The Secret's Secret

“Will that be all for you?” The man sniffed in an unflattering manner, mumbled something which she took as a “yes”, grunted, then handed the menu to Amy he had been gripping in his grimy, sausage-like fingers. She jotted down the last of his order, then quickly made her way to the kitchen. Men like that were unsettling. He looked like he could jump out of anywhere and slit your throat, no questions asked. Her straight, unruly, brown hair was straying from it’s bun again. Amy hated having to fix it every so often. It was always such a pain. It always wanted to escape the confines of the bun she had to keep it in when she worked. Upon arriving in the kitchen, she called out his order to the cook and clipped up the order slip.
“I need one Spanish omelet, no onions, and a side of links!” Amy yelled over the din of the kitchen’s clatters, bangs, and sizzles, while redoing her hair. Every time she went in there, she didn’t want to stay long. The noise alone would give her such a headache. After taking care of the man’s order, she walked back out to get the man his coffee. She avoided running into John with his food-laden tray and proceeded to her customer. After pouring his coffee she checked the rest of her area. No new customers yet. Upon returning to the kitchen, the noise seemed to have escalated. She definitely preferred the quiet of the actual restaurant area of Rosa’s Tambourine to the noise of the kitchen, but she liked the chaos of it all. Everything seeming to happen all at once, the uncertainty of whether or not someone would burn a dish, the moments where everything would either come together or fall completely to pieces, sometimes literally, just everything about it. The thing was, it wasn’t complete chaos, it was more like ordered chaos. Everyone had a set task and everything was done in a certain way, it wasn’t a total free-for-all. Just as she was going to make her rounds again, her manager, Kelsey, approached her.
“Amy?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you remember me telling you about that new employee we recently hired?”
“Um...yeah, I think I remember you mentioning something like that.”
“Well, she’s starting tomorrow and I want you to show her the ropes when she gets here, ok?”
“Sure, whatever you say Kel. Just make sure she doesn’t expect me to do every damn thing for her. I’m just there for guidance. Remember Rebecca? That girl didn’t last five minutes after training because John did everything for her. If I had trained that girl, she’d still be here. Not that I’m blaming John, that girl wasn’t cut out for waitressing.”
“That’s exactly why you’re training her, not John.”
“Someone should train him on how to train someone. It’d do us a lot of good. God knows he can’t do it to save his life.”
“Quit being so harsh on him, you were just the same as he was for a while.”
“I was never that oblivious. At least I knew when to let the trainee do something and when to interfere.” Kelsey sighed and walked off to go bug someone else about something. As much as Amy liked Kelsey, she tended to nag her about everything. It was almost like having a second mother around you at all times. But that was about where the similarities between the two stopped. If they ever met one another in real life, they’d soon find out they were complete opposites. For one, Kel was an organization freak, where as her mother could care less about where anything went. Most of the time you couldn’t even walk on the actual floors because they were so cluttered. But they were still so similar in their motherliness it was actually kind of scary.
Amy sighed again and then went to check on those orders. All of them were done. She promptly picked up a tray and put all of the dishes on it and walked out of the kitchen. She served a small family their dishes and then proceeded to the unsettling man. He was reading a tabloid of all things. From the looks of him, you would never guess he read tabloids. Although, now that she thought of it, not many people looked like much of anything at first glance. She served the man his food, asked if he needed anything else, and then as she was about to go back to the kitchen, she noticed that there was a new couple in her area. She quickly walked over to them and asked if they were ready to order. They said they were, and as she looked at the man, she immediately noticed that he was very attractive, maybe not quite handsome, but not bad either. He had shaggy brown hair, a nice, firm jaw with a softness to it, and the prettiest blue-hazel eyes you can imagine. She was awoken from her trance by his amazingly deep, soothing voice.
“I’ll have the hot cakes with bacon, please, and coffee.”
“Ok,” she finished writing his order then looked at the woman, “and what shall I get for you?”
“Um, can I have the veggie omelet with hash browns and I’ll just have water.”
“You sure can, I’ll be right back with your drinks.” Amy checked up on her other tables and then went to get the couple their drinks. When she was walking back, the couple seemed to be having a heated discussion, but it abruptly stopped when she approached. The woman flashed her a very strained smile, said thank you and waited for Amy to get what she thought was out of earshot, which it was, unfortunately for Amy. She liked to hear what was going on in everyone else’s lives. She thought it made her life a bit more interesting. As she kept checking in on them and brought them their food and the check, she noticed that the discussion got more and more intense. By the time they left she thought for sure that the woman was going to throw something at the man. She was somewhat disappointed that nothing did happen, but at the same time glad nothing happened because she probably would’ve had to help break up the fight or clean up after those two. Neither of which she was willing to do that day. There was just too much going on. Between classes at the university and her job, she didn’t have time to be cleaning up someone else’s messes, let alone her own. She checked the clock and saw it was getting close to the end of her shift.
“Thank you God,” Amy uttered under her breath, “I really need to get that article done tonight.” Amy went to find Kel, no one had come to her area since the couple had left, and told her she was going home. Kel checked the schedule and then waved her off. Amy got her coat and then ran out to her car. Sweet sweet freedom. Nothing felt better than getting out of that place after being there for countless hours. For the middle of winter in the northwest, it was relatively warm. There was still snow on the ground, and seeing your breath was as normal as blinking, it was still pretty cold by anyone else’s standards, but to someone who’s never left the northwest for more than a couple days, it was almost spring-like weather. As soon as she unlocked her car, she jumped in, shut the door, started the car, and went to turn on the heat. As soon as she turned the knob for the heat, she heard an odd noise. Where had she heard that noise before? It seemed so familiar yet, she couldn’t exactly place it. It was on the tip of her tongue, where had she heard it? Now she remembered. The same thing had happened to her a couple years ago. The heater decided to have a spaz attack and break. Great, just what she needed: a broken heater in the middle of winter. Now everything was perfect. An article to write, a cruddy roommate, a job that produced more trouble than it was worth, an ex-boyfriend who she wish would quit trying to call her, and now the creme du la creme: a broken heater. Just what she always wanted for christmas.
She beat the horn of the car in frustration, screamed a few obscenities and then started to drive home to her nice, warm dorm. As she drove home, she kept yelling at people to get out of the way and honked whenever she felt it necessary. Often when Amy would get stressed out, she would mumble to herself about her problems, yell at people whether she was driving or not, and just overall be unfriendly. She tried to avoid stress as often as she possibly could, which as of late seemed almost impossible. She managed to escape every so often, but obviously not often enough. What would help her the most would be to write in her journal, she did it only when she felt it necessary, it wasn’t a daily thing, it was sporadic. Sometimes there would be months between entries, but for the past month, she had been keeping an almost daily track of her life. Everything just seemed to be thrown at her at once all of the time. There was never a break, there was always somewhere she had to be or some huge assignment or a project that had to be done. It got to be very troublesome and tiring. She wondered how anyone could survive so much stress, but then she would remember that she was still there, so she must be doing ok. But that didn’t change the fact that it was tiring.
She pulled into the student parking lot outside of her dorm and headed into the warm building. She went up to her room as fast as she could. She just wanted to go to sleep, it was already 8:53, but she needed to get that damned article done tonight. The deadline was either tomorrow or the day after, she couldn’t remember, but either way it’s always best to get your article done early so that you can stop worrying about it. Upon reaching the door, she pulled out her key and walked in. She shut the door behind her and proceeded to walk to the bedroom she and her roommate shared. She opened the door and found her roommate laying on the bed making out, she thought, with someone. Amy stared, mouth agape for a second and then shut the door quickly. She hoped that the bang had been enough to pull her roommate, Angela, from whose ever face she had latched onto so she could go in there for her laptop, which was conveniently stashed out of harm’s way under the bed. After deciding that should’ve been enough time for the two of them to detach and dress decently again, or to at least find something to cover themselves with, she knocked and opened the door, careful not to look the two of them in the eye.
“Hi Amy, what did you need?” Angela asked, sounding especially exasperated. Apparently she felt the need to stow away her mystery lover of the day, Amy didn’t see anyone else in the room.
“Sorry, I just needed to get my laptop.”
“Ok then, make it quick.” She did not need to be told twice, she didn’t want to find out who Angela had picked for her victim. So she quickly got her laptop and as she was heading out the door called, “I’ll be at the library if you need me,” and with that, shut the door again.
“God, how many times do I have to tell her if she HAS to do something like that, she should do it at the guy’s place, not ours!” Amy sighed again and headed down to the library. As she walked along the pathways that lead to the enormous building, she heard some rather loud shouting. She looked around for the source of the noise and found that it was coming from an open grassed area of the campus, there was a couple fighting. As she walked nearer, the shouting grew louder and louder. She had to pass them to get to the library quick enough so she could stay long enough to finish her article before the library closed at 10:30. When she got closer, she could hear what was going on between the two and got a better look at them. She then realized that it was the couple from the restaurant. She could hardly believe that the two of them were still going at it. This fight seemed even more heated than what she had witnessed at Rosa’s Tambourine, if that was possible. As she came closer, she felt the impulse to sit on the nearest bench, which was facing away from them, and listen in. She turned on her laptop so as not to look suspicious.
“How could you think that I would forgive you after such a thing?!” said the woman.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about! I really don’t!” retorted the man.
“You DO know what I’m talking about, Caleb! You just don’t want to admit it! How could you do this to me? After everything we’ve been through? Did you think you would get off scot-free? Did you think I wouldn’t find out? You must think I’m pretty stupid for trying to pull this. Did you think you could pull the wool over my eyes?”
