Page of Cups

Back In School—EVENING

I am chatting, flirting really, with Anna Feng as she packs up her things for summer break. And I am getting somewhere with her, I think. It’s too late of course. Summer break is and endless time to be apart when you are young. She will live and love to the fullest in the next two months, return next semester a different person. No matter, there is always the ebb and flow of Andrea for me.

Speak of the devil, trouble-causing Andrea storms in into Anna’s room gushing about this guy Spike. It seems he is quite the dapper fellow and though a bit early to tell, she thinks she has a new boyfriend in him. He even has his own apartment. I wince at this as it suggests a maturity and freedom I hadn’t counted on and cannot match. It seems to me I have perhaps lost them both.

I am crushed and look for a way to slink off unnoticed. Andrea shows pictures of Spike to Anna who says what a cute couple they are, before excusing herself from the room. I am a puddle of misery oozing away, when Andrea calls me back and shows me the photos of her with a bunch of furniture in a field.

“An attempt at moving in,” she says, “Spike helped get me that far.”

Already shacking up! I am dead. Burst.

When she sees I am broken-hearted, Andrea smiles and pats me on the back and tells me that she talks Spike up just for the benefit of Anna and the other girls. To seem like one of the crowd.

“Spike is a close-friend,” she says, “And I suppose he does love me. But I don’t love him. We’re just friends. Don’t worry.”