The Art of Life (30 page)

               
“Okay,” I whisper.
 
He turns and leaves the room, shutting the
door behind him.
 
I bring my hand up and
touch my face.
 
It feels so good when he
touches me.
 

               
Stop it Isabelle!
 
Ugh, he is your friend, stop being
ridiculous.
 
I go and climb into his
bed.
 
When I lay down, I roll over on my
side.
 
It’s then that I smell his pillow
and it smells exactly like him, really
good
.
 
I slap myself on the forehead and groan.
 
Go to sleep! With that I turn off the light.

               
The next morning, I wake up and
look at the clock.
 
Its ten thirty
already?
 
Wow, okay.
 
I get
up,
realizing
Jeremy is probably up already.
 
I walk
out into the apartment to find it empty.
 
What in the world?
 
I go back into
the hallway and check the bathroom.
 
Jeremy isn’t there either.
 
That
leaves one door.
 
I open it and burst out
laughing.
 
There is a bed, I think, and
boxes EVERYWHERE.
 
My, oh my, he wasn’t
kidding about unpacking and leaving everything where it was.
 
I go and look into some of the boxes.
 
Some have stuff in it and some are
empty.
 
Then I see a box in the corner
that seems to have been kept really neat.

               
I reach over and pick up the
photo album off the top.
 
I sit down on
the edge of the bed and open it up.
 
The
first two pages are filled with pictures of a younger girl, maybe in the 8
^th
grade.
 
She is an awkward looking girl,
much like me.
 
I flip to the next
page.
 
Sitting solitarily on the paper is
a 5 X 7 picture of Jeremy and this girl playing violins.
 
They are both dressed really nicely.
 
Maybe it is a concert.

               
As I am about to turn to the
next page, I hear a knock at the door.
 
I
quickly put the album back down where I found it.
 
I don’t want Jeremy to find me snooping
through his things.
 
Why I am going
through his things is beyond me in the first place.
 
Hello, major intrusion into his private
life.
 
Really Isabelle, you know better
than this.

               
There is another knock, this one
sounding more impatient.
 
I get up and go
into the living room.
 
Suddenly I hear,
“Jeremy!
 
Dude, open the door!”

               
So, I go and open it.
 
Standing in the hallway are two guys.
 
Both of them are pretty darn cute, and here I
stand in my pajamas, fresh out of bed.
Awesome.
 
The blonde guy looks at me a little
bewildered.
 
“It’s a girl.”

               
The other guy, who has black
hair, makes the comment, “Umm it’s a girl……in Jeremy’s apartment.”

               
“Can I help you?” I ask, feeling
somewhat awkward.
                                         
“Who
are you?” The blonde asks.

               
Raising my eyebrow, I retort,
“Who are you?”

               
“My name is Joshua,” the blonde
replies.
 
“This is Kent.”

               
“Oh!” I exclaim.
 
“I am sorry.
 
My name is Isabelle.
 
I should
have suspected it was you guys.”

               
Kent smiles.
 
“The infamous Isabelle, Cassandra told me all
about you.
 
She likes you.”

               
“Well, that’s good, I like her,
too.”
 
I pause, and then stammer, “Jeremy
isn’t here.”

               
Joshua bends over and whines, “I
have to use the bathroom!
 
Please, let me
in.”

               
“I don’t know,” I whisper.
 
“I mean, I really don’t know you guys.
 
Jeremy may get mad.”

               
“Here,” Kent says, pulling me
into the hallway.
 
“Leave the door open,
stand out here and I will call Cassandra.
 
Josh, go to the bathroom.”

               
Obviously, really having to go,
Josh darts to the bathroom.
 
Kent smiles
at me.
 
“Umm, this is awkward,” I mumble.

               
“Hold on,” Kent retorts, holding
up his finger.
 
He grabs his cell phone
and dials a number.
 
After a few seconds,
I hear him say, “Hey honey, will you do me a favor?
 
Isabelle is at Jeremy’s and she is worried we
aren’t who we say we are.
 
