abstracts & him

Fifteen

"Hey Calli, why didn't you show up last night? You ditched our plan." A guy that I recognize who's from the theatre department blocks my way to the lobby. He's with two more guys.

I furrow my eyebrows. "This is the first time we're actually taking."

"We've been texting for three days straight and you asked me out yesterday to meet up." He steps closer.

"Could be some other "Callista." I say my name with air quotations.

"You did the same thing to him and him." He points to the short guy on her left then the long-haired guy on her right.

"You texted me three weeks ago and on the same week you texted him." The long-haired guy sounds mocking.

"Sorry if your text mate or what ditched you but I have nothing to do it with so if you could, please excuse me." The theatre guy is about to block my way but his friends stopped him.

I meet Ash at the lobby and we grab something to eat. I ordered poutine and he just had a soda.

I look for my notebook where I've written the lyrics I'm composing for a project. I'll let Ash read it and ask for his opinion. When I can't find it, I take everything out from my bag.

"You always have that." He tells when he saw my tape player. "And you listen to a certain tape most of the time, like you know when we're at the library."

Ash noticed. I listen to the tape I got from "the guy" almost everyday.

"I can't find it. I probably left it at our room." I put the things back inside my bag.

"Is that the tape you were looking for?"

"Nope." I told him the whole story of how I got the tape and he looks like hiding something while he was listening to me.

"That guy for sure is just someone near you."

"Maybe and he better should talk to me."

"I'll tell him." He jokes then laughs.

"Anyway, I saw your dating news last night. Is it true?" I lean back while crossing my arms.

The girl was facing Ash—which is opposite the camera— so her face can't be seen but I'm certain that she is a curly brunette.

"They made a false story out of a single paparazzo photo. That girl is is Erra." Ash explains and I freeze at the mention of her name.

We're literally the 'so close yet so far.' We share the same room but it feels like we don't.

"Why were you out together?"

"She asked me to come with her to NewEra."

"Why did she want to go there?"

"I don't know. To speak to her father, I guess?" He crosses his arms.

"Father?" I realize I don't know anything personal about her. She doesn't want to talk about herself.

"Yeah. Her father owns NewEra that's why it's called NewERRA."

This answered why she acted that way the first time I came with her.

"I don't know you guys talk." I tell him. I know that they both know each other since he used to be in the same band as Forrest Walker who's Erra's "someone" before. But  I assumed that they've never spoken to each other before.

"Or course. We got mouths." I roll my eyes at his sarcasm. "To be honest, I've liked her before but there's Forrest. You can't fight with her first love." He suddenly looks sad.

"I can see now why we're friends." I utter all of a sudden. He looks at me, confused.

"Ezió looks like he's kind of into you." He's trying to make me feel good.

"Kind of." I repeat smirking. "He has a girl."

"That's not what I've heard." I hear him whisper.