“No! Because I didn’t do anything! How can I pull the wool over your eyes if there’s nothing to pull the wool over your eyes about?!”
“Well I don't’ care what you say! Unless you do something about this, I’m going to leave you! And I mean it this time!” After finishing her enumeration of yells, the woman stormed off in a huff.
“Crystal! Crystal, come back!” Caleb watched Crystal leave, his arm slightly outstretched, reaching for her. He slumped in defeat when she didn’t even turn for a second glance at him. There was a long silence, then Amy heard the crunching of snow underneath boots coming towards her. She quickly made it look like she had been typing her article during the fight. He came and sat down on the bench next to her.
“Some fight, huh?” he asked.
“What fight?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear that whole thing, I’m sure the entire campus could. They wouldn’t even have to try very hard, we were yelling loud enough.” Amy smiled.
“More like she was yelling loud enough, you weren’t even really yelling. What was she talking about anyway? It sounded pretty serious.”
“She has this crazy idea that I’m cheating on her, when in actuality, she’s the one cheating on me. I’ve known for a while now, I just haven’t done anything about it.”
“Why not? I mean, doesn’t that just irk you to no end? Aren’t you jealous or anything at all?”
“Yeah, I guess so, but our relationship has been falling apart for a long time now. I just don’t really care enough to do anything about it, I guess.” He sighed and watched the steam from his breath curl into the winter night sky. Amy broke the brief silence.
“How did you find out she was cheating on you?”
“I just found clues that lead me to the conclusion. Clothing at her place that wasn’t mine, by the way she lives in her own apartment, people calling her whose phone numbers and names I didn’t recognize or know, canceling more and more of our dates, you know, the usual. I really don’t know why I haven’t done anything about it. Maybe I just knew that I wasn’t making her happy anymore and so I stopped caring about our relationship. I really don’t know. Oh, by the way, I’m Caleb, Caleb Regaoski.” He pulled his hand from his pocket to shake her hand, Amy took it, it was warm and she could tell his hand was very strong.
“Amy, Amy Stern.”
“Nice to meet you Amy. So what are you doing out here on this cold, winter night? I find it hard to believe you came out here in the freezing cold just to write what appears to be a newspaper article.” He gave her a knowing kind of smile, and she couldn’t help but smile back. He had such a pretty smile.
“Well, to be totally honest, I was heading to the library, but when I heard you fighting, I just kind of decided to sit down and listen. I saw you guys fighting earlier at Rosa’s and was just curious as to what you could possibly be fighting about for so long. Sorry, that wasn’t an appropriate thing to do. I shouldn’t have violated your privacy like that. It’s none of my business.” Amy started getting up to leave, but she felt a hand grabbing her arm gently.
“It’s fine, I actually really appreciate it. I think it’s helping me deal with all of this a bit calmer than what I normally would.” He gave her that smile that she thought could possibly reduce steel to nothing more than a puddle. She sat back down next to him, and just studied his face for a minute. Then she turned forward and just stared down at her hands, which were holding her laptop. After a bit, they started talking again. They talked for what seemed like hours, but was, in actuality not very long. Maybe an hour, or an hour and a half. Neither of them were sure how long it was, but it was good conversation. When Amy finally realized what time it was, she gave Caleb her phone and dorm room numbers and he gave her his. As they parted ways, she felt really good about what had happened and was glad she hadn’t gone to the library, she wouldn’t have gotten anything done anyway.
She finally arrived back in the dorm room, with no sign of Angela, or her mystery man anywhere. Which was just what she needed. A nice quiet place to sit and write her newspaper article. Amy had to write an article about the necessity of the arts in public schools, which was due in about two days, not counting today. It wasn’t a story that would be on the front page, but it was an article none the less. Being a journalist major, you took whatever was thrown your way and glad you had anything to write about at all. Sometimes you’d be the unlucky one without an article to write, which of course was not a good thing if you were trying to get hired by a newspaper that reached a large scale of people.
As she wrote her article she noticed that her mind tended to wander more than usual. She kept thinking about the insane accusations made by Crystal, how badly it all seemed to hurt Caleb and why he would possibly want to stay with her. Even if he said it didn’t hurt him, she could see that in one way or another he was hurting. There was no way anyone could be completely fine after finding out their significant other was cheating on them. It just wasn’t possible. She tried getting back on task when she realized she was off-task again, but not long after she would start to think of Caleb again. He seemed to be at the foremost part of her mind. After trying to write for about another hour or so, she decided bed was in order. So she changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and washed her face. As she was walking to bed, she noticed that Angela was asleep, alone, on her bed. She must have come in at some point while Amy was trying to write her article. She looked at her a moment longer and then crawled into her own bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes.
Amy was walking with her best friend, Romy, and friends from high school down the street Romy’s house was located on. For some reason, Caleb was there, walking with them. No one seemed to find this odd or out of place, so Amy went along with it. They were walking back from the park near Romy’s house, and upon reaching her house, someone’s cell phone started ringing from the porch. Caleb said it was his and went to answer it. After he answered, Amy could somehow hear what the person on the other line was saying, it sounded like Crystal.
“Hey sweetie! What are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m hanging out with Amy, Romy, and some of their friends.” Amy got the feeling that Crystal was out of town.
“Why?”
“Because it’s Amy’s last day in town.” After that, Amy couldn’t hear what Crystal said, but it didn’t seem good. Caleb hung up, looked at his phone angrily and then walked back down to where Amy and Romy were. The number of people that had been with them previously increased from 4 to 6, and one of the original people had been replaced with someone else. Everyone had decided to go back to the park to bug someone whom everyone knew. As they walked down the street, everyone talked and laughed with each other. Caleb seemed to fit right in with everyone. Near the end of the street, Caleb turned to Amy and hugged her. She was so caught off guard she had to ask why.
“Because, I don’t want to let you go.” They hugged again, this time though, his shirt was missing. As they hugged, Amy had her eyes closed and she inhaled his scent, it was a nice cologne. It was a very comforting smell, something she knew she’d love smelling when she was scared so she would feel safe. She could feel his body heat through her clothes, he was so warm. They hugged whilst they walked and all the while, everyone else was making little remarks about it, nothing rude, just teasing. Finally, Romy turned to her and asked, “Are you ever going to let him go?”
Amy seemed to contemplate this for a second and then replied, “No, he’s warm.”
Amy slowly opened her eyes and saw sunlight dancing on the walls of her dorm room. She stared at the ceiling and watched the patterns being made by the trees and the sun outside her window. She pondered her dream for a couple minutes. It was an odd one to be sure, she hadn’t been to Romy’s house in ages, and why was Caleb there? She had only just met the guy. As she lay on her bed considering everything, she thought of the dream hug. She blushed at the thought of it, but she could feel his arms wrapping around her. She felt so wonderfully safe and calm in those arms. She was curious to find out if that's what she’d really feel like in his arms or if she’s just imagining all of it. As much as she wanted to find out if it was as nice as she imagined, he still had a girlfriend, albeit a crappy one, but a girlfriend none the less, and she hardly knew him.
She looked over at her alarm clock; 10:48. It was still early for her. Amy liked Saturdays. That’s when Angela had her longest class, which meant she had the room to herself for most of the day. Sometimes Amy wished she didn’t have a roommate at all, but she figured she’d get lonely eventually and would just like to have someone around, even if they were a pain in the ass most of the time. She thought of it as having a younger sibling, you hate having them around because they’re annoying, but you’d miss them if they were gone.
Amy sat up, scratched her head and sat on the edge of her bed for a minute. After she decided she could muster up enough energy, she got up and to walk to the shared bathroom of all the rooms on her floor. She pulled her washcloth from the cabinet and hunted for the face wash. Angela never put it back in the same place and every once in a while, she’d find it hiding in the oddest places - like in the middle of one of the unused toilet paper rolls under the sink. Today she found it on top of the medicine cabinet. She headed over to the bathroom, finding it empty. She squeezed some of the cleanser on the cloth, ran it under the faucet, and began to scrub her face. As she scrubbed her cheeks, she looked at herself in the mirror. For some reason, she thought she looked different. Not so much in her physical features, but more in the way she seemed to be carrying herself, and in her facial expressions. Her face didn’t seem so harsh and tough. It had a kind of softness to it that wasn’t there before. As she studied her face, she became more and more aware of things that weren’t there before. The sadness that had been in her eyes for so long was starting to drain away. There was life coming back into them.
This was starting to unnerve her, so she quickly finished rinsing her face, and walked out of the bathroom. She went to find some breakfast type food in their small cabinets. As she was crossing the room, she heard a knock on the door. Amy walked up to the door and peered through the peephole and gasped. It was Caleb. She quickly ran into her room to grab some pants. She was currently in her pajamas, which consisted of a tank top and her underwear. She found a pair of jeans and slid them on, Caleb knocked on the door again. As she went to answer the door, she quickly put up her hair in a messy bun. She opened the door and there he was, smiling that gorgeous smile at her. She smiled back.
“Hey, Caleb.”
“Hey, Amy.” They stood there looking at each other for about a minute.
“You want to come in?”
“Yeah, sure. But I can’t stay for long.” He looked around at the room.
“That’s fine. So what brings you into my neck of the woods? Your dorm is on the other side of campus.” Amy said crossing over to her couch and grabbing a pillow.
“Well, I have class in about 15 minutes with Dosey so I thought I’d swing by before class.” Caleb leaned against the “dining” table located near the small cabinets and mini-fridge.
“Oh ok. I have him for a class on Monday. Isn’t he a new professor? Some of my friends who graduated last year never mentioned him.” She sat down on the couch.
