CHAPTER SIX


“So what are you wearing when you go out with Dylan?” Trinity asked eagerly.

Rain and Marissa could not remember a time when Trinity was so excited about Marissa going out with a boy. Well there was this one time with a guy named Carlos. The relationship had lasted six months, but in the end he had just walked away from her. The three friends were in Trinity’s room. Trinity was sitting down on the edge of her bed with her feet folded under her, and the other two girls were sitting down on the floor.

Trinity’s room had the usual clutter of clothes in the corner with her radio on the nightstand constantly playing the latest hits on the most popular radio stations.

“I don’t know, a shirt and jeans pants, the usual clothes I wear.” Marissa replied.

“What do you mean usual clothes? Don’t you know that you are going out with the Dylan and not just any guy off campus? Come on you have to wear something better.”

“Trinity, it’s just a movie! That’s all, we’ll be in a dark room, where he won’t even see what I’m wearing, plus I’m not even doing this because I’m interested in him, I’m doing this because I want him out of my life for good, we made a deal, one movie, if I’m still not interested, he’s going to leave me alone,” Marissa told Trinity feeling slightly annoyed by the amount of interest that her best friend was showing in something that she knew wasn’t even going to last.

“Aww come on, don’t you want to come to the party afterwards?” Trinity said pleadingly.

“And do what?” Marissa asked, “Make him believe that I’m interested in him, when it’s clear to everyone else but him and seemingly you also that I’m not. I wouldn’t give him the time of day even if his life depended on it.”

“You would really be that harsh to a dying man?”

“If his name is Dylan, and his a cocky bastard, then yes, I would be that harsh.”

“Trin, lay off it, you could clearly see that Marissa isn’t interested in him,” Rain said interrupting the two girls before their conversation turned into a fully blown out argument.

“Thank you,” Marissa said to Rain.

“Okay, fine. Don’t see what the big fuss was about,” Trinity replied.

“Exactly my point,” Marissa said.

“But Marissa don’t you think you could come to the party with us, I mean, you could let Dylan drop you off here or at your dorm and we meet you there and then go over to the party together, by then the date would be over and hopefully he holds up his end of the bargain,” Rain said hoping against all hope that they would be able to convince Marissa to come to another party with them.

“You see, I knew there was a way I could get you to put on something different, I mean, after all, how much time are you going to have to change into a different set of clothes, and what’s the sense anyway, that’s extra clothes that you would have to wash,” Trinity said with a sound of triumph in her voice.

“Fine, whatever.” Marissa said defeated, “Anyways, I have to go and get some work done seeing as might not get anytime to do it on Saturday.” Marissa added. She got up from her sitting position and walked to the door grabbing her messenger bag on the way.

“Yes!” Trinity said punching through the air in victory.

“Okay, see you later Rissa,” Rain said.

“Yeah, see ya,” Trinity said with a huge grin plastered across her face.

“Bye guys,” Marissa replied and walked out the door, without closing it.


Ring! Ring!

Marissa rushed to open the door, before the phone went to the answering machine. But, as usual, she was unable to get there in time.

“Hi, this is Marissa, I’m either in a class or I just don’t feel like coming to the phone, so you know what to do. Beep!”

Marissa stood up next to the desk where her phone was and waited for her recorded voice to stop and find out who it was because she didn’t recognise the number which came up on the caller ID screen.

“Hi! It’s Matt, I really hope that it’s you’re in a class and not that you saw my number and decided you didn’t want to talk to me for whatever reason, but anyways, was wondering if you would like to go to dinner next week. I know I said I would let you call me but it seemed like every minute was a year. So give me a call when you get this, bye. Click!”

When Matt had finished talking, she picked up the phone instantly, but she put it back down in its cradle just as quickly. “Should I call him now or should I wait, after all if I call now, wouldn’t it seem as if I really didn’t want to pick up the phone or it just might sound kinda desperate wouldn’t it?” Marissa thought to herself. After a few more minutes of quite and careful consideration she decided that she would call him when she finished writing her paper for Pollard’s class and did some studying for one of her other classes; after all, finals were coming up sooner than most people expected.

Marissa spent the majority of her evening trying to concentrate on her paper, but every ten minutes she lost her concentration and started to think about how the sound of Matt’s voice seemed to have make her feel weak in her knees, but she knew better than that. After all, she was still in love Tristan, her ex boyfriend, so how could Matt make her feel this way. It was definitely too soon to move on, she needed more time. She didn’t care what her friends thought, but she knew deep in herself that she was definitely not ready to move on, and get herself into any serious relationships just yet, maybe just casual dating but definitely not any serious relationships.

After a few more hours Marissa was finally able to completely finish her paper, it was proof read, corrected of any mistakes, extra paragraphs added in or deleted and such like, and in her opinion was good enough to get her grade which would help her to pass her finals with a good enough mark that she wouldn’t have to repeat the course next year. She was finally free now to pick up the phone and return Matt’s phone call. She dialed the numbers, hesitating in between mainly because of feeling extremely nervous.

After a few rings, she hoped that it would go straight to the answering machine so that she wouldn’t have to talk to Matt personally, but with her luck it would be Matt in person who answered. And just as she predicted, “Hello?” His voice made her knees feel weak and this time her stomach also did this weird flip flop thing.

“Hey Matt, it’s me, Marissa, you called earlier?” How stupid that sounded now. Of course he called earlier; after all, didn’t he leave a message on her machine.
“Yeah, I did. I’m glad you called back. I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to call me back.”

“Sorry about taking so long, but I was trying to finish my paper for Pollard.”

“Oh yeah, I started mine but I’ve kinda come to a road block can’t find any info on my topic.”

“Ok, well I hope you finish it in time.” Marissa told him trying her best to change the topic from schoolwork to the reason why she called him, “So when next week is best for you?”

“Are you accepting my invitation?” Matt asked starting to sound rather excited by the fact that Marissa seemed to be accepting his invite to a dinner with him.

“Doesn’t it sound that way?”

“Yeah, sorry that was a stupid question. How does Friday sound? I know this restaurant a few minutes walk from university, it’s quiet and they have some great food, homemade style.”

“Friday’s a good day for me. What time?”

“Amm…How about I pick you up at 8:30?”

“Okay, that sounds great. Well I gotta go, so I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

“Okay. Goodnight. Bye”