Me You she wrote at the top, checking the syllabus for the exact name of the movie. Sighing, she forced herself to write some actual notes. Notes that would help her next week. Notes about camera angles, music, and acting. It was dangerous to let herself get caught up in the story. It was far, far better to deal with only the pieces and details of it. Stories were for children and dreamers. She was neither, and she needed to remember that.
The movie wasn’t too bad, a little cheesy, especially the end which felt very truncated. What had Merel said so long ago about current relationships? They don’t know each other. They meet and fall madly in love. And then, something happens, and they hate each other. That was pretty much that movie in a nutshell, except at the end, the guy showed up to say he was sorry for the big misunderstanding and if she would have him, yada, yada, yada…
Greg wondered why it was always the guy who had to apologize. Wasn’t it ever the girl’s fault? Okay, so in the movie, it was the guy who had rejected her earlier attempt to apologize, but…
“Not too bad,” Taylor said, putting her notebook away when the lights came up. “I’ve seen worse.” She jerked her head up when the little clipboard came by, found her name and signed next to it. Without a glance, she handed it to him, and he did the same before handing it on. “Get the discussion post and that’s a check mark on that one until next week.”
“Guess so.”
Together, they stood and each swung their backpacks up. Taylor headed out into the aisle, and Greg followed. It was nearly ten, and he wondered how she was planning to get all the way back to the dorms. His car was in the opposite direction where he had parked it that morning what seemed eons ago.
“So are you going home?” he asked just as they got to the top of the enormous set of stairs.
“That’s the plan.”
“Taylor?” someone said behind them, and Taylor turned.
Just like that, Greg stopped too, and with one look, he knew this was trouble.
“LaChelle,” Taylor said, and he knew her happiness was mostly fake.
“Wow,” LaChelle said with only a glance at Greg. “Hey, I didn’t know you were back. I heard that… Well,…” But she didn’t continue.
“Yep,” Taylor said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I’m definitely back, and not going anywhere any time soon.”
“Well, that is great news.” A thought lit through LaChelle’s eyes. “Hey, the Winter Formal is Saturday. You’re coming, right?”
Great. Alpha Chi. But Greg held in his own frustration with all things having to do with the sorority.
“Oh. Uh…” Taylor stumbled badly, and Greg knew then why she suddenly seemed different as if she was trying to be a character she had once played but had forgotten how. “I…” She looked at him, maybe for help, maybe not even seeing him, he wasn’t sure. “We…”
That word was starting to make his heart do funny things. He needed to get a handle on that and quick.
“Oh, come on,” LaChelle said as if begging. “Everyone was so worried about you. You have to come. You have to.”
Taylor took a breath and finally smiled. “Yeah. You’re right. I guess we can probably make it.”
There was that we again. She really needed to stop saying that.
“Great,” LaChelle said. “It’s going to be in the Rockland Events Center, over on Fourth?”
“Oh, yeah. I know where that is.”
“Great. Oh, wow. I’m going to tell everybody. They are going to be so excited to see you.”
“Great,” Taylor said, but Greg could tell that didn’t mean what LaChelle clearly thought it did.
“I’ll see you then.” LaChelle gave Taylor a quick hug and headed out.
When LaChelle was gone, Taylor looked at Greg, heaved a sigh and wordlessly started for the doors. He followed, wanting to ask but not wanting to upset her.
Outside, the weather had turned unmercifully frigid. The gusts of wind were whipping up a frenzy.
“Dang… Stupid… Ugh.” Taylor tried to unzip her backpack and very nearly dropped the thing.
Worry hit him like a train, and he stuck his hands in his pockets and huddled into his coat. “You’re not walking, are you?”
“How else am I getting there?” She finally removed her little knit cap from the backpack but nearly dislodged everything else in the process.
“That’s not very close,” he said with growing concern for both the weather and her state of mind.
“I’ll live.”
But he wasn’t