how to catch feelings

45

When Coach Harding still hadn't responded after two days, I texted Jared.

"Does your coach have office hours?" I asked.

"Yeah. He's supposed to have them today, 2:30-3:30."

"Awesome. Thank you."

"Visiting him?"

"He won't answer my email."

"Ah. Yeah, the guy can be a dick."

"Good to know." Add that to the list of FOIA requests I needed to send out.

"If you're going right now, I can tag along. He might be a little nicer."

"Okay, sure. I'll head over to the gym in a few minutes."

"Great. I'll meet you at the doors."

For the life of me, I could not tell if this guy was, as my friends insisted, interested (and I had absolutely no clue why he would be, because I'm awkward and annoying and outspoken and a whole host of other unattractive things) or just friendly and apparently kind of bored.

I could explain the situation to the roomies and get their opinion, but I already had a pretty good idea of what they'd said, and besides, I still hadn't told them about meeting Jared at the café.

No time for that right then anyway.

I grabbed my lanyard and a jacket. I was in the process of slipping into my Bearpaws when Damaris came downstairs with her mac n cheese bowl.

"Where are you off to?" she asked.

"A walk."

"A walk where?"

"Just... around."

"Want company?"

"Oh, no, that's okay. I think I'll go to the office for a bit. You know, ad stuff."

"Oh, right. Gotcha. Well, have fun."

"Totally. Loads of fun. Love me some ads." I forced a smile and then hurried out of the dorm before it occurred to her that ad stuff is a Saturday task, not a Friday task.

In truth, I'd never been to the offices in the building that housed the gym and all the other recreational spaces, so it was a huge relief that Jared offered to come along. That's not to say I wouldn't eventually find Harding's office, but it wasn't exactly my favorite thing to wander through a maze of offices.

One brisk walk later, I found myself at the doors of the gym. I went inside, swiped my student ID, and met Jared on the other side of the turnstile.

"Guess we go find the dragon," he said.

"Harding that bad?"

He shrugged. "He's certainly not winning any awards for being Mr. Nice Guy."

I laughed. "So then what award would he win?"

Jared thought for a moment. "Probably Most Likely to Kick You When You're Down."

"Oh, wow. That's harsh."

"Maybe, but true. That thing I mentioned the other day, about Dax getting yelled at? Well, I talked to the other guys about it, and a couple of them heard more than I did."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Harding said something about Dax not upholding his end of the deal. Being a big disappointment. Letting him down."

"Weird."

"It gets weirder. One of the guys saw Dax slipping something into his pocket as he was leaving. A baggie."