair and wore glasses. I'd agreed to meet up with the small girl one night at one of the docks on campus. There was a bay with a long dock with a couple of benches at the end. Usually there was always someone out there, but this time there was no one.

I was a bit happy. I didn't want people knowing where I was. I'd told everyone, even Carla, that I had gone home for the evening. I just didn't want everyone getting hyped for no reason. I wasn't trying to play Diya, but I wasn't necessarily interested either.

While we talked as the sun set, she kept reaching to touch my shoulder or arm. She would randomly play with one of the curls in my puff. I always wore my hair up in a poof but had been trying to work on making the curls more defined. Apparently, it was working. It didn't make me uncomfortable, but I myself was pretty touchy feely outside of my shyness and for some reason I wasn't feeling it today.

I looked at Diya subtly without making it obvious so it didn't look like I was staring. She was telling me how life was growing up in India and how hard it was to admit she was attracted to girls. Her mother knew, but definitely not her father. I gave my two cents here and there, but I listened mostly. The more I looked, the more I was just... not interested.

For once, I took Ryan's advice. If you wouldn't fuck the first night, let it go. Unlike Ryan though, I was a nice guy...girl? Regardless, I finished last too. I wasn't mean enough to hit it and quit it. I cared too much about someone's potential feelings. And so to protect that, I'd rather friend my way out of a situation then ghost them. Instead of toying with Diya. We became friends.

Ryan of course pushed me to have a little fun but another thing about me was that if I wasn't feeling it, I couldn't pretend to feel it. I let my friends think that I'd just cut the ties, but I would hang with her in secret. No one knew. Again, this time not even Carla. Diya even spent the night with me once when life was getting a little too hard. I felt good to be an outlet, but for once, I wanted to find an outlet of my own.

Despite having the large group of six, Andrea and Ryan were really close. At times, Me and Carla even questioned if they had something underlying going on. But Andrea was never afraid to assure people that she absolutely hated vagina. I knew it wasn't happening deep down, but she and Ryan definitely had their own sort of cahoot going on.

Often times in class, I saw them giggling about something on one of their phones or in class, they would rush out leaving Holly behind to catch up frantically. Luckily, I spent most of my class time with Carla, but it was sort of obvious seeing how they were slowly creating a rift between themselves and Holly.

It wasn't until one day when Holly came up to me and asked, "do you think I'm annoying?"

"Huh?" I asked. I was headed for the bus to go home, but wasn't in a huge rush. "Why do you ask that?"

Holly averted her gaze to the ground and shrugged. "I don't know. I just feel like sometimes now... Andrea and Ryan just leave me out."

"No! You aren't annoying. I think they're just getting closer so maybe that's it."

My Asian friend smiled and hugged her tightly around the shoulders, "Thanks! I just wanted to make sure."

That Saturday, I was invited to the beach by Andrea, Ryan, and Holly. The four of us had a group chat called The 4 Amigos that we often made plans through or shared dumps with for school. I headed to the beach from my apartment to meet them, but by the time I got there, Andrea was ready to go. "Really? I just got here!" I whined.