Page 94 of Fade into You

“No,” I scoff.

Jessa looks down at her half-eaten bagel.

“Well.” Charlie glances at his watch. “I really should get a move on.”

I stand up to give Charlie a hug, and I suddenly feel like I could cry. This went by too fast. Our goodbye hug is much more sedate and somber than our hello hug was yesterday.

“You’ll be home for Thanksgiving?” I ask him as we pull away from each other.

“I will, promise,” he tells me, and I believe him, even if I can’t get used to his I-wanna-be-a-rock-star hairstyle. “And Jessa…” He opens his arms to offer a hug to her as well, and it warms my gooey sentimental insides that she actually accepts. “It was a real pleasure. I hope I’ll see you again soon. Maybe around Thanksgiving?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice. It was great to meet you, too—and thanks for letting us crash.”

“Anytime.” He takes a breath and sighs like maybe this goodbye is hard for him, too. “Birdie. You be safe driving home, all right? I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

We sit back down after he walks away, this time on the same side of the booth, close to each other.

Jessa tucks my hair back behind my shoulder and studies my face. “Are you okay?”

I nod, but I’m not.

“You look like you’re about to cry.”

“I don’t know. I just sometimes forget how much I miss him. Is that weird?”

“No,” she says. “That makes more sense to me than I can even explain.”

“Yeah, I know it does.” I rest my head on her shoulder and she puts her arm around me for a few seconds. “You wanna get some coffee for the road and head out? Take our time driving back?”

“Sounds good.”

We’re walking through campus with our to-go cups and our bags. I loop my arm with hers and she smiles. “Is this still okay?” I ask her, and she nods.

“This is really nice.” She unlatches my arm and reaches for my hand instead. “This whole weekend has felt so good. Just being able to be out—well, mostly, anyway.”

“Yeah,” I agree.

As we continue toward the student housing where Daniel’scar is parked, someone jogs up next to us. “Hey, hey, excuse me?” this guy says. Jessa lets go of my hand and as we slow down, I can see two other guys are hanging back a few feet, watching. They all have the same kind of coffee cups as us, and I think I remember seeing at least one of them at breakfast.

“Yeah?” Jessa says sharply, cranking up her attitude meter to the nth degree.

“I gotta ask…” He’s grinning as he looks back and forth between us. “Which one of you is the guy and which one is the girl here?”

“Come on,” Jessa says to me, taking my hand again, but this time she’s pulling me away.

“No, really, I’m just asking.” When I look back at him, he says, “You… you’re the girl, right?”

“Wh-what?” I manage to say. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about when you two are getting it on in bed, who’s the man and who’s the chick?” He glances over his shoulder at the other two guys, who are cackling.

“What did you just say to us?” I shout.

“Come on!”Jessa whispers. “Don’t talk to him.”

“Hey, it’s a free country. She can talk to me if she wants. You don’t have to get defensive. I was just thinking you two probably haven’t had the right—”

“Just fuck off, dude, seriously,” Jessa says, cutting him off. But I’m getting the picture; pretty sure I know what he was going to say. “Not interested, all right?”