Across The Hall

Monday morning Christen agrees to meet Kelley in the Campus Center for some smoothies to start off the day. Having just completed her daily zen-filled ritual of yoga and meditation, Christen walks through the glass doors of the brightly-colored smoothie place and spots Kelley waiting for her at the counter. When Kelley recognizes her, she smiles brightly and waves her roommate over. As Christen strolls to the front of the line, she can’t help but feel like a bit of jerk cutting in front of everyone else. But despite Christen’s guilty conscience, none of the other students seem to be bothered as they scroll through their phones or peruse the drink menu while they wait in line.

“Hey, there you are!” Kelley greets as Christen finally arrives at her side.

“Here I am” Christen acknowledges with a slight nod of her head and a bubbly tone. Unlike most of her young adult peers, Christen is almost always bubbly in the mornings.

“It took you long enough” Kelley playfully scoffs, “What, did you get stuck in the warrior position or something? Or the downward dog? Or maybe some… other position?” Kelley suggestively wiggles her eyebrows at her last comment.

“What? Kelley no. Get your mind out of the gutter!” Christen immediately returns as she slaps her friend on the arm. Even though she expects this kind of behavior from the girl, Christen is always particularly bothered when Kelley teases her about romantic innuendos. Maybe it’s because Kelley has an idea of who the person in question would be if this make-believe scenario were ever to be true. Maybe it’s because jokes like these actually force Christen’s mind to consider scenarios like that as well. Scenarios that Christen knows she isn’t prepared to even begin to imagine. Whatever the cause, Christen knows she doesn’t appreciate the uncomfortable feeling she gets in the pit of her stomach as a result. Nope, not today. Not thinking about that today.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing” Kelley concedes as she surrenders her hands slightly into the air. Thank you. “But you are still late, for whatever reason, so I ordered for you. Is that ok?”

“Yeah” Christen responds, somewhat relieved for the change of topic, “As long as it’s good.”

“Oh Pressy, you should know by now that I have impeccable taste” Kelley haughtily replies as she flips some of her hair over her shoulder for an added hint of emphasis.

“That she does” An unfamiliar voice sounds from the opposite side of the counter. Kelley’s eyes widen as she spins around to face the blonde smoothie shop employee who meets her with a smug smile. Kelley looks at the girl quizzically before the girl sets two medium smoothies on the counter. “One ‘Miss Kelley Special’ and one extra yogurt ‘Berry Blast’ for Miss Kelley’s yogi friend.”

Christen reaches for her smoothie and begins to thank the girl when she looks up and notices that her eyes are trained on Kelley alone. Kelley seems a lot less exuberant than she was moments ago. A little flustered even. And if Christen had a better view than just of Kelley’s profile, she might even say she’s blushing. Christen’s gaze shifts between her roommate and this mysterious smoothie barista as she studies their interaction. Who is this girl? And why is Kelley acting all weird all of a sudden? Christen smiles to herself when the thought finally dawns on her. Does Kelley have a crush?

“Uh, thanks” Kelley says before reaching into her pockets to pull out a few bills to pay the girl for the fruity drinks. But just as she is about to place the money on the counter, the girl raises a hand to stop her.

“This round is on the house” the girl states with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk that could light up a room. Kelley nods before hesitantly stuffing her money back into her pocket. Wow, an attractive girl just bought her a smoothie and Kelley’s acting like a deer in caught in headlights. I’ve never seen this side of her before. It’s like for the first time since I met her she doesn’t seem 100% confident in herself. This is actually quite amusing.

“Oh, alright. Thanks again.” Kelley murmurs while reaching for her cup. The girl nods acknowledgingly as Christen squints her eyes and attempts to read the girl’s nametag. Emily.

“You’re welcome” Emily warmly replies, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” After that, Christen swears she sees Emily wink. Kelley just pretends to be more interested in her smoothie than the conversation as Emily begins to push away from the counter. “Bye Kelley” she adds as her eyes linger on the freckled girl before drifting over to Christen, “Kelley’s friend.”

“See you. And thank you for the drinks” Christen politely responds while Kelley turns away from the two and begins her departure from the counter. Emily waves and Christen follows on Kelley’s tail. When she makes it to her roommate’s side once again, Christen nudges her elbow to get her attention.

“So” Christen casually opens up, “You didn’t tell me you had a thing for a certain smoothie shop employee.” Kelley reactively flinches at Christen’s lack of subtlety but continues walking at her normal pace despite it.

“What? I do not” Kelley unconvincingly declares as she takes a sip of her ‘specially made’ smoothie.

“Oh yeah? Then why are you being so defensive?” Christen retorts as a devilish smirk grows on her face.

“Because I’m a defender, that’s what we do” Kelley deflects. Christen continues to stare Kelley down with a determined intensity.

“Yeah” Christen acknowledges, “But you’re also a forward. A very forward forward. If you like her, why don’t you ask her out?” Kelley turns her head and shoots daggers at the annoying Cali girl to her side.

“I told you I don’t like her” Kelley agitatedly reiterates as the two find an empty table in the Campus Center Lounge and take their seats.

“Could of fooled me” Christen teasingly remarks as she scoots her chair closer to the table. “But for the record, she totally likes you too.”

