Tragic and Wonder: An Un-Fairytale [On Hold]

Chapter 5- Asking A Friend

Amanda and Casper were almost done with their third year at Adler. I was still slowly working my way through classes while working almost every day, whether at the coffee shop or the bookstore. Amanda was going to finish her four-year degree at the end of this year. Casper, being inspired by her hard work, will graduate a semester early. He was hoping to make it in the three years like Amanda, but he began his three-year course load a semester later than he should have to graduate with her. At the rate I was going, I would be done with my degree in another five years. I was beginning to think that not taking out loans would cost me more in the end and that I would be in college forever. (I was overexaggerating, but I was starting to doubt my plans for the future.)

As our time at Adler progressed, so did our friendship. Amanda and I were more like sisters than we were during high school, which is hard to believe because we were nearly inseparable then. Casper was still the goofball between the three of us, and I still had a desperate crush on Casper that I could not act on because Amanda's crush for him only grew over the last almost three years. We grew closer than I could have ever hoped to ever be with Casper. It was getting harder for me to ignore my feelings for Casper, but I had to for Amanda. I would not be the one to ruin her chance of a happily ever after.

One day while I was at the bookstore, Casper came in to talk to me. While it was not out of the norm for him to come in to talk, it was out of the norm for him to come up to me and ask if he could talk to me. I asked Mrs. Gable if I could take a fifteen minute break since I had already stocked most of the books from the latest shipment. She said that I could, so I thanked her and went to find Casper.

"Hey Casp, what's going on?" I asked, startling him to the point of making him jump a little.

"Dude! Why did you scare me?" He asked in reply.

"I didn't mean to, but it was pretty funny." I said while laughing a little.

"No, it wasn't." He frowned but started to look nervously at me.

"Casper Cunningham, what is going on? You look like you just found out that you have an exam in ten minutes."

"Well, it's not an exam but I am a bit nervous." Casper replied.

"What is wrong?" I asked starting to feel nervous myself.

"C-Can I get your opinion on something?"

I have never once heard Casper stutter before, something is definitely wrong. I thought to myself.

"Sure Casp, anything for my best friend." I said, hoping that would help ease some of his nervousness.

"Well, I would like you to watch this video that I made. I need your opinion on it."

"Yeah! I can totally watch a video that you made." I laughed a little. "It has to be good if you put it together."

"Okay, but please don't laugh at it. I put a lot of thought into it and I really need an honest response to it." He said.

"Okay, now I am curious. What is this about?" I asked.

"Well, I can't tell you, you just have to wait and see." He replied, pulling his laptop out of his backpack to load the video for me to watch. Once he had it loaded, he handed me a pair of earbuds and his computer. He told me to press play when I was ready to start. Once I had the earbuds in place, I pressed play and calm, almost romantic music began with pictures flooding the screen of our high school days.

"I first saw you our freshman year. You were there to help me adjust to a new school. You were there when I was down after my first time getting dumped. You have been there to help me when I needed help and have been a listening ear when I needed one. I have always hidden my feelings for you because I didn't want it to affect our friendship. I love our friendship and would hate to lose it, but I cannot hide my feelings for you any longer."