her space.” Xia never called me back the night she was supposed to come over and I had to stop myself twice from going to find her. As the best friend, when we’d fight, it was nothing to force ourselves into a room and talk it out, but as a guy who she just slept with? It feels like the rules have changed and I don’t know the best way to handle it.
“Sex definitely changes things,” he says, as if he’s reading my mind. “But you two will work this shit out. You’re too close for one night to ruin your friendship. It’s not like she didn’t want it. You said she kissed you first, right?
“Yeah, she did.”
“Then maybe she’s just embarrassed. But if I were you I’d tell her how I feel.” He shrugs. I guess he has a point, she could be embarrassed. I don’t know if that makes this better or worse, though. The Xia I know doesn’t run from confrontation, especially with me.
“If you were me?” I raise a brow.
“Well, I’d never be you, of course.” A smirk grows on his face and he looks at me with humor dancing in his eyes.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Come on. Have you seen that girl? I don’t know how you played the best friend for as long as you did.”
“It wasn’t play. We’ve been attached at the hip since we were in diapers.”
“You know what I mean. The moment, and I mean the moment, your balls dropped you should have dived out of the friendzone like your nuts were on fire.” He laughs and I chuckle, shaking my head. He’s such an asshole.
“The time was never right,” I say. “I was going to tell her my senior year of high school. She was the whole reason I decided to stay here for college, but at the time she was a sophomore and completely obsessed with going to this school in North Carolina. On the off chance that she actually felt the same about me, I didn’t want to be the reason she held back from going to that school. Two years later when she decided to stay home for college, my mom got sick and, well…” I trail off thinking about how hard those years were, watching my mother waste away from cancer. “Things got in the way,” I finish. He nods and silence takes over the car for a beat before he speaks again.
“So, do you really think she feels nothing for you?”
“I don’t know.” I huff. “I was convinced the other night that she did, but the way she looked at me the next morning, I don’t know.”
He nods, looking out the window at the parking lot, pausing again before continuing. “Still,” he says. “You won’t know until you ask her.”
“Thanks, man,” I say. “When did you become such a softy?”
“Probably around the time you and King became two love-struck little pussies.” He laughs, lifting his backpack from between his legs and opening the door. I reach behind his seat and grab mine after switching off the ignition.
“One thing’s for sure,” I hear him say as I’m getting out of the car. He pushes the door closed, grinning as he meets my gaze. “Xia or no Xia, anyone is fuck all better than that damn Felicia.” He laughs, then we make our way through the parking lot toward the building.
The lecture hall is pretty full when I walk inside and take a seat. A thick yellow test packet sits neatly on each desk alongside a printed scantron sheet. Almost every seat is occupied by a student who's hunched over the small stack of yellow papers reading it over. I have to do well on this. Becoming Satchi's teacher assistant will get me one step closer to landing a job at Crill. I can’t fuck this up and let it slip between my fingers. I slide into one of the seats toward the back of the class, then I take a deep breath and immediately begin flipping through the pages.
After seeing some of the questions I realize I’m feeling decently confident in this exam. It's great news because the last minute cramming I planned to do today was a total bust. I just haven’t been able to get my mind off of this thing with Xia. I can’t believe she won’t talk to me about it, but I know her plate is full dealing with the shit with her parents. It's still mind blowing.
Maybe I'm being