a study of cara evelyn

four

Jeanine and I decided to have a night out, finding whimsical comfort in the uncomfortableness of our relationship. My mom doesn't know we've decided to maintain our friendship, and I think its best if we keep this secret to ourselves.

We went to a local restaurant, the one we always went to. It was called A Small World, and it sure is. Jeanine went in first, letting her extroverted personality guide her through the crowd. I followed her, keeping track of her panda hat. She turned around a few times to make sure I was coming with her, flashing her signature smile a few time.

"If you can't keep up, Williams, you should go home." She teased. I gave her a warning look, to which she chuckled. Jeanine was an easy going girl, which was good, because I needed someone like that in my life.

We continued to walk through the crowd until we met up with the rest of the "gang", or in other words, Jeanine's artsy buddies. There were Nic, Gemma and Damien- all students of Chicago's Academy of Arts, and I was the odd one out, taking a gap year to find out what I really wanted to do.

Nic and Damien sandwiched me into a hug, while I faked being suffocated by being burried in their overly strong cologne.

Gemma hugged me, and apologized when her earring got caught in my sweater. We untangled it in no time, and shared a laugh about it afterwards.

Gemma and I have a confusing relationship, to the point that its casual and mutual that we can do almost anything with each other. And we do. I'm sure if one if us developed feelings for each other, we'd ruin everything, and that's why I'm glad it hasn't happened yet. We're casual, and that's all I need right now.

We had a night full of conversations and drinks; it ranged from philosophical debates to stupid contests such as who eats the most sushi rolls in two minutes.

As Jeanine began shoving down her third sushi roll with half a minute remaining on the clock, Gemma nudged my sleeve. "Let's leave,"

I looked at her, smiled, and shook my head no. Unlike her, I was pretty interested in knowing who one the competition, especially after Nic put two shushi rolls on top of each other and gobbled them up.

But she wouldn't stop, continuously poking my arm. Finally, after seeing that I wouldn't budge, she waited until Nic was declared the winner to speak.

"Guys, I'm think I'm gonna go." She said, putting her arm in mine. "And Williams is coming with me."

I shook my head again, but she had already pulled me out of my seat. Jeanine frowned, Nic raised his eyebrows and Damien smirked. Before I knew it, we were outside the bar and were strolling casually into the elevator.

As the doors were about to close, a hand struck in and stopped them. To my ironic surpirse, it was the girl I had seen two days ago. She looked up, smiled coolly and scurried in.

"Hey," I greeted, chuckling, and Gemma frowned.

The girl looked at me, sideways and said 'hey' back.

"I still haven't fixed my phone," I said. "maybe I should visit your cousin."

The girl looked back at me, cocked her head and lowered her eyebrows. She looked throughly confused, and I started to feel embarrassed.

"I, um, I talked to you on the street two days ago. I broke my phone and you told me to visit your cousin, remember?"

After a moment, she began to nod. "I didn't say you should visit my cousin. I would never say that. He's a misogynist pig who's-"

"Bad at monopoly." We said in unison, and laughed. Gemma nudged my elbow. "We've reached our floor."

I tilted my head upwards to see the little electronic square that displayed the floor numbers.

Three.

"We still have three floors to go," I replied, with a confused look on my face. Why was Gemma acting so strange?

"Well, I'm just going to go to the ladies' room," She stated, squeezing out of the small gap between the elevator doors. "And then I'm gonna go home."

I shook my head, trying to figure out what had gotten into her. It was only then that I noticed the sign that she had wrapped her hands around. It was upside down, with the stick grasped firmly between her fingers. I tried to read it, and she took notice of that.

"Oh, we're holding a protest for ten schools that are planned to be closed down. Its down at Millennia Park. You're welcome to come if you care about youth's education, or if you're just hungry; we have snacks."

I weighed my options; go to Gemma's apartment and spend the night there, go and join the rest of the gang at the bar, or join a protest I hadn't heard of until two seconds ago.

I shrugged; "What kind of snacks?"