“ Yeah, he’s new. He’s not bad either, in my opinion. He seems to know what he’s talking about and he doesn’t grade too harshly, mind you it’s not easy, but it’s not so hard everyone is failing, so he’s ok in my book.”
“Really? I find his class really difficult, I’m not doing too well in there right now. But I was never really good at anatomy or any kind of science for that matter. I’m a writer through and through. He has a weird grading scale in my opinion though. It seems like some of the people who hardly pay attention get the best grades and those that try as hard as they can can’t get anything higher than about a c or b. Why do you think that is?”
“Well, there have been rumors flying around that he sleeps with students who need a grade boost. I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I don’t think it would surprise me if it was. I mean, a lot of the girls who take his class all say that he’s ‘the dreamiest guy I’ve ever seen!’ or something like that. I wouldn’t know though. What do you think of him?”
“Me? Well I generally sit near the back or towards the middle, so I can’t really see him that well. And I never really pay attention to what teachers look like anyway. I figure why bother? They’re all older than I am and I don’t really want to go on a date with a guy who was 18 when I was born or anything like that. Although I guess that Dosey’s still pretty young, so he’s not too much older than we are. Either way I’ve never really had a good look at him. So anyway, what’s your major?”
“Medical science. I’m hoping to become a physical therapist.”
“Wow, that’s pretty cool. There aren’t too many people I know who want to do something like that. What made you want to do it?”
“Well, my mom hurt her wrists really badly in a car accident, and after watching her with her physical therapist at all of her appointments, and just seeing the progress she would make, I just kind of felt like that was what I really wanted to do. I like helping people out and watching them get better and better at things they’ve had difficulty doing for a long period of time. Plus it’s just an interesting thing to bring up during conversation with people you don’t know very well.” He smiled at her again, Amy smiled back at him. They sat there smiling and looking at each other for a minute or two and then finally Caleb looked at his watch and announced he had to go to class and that he might drop by again later. Amy saw him out the door and then she went and sat on the couch. She grabbed a pillow and clutched it to her chest while she brought her knees up to her chest as well. She sat like that for a while before she remembered she was hungry.
She walked over to the fridge and found some leftover spaghetti from a couple nights ago. She heated it up in their little microwave, put some butter on it, and ate at their little table. While she ate, she tried to remember if she had to work that day or not. She decided that most likely, she had to. So she figured she’d have to go into work the same time she did every other time she worked Saturday: 4:00 until close at 10. She looked at the clock, it was almost noon. She washed off her dishes and put them away in the cabinet. Then she went into the bathroom and took a shower. She was in an unusually good mood, so she sang while she was in the shower. Amy wasn’t much of a shower singer unless she was in a good mood or heard a good song on the radio when Angela was blasting it when they showered at the same time. After she finished her shower, Amy stepped out and wrapped a towel around her and walked back to the room. She changed clothes, put her hair up in a ponytail, and then sat down with her laptop to finish her article, or get as much done as she possibly could.
She found it difficult to concentrate at first, but when she put on some music, she found it easier to focus. She was listening to the soundtracks of Cirque du Soleil. That music spoke to her in ways no other music could. The grace and beauty of the music was astounding and inspiring. She couldn’t help but close her eyes and just let the music flow through her on certain songs. She became the music, and it became her, she was one with the soaring notes and lilting lyrics. She felt the emotion of all the music and the beauty and grace filled her up with thoughts of things that no one but she knew how to describe. She received images from the music that she felt should be put down in poetry or in paintings, but she was no good at describing things that were hard to understand, like her mental images, and painting was impossible for her. So she just let the music fill her to the brim with beauty and grace until she thought she would burst.
After a couple hours, she finally finished her article. It probably wasn’t her best work, but it would have to do. At least she could hand it in on time. She looked at the clock: 3:17. She finished just in time, she just needed to find her uniform, throw that on, and drive to work. So she shut down her laptop, found her clean uniform and put it on. She grabbed her coat, keys, purse, wallet, and cell phone and headed down to the car. She climbed into her car, started it up, and drove away to Rosa’s. She was freezing the entire way, but there was nothing she could do about the broken heater as of yet. Once she got to Rosa’s, she clocked in, she was a bit earlier than usual, which was fine with her, it meant she may get paid a bit more.
“Amy! I need you over here, now!” a disembodied voice called to her. It sounded like it might be Kel, but she couldn’t be sure, there was another girl who worked at Rosa’s who sounded a lot like her, but resembled her in no other way. Turns out it was Kel, and she was standing next to a gawky looking high school-er. It took Amy a minute to remember that Kel had just hired a new waitress and it was her job to train her.
“Hi Kel, what do you have for me to do today?”
“I have a trainee here who needs your help so she can make it through the tough world of waitressing alive. And I’d prefer it if you didn’t help her along the way to being killed. Be nice to her, Amy, I mean it. I’ll have you killed if you screw this girl up.” Kel walked away and left Amy to study the girl and assess what it was exactly she had to do to get her in shape. She studied her a second before she said anything to her.
“What’s your name?”
“Claire,” the girl said softly while looking at the floor and shuffling her feet.
“Hi Claire, I’m Amy,” she extended her hand, Claire looked up slightly and took her hand, looking away while they shook hands. “You okay there Claire? You’re avoiding my eyes like they’d turn you to stone.”
She looked up and looked her in they eye, Amy smiled at her. She gave a very awkward kind of smile back to her. “Ok, well first off, when you’re a waitress, you have to be looking up at all times, otherwise you’d run into things, like other waiters with trays of drinks, and trust me it’s no fun to run into one of them. Second of all, you need to speak up, it gets noisy around here and some people are hard of hearing, so when you’re talking to a customer, make sure you speak loud enough that they can hear you, but not so loud you’re yelling at them. Third, despite whatever Kel has told you, I’m not going to maim you, slaughter you, or devour you, I don’t do that to anyone but John, he’s my designated victim.” Claire looked a little pale at the mention of this, “That was a joke by the way. I don’t really kill people in any way shape or form.”
Claire smiled at her in an unsure way. As the day went on, Claire seemed to come a bit more and more out of her shell, especially when talking to John. Of course, she didn’t say more than a sentence or two to him at a time, but it was more than what Amy got out of her, which was a few words here or there. It seemed like Claire would make a good waitress after she got used to everything and came out of her shell more. After a couple hours, Amy decided to let her try to do everything on her own. She watched from the corner as she went up to a young couple and took their order. She seemed to be doing ok, she remembered to smile at them and ask if they wanted anything else with their orders and take their menus. She was doing wonderfully. Amy checked on her order slip to see if she had written everything down right, made one correction and then sent her off to the kitchen to place it. Claire came back out of the kitchen and grabbed a pot of coffee and had a big smile on her face. She turned to Amy and gave her a nice smile and headed off to her table. Amy worked on refilling the remaining coffee pots. Just as she was thinking she could probably let Claire do everything on her own, without her looming over her, she heard a crash, a scream, and then yelling.
Amy ran to the source of the sounds. upon reaching the scene, she saw Claire apologizing profusely and the woman of the young couple scolding her while trying to sop-up the coffee spilled all over her white skirt and pink shirt, without any success. Amy quickly went to the woman, whom looked oddly familiar, and offered dinner on the house. Kel arrived soon after and offered to pay for replacements for the shirt and skirt, dinner on the house, and she threw in dessert for free as well. After thinking about it for a minute, the woman accepted. Everyone helped clean up, and the couple was taken to another table for their meal. Claire was standing by herself, clearly trying not to cry. Amy left the cleanup to John and a busboy and went over to Claire. She took her by the shoulders and guided her to the break room. Once in the room, Amy spoke to her very nicely and quietly.
“Hey, so what happened out there?” At this point Claire was already crying.
“I c-came up to the-the t-table w-with t-the c-coffee p-pot in my h-hand and s-someone b-bumped me f-from b-behind and then t-the c-coffee s-spilled all over here! I-I tried to h-help her out, but s-she just p-pushed me away and eve more spilled on her!” Amy hugged her and reassured her everything would be ok until she calmed down and stopped crying. Then she sent her off to the employee bathroom to clean up. Kel came by and told Amy to cover the table since Claire was obviously too shaken up by the event to continue that table, and the woman didn’t want her serving them the rest of the night anyway. Amy checked in on Claire and then went to check on the couple. As she approached she got a good look at the couple. She almost stopped dead in her tracks. It was Caleb and Crystal. After getting over the shock of the fact that the couple was there for a second night in a row, she felt nothing but rage and utter disdain for Crystal. As she walked to the table, she tried to control her emotions and not let them show. She hoped that if she didn’t learn anything else useful in that one year of theater she took in high school, she’d have at least learned how to hide emotions and act as though everything was normal, even if it wasn’t.
Upon reaching the table, she asked if everything was fine. Crystal looked up and said she’d like another iced tea. Amy glanced at Caleb and asked if he’d like anything, he flashed her a quick smile, saying he didn’t.
“I’ll be back with your iced tea in a minute.” She walked to the back where she filled a glass of iced tea for Crystal. She was tempted to fill the glass with a load of salt, but restrained herself, she didn’t need to get fired, and besides, Crystal had already got what had been coming to her with the whole coffee incident. Amy smiled to herself thinking of the saying lots of people who believed in Karma were fond of: What goes around comes around. Although she didn’t think that was the full pay back for the damage she had done to Caleb and most likely everyone else around her. She gave Crystal her iced tea and then went to check on their orders. They were finished and as she was bringing them out, thoughts of sprinkling cyanide onto Crystal’s food played around in her head. As much as she wanted to do it, again, she didn’t want to get fired, or be charged for murder if she was ever discovered. Either way, for now she was content with just imagining her choking on poison. She placed the dishes in front of Caleb and Crystal asked if there was anything else she could get them, and walked off.
