Common People (frerard)

Chapter 11

Jamia and I ran into each other Thursday morning in the atrium. I was heading to the prepaid cafeteria for some low-grade food while she was going to Einstein's. So when she offered to buy me breakfast from there, I found it really to choose scrambled eggs made from powder and fake turkey bacon over a freshly made egg, bacon and turkey sandwich on any bagel I wanted.

"I'm so glad we could have some time to hang out," she said. "I haven't seen you since Friday when I was a total dork and just fell asleep right into movie night."

I won't lie, I was pretty focused on my sandwich. It was nice knowing I wasn't eating something that would give me an upset stomach in forty-five minutes.

"How have you been?" She asked.

"Good," I said. "I've been mostly working on a project the last day and a half."

"Anything interesting?" She asked.

"No, just time consuming," I said.

"Have you, uh, seen Frank lately?" She asked.

"Monday," I said with a small shrug.

"So, you haven't been busy the past few days?" She asked and I shook my head. "Is there anything new with Andy, maybe?"

"No, I actually haven't heard from him since Tuesday night," I said. "I guess it's not uncommon though, he isn't always on his phone a lot if he's on a gaming binge. I figured that's what he was doing."

"Ya, I know people who will do that," she said. "But you're talking to him again?"

I looked at her before looking down. "You guys just don't get it, love sometimes looks different to other people outside of the relationship."

Jamia didn't say anything.

"How was your ball?" I asked.

"My what?" She asked.

"Your weird family reunion ball thing," I said. "The one we went dress shopping for."

"No, right, right," she mumbled. "Um, yeah, it hasn't happened yet, I just forgot about it with school work. Do you wanna come?"

"M-me?" I asked. "I don't know if I belong."

"Please, me and Frank get so bored, it would be nice having you be there," she said. "Plus, you get to wear a cute outfit."

"Um, I guess I would have to think about it," I said. "When is it?"

Jamia hesitated. "Saturday."

"Oh, that's soon," I said. "I don't know."

"Yeah, yeah, it's soon, I'm sorry," she said.

I finished up my sandwich and crumbled up the tinfoil it came in.

"What time are your classes today?" She asked.

"I only have one but my professor actually cancelled it," I said.

"That's good, I already had my one class. It's short but unfortunately very early," she said. "Did you wanna hang out?"

Andy doesn't want me talking to her at all, he's gonna get mad at me again.

"We can go off campus," she said as though she were reading my mind.

I checked my phone but didn't see any messages from Andy. If he hasn't gotten to me in a day, what are the chances he'll message me when I'm with Jamia for a few hours?

"Did you have anything planned?" I asked.

"Anything you have in mind?" She asked.

"Anything is fine," I said.