I threw myself back down on my bed, covering my face with a pillow, and lightly yelled into it. This year was not starting on a good note.
Shawn walked back into the room after his shower, continuing to unpack from his trip. “She can have dinner tonight, if you’re up for it.”
“Tonight?” I asked with surprise. We literally talked about it fifteen minutes ago.
“No better time than the present. We drove back up together because she doesn’t have a car, so we had already talked about getting together. Since you had the idea, I thought we would jump on it before we get too busy with school.” He avoided my gaze as he continued unpacking.
“Okay, sure. Text me where to meet you. I’m going to go run some errands.” I grabbed my purse from my desk chair and left without saying goodbye.
I watched the sunset from the town square when Shawn texted.
Shawn
Want to meet us at Woody’s downtown?
I sent him a thumbs-up and headed to the restaurant, which had the best burgers in town. They were already standing in front when I arrived. I watched them together, but the sting of jealousy never came.
“Hey guys.” I lifted my hand in a low wave. Could I be any more lame?
“Hey,” Shawn said, “I put our name down already, so we’re just waiting for a table.” I nodded. “This is my girlfriend, Jill. Jill, this is my best friend, Serenity.”
“That’s such a pretty name,” Jill said. “Mine is short for Jilian, but please call me Jill. So nice to meet you.” She extended her hand out for me to shake.
I took her hand in mine and shook lightly. She was sweet, and I could tell I had my resting bitch face on by Shawn’s expression. “Great to meet you, too,” I finally said. “Shawn said you’re a student here. What are you majoring in?”
“I’m majoring in Software Engineering; I hope to design video games someday. What about you?”
“That must be how you all met. I’m studying Marketing. I want to work in a book-related field and then maybe transition to having my own bookstore someday.” I shifted from one foot to the next, racing thoughts piercing in about what the future held. Luckily, before we could continue, the host called for Shawn, indicating our table was ready. I followed swiftly behind the new happy couple, holding hands.
We took our seats, and I buried my face in the menu. “Opening up your own business can be hard; you’re very courageous for taking on that path.” I couldn’t help but take her comment as patronizing. She probably didn’t mean it to come out that way, but it still felt like a dig, nonetheless.
“I’m sure when the time comes, I’ll figure it all out,” I said with a flat tone.
Shawn shot me a stern expression. I wasn’t trying to be intentionally mean to her or make her feel uncomfortable in any way, but even he could tell that her comment was unnecessary, right?
“So aside from school, what are you into?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I mostly read when I have the free time to do so. I lost some of my love for reading now that I read so much for school. Shawn and I are music buffs too, so we go to local shows.”
Jill’s smile slowly fell. “You two don’t get tired of each other spending so much time together? When I shared a room with my sister, any time I wasn’t home, I didn’t want to be around her.”
Shawn finally chimed in, “We don’t spend all that much time together.”
I looked over at him, taken aback. A small laugh lodged itself in my throat.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“It’s okay to admit that I haven’t made many friends in college. Shawn makes sure I don’t feel alone.” In all honesty, Shawn had been the one to initiate outings with me or stay in to watch movies or listen to music instead of going to parties his other friends had invited him to. So, I didn’t understand why he acted as if we were barely acquaintances.
“Some people have a harder time connecting with others,” she said, condescendingly again. “I’m sure you’ll make friends soon and can have a break from this one.” She pointed over at Shawn.
We were interrupted by the waiter who took our orders.
“I’m afraid I might be stuck with that one for life, or our tattoos would be really awkward.” I knew I shouldn’t have brought up our tattoos. They weren’t matching, but they represented our friendship.
“Tattoos?” Jill questioned, looking slowly over at Shawn.
He ran his hand through his hair awkwardly. “I got trees, and she got mountains for the move here. It’s not that deep.” He gave a pleading expression. The truth was, I got six mountain peaks, and he got six trees to represent how long we had been friends. We even scheduled to get an additional one for another year of friendship this year.