She made her rounds to the few tables that were filled in her area, one of the tables held a very handsome looking man eating alone, then went to check on Claire again. She was sitting at the break table, staring unseeingly at the table top, tracing invisible patterns with her finger. Amy sat down next to her and tried to get her to talk. She wouldn’t at first, but then she said a couple words or would nod her head, depending on what Amy asked her. When she was finally at a loss as to what would make her say anything, she told her about the first time she spilled something on a customer. She had been carrying a tray laden with hot tomato soup, amoung other things, and had tripped over someone’s chair leg, and the soup spilled all over this old woman. She had been so mortified she hadn’t come out of the break room for the rest of the night and thought about quitting all together, but she stuck it out and hadn’t spilled a drop of soup on anyone since. Claire smiled and actually looked at Amy for a second. She smiled back and then told her if she needed anything to just ask.
She walked back out to the dining area and checked on the tables. She took a hamburger over to the handsome man, who looked vaguely familiar. He appeared to be in his late 20’s or early 30’s. He had very nice dark brown hair that was slightly curly. He had very good style sense, even though he didn’t look like he would care, but again, no one really looks like much at first glance. He was very nice to her when she asked if he needed anything and when she came to give him his food, he even tried making a little small talk, she liked customers like him. After serving him, she looked over in Caleb and Crystal’s direction and noticed that they were eating in an almost complete silence. She still wondered why they tolerated one another if they clearly weren’t happy with their relationship. There must be some weird reason behind it. She was curious as to what it was.
She noticed that they were about halfway done with their meal, so she told the cook to start working on their desserts. She also saw that the rest of her tables seemed to be finished so she checked to see if any of them wanted dessert, which they didn’t and then brought them their cheques. She went to see if Claire was doing any better, and she seemed to be just fine, John was talking to her. Claire was definitely growing fond of him, in a not-so-professional way. She thought it was really cute, not even her first day on the job was finished and she had already developed a crush on someone. She wondered if anything would come out of it, or if it would all fizzle out, like most of the other workplace crushes did. On one hand, she wished it would for the sake of the work environment and for their sakes, she didn’t want them to get caught and either of them get fired or if they were to break up to have a negative vibe that affected how both of them worked. On the other hand, she wished something would happen so that Claire would have someone to help her break out of that bubble she seemed to be in most of the time. She wasn’t a very social person, as Amy found out, so it would be good for her to have a boyfriend.
She went to check on Caleb and Crystal again, they were finally finished, so she took away their dinner plates and soon brought out their desserts: lemon meringue pie. When she brought them the pie, she asked if they needed anything, glanced at Caleb, whom barely acknowledged her again, and then refilled their drinks. By the time she got back to take their dessert plates, Crystal had already left, or had gone to the bathroom, Amy wasn’t sure which. She decided if Caleb wasn’t going to acknowledge her,though, then she wouldn’t acknowledge him either. But while she was taking away the plates, Caleb leaned in close to her ear and whispered to her.
“Meet me at the bench when you get off work.” Amy looked at him, surprised he was even speaking to her. He gave her a small smile and she headed back to the kitchen with the dirty plates. When she turned back to see if he was actually serious, she saw Crystal saying something to him, then they both left. She stood by the kitchen door, dumbfounded. This guy was definitely like no one she had ever met before, and she was liking that, but she still wasn’t too keen on the fact that he still had a girlfriend and that she was helping him sneak around behind her back. Even if she was doing the same thing, it didn’t mean he necessarily had the same right. As she stood there with the dirty plates, she almost got knocked over by the constantly opening and closing kitchen door at least three times. She finally remembered that she was supposed to be taking the plates into the kitchen so that they could be cleaned and did just that. There was something about this guy that made her just want to stop doing whatever it was that she was doing and just watch him. He had a very mesmerizing quality to him, and she couldn’t figure out why. All she knew was that he made her mind turn to what she could only think of as liver mush. She didn’t seem to think straight when she looked in those gorgeous blue hazel eyes of his.
She went to talk to Claire some more and gave her more advice on waitressing, it was getting really close to closing time, which meant there wouldn’t be any more people in her section of the restaurant. Everyone else left at around 9:30 or so and Amy was left with Kel to close up. They checked to make sure everything was in order and then locked up for the night. As Amy walked to her car, she noticed that there was something stuck under the windshield wiper. She opened it and found a couple bucks inside and a note.

Amy,
Here’s some tip money. I know we didn’t pay for our dinner, but I feel bad that you’re losing money because Crystal overreacted to the coffee incident earlier tonight. I hope this covers whatever it was that we had tonight. Don’t forget to come meet me on the bench when you get back from work.

Caleb

Amy looked at the note and the money again, and decided that no matter how much protesting he did, she would give him back the money. She didn’t really need it that badly, and besides, even if Crystal hadn’t reacted the way she did to the whole thing, the restaurant still would have paid for at least their dinner. She stuffed the money back in the envelope and pocketed the note in her coat. She climbed into her heater-less car, and began driving back to school.
Upon arriving, she sat in the car and thought for a minute. She wasn’t really sure she wanted to go and meet Caleb at the bench. She still knew next to nothing about him, and even though she was fond of him, she just wasn’t sure if she wanted to already have secret meetings with him. After finally deciding that if she wasn’t going to talk to him tonight, that she just may as well shoot herself in the foot, she got out of the car. Hell, this guy was probably the best person she could find around here without having to dig really deep. She walked past her dorm to the bench where she and Caleb first officially met. She saw that someone was already sitting on it all hunched over, staring at the snow, it was Caleb, of course. She walked to the bench and plopped down next to him. He looked over at her, gave her a small smile and sat up. They didn’t say anything to each other for a few minutes. Then Amy decided to take the plunge and talk first.
“Here’s the money you gave me. I don’t need it and I don’t want you to feel obligated to tip me if something like that ever happens again.” She pulled out the envelope and held it out to him. He looked at it and then back at her.
“I don’t feel obligated, I feel like it’s not right to deny someone something they’ve worked hard for. You worked hard to get all the money you earn, I shouldn’t deny you what you earned. You earned that money I gave you, I didn’t give it to you out of pity or obligation.” Amy looked at him, not surprised that he was refusing to take the back money, even if it was crazy for someone in college to not take money willingly given to them. She tried a couple more times to give him back the money, but without success. Finally she gave up. Caleb started a new subject, and they stuck to it for quite a while until they ended up talking about Crystal.
“I still don’t see why you’re still with her. She’s obviously no good for you and I can tell that neither one of you is happy that you’re still in this relationship. Why not just break it off?”
“I’ve been thinking about that ever since you mentioned it the first time, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because I’d rather play second fiddle, so to speak, than not at all. Besides that, we’ve been together for so long that it’d be weird to not be together. Now that I say those reasons out loud, they sound like the most pitiful excuses I’ve ever heard. I have to be the most pathetic person alive right now.” He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. Amy wasn’t sure what to say to that. She just sat there next to him, looking off into the distance. Then she finally got up her courage to say what she was really thinking.
“You know, you could break things off with her, I’m sure you’d both be relieved. She’s obviously infatuated with this other mystery guy and you seem to be bored with her. You’d be doing yourselves a favor. Both of you seem so unhappy, I’d like to see what a happy Caleb looks like.” He looked up at her.
“I think you’ve already seen a happy Caleb. You just didn’t know it.” He smiled at her slightly, then looked forward again, elbows on his knees. “So how’s that article of yours coming along?”
“I actually finished it earlier today, just before I went to work. Although, I think it was probably one of my worst pieces to date, I couldn’t concentrate on it at all. My mind kept wandering to all sorts of places. I was finally able to sit down and write it when I had some music to listen to. Sometimes I need a distraction in order to keep me focused. The article really sucks, so if you ever read the school newspaper, which I hope you don’t, and see my article, please skip over it and save me the embarrassment of you seeing one of my worst pieces as your first read of my work. My worst one was the one about the lunch lady in the dining hall.”
“That’s not the first thing I’ll have ever seen of your work. I’ve read all of your other articles as well.”
“Even the one about the lunch lady?”
“I found that one to be very funny. I think it was actually one of my favorites that you wrote.”
“You’re kidding, I absolutely hated that article, the lunch lady, and all of her beloved meat sandwiches.” Just as things were starting to get into normal conversation, Amy’s cell vibrated in her pocket and made a bleeping sort of noise. She jumped about ten feet into the air and landed closer to Caleb than she had previously been to the surprise jump. She pulled out her phone and apologized to Caleb with a blush not caused by being out in the cold. She saw that she had a new text message. She opened it up and saw that it was from her ex-boyfriend Kyle. She groaned while she read it. He was telling her again how much he missed her and that he wanted to get back together.
Amy absolutely hated Kyle, she couldn’t understand what had possessed her to go out with him in the first place. He was an asshole through and through. All he had wanted from her was sex, which she didn’t want to give to him of all people. At the time she had liked him, but not enough to sleep with him in any sense of the word. He had done nothing but parade her around like she was a prize to all of his friends, all of whom leered after her every time they saw her. They did it openly in front of Kyle, who didn’t seem worried by it at all, in fact he seemed to encourage it every so often. After a little less than a month, she decided she couldn’t take it anymore and threw him into her discard pile.
