“If I were injailyou’dbe getting a call from Davidson County Correctional Facility, not my cell phone.”
“Well,I can’t imagine any other reason you’d be calling me on a Sunday morning.”
“I need girl advice.”
“Christ almighty, what did you do?” She asked in an exasperated tone.
“Listen, Tess and I had a misunderstanding last night thatledto I guessour first fight? Idon’teven know ifthat’swhatyou’dcall it. Anyway. We had agreed to go to breakfast this morning, my treat obviously, andshe’snow sayingshe’stoo tired anddoesn’twant to go. Is that real or does she just hate me?”
“Okay well first of all, you’re a drama queen, she does not hate you,” Tristan listened intently to Katie’sno-nonsensevoice as the coffee dripped steadily intohisI’mThe Favorite Sonmug that Jordan had gotten Tristan as a Christmas gift last year. “And second of all,” she said, “how bad was the fight?”
“I mean, bad enough that shedidn’twant me to take her home. Even though Icouldn’tbecause I was gettingdrunkerbythesecond but, shedidn’twant to stay with me at the party either.”
“So she needed some space.”
“I guess so, yeah.”
“It sounds like she may still need some.”
“Nooo,” Tristan whined, clutching his fist and pounding it lightly on thecountertopin front of him, “I don’t want space,I want to see her.”
“Too bad champ,” Katie said with a laugh, “She’llbealright. Just let her have her moment andmaybe checkback in with her later to see if she stilldoesn’twant to see you.”
“Alright, thanks. I’ll check back in with her later today.”
He thanked Katie for her advice and hung up the phone, promptly pulling his messages back up and pressing Tessa’s name.
“What’d she say?” Jordan mumbled, really only half invested in the answer.
“She made a heck of a lot more sense than you did, that’sfor sure,” he retorted.
“Whatever.”
Tristandidn’treply to his older brother, as he was too busy sending off a message to his girlfriend that he desperately wanted to be in front of right now, on his knees, groveling and confessing his love for her. But fornow,he would have to settle with Katie’s advice and a simple message:
I really wanted to see you, but I understand. I’ll call you later to see how you’re feeling.
Tristan had tried multiple times throughout the afternoon to get a hold of Tessa, but she continued to ignore his calls and texts.It was now almost 8pm and the knot in Tristan’s stomachwas so tight he felt like he would combust from pure anxiety. This was so unlikeher,and he began feeling like something was off in more ways than just their mild spat the night before.Sowhen she had ignored his phone call for the fifth time that night, he pulled his hoodie back over his head and slipped into hisfavorite pair of black and red Jordans and got into his truck. He had no intention of asking anyone for their advice anymore because all that he knew was that he was unable to stay away from Tessa for a second longer. There was an ache in the middle of his chest that had now grown tounbearablelevels ofemotional pain hehadn’tyet experienced. He knew that if he spent one more second away from her and not resolving whatever was standing in the way of him telling her that he had fallen desperately in love with her,that the outcomelikely wouldn’tbe good for either of them.
Sohe drove the 10 minutes from hisvery smalltwo-storycondoon the east side of campus to hervery smallone-storyhouse on the west side of campus. A light drizzle hadbegun to fall from thesky,and the night was especially chilly, but he felt no need to turn on the heat in histruckoractivatethe windshield wipers. Hewas so determined to get to her as quickly as possible that he drove in silence, staring straight out at the road, going over what he planned to say to her in his head.
Much to Tristan’ dismay, Abigail was the one who came to the front door. Her eyes grew big as saucers when she saw him, and the already nagging feeling of dread deep within his gut only intensified when shediscreetly pushed herself through the front door and closed it quietly behind her, not allowing him to get even an inch near entering the home.
“What in the fuck is going on?” Tristan asked, flaring his arms out at his side in desperation.
“I think you should go back home,” Abigail whispered tensely.
“Yeah, I’m not fucking doing that,” Tristan said sternly with a headshake. “Where is my girlfriend and what the fuck is going on with her? Is thisreally justabout last night? Because I wanted her to come to the party with me, Abigail, and I swear Iwasn’tdoing anything shady with Veronica, and Idon’tunderstand why-”
“Would you keep your voice down?!” She hissed.
“If you don’t starttalking,I’m really sorry but,I’m justgonnahave to push past you and go inside to get to her.”
“Listen, she’s fine, she just needs time to process everything, okay?”
“Processwhat?!” He threw his hands up in frustration before crossing them defiantly over his chest. “Something else is going on here. I know Tessa andthis is a bit out of scope for her.”
There was a very heavy silence between them as the rain began to pick up and the breeze in the air whooshed between them. Abigail chewed on her lower lip anxiously before sighing and running her hands through her red curls.