“Whatever, she does not” Kelley rejects as she takes another sip of her smoothie and avoids the prying eyes of the girl across from her.

“Tell that to your free smoothie, Kel” Christen points out. Kelley instantly places her cup back on the table and turns it so the ‘Miss Kelley’ Emily had carefully written isn’t facing her nosey roommate. “Come on, I saw the way the two of you interacted with each other. I’m not blind you know.”

“Says the girl wearing floral capris and grandma loafers” Kelley quips.

Christen looks down at her outfit of choice for the day and immediately feels self-conscious. I was running so late that I just kind of threw some things on. I don’t think this looks that bad, does it? And these aren’t even loafers, they’re clearly Sperrys. Yet I’m the one with no sense of fashion? Right. That’s rich. At least I try, all you wear literally every day is sweatpants. And when was the last time you actually washed your sweatpants? In all of the time we’ve been roommates, not once have I seen you do your laundry. I can’t believe you have the audacity to tell me – Just as Christen feels herself getting all worked up, she looks over to see Kelley playing with her phone. Wait a second, you didn’t mean that, you’re just trying to change the subject. Nice try, Maureen.

“Why do you keep dodging the question?” Christen asks, unwilling to give up on the topic of Kelley’s love life, “You should just listen to me and ask her out. You’ll thank me later.” Kelley looks up from her phone and frowns at Christen. She seems drained from the conversation.

“Can we please just talk about something else?” Kelley begs exhaustedly. Christen wasn’t expecting Kelley to suddenly become so shy about the topic. The Kelley she knows normally rambles on and on about her romantic ideals and fantasies and whatever else pops into her head. This is weird, maybe I should let up.

“Alright, fine. What do you want to talk about?” Christen begrudgingly surrenders. Kelley takes a moment to think it over before her eyes connect with Christen’s and a bolt of mischief flashes through them. Christen gets an uneasy feeling in her stomach, like whatever is about to come out of Kelley’s mouth will be trouble.

“Why don’t you ask Tobin out?” Shit. I knew something bad was coming. I just knew.

“What are you talking about? We’re just friends, remember?” Christen asks, starting to sweat under Kelley’s lazer stare.

“Friends who like each other” Kelley corrects, “So what’s holding you back? I know Tobin has it bad for you.” She knows Tobin likes me? How? Tobin only told me a few days ago. Unless… Tobin told her?

“Wait, did she tell you that – ” Christen nervously rambles out. Kelley quirks and eyebrow at Christen’s unintentional confirmation of her suspicions.

“She didn’t have to” Kelley cuts off her panicked roommate, “You just did.” Christen slumps her head dejectedly. Dammit, I just fell for her jedi mind tricks. “Though you shouldn’t give yourself too much credit, Tobs isn’t the most secretive with her little crush.” What does she mean by that? Tobin’s only ever been friendly with me, nothing more. Christen lets out a large sigh.

“Alright, I have a proposition for you” she states. Kelley leans closer over the table.

“I’m listening” Kelley replies as she patiently waits for Christen to explain further.

“How about you drop this whole ‘Tobin thing’ and I drop whatever was going on between you and ‘smoothie girl’ and we talk about something else and happily go on with our days?” Kelley mulls over the proposal for just a second before responding.

“Deal” Kelley answers. Both of the girls’ shoulders visibly relax. It’s almost as if the tension that’s settled over them evaporates into thin air.

“Great” Christen nods as she readjusts herself in her seat, “So how was your first practice as an official member of the team this morning?” Kelley perks up at the mention of soccer. She was so proud to have made the team that she slept in her jersey last night.

“Pretty good despite it being ungodly early in the day” Kelley gushes, earning a chuckle from Christen. “We did a lot of passing drills, worked on dribbling technique, and then scrimmage to start building some team chemistry. It’s actually really amazing how seamless everyone’s styles of play seem to work together. I think this is going to be a good season for us.” Christen smiles at Kelley, genuinely happy for the girl. Listening to Kelley reminds her of her days on the pitch. Arguably some of the happiest days of Christen’s life.

“I’m glad it’s going well” Christen warmly states, “I can’t wait to watch you guys play.”

“Well I can’t wait to have my own personal cheerleader at the games rooting me on” Kelley adds with a playful smile of her own. Christen can’t stop herself from saying what comes out of her mouth next.

“Who? Emily?” Kelley immediately narrows her eyes at Christen.

“Hey. We talked about this” she sternly warns.

“You’re right, my bad. I’m sorry” Christen bows her head apologetically, “I just couldn’t resist.”

“That’s ok” Kelley sighs as she nonchalantly plays with her cup, “I guess I shouldn’t push away my cheerleader while I still have her. I mean, before I know it you’ll be Tobin’s personal cheerleader and then I’ll be left with nothing.” I should’ve seen that one coming.

“Fine, we’re even now” Christen declares as Kelley returns her eyes to Christen’s and smiles triumphantly.

“Even” she repeats, “For now.”

Both girls laugh and continue with their casual and well-humored conversation. Though even as they change topics and move on to less personal subjects, they both know that there is truth behind Kelley’s comment. It’s only a matter of time before one of them has to act on their feelings for one of the girls consuming their thoughts. It’s only a matter of when and how things play out. It’s only a matter of time before they are no longer even.