Ever since then, he’d send her periodic e-mails, text messages, and would sometimes call her. She got so tired of it and would try and get rid of him in every way she could think of, but she could never shake him off of her tail. He was always there at some point bugging the shit out of her. He was like a cockroach: there when you didn’t want him, and harder to get rid of than a bad flu virus during the cold season. She angrily shut her phone and made a noise of frustration.
“God! Why won’t he just leave me the hell alone?! Does he not comprehend that I really really do not like him? Can he not fathom the fact that he is, in fact, the scum of the earth, which is why I will never ever ever talk to him ever again?” Caleb looked at her in a confused way. She sighed exasperatedly. “My ex-boyfriend from high school still insists on getting back together, even though I’ve told him millions of times that I don’t want to. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to him that I don’t want to be with him ever again and I would never change my mind. But nothing gets through that thick skull of his. He’s the most pathetic person I know. He’s also the dumbest. I have no idea what I saw in him. He wasn’t very good looking, he was and is still dumb as dirt, possibly even dumber than that. I hate him in every sense of the word. I can’t stand being around him. He makes my skin crawl and my stomach turn with disgust. I just don’t understand why I can’t get rid of him. He’s my own personal leech.” She leaned back on the bench and looked toward the sky at the clouds lazily passing over the stars. “I should go. I need to finish up some other assignments for my Monday classes. I’ll see you later Caleb. After she stood up and left, Caleb looked over on the bench next to him and saw the envelope with her tip money in it.
Amy got into her room and started getting ready for bed. She was so infuriated at Kyle. He always seemed to butt into her life just when she was starting to forget about him. He was one of those guys that even if he was the last man on earth, you still wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him. She went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth and then washed her face, all the while fuming at Kyle for existing. She got back into the room and threw herself on her bed. Angela was already asleep, and snoring, in her bed. Amy poked her to get her to stop snoring so she could go to sleep in peace. As soon as Angela stopped, Amy began falling into a peaceful sleep.
Amy looked around her, hearing gorgeous waltzing music. She was in a palace of some sort. Marble was everywhere, on the floor, ceiling, pillars, absolutely everywhere. There were tapestries, coats of arms, and all sorts of finery on every single wall. Suits of armor were dotted here and there, exquisitely carved furniture could be found along the walls, it looked almost like a museum, yet she knew that someone lived here every day. She looked down at herself and noticed she was wearing the most beautiful ball gown she had ever seen. It was a light, icy blue, silk dress with a full skirt, corset-like strapless top, embroidery and beading on the top and gloves to match. She felt her neck and found an aquamarine and silver choker and upon feeling her ears, found drop earrings she assumed matched her necklace. She decided to try and find a mirror or something reflective so she could get a better look at herself.
It didn’t take her long to find a mirror, and what a mirror it was. It had a gold, carved frame, with intricate twists and turns. Flower and leaf-like carvings could be found strewn over the entire frame, giving it a very feminine touch, making it seem out of place next to the more masculine decorations throughout the hall. She gazed into the mirror and was astounded. She saw herself with her hair put up in an up-do and there was a small tiara with aquamarine and diamonds set into the silver tendrils twining over itself in dozens of different ways and places. She looked as though she could be a princess. Amy stared at herself unbelievably until she heard footsteps coming slowly down the hall. For a moment she thought she should hide behind something, but then she couldn’t think of any reason why she should and so started walking down the hallway. She soon came across the man she had seen in Rosa’s earlier that evening. When he spotted her he had a look of relief on his face.
“Darling I’ve been searching everywhere for you. Where did you run off to?”
“Oh, I was going in search of the bathroom when I got lost. But someone helped me find it.” she blatantly lied.
“Well, I’m glad I found you, I was beginning to worry. Shall we head back to the party then?”
“Yes, I suppose we should.” He offered her his arm, which she took, and they headed down the hall. She looked around, marveled by everything. Not even a second later, they arrived at the ballroom. Everyone was dancing, laughing, and appeared to be having a wonderful time. She looked around for people she recognized, but couldn’t see anyone that she could positively identify. She saw a staircase that lead to a balcony overlooking the dance floor. She climbed up the stairs after slipping away from the mystery date she had acquired and went to the edge of the balcony. She looked down on all of the people twirling and moving in time with the music. It all looked so graceful from up above. If you were actually on the dance floor dancing, everything just seemed to be a jumble of people moving about in strange ways, but from up above you were able to see the grace of everything. The women’s dresses spreading out with flourishes, the men calmly guiding their lady along, everything was lovely.
She was subconsciously scanning the crowd methodically. She was trying to find Caleb. She wanted nothing more than to find him amongst all of the people and then dance the night away with him, but she couldn’t find him amoung the mass of gentlemen and ladies. She thought she had spotted him a couple times, but he disappeared as soon as she thought it was him. After a while, her mystery date came up to the balcony and asked her to dance. She thought for a moment and finally agreed. Amy figured she could probably find Caleb more easily if she was amoung everyone, and she could probably ask a couple people if they had seen him. As soon as she and her date started dancing, she found that no matter what, they stayed amoung the same people. She had tried to ask for a break, but with no luck. They just kept dancing and dancing and dancing. She never grew tired, but she couldn’t find Caleb no matter how hard she looked. When she finally did find him, he was up on the balcony, looking at her dancing with the stranger. She was horrified, she didn’t want him to think she had found someone else. She wanted to scream to him that she hadn’t found someone else, but found she had no voice. Nothing would come out. She started crying and was finally able to break away from her date, she crumpled to the floor in a heap of tears.
It was now Monday morning. Amy was getting ready for her first class of the day: anatomy with Prof. Dosey. After hearing what Caleb had said about the man’s ability to hold the attention of his entire female student body, she decided she would sit closer to the front today. She wanted to see why everyone was falling head over heels for this guy. Amy found herself a nutri-grain bar and proceeded to the table to eat. Angela was already stirring in the next room. She had a class the same time Amy did, on the other side of campus. How she got there every morning even close to on time was beyond her. She always took forever to get ready and Amy would leave before she did and get there only about 5 minutes early. She finished up her breakfast and was about to leave when Angela came out, looking confused, as she always did after waking up.
“What time is it?”
“Almost time for your class.”
“Oh. Ok.” Angela went back into the room and slammed the door. Amy rolled her eyes and walked out the door, making sure she had her key. Her class always got out before Angela’s. She walked out of the building towards the building that held Prof. Dosey’s lecture hall. She maneuvered her way through the crowded hallways and came upon his room. She opened the door and looked around to see if there were any good seats close to the front. She found one, crossed the room, and promptly sat down. She noticed that mostly girls were sitting in the front. Why hadn’t she ever noticed that before?
There was a lot of chatter going on in the room, it was starting to get on her nerves, like it did every class. Then Prof. Dosey walked in and everyone quieted down. Amy was glad for the relief. She looked up at Professor Dosey and her jaw dropped. It was the guy from the diner and her dream! Although he was way more handsome than she remembered him being in her dream, or Saturday in the diner. But she supposed that then she had been too distracted by thoughts of other things to really notice. Throughout the entire class she stared at him and barely took any notes. She was completely astounded by his good looks. She didn’t think any man could possibly be that handsome, but there was the prime example right in front of her. She almost didn’t notice that the class had ended, if it wasn’t for the steady stream of students leaving through the door. She started gathering her things in her bag when she saw someone’s feet coming closer to her spot. She looked up and there was Prof. Dosey looking at her, and smiling.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you in this class before, are you a new student?” Amy noticed for the first time that he had a British accent. How could she have not caught that on the first day of class?
“No, I just normally sit near the back. I thought I might try sitting near the front though because sometimes I have trouble hearing.”
“Oh, I see, that would explain why I haven’t seen you before. So what did you think of the class?”
“I found it very interesting and informative.” He gave her a half-smile.
“You’re lying, I can tell. You found the class boring and tedious. But don’t worry, most people do.” Amy smiled a bit ashamedly and muttered something about getting to her next class. She hurried out as fast as she could without making it look like she was just trying to get away from him. After reaching the hallway, she slumped against a wall and breathed. She felt as though she couldn’t breathe around him, everything in her just came to a sudden and complete stop. Her breath almost completely stopped and her heart fluttered so fast she wondered if she was going to have a heart attack. It was strange for her. No one had done that to her before. She had felt excited around him, like she was going on her favorite roller coaster or doing undercover work for the newspaper. She let herself stand there and catch her breath a bit longer and then looked at her watch. She was going to be late for newspaper. Luckily, the room was in the same building, and she had her flash drive with her already so she wouldn’t have to go back to the room, like usual.
She turned down the mazes of hallways and came to the newspaper room door. When she got in the room, she saw people rushing around, people arguing over something trivial, and many desks in ruins, hers included. She pulled out her flash drive from her bag and put it into the back of her computer. She then uploaded the article file to the computer, printed it out and showed it to the editor, Margaret.
“Good work Stern, we have a decent piece to put in the paper this issue. Everybody else’s articles haven’t been half as good as this.” She handed it off to someone to go put into the works of the final copy of the issue due that week. “I want you to interview someone and do a little undercover work for me as well. There have been rumors about the new anatomy professor, Professor Dosey, flying around all over school and I want you to find out everything you can about this guy. I want you to first interview him and then I want you to get inside somehow and get me information that will either prove or deny the rumors, got it? Amy?” Amy had stopped at the mention of his name a couple feet away. She had a somewhat frightened look on her face. She was staring at Margaret disbelievingly. How could she possibly interview the one man that made her so excited and nervous that her heart almost burst and her breathing almost stopped? She would die before the first question was answered. Margaret waved her hand in front of Amy’s face.
