that’s that me espresso
Lydia laughed softly, shaking her head and she tapped away at her phone.
Suzie, sitting across from her at the library table, lifted up an eyebrow. “You’re finding your phone awfully funny today,” she inquired, peering up from over her laptop.
There were a pile of books between them, scattering the table with titles like; Exploring the Art of Documentary Storytelling, and The Silent Era: How to Speak with No Sound. Lydia’s laptop was open in front of her, the sleep screen having had appeared long ago. The document that she was meant to be working on remained blank.
Lydia looked up sheepishly.
“Sorry, girl,” she apologised, looking away from her phone and placing it screen-side down on the table. She new she was being an awful study partner but she couldn’t help it. Her fingers itched to see if Kori had sent her another text.
Suzie didn’t say anything, just waited pointedly until Lydia’s phone buzzed and watched with a smirk as Lydia scramble to pick it up. It was another text from Kori, and Lydia tried to fight back a smile as she looked at a photo of a black cat, Kori captioning it this is you.
They had been texting nonstop over the past few days, ever since Lydia gave Kori her number. If she thought her harbouring crush on Kori was bad before, it was in full force now. Whatever plans of studying out her college degree head-down had gone out the window. Maybe a bit too much out the window, Lydia thought, as she could feel the judgemental glare from the blank document burning into her from behind the screen.
“Suzie,” Lydia sighed, “I think this project is going to be the death of me. A full on murder, even.”
Suzie looked up from her laptop. “Very gothic,” she commented. “Maybe you should channel some of that energy into your blank word doc, girl.”
Lydia flicked a pen at her friend. “That’s not very helpful,” she said. “Our professor wants me to try something outside my usual oeuvre. Gothic is well and truly in that.”
It was true. Whilst she knew her grungy, experimental style was appreciated at the college, their professor has challenged Lydia to think outside of her usual box. She understood where the comment came from, it paid to be versatile when starting out, but it had put a stint in her normally free-flowing process. She was drawing blanks.
“I think you’re overthinking it,” Suzie offered. “Just start with what form you want to do and try and narrow it down from there.”
Lydia looked the books on the table, pulling Exploring the Art of Documentary Storytelling towards her. “I think I want to do a documentary.”
She looked at Suzie for her approval. Her friend had a level of confidence surrounding her work that Lydia wished she could tap into.
“That’s a start,” Suzie nodded. “Now you just have to decide what you want to document.”
Lydia’s head dropped to the table. “I don’t know,” she moaned, voice muffled against the desk. “You pick for me?”
Suzie laughed. “Unless you want to do it on 1930’s flappers, sure.”
Lydia remained like that while Suzie continued to work, waiting for inspiration to strike. Part of her wanted to ignore the advice from her professor and just stick to what she knew, but the other part of her was up for the challenge, having recently found herself enjoying what was normally out of her comfort zone. She just wished the creative process wasn’t going to keep hiding from her.
She heard her phone buzz. She firmly ignored it.
It buzzed again. She looked at her bag, to where the device had been banished. She looked at her still empty document. She looked at Suzie.
“Oh god,” her friend teased, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Just look at the freaking thing.”
So Lydia did, quickly pulling her phone out of the bag and turning on the screen. She had two new messages from Kori.
Kori: I think I am dying of boredom :((((
Kori: You got any plans tonight??
Lydia’s heart flipped. Was Kori asking her on a date? Unless she just wanted to hangout as friends and Lydia was reading it wrong. But ‘tonight’ must imply date, wouldn’t it?
“You look like a deer in headlights,” Suzie commented.
Lydia looked up at her friend. “Does ‘tonight’ imply date?”
Suzie’s eyes widened. “Date?” She exclaimed. “Are you texting that cheerleader? When did this happen?”
Lydia felt her cheeks heat as Suzie interrogated her. She hadn’t yet told her that she had given Kori her number, part of her not wanting to bring it up at all. She knew Suzie would tease her about it, a fact that was currently running true.
“On Sunday,” Lydia replied, grabbing the textbook next to her opening it up to a random page.
She heard Suzie quickly shuffle to sit down next to her. The book was pushed out of her hands.
“Sunday?” Suzie stated. “You started texting your lesbian crush four days ago and you didn’t think to tell me?” She shook her head. ”Lydia B Kollins, I am offended.”
Lydia hid her face in her hands. “I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”
“After a betrayal like that? I don’t know if I can.” Suzie gave her a playful nudge. “Four days of talking and you already get asked on a date. That’s my girl, alright.”
Lydia peeled herself away from her hands. “If it even is a date.”
She pushed her phone towards Suzie at her confused facial expression. She watched as her friend read it over.
“Lydia,” Suzie said. “She is one hundred percent asking you out on a date.”
Her face heated up even more. She snatched the phone back from Suzie, rereading the messages herself. “Maybe.”
Suzie shook her head. “Not maybe. Definitely.”
Lydia wanted to scream. Instead, she typed out a reply.
i’m free!
She tilted the screen to Suzie. “Is the exclamation point too much?”
Suzie rolled her eyes. “Like I said before, I think you’re overthinking it.” She lifted her finger and pressed send. “There. Now we wait.”
Almost instantly, she got a reply.
Kori: Perfect!! Want to go to the cinema? I think theres a new horror movie we can watch
Lydia grabbed Suzie’s arm. “The cinema.”
Suzie patted her hand. “Yes, the cinema.”
Lydia took her hand back and replied to Kori.
sounds great to me
Kori: I’ll see you there at 8pm <3 <3
Lydia heart-reacted it, letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She gave a side glance to Suzie and then put her face into her heads, letting out a squeal. She quickly straightened herself back up after, turning to give a more pointed look towards the auburn haired girl.
“Not a word,” Lydia said, but her was smile evident in her voice despite her false nonchalance.
Suzie mimed her lips being sealed. “I’m not saying anything. Just let me know when the wedding is."
If Lydia still had her pen, she would have thrown it at her. "Shut up! This is just us hanging out."
Suzie gave her a knowing look. "We both know that's not true."
Lydia didn’t reply. She deeply wanted it to be a date, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up if it wasn’t. Over the past few days, her initial liking to Kori had deepened into something that was getting harder to ignore.
There was a part of her that still remained timid. Was this as serious to Kori as it was to her? She hated how guarded she was all the time but she didn’t want herself to get hurt. Her walls were aways up, but it seemed like Kori was begging to take them down, one by one.
She checked the time. It was only noon. She felt like 8pm couldn’t come fast enough.