Can you talk
to her?”
 
There is a pause, and then he
hands me the phone.
 
“Here, say hi.”

               
Bashfully, I take the
phone.
 
“Hello.”

               
“Hey!” I hear Cassandra cry
enthusiastically.
 
“If I had known you
were going to be there, I would have come with, but that’s beside the
point.
 
That goofy guy is my boyfriend
Kent, and the other goober is Joshua.
 
Where is Jeremy?”

               
“You know, I have no idea.”

               
“Huh,” she replies.
 
“Well, if they get out of hand, just slap
em
.”

               
I laugh.
 
“I am not one for violence.”

               
“Is she telling you to slap us?”
Kent asks.
 
I just nod my head.
 
“Thanks
hon
,” he
shouts at the phone.

               
Cassandra giggles.
 
“Hey, did you get a cell phone yesterday?”

               
“Yeah,” I exclaim.
 
“I have no idea how to use it really, but I
have one.”

               
“Put in my phone number
then.
 
If you ever need anything you can
call me.
 
Also, then we can go shopping
for the women’s apparel that we wanted to get.”

               
Smiling, I say, “Okay.”
 
I go into the apartment and grab my
phone.
 
Looking at it, I frown.
 
“I am not exactly sure how to put a number into
it.”

               
“If you let me in, I can do it,”
Kent says from the door.

               
“Oh, yeah, come in,” I reply,
handing him my phone.
 
“Kent is going to
put it in.”

               
“That’s good,” Cassandra
retorts.
 
“We can go sometime in the next
week or two.”

               
I can’t help but grin.
 
“That sounds nice.”

               
Kent bobs his head back and forth,
and then hands me my phone.
  
“Now, you
have Cassandra’s, Josh’s and my phone numbers.”

               
“Why in the world did you give
me your numbers?” I ask.
 
“Not that I
mind, but you don’t know me.”

               
“Eh, you may need to find
Cassandra or Jeremy, and we would probably know where they are,” he replies.
 
“Anyway, you need more than Jeremy’s number
in your phone.
 
You can’t have one
number.”

               
Putting my hand out, I ask, “Can
you put a number in there for me?”

               
“Yeah, what is it?” He replies.

               
“Hold on,” I demand.
 
“Let me get it.
 
Oh!
 
Cassandra, I am going to give you back to your boyfriend.”

               
“Okay,” she chirps back.
 
With that Kent takes the phone from me.
 
I go down the hallway to the bedroom.
 
As I do that, the bathroom door opens and
Josh comes out.

               
He stops.
 
“Hey, so you let us in, huh?”

               
“Yeah,” I answer.
 
“I am getting something from my backpack.”

               
Josh watches me go into Jeremy’s
room.
 
“I didn’t realize you and
Jeremy….umm…slept in the same bed.
 
Not
to pry or whatever.”

               
“Oh,” I gasp, “No, he slept on the
couch.”

               
Grimacing, Josh says, “You
survived sleeping in Jeremy’s room alone?
 
I have looked in there.
 
It’s kind
of scary.”

               
“The sheets were clean, and I
ignored the rest,” I reply.
 
I reach into
my backpack and pull out my sketchbook.
 
“He was nice enough to sleep in the living room.”

               
“What a gentleman,” Josh
laughs.
 
“You must be special, because he
doesn’t even let girls into his apartment, let alone give up his bed for them.”

               
I try not to smile.
 
“He is being super nice to me.”

               
“Do you know where he is?” Josh
asks.

               
“No,” I reply, shaking my
head.
 
“Here, I want to give this number
to Kent.”

               
Josh gestures down the hallway
and I go in front of him.
 
“I have the
number,” I say to Kent.

               
“What is it?” He asks.

               
“555-6504.”

               
Kent punches it into my phone.
 
He looks at me.
 
“Name?”

               
“Eric,” I reply.

               
Getting a smirk, he asks,
“Boyfriend?”

               
“No!” I snap.
 
I can feel myself blushing.