“You want me to interview Professor Dosey. THE Professor Dosey?”
“As opposed to the other nonexistent Professor Dosey? Just do it, don’t complain. You should feel lucky, the rest of the girls on the paper were practically pulling out teeth trying to get that article. I expect to see that article by the 18th two months from now. And your undercover research better be stellar. If you really want, I’ll assign a partner to you so you can have a better way of getting the inside story.”
“Um, I think I’ll be fine by myself for now. If I need a partner later I’ll be sure to ask though, thanks.” Margaret walked off to hassle someone about their deadline, and left Amy standing in the middle of nowhere holding a folder she didn’t even see Margaret give her. She decided she should look it over, so she went to her desk, sat down, and opened the folder. There was a picture of Professor Dosey, a paper with his class schedule on it, and a list of rumors that have been circulating around campus. Amy glanced at the papers and then looked at his picture. She couldn’t stop staring at it. She just saw those deep brown eyes and found herself wanting to swim in them. They were a pretty shade of dark chocolate brown that seemed to peer into her soul. She became so lost in them that she didn’t even hear the other girls coming around to her and telling her how jealous they were. She just kept staring at his picture thoughtfully. After a bit, Margaret came around and tapped her on the shoulder, which brought Amy out of her trancelike state.
“You’ve been sitting there for at least half an hour, why don’t you go on and get home. You can worry about setting up an interview and all of that later.”
“Yeah, I guess I should be getting home. Thanks for the article Margaret. I’ll see you tomorrow.” As Amy left she glanced at the clock: 11:37. She still had a while before her other class for the day. While she was walking back to the dorm, her cell phone rang. Thinking it was going to be Kyle, since she got a call from him yesterday as well as that message on Saturday, she answered, annoyed.
“What do you want?”
“Woah, did I get you in a really bad mood or something?”
“Oh my God, Caleb, Hi! I’m sorry. I thought you were my ex. He’s been bothering me lately. He’s pretty much the only person that calls me on this number. I’m so so sorry!”
“Hey, it’s okay, I can relate. I was wondering, do you have time to come meet me at the bench right now?”
“God, actually I don’t think I do today. I just got a new article from Margaret and I need to get started on that as soon as possible. I have some undercover work to do and an interview to arrange so I don’t think I’ll have time to meet you before I have to go to my next class. Maybe later though? I don’t have to work at Rosa’s tonight, so could we maybe meet up for dinner or something then? “
“I’m afraid I can’t, Crystal and I are meeting for dinner.”
“Oh, well then what about a small study session after that? Not that I actually believe we’ll get much studying done, but I was hoping you could help me with my anatomy notes because I didn’t pay attention very much in class today, so my notes are lacking.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to do that either. I have a huge paper to write for one of my other classes, and I need all the time I can get before the due date to finish it, but I’d be glad to give you my notes to copy if you really need them.”
“Really? That would be so great Caleb. Can I get them now? Or do you not have them with you?”
“I can probably go and get all the notes and get back by the time you get to the bench, and even if I don’t, I shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. So I’ll see you in a couple minutes?”
“Yeah, I’ll see you in a couple minutes.” She hung up and stowed her cell phone in her bag. She changed directions, and started heading towards the bench. While she was walking, she thought about her upcoming interview. She was somewhat excited about the whole thing, but she was also nervous and dreading it. After a couple minutes, she came upon the bench with no sign of Caleb yet. So she sat down on the bench and pulled out her journalist notebook to think of questions to ask Professor Dosey during their interview. She decided that fifteen questions would be a good number and set off to come up with the questions. She tried to think of questions that wouldn’t be too difficult to answer but at the same time would give a nice long answer. She wanted to make sure that she had enough material to give to Margaret to satisfy her. She was so absorbed in thinking of questions she just about fell off of the bench when Caleb called her name. He was standing on the other side of the bench, leaning in towards her, with a notebook clutched in his hands.
“Is that your anatomy notebook?”
“Yeah, sorry it took so long. It was buried underneath some other random things around the room. So, I hope you can get caught up on your notes, and good luck with that interview.” He handed her the notebook as she stood up.
“Thanks, I guess I’ll see you around then.” She took the notebook, smiled at him and then started walking back to the building where Prof. Dosey’s classroom was located. She had decided while sitting on the bench waiting for Caleb that she would go ahead and arrange the interview for that night. She didn’t have work to worry about since she had the night off. Why not make it now while she’s thinking about it?
She arrived in his classroom. He was arranging papers, getting ready for the next class, which was going to start soon. Amy became really nervous just by looking at him. She rapped on the door frame a couple times, he looked up and smiled.
“Ah, hello there. Do come in, do come in. What can I do for you?”
“Hi Professor, my name’s Amy Stern. I’m on the newspaper and I was wondering if I could maybe get an interview with you.” She struggled to get all of the words out.
“Of course! I’d be happy to help you out with that. When would you like to arrange it? Most of my evenings are free.”
“I’m sorry this is so short notice, but do you think we could do the interview at 6:00 this evening?” He looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.
“You know, I think I might be able to. Just let me double check that.” He went to his desk at the front of the class and pulled out a drawer. He did a little moving around of things and then brought out what Amy assumed to be a planner. He flipped a couple pages until he found the day’s date. He scanned it for another moment, letting his finger slide down the page as he looked. “Nope, I don’t have anything planned for tonight, so I guess I’m all yours. Where would you like to hold this interview of yours?” He looked up and smiled.
“Oh, um, would your office be ok? Or would you rather do it somewhere else?”
“No, I think doing it in my office would be fine. Nice and quiet, better than going into a restaurant or a café or something. It’s always so noisy in those places. Sometimes it gets so noisy I can barely hear myself think.” Amy suddenly noticed that he had slowly gotten closer to her, not uncomfortably close, but she hadn’t noticed that he had even moved. She had been entranced by his voice. Amy blushed, although she wasn’t quite sure why.
“Well then, I guess I’ll see you at 6. So, until then.”
“Until then.” Amy quickly ducked out of the room, notebook clutched tightly to her chest. She had to lean against the wall and take a minute to breathe again. Talking to that man was toxic. He made you feel as though you could die right then and there, but you wouldn’t mind. You’d be happy to die right there because you were in some kind of state of euphoria when you talked to him and heard his voice. After recovering from her encounter with Professor Dosey, she headed back to the dorm. Whilst she walked back to the dorm, she thought of more questions to ask the Professor. She had only written down eight questions while she waited for Caleb, she still needed seven more to get a good number of questions.
When she finally arrived at the room, she opened the door, set down her things, pulled out her notebook and a pencil and started writing down questions to ask. While she thought, she made herself a sandwich and ate her lunch. Once she couldn’t think of any others, she pulled out her anatomy notes and Caleb’s notebook and began copying down the things she had missed during class that day. Apparently she had missed a lot more than she had originally thought. After finishing her notes, she looked at the clock, and noticed it was getting close to the time her next class started. She put all the books she needed in her bag and left the dorm room.
After returning from her last class of the day and getting dinner, Amy lay down on the couch. She still had forty-five minutes before her interview with Professor Dosey. Angela was playing the radio in the bedroom, extremely loudly. She always played stuff that Amy would rather not have to put up with on a daily basis, or at all, ideally. She had an idea of throwing the stereo out the window, just so she wouldn’t have to put up with her music anymore, but didn’t because that was her stereo. Angela didn’t bring one with her, so they shared Amy’s. Although Amy listened to cd’s more often than the radio, so Angela used the radio portion on a regular basis, which meant the station would pretty much be permanently set on her favorite station.
During both of her classes, she had asked a number of people about the rumors they had heard about Dosey. Even though she had a list of rumors, there were always new ones sprouting. She’d listen in on people’s conversations when she thought she heard his name or subject mentioned, most of the time she heard the same things that were already written down for her. But she also managed to hear some outrageous claims that almost made her laugh out loud at the thought. She’d heard things like “he hypnotizes his students and makes them kill people in the middle of the night” or “he was a murderer in the last town and he came here after he recovered from plastic surgery to hide his true identity.” Both of which were highly amusing and so farfetched, that there was no way those could possibly be true. She also often heard things like “Jamie told Chris who told Theresa that they heard he slept with Lydia last week.” He seemed to be the professor of choice for the sleeping with students rumors this year. Last year it was Professor Close, who was supposedly sleeping with every single student in her course, including the girls. A lot of guys were disappointed when they couldn’t prove the rumors true, or false.
Amy sighed and looked back at the notes she had taken while finding out all of the rumors. She couldn’t find any that were believable enough to look into. And the ones that were believable were the ones she had already written down on that list that came with the assignment. She decided she would count up how many times she heard the “he slept with so-and-so” rumor. After flipping through the pages she had counted up at least 17 times she had written it down. This was obviously something to look into. How she would find out whether or not it was true was beyond her, but she had to try anyway. She looked at the clock again; it was getting close to being time for her to go. She gathered up her things, then went into the bedroom to get ready. She wanted to look nice for the interview. She didn’t have time to shower, but at least she could be wearing something nice. It almost felt like she was going on a date. She was having a hard time picking out something to wear. She finally decided on her maroon v-neck flowy shirt. It was a semi-wrap around shirt with grecian sleeves and an asymmetrical hem line. She then picked out a light perfume to wear so she wouldn’t smell horrid during the interview from the day’s walking about and sitting near people with bad bo during class.
