Conversations From Afar

41 / cue balls

"So...you go to Dalhousie." It's not a question, so I don't answer. Then I nod to be polite.

"And you go to Acadia." I reply.

He's got very neat, combed down brown hair and large wireless-rimmed glasses that upon first look, are ridiculous but more and more they look at home on his face.

"Yup, I do. I do." He places the last wine goblet on the dinner table, and crosses his arms. The button down he's wearing tightens around his usually-invisible-boy-biceps.

"Well this looks wonderful!" Angela says, sweeping into the room with an uncharacteristic smile and a kitschy apron that says 'I'm Grilling A Witness'. She winks, "You two can go play pool if you want."

He furrows his eyebrows at her, and I straighten a cloth napkin. She sweeps back into the kitchen and he sighs, awkwardly.

"She thinks I need a girlfriend."

"I have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I figured."

"So...want to play pool?"

He leans on his cue while I use the blue chalk. He rolled up his shirt sleeves and has what look like very moisturised elbows. Angela has an actual library in her home with a huge billiard table and expansive book shelves ladders that roll across.

"So, your boyfriend go to school with you, or is it a high school sweetheart thing? or both?" He asks, and it feels a little presumptuous but I try not to bristle; he'll be the only human close to my age all evening, so it'd be stupid to say something rude.

"Neither."

"Hmm..." I line up my shot at the grouping of balls and pray for stripes because I always do stripes. I hit the cue ball and the triangle explodes. "Internet boyfriend?"

I sink the blue striped ball and arch an eyebrow. "No."

"Well, what's up with him then?"

"I met him in high school, but we didn't go to high school together."

"Hmm...long distance. Am I right?" He comes around to my side, as if to check out my form.  Right.

"Only this year."

"How long have you been together?" He presses, and I miss the green striped ball.

"Over two years."

"Wow...that's...commitment. And you're still together, and long distancing." He takes his time and circles the table; all of the solids are surrounded by at least one striped.

"Obviously." I roll my eyes. "Why?"

He misses, and his cue drives into the baize. "Well, it just seems kind of pointless, being together but being far away."

I smile, blandly. In the voice Cam always used when Gabriel was being childish: "Guess you'll understand someday."

He raises both eyebrows. "I hope so." Then he winks.

Then I beat him. (At pool.)

***
started watching parenthood bc takingbacknachos and love it so so so much every character is love thx man

i changed my tumblr theme and it's perf for my aesthetic and agh (holdmehoratio)

also exams are finished so yay