Patience

Talking Things Over. Or Trying To.

The time had passed slowly and the last 3 minutes felt like 3 hours.

Brandi kept driving, looking straight ahead at the road. Seth also looked straight ahead, while Colin, in the back seat, watched the two in front of him. He had to say something. He could sense Brandi was totally uncomfortable with the situation.

"Spring?" he called out for Brandi.

"Yep, baby." she looked at him through the mirror.

"I was with Tara and Maggie last night."

"No way! Now you're just saying that to make me feel jealous!"

"Who are Tara and Maggie?" Seth asked, clueless.

"They are Brandi's best friends from New York." Colin answered for Brandi, but he did it in a nice way, not to exclude Seth from the conversation, but actually, to include him.

"Oh, ok." Seth nodded.

"Did they come over?"

"Yep, actually. I called Tara telling her I was coming today to see you and she called Maggie and they both showed up at my door with presents and letters for me to give to you."

"No! Really? That's so great! I totally want them!"

"You're gonna have to wait. It's in my suitcase at your house."

"You've gone to her place?" Seth asked.

"Yeah. I got to the airport around 1 p.m., so I called your house and your mother asked me to go there and have something to eat and rest for a while before meeting you at school."

"Great." Seth said through his teeth.

"That's nice. So you've seen my mom already."

"Yeah."

"I'm guessing she was thrilled to see you."

"Yeah, she was happy. We got to talk a lot. She wanted to know how everything was back in New York, about college and stuff."

"Oh, my God! I had totally forgotten about college! You never told me about it!"

"Well, you were always babbling about how bad this city was I never had the chance to."

"You're in college?" Seth asked again.

"Yep. Columbia."

"Wow... that's... awesome." Colin sensed a hint of jealousy in Seth's tone of voice.

"Colin wants to be a pre-med." Brandi informed Seth.

"Oh... Nice."

"He's a total nerd!" Brandi joked.

"Am not and you totally know it!" Colin tickled her side and she giggled.

"Stop it!"

"Why should I?" Colin kept tickling her.

"Because you know how much I'm ticklish right there." Brandi took one hand off the wheel and hit Colin's hand. It didn't stop him from tickling her.

"Oh, ok, I guess that's enough. She's driving." Seth took Colin's hand off of Brandi. The jealous eyes were evidently showing on his face.

"Alright." Colin backed away.

"Silly." Brandi stated.

"Cutey." Colin stated back.

They both smiled at each other through the mirror and Seth noticed that. He just sank in his seat, crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked straight ahead again.

They finally hit the Crab Shack and as soon as they entered, Colin informed he had to go to the bathroom.

Brandi and Seth went searching for a booth and soon found one.

"So... is he always like that?" Seth asked when they sat down, he, right beside her.

"Yeah. He's fun. There's no bad time with Colin." Brandi smiled fondly.

"Ok. And what's the deal between you guys? I mean, he's a college guy. You're not a college girl. How did you guys meet? How did you become friends? Were you just friends? Or was there more to it? Is there still more to it? Did you two date? Do you still date? Because if you still do, I don't know if you know, but I think he should know about our kiss and..."

"Wow, stop it right there, Seth. Take it easy, take a deep breath." Brandi stopped him. She was exhausted just from hearing him talk "Too many questions all together."

"But... what is it? What's the deal with the college guy that has the tendency of showing up out of the blue?"

"First off, he doesn't have the tendency of showing up out of the blue. He's just here to visit. Didn't you hear my mom asked him to come?"

"Yeah, and what's the deal between he and your mom? Are they best buddies, too?"

"Oh, my God!" Brandi shook her head.

"What? What's now, Spring?" Seth said mocking Colin's nickname for Brandi.

"Ok, stop it right there. You don't ever get to say Spring to me again. That's Colin. That's crossing the line." Brandi said seriously and Seth got surprised.

"Ok, sorry." he apologized "It's just that this guy comes out of nowhere right on the day I'm thinking everything is finally gonna be fine between us two and then... boom! There he is and you totally change around him! I didn't know you hated California as much as he says you do! I didn't know so many things about you and I really didn't intend on getting to know that much of you by hearing it from him. I wanted to know you from you. From your mouth. From our future conversations. I don't even know if we're gonna have those anymore." Seth looked down.

"Seth..." Brandi took his hand on hers "Please, try to understand that..."

"So, what's good here?" Colin slid onto his seat and interrupted their conversation. Brandi soon took her hands away from Seth's "I'm sorry, if you two want to talk, I can..." Seth looked up at him and was almost asking him to get lost when Brandi talked.

"No, don't be silly." Brandi said through a weak smile.

"Ok." Colin nodded "So, what's good here?"

"Seth?" Brandi asked him.

"Well, I like all the smoothies they have here. They are all pretty good."

"Oh, yeah?" Colin got the menu that was lying in front of him and started reading it.

Seth looked left to Brandi. She was also looking at him. She smiled big at his eyes and that made Seth more comfortable. He knew she was there for him. She might be talking to Colin most of the time, but she knew Seth was there and she appreciated it. They would have all the time in the world to talk about their relationship. It didn't have to be at that exact moment. But Seth wished it could be.