“Ange? I’m going out to do an interview. I’ll be back later sometime. So uh, I guess if you want to leave you should take your key with you,because I don’t know when I’ll be back. I guess I’ll see you later.” Angela just looked at her in a “why are you telling me this?” sort of way. Amy backed out of the room and closed the door. Why did she even bother? Half the time Angela didn’t listen or gave her that sort of look that just screamed “I hate you and I could care less about where you’re going and for what reason.” She grabbed her key because knowing Angela, she wouldn’t be there when she got back. She walked to the bathroom to check and see if she looked ok and then headed out.
She walked down the stairs and went out into the night. She turned in the direction of Mr. Dosey’s office. With every step she took, she became more and more nervous. She still couldn’t figure out why she acted around him the way she did, especially for just an interview. She’d done them plenty of times over the years, so she shouldn’t be nervous. She knows how to act, what to say and what not to say. Which questions were not good to ask anyone and which ones were ok for everyone. She found out the hard way to stay away from questions about parents because those kinds of questions could evoke some very radical feelings. Once she had gotten a person crying just by asking how their parents were. Apparently they had died just a couple months before the interview. Another time she had a person who threw some chairs: they didn’t like their parents very much. They had abandoned them when they were about 7 for reasons that weren’t acceptable by any means. So after those few interviews, she steered clear of talking about family in general, unless the interviewee brought it up.
She finally arrived at Professor Dosey’s room. She stood outside his door, just staring at the name plate. She was mentally preparing herself for an interview she believed could kill her just from being so nervous. She doubted she could even get through the door, she’d probably drop dead right as she touched the door knob. If not when she touched the door knob, surely she’d drop dead after passing over the threshold of the door. She stood there another minute, looked at her watch and saw it was a few minutes past 6. She took a deep breath and then put her hand on the door knob. Not dead yet, which was good. She turned the knob and walked over the threshold, still not dead, which is still very good. She looked around and saw that Prof. Dosey was sitting at his desk, nose buried in a book. He didn’t look up, so she cleared her throat. He looked up at her, with a somewhat confused look on his face. Then he seemed to remember and put down the book and looked at Amy.
“Hello, Amy, was it? How are you? Please, sit.” He motioned towards a couch situated at the back of the room as he got up himself.
“I’m just fine thank you, and yourself?” She walked towards the couch and took a seat. The couch was nothing particularly special. For whatever reason she was disappointed. She supposed it was because he seemed so elegant in his demeanor and with his accent. She thought everything would be the same in his everyday life.
“I’m doing quite well, thank you for asking. So might I inquire again as to what this interview is for?”
“Oh, yes. It’s for the school paper. Every so often we like to get a story on one of the professors.” She shifted uneasily on the sofa. She was feeling this odd urge to throw herself at him as he sat opposite her. He was just so....sexy. Not that he was trying to be, he just had this aura that oozed sex. Amy managed to contain herself. Just as he sat down, his office phone rang.
“Excuse me, won’t you?” He stood up and crossed over to the phone o his desk. “Hello?....Now? Are you sure we can’t arrange this for later?....ok....ok...I’ll see you in a few minutes then.” He sighed and hung up the phone, facing Amy. “I’m so sorry to do this to you, but apparently something quite urgent has come up. I’ll have to rearrange this interview with you later this week.”
“Oh, that’s perfectly fine, this was all a last minute decision for me anyway. I’ll come by your office tomorrow. We’ll sketch out the details then.” Amy stood up, picked up her purse, coat, notebook and pencil and walked to the door.
“I really am sorry” he said.
“Don’t worry about it, really.” She glanced back at him, opened the door and walked out. She felt dizzy and a bit lightheaded until she got out into the cold air. That cleared her head really quickly. For a minute she thought she was really going to pile herself on top of him. He was the sexiest, most intoxicating man she had ever encountered. It completely freaked her out. On her way back to the dorm she decided to call Caleb to see if he still wanted to get together for a bit. She dug around in her purse for his number, dialed it, and waited. It rang 3 times before he answered.
“Hey” she heard him say on the other end of the line.
“Hey, are you busy now? Turns out I can’t get that interview done tonight, so I thought we could go meet at the bench.”
“Um....what time is it?”
“It’s about 6:25.”
“Yeah, I guess we could meet for a bit, I have my date with Crystal at 7:30. We’re catching a movie.”
“Ok, I guess I’ll see you in a few minutes then.”
“See you in a few.” With that they both hung up the phone and Amy started walking in the direction of the bench. Once she arrived, she sat down and watched the clouds drifting above her. Clouds really had it made, they could change shape whenever they wished, they could see all the sights of the world, and they never had to worry about professors with highly-magnetic personalities or amazing guys with shitty girlfriends.
“Geeze clouds are lucky,” She muttered.
“What?”
Amy looked up and saw Caleb sitting next to her. As she was thinking Caleb must have walked up and sat down.
“Clouds are lucky. They don’t have anything to worry about, except being pulled into a hurricane or tornado, I guess. Wish my life was like that.”
“Don’t we all. So how was your day today? Any new developments in your life?”
“No, the usual. Crystal accusing me of cheating, finding new evidence to weigh more in favor of her cheating on me. You know, that sort of thing.”
“That sounds like a fun kind of day. Is there anything else that’s going on in your life that doesn’t involve her?”
“No, not really. Classes, some guy friends, my job at the library...that’s about it. That is my life in a nutshell. I could probably put all my savings into a pool that bet in favor of me being the most boring guy you’ve ever met.”
“I don’t think you’re the most boring guy I’ve ever met. At least you have something interesting going on in your life. I would have to agree with you if you did absolutely nothing outside of school-related things. Then, and only then, would you deserve the title of most boring guy I’ve ever met.” Caleb smiled at her and looked at her very intensely for a few moments. Amy looked down at her hands, then to the clouds drifting overhead. She thought of her dream with the ballroom, for some strange reason.
“Hey, Caleb? Do you know how to interpret dreams?”
“No. Actually, I believe that dreams help us to get rid of useless information. I don’t really believe they have any sort of meaning. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, no reason. I was just trying to make sense of a dream I had a couple days ago. It was just very weird. I thought it might mean something more than what I thought. You know, that maybe it revealed something in my subconscious or something.”
“Well, you’re asking the wrong person.” He put his arm on the back of the bench stretching towards Amy. Amy had this sudden idea in her head, but she wasn’t sure if it would be wise. She felt like she had to get it out though.
“Hey Caleb? Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, ask away.”
“Why haven’t you broken up with Crystal yet? You’re almost 100% positive that she’s cheating on you. Why are you putting up with all of her shit?” He withdrew his arm from behind the bench, leaned forward, and rubbed his hands together.
“It’s....complicated. Basically, she has something on me, and she said that if I broke up with her, she’d tell everyone. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to dig up some dirt on her so I can just tell her that if she blabs anything, I’ll just tell her little story. So far I haven’t been able to find anything out that could really work to keep her from telling my story.”
“Oh, I see.” Amy thought for a minute. She tried to think of a way for Caleb to get out of this situation. She could only come up with two options. “Hey, I just thought of something, what if you tried telling her that you know about her doing you-know-what with you-know-who?”
“I’ve already tried that. It didn’t work. There are too many ‘You-know-whos’ for her to choose from. She doesn’t really care about that anyway. She knows what her reputation around campus is. I think she revels in it. Keeps her in the spotlight. Not the best way to stay there, but I guess she figures bad attention is better than none at all.”
“Maybe. What she has on you can’t be that bad, can it? And who would she tell that would really matter? Nothing could be bad enough to keep you in that shitty of a relationship.”
“You would be surprised. I don’t even know how she found out about it.”
“Well, women do have their way of finding out things. Can you give me any sort of hint about what it is?” Amy looked at him inquisitively. This seemed more intriguing than anything Professor Dosey could throw at her. He sighed, exhasperated.
“It’s something that would hurt people who barely know me. I think it would hurt someone in particular. Someone whose opinion and friendship I’m beginning to trust.”
“So you’re subjugating yourself to a terrible relationship to save another one?”
“Basically.”
“That’s terrible logic.”
“Maybe to you, but it makes perfect sense to me. You see, I want to get to know this person better before I let my secret out. I’m afraid that if it gets out too soon, before we know each other, then they wouldn’t ever speak to me again.”
“I still say you’re crazy. And I know it can’t be healthy for you.”
“At this point, nothing can change my mind. I care for her too much.”
“Wait, you still care for Crystal? Even though she’s blackmailing you and cheating on you?”
“No! I despise her for it. The “her” is the person I mentioned earlier. Ok?”
“Oh, ok. Well, maybe I could help you find some dirt on Crystal. I have access to things that you wouldn’t. Maybe I can train you in doing investigations.” She gently pushed him with her elbow. “Who knows, maybe we’ll find the motherload of all scandals in her deep dark past.”
“I highly doubt that, she’s pretty secretive, but it’s worth a shot. If it’ll help me get out of this hell-hole, then what the hell?” Amy smiled at him then she looked at her watch, making sure she wasn’t going to make him late. Which brought up another question.
“If you two are not really romantically involved, why do you still go on dates? Is it just to keep up appearances?”
“Pretty much. I think it’s also to throw off anyone who thinks she’s helping their boyfriend cheat on them. Helps to keep their profiles off the radar, in a way.” He explained everything so calmly and made it sound like everything was normal. The way he was talking about it, you’d think that every relationship is supposed to be this way. He sounded normal, but when looking at him, Amy noticed that he looked beaten down, tired, and frustrated. There was a real battle going on in that head of his. Everything showed in his expressions. Amy looked at her watch again, it was about 6:50.
“Well, I think that I should go. I need to really look over those notes. I didn’t get a chance earlier.” Amy stood up and turned towards Caleb.
