Camryn looked at the clock on her phone. “I have a track meeting, but this is not over. Where are you later?”
“I have a 3:30 and then I’m out, so probably in our room.”
Ok, we have practice at 4:00, let’s meet for dinner? 6:30?”
“Yeah, that works.”
“Cool. If you had plans with Leah, she’s cool.” Camryn took a few more bites.
“Oh, Leah doesn’t know.” I felt my palms get sweaty. “Camryn, no one knows but you.”
“Well, and Darcy, but...”
“No, no one really knows, she knows I saw something that one time in the hall, and thinks I am like her cool grandma, but no one knows, knows.” I touched her hand and quickly pulled it away.
She caught the pull and smiled knowingly. “No worries, I think I am pretty safe. So, no one knows? Just me?”
My eyes shined with sincerity. “No one.”
“Except Tyler.”
My face fell.
“Oh my gosh, relax, I’m so staying out of that mess.” Her face grew sober, “But seriously, thank you for trusting me. That’s huge.”
“Thank you for-well just thank you.” I could see the rest of the table had already started clearing their plates and gathering their stuff. “You gotta go.”
“Yep, dinner?”
“6:30.”
“Cool, see you then.”
I ate slowly, then headed off to study before class. I met up with Leah in the library, and we crammed through more Western Civ, the class that would never end. Sure, having Tyler in class, made Tuesday and Thursday way more fun, but honestly, the class itself was a time suck. We only had one more day of classes this week. Then we broke for Thanksgiving. The problem was, it would put me and Tyler in the same room for the first time since I told him. He hadn’t texted all day, and truly I was still ok with that, but if he ignored me tomorrow? Could I handle that part?
“Do you wanna start on Stats?”
Leah broke my thought tangent. “Yeah, I have a little time.”
We started rearranging books, putting away one set, for the other. “So, how’s Tyler?” Leah asked as we set up for the new subject.
I shrugged my shoulders, “Ok, I guess. I don’t know.” I’d been expecting this question. There was no way we would make it through the study session without the subject being brought up.
“You don’t know? What is that supposed to mean?”
Pushing my hair back over my ear, “I don’t know because I’ve not really checked in. It’s been study central in my world. Hello. Tests, papers, getting ready for finals?” I said, trying to refocus our conversation.
Leah rolled her eyes. “Finals are like weeks away.” She leaned over the book, “Tell me everything.”
I moved my notebook to on top of my book and thumbed through my notes. “Ok, when he was talking about probability sampling, I don’t totally get how we are supposed to relate it to central limit theorem.”
“Oh no. We are talking about this.”
I stared at her blankly. This wasn’t productive, and she wasn’t going to back down. I let out a sigh and closed my notebook, shoving back into my backpack. “Ok, I have to go- I only had few minutes left anyway.” I added the textbook, and zipped it closed. “I’ll see you after the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving.” I turned away without a glance back.
Leah was a great person. She’d helped me through so much those first few weeks. She’d been a friend, and honestly that had felt new for me. At least it did-before.
After class, I walked slowly to the Caf, completely on auto pilot. I’d be early, but early was better than sitting in an empty classroom or worse yet, running into Leah. I checked my phone. I was only eight minutes early, not too bad.
I glanced up. The window was filled with the small face I remembered. This time, I smiled, and the little girl smiled back.
I had eight minutes.
My feet moved towards the ancient house. I grew closer and sensed the cold enter my body. The temperature felt like it had dropped twenty degrees in two steps.
I took a deep breath and kept walking.
My legs trembled as the first step raised me closer to the front door.
Deep breath-keep walking.
My foot shook as the second step rested beneath my weight.
“Savanah?!”
The word broke through my fog. I shook my head slightly and turned towards the voice.
“You ok? I’ve called your name like three times.” Camryn was almost to the stairs.
I stepped back and could feel the connection snap between me and the house.
Strange. This was new.
“Yeah, I’m just” I looked back at the house, “I’m just experimenting.”
Camryn shifted her eyes from the house to me, “Gotcha. Any results yet?”
I smiled, having someone to talk to like this felt so freeing. “Not yet, but some hypotheses are starting to form.”
“Well, when you’re ready to share your results, let me know.” She turned toward the dining hall, “I’m starving.”
We headed in and secured a two-top table near the windows.
“So, spill.” Cam filled her fork with salad.
I set down my French fry. “I told him the truth. I told him he had a passenger who seemed to be with him most of the time. I described him and told him I’d had this since I could remember. I told him it was ok that he didn’t believe me, and he could take all the time he needed to decide if we still talked, or if I was just crazy. And then I picked up my