“Ok, I guess I’ll just see you later then.” He stood up and faced her. They looked at each other for a minute, their breath coming out in white puffs drifting into the air. Amy looked down at the snow on her boots. Then she glanced up.
“I’ll see you later, Caleb, bye.”
“Bye.” Amy glanced back at him as she walked away. He was looking after her, watching her walk away, leaving tracks in the snow as new snow began drifting down from the sky.
Amy rolled over in bed. She felt a presence there next to her, but this didn’t make sense, Angela had left for the night and she hadn’t let anyone into her room. She sat up and saw that someone was indeed sleeping next to her. Very perplexed by this, she looked over at the person’s face. She let out an involuntary gasp. It was Caleb.
She didn’t remember even seeing him later that night, so what was he doing in her bed? She looked again to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Instead, she saw Prof. Dosey’s sleeping face. She did a double take, this time it was her ex, Kyle. She screamed. Kyle then sat up, he had dog paws and was meowing at her. Then his face changed back to Prof. Dosey’s and she heard baby talk coming out of his mouth. She screamed again, this time waking up. After a moment or two, she calmed down and went back to sleep. She didn’t remember this dream in the morning, but had another one.
It was a continuation of her ballroom dream. She was still weeping on the ballroom floor, but no one seemed to notice, except Prof. Dosey. He knelt down and tried to comfort her, but his words seemed empty. They didn’t have any meaning to them at all. He had put his arms around her shoulders and leaned her head into his shoulder. She didn’t want his sympathy. She didn’t want anything from him, but she desperately needed a shoulder to cry on, even if it belonged to the person that had caused them. When she thought she had cried enough, she looked up, everyone had somehow acquired a mask. Her hands automatically went to her face.
“What’s wrong, darling?” Prof. Dosey asked, “Is your mask bothering you?”
“Oh, no. I just don’t remember ever putting it on.” She remarked. He laughed at her in a good-natured way.
“What a silly thing to say, you’ve been wearing that the whole time, my darling.”
“Will you excuse me? I feel I must go to the ladies room to freshen up.”
“Well of course. I’ll be here waiting for you.” He stood up and then helped her to her feet. She broke away from him. She made her way through the crowd of dancing people to the doors she and Prof. Dosey had originally entered from. Amy entered the hallway and headed in the direction of the bathroom, the hallways echoing her footsteps with the clacking of her shoes. She walked past everything she had seen at the beginning of the last dream. She saw the tapestries, the suits of armor, the fine furniture and mirrors, and coats of arms. Upon closer inspection of the coats of arms, she saw that there was the shape of a shield with red and yellow faded paint, but no symbols or any sort of distinguishable pattern. This struck her as odd because everything else was in such pristine condition. All of the other coats of arms had been in mint condition, not even a scratch on them. They had all had a different pattern and color scheme, but none were in such wretched condition.
She pulled herself from staring at it the rest of the night, and proceeded to the powder room set aside for the ladies. As she entered, she saw that no one was inside, and relished in the thought of being alone for even a minute. She caught her reflection in one of the mirrors. Her mask was the same pale blue of her dress. It only covered her eyes and her nose. It had silver embroidery all along the edges that matched the embroidery on her dress and the shapes created in her tiara. She tried to take off the mask, but this proved impossible. It was almost as if it had grown from her face instead of it being put on by someone else. She tugged and tugged at it until she thought her face was going to rip off with the mask. Amy then gave up and decided she had been away from Prof. Dosey long enough, she didn’t want him searching for her again.
As she walked out of the powder room, she saw a man standing farther along down the hall looking at one of the tapestries. Amy’s first thought was that it was Prof. Dosey looking for her, which didn’t make her want to walk down the hall at all, but then she looked more closely. This man was slightly shorter with hair long enough for a small ponytail, darker hair, and slightly different overcoat. She approached the man slowly and with a bit of caution. When he heard her approaching, he turned, looked at her, and smiled.
“So that’s where you are, miss,” he had a slightly cockneyed accent to his voice when he spoke, “m’lord has been looking everywhere for you.”
“Oh great,” she muttered. Amy assumed it was Dosey who had been looking for her. “I suppose you may as well show me to him.”
“As you say, miss.” He bowed slightly and held out his arm. She took it as he led her in the direction opposite from the ballroom. They went down a small maze of halls. Soon Amy didn’t even know where they were. They finally arrived at a door, and the servant began to open it. When she saw who it was, she gasped. They had leaned down to her ear to whisper something in it.
“To find what you seek, you must look--”
A sudden, loud beeping interrupted him. She couldn’t catch the last part of the statement.
“Could you repeat that again?” They only smiled at her, and walked past her through the doors. “WAIT!” she called after them. The beeping continued. She tried to catch up to them, but she didn’t seem to move anywhere. The doors slammed shut behind the guards. She finally found herself able to move and ran to the door. She tried to open it, but she was locked in. She started to slam on the doors and desperately tried to get someone, anyone to come and open the doors. The beeping continued until she awoke to turn off her alarm.
Breakfast was, as usual, uneventful. Amy had her usual cereal in the dining hall, at her usual table, and by herself, as usual. All of her friends had later classes, or had graduated. She felt sort of isolated sometimes, but having quiet in the morning was ok with her. It gave her time to think about things to do during the day without being disturbed. Her mind began to wander, until eventually she started to think about her interview with Prof. Dosey. She started to wonder if it was such a good idea to go through with it, but then she remembered his electric sex appeal. She just couldn’t resist it. What made him so damn sexy? She couldn’t figure it out. She also couldn’t force herself to not go through with with interview. She had to get it done for the paper, but she wasn’t sure how long she could draw it out before she wouldn’t be able to control herself and start to rip off his clothes.
Amy shook these thoughts out of her head, finished her breakfast, and headed back to the room. She still had about an hour before her English class started. On her way up the stairs, she ran into her friend Sarah. Sarah was an English major with a minor in Psychology. She had long, dark brown hair, and was one of those effortlessly waif-like girls. All of the guys who knew her admired her, but she had no interest in anyone but her boyfriend, Todd. She smiled at Amy with her perfect, pearl-white, teeth.
“Hey Amy! I haven’t seen you around for a couple days. Where’ve you been?”
“Hi Sarah. I’ve just been really busy with a lot of different things. I have a couple things to do for the paper, work, and you know, just the usual things.”
“Oh really? What do you have to do for the paper?”
“I’m writing a feature on that new anatomy teacher, Professor Dosey.”
“No kidding! I’ve heard quite a few things about that one.”
“I’m not surprised, it seems like everyone has. But I’ve been getting the same old stuff from everyone. Nothing new. What’ve you heard?”
“Probably what you’ve heard already. Although I have someting a bit more specific than most people.”
“Hang on, let me get out my notebook.” Amy pulled it out from her back pocket. She never went anywhere without it when she was working on a story. “Ok, go ahead.”
“Well, I heard that he was seeing someone, a student, in our dorm.”
“You’re kidding me. Do you know who?”
“I don’t know anything quite that specific, but I do know that whoever she is, she is not single, aside from our beloved professor.”
“So she’s cheating on her boyfriend with him?”
“That’s what’s been going around the school. No one seems to know who she is, except one person, but I don’t even know who THAT is. But I DO know that they aren’t telling anyone.”
“You are amazing Sarah. This is much better than anything I’ve been getting from other people. Mostly I’m getting things like ‘I heard he was a trannie’ and other sorts of bull like that.” Amy scribbled down the last little bit of information and then pocketed her notebook. “Well, I would love to stay and chat, but I have to get to class soon, and I’ve left all of my stuff in the room. Hey, thanks again Sarah.”
“Oh, no problem! I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah, see ya.”
“Bye!” Sarah walked down the stairs and Amy climbed the last section before reaching her floor. As she walked towards her room, she wondered why she hadn’t thought about asking Sarah about it before. She knew that Sarah was full of the latest gossip. She didn’t spread it around, but people didn’t know how observant she was. She tended to be eavesdropping when sitting in front of someone in class, in the cafeteria, or anywhere else for that matter. Sarah would only tell something if she felt it was worth passing on or if she was asked.
Amy and Sarah had met their Freshman year in their English class. They had an assignment to partner up and divide the work two ways, one being the writer, the other being the editor. The writer had to write , with help from their partner, a short story involving at least 3 characters that was no longer than 10 pages. Sarah and Amy had decided to do the assignment together because they sat near each other. They decided that Amy would be the editor and Sarah the writer. Through this assignment they learned how the writer-editor relasionship worked. Their professor, Prof. Avaff, believed “one must understand this relationship and the kind of work that goes into a short story or novel before one can fully appreciate a novel or short story.” Through that assignment they became friends. Sarah was a good friend for Amy. She was there for her when she needed her, and vice versa, but she also understood when Amy needed her space to have some alone time, which seemed to be a lot lately. At least before Caleb showed up.
Amy finally arrived at her room and opened the door. She set down her key and ID on the small end table next to the door. She decided it was probably a good idea to get dressed and take a shower. So that is precisely what she did. Amy grabbed her shower caddy, a towel, her hair dryer, and a change of clothes. She grabbed her key before she went out the door and went into the bathroom. Upon entering, Amy saw only one other person in the bathroom. It was her RA, Rebecca. She was blow-drying her hair in front of the mirrors. Amy would have said hello if it wasn’t for the jet-loud noise coming from her dryer. So, she just went straight to the shower. After she set down her things on the bench, she undressed and turned on the shower head. As she showered, she thought about everything that was going on in her life.