Reality Bites

Melinda gathered her books and walked down the dimly lit grey hallway. Her small brown purse bounced at her slender hip as she made her way through the throng of other students. As she walked, she saw her friend Tia. Her long, red hair was pulled up into a ponytail almost on the top of her head. Her black leather shoulder bag bounced around, the contents threatening to spill out. As Melinda drew near her, she could see that Tia had something in her hands. “Tia!” Melinda shouted toward her friend. The girl’s ponytail flipped about, as she walked on, oblivious to Melinda’s shouting. Melinda quickened her pace until she was directly behind Tia.

“Tia,” Melinda said, touching the girl’s exposed shoulder. Tia turned, and Melinda saw that Tia was eating something that looked like frozen yogurt.

“What is that? Where did you get it?” Melinda questioned Tia.

“The cafeteria. Want some? It’s really good.” Tia offered her spoon to Melinda, filled with the tasty treat. Melinda tasted it, and handed the spoon back to Tia.

“That is good,” Melinda stated to Tia, who appeared not to care.

They walked toward their next class, math, together. It was there that they had met; and soon became friends. As they neared the math classroom, Tia groaned.

“I so don’t want to go to math,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Let’s go to lunch, I’m hungry.”

“Tia, you can’t miss math. You’re having enough trouble as it is,” Melinda gently told her friend.

“Well, you’re good at math; you can show me tonight in the dorms, right?”

“Yes, I suppose,” Melinda said to her friend with some annoyance. They had now turned in their path, and were headed toward the lunchroom where their other friends awaited. Melinda began to get nervous as she and Tia approached the table where Christian, Jana, Kathy, and Molly sat. Molly was sitting next to Christian, and Kathy and Jana were sitting next to each other on the other side of the table. They all were laughing and chatting unconsciously, not aware of Tia and Melinda approaching the dark wooden table where they were sitting. “You didn’t tell me Christian was going to be here!” Melinda whispered fiercely to Tia.

“Oh, you’ll be fine,” Tia said reassuringly to Melinda. As they neared the table, Christian nodded his head and waved, smiling. Melinda could feel her cheeks growing red beneath her shoulder length light brown hair. She anxiously sat across from Christian, carefully placing her books in the table space to the left of her, trying not to drop them on the floor like a klutz. She watched Tia fling her shoulder bag onto the table, its contents spilling everywhere. Tia just rolled her eyes and smiled at Molly’s laughter at the sight. The two chatted with each other and with Jana and Kathy, leaving an awkward silence between Melinda and Christian. “Have you eaten yet?” Melinda inquired.

“No, I was waiting for the line to thin out, which looks like that would be now,” he said matter-of-factly, looking over Melinda at the line in the crowded cafeteria.

“Do you want to go up together?” Melinda asked shyly, slightly smiling.

“Sure,” Christian answered, smiling back at Melinda, turning her cheeks red. Melinda dug her meal card from her purse, and the two headed toward the line slowly, side by side. Melinda walked nervously in front of Christian. She could feel him staring at her back, and as if to break this awkwardness, he began to purposefully step on her heels. She stopped and turned, a smirk on her face. Christian smiled, and playfully answered Melinda's facial expression with a flirty,

"What? I couldn't help it; those shoes look cute on your feet." Now Melinda was really turning red. She smiled at the floor, not wanting to see his reaction to her redness. She quickly walked toward the cafeteria kitchen entrance, thinking that she left Christian with his goofy but cute smile in the center of the cafeteria. Nevertheless, he was right behind her. Ignoring him, she picked up a mauve colored lunch tray and silverware, and continued to the lunch line. Melinda felt hurt that he would embarrass her in the middle of the cafeteria like that. Refusing to face him, Melinda didn't notice that his expression had softened.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to embarrass you. I was just joking around," he said, his eyes sparkling in the light.

"It's no big deal," Melinda said, looking toward the floor. While she was in that stance, Christian suddenly wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug.

"Make-up hug!" he exclaimed. Melinda smiled and hugged him back, secretly sniffing his cologne. They returned to their table with their food, and resumed their previous seating arrangement.

As they ate their rather gross but satisfying lunch, Chris smiled at Melinda occasionally, whenever she caught his eye, but nothing more. The group chatted about various things, but didn't include Melinda very much in their discussions. This caused a scar in Melinda, and it was one that she carried all her life with all of her friends, and she was forever trying to erase it. However, try as she might, her efforts would remain in vain.

* * * * * *

Feeling tired from studying for the European history quiz she was going to have the next day, Melinda changed into her nightclothes; a grey shirt with a rose tattoo design on it, and black cheerleading shorts. She slipped her feet into her fuzzy red slippers and headed to Tia and Molly's room. Walking down the hallway, Melinda saw Christian exit from the internal stairway. She hoped that he wasn't heading toward Tia's room, but he was. She took a deep breath and continued down the hallway, her math book clutched tightly to her chest.

He suddenly turned, and spotting Melinda, he stopped and waved. “Hey, Christian,” Melinda answered nervously, “what’s up?”

“Oh, not much,” he said, with a slight smile. “I was just going to ask Tia if she would let me borrow her psychology notes.”

Melinda was shocked. Had Christian just admitted to her that he had skipped class? Astonished, she carefully asked, “Did you miss that class today?”

“Yeah, I was typing a paper, and lost track of time, and when I looked at the clock, it was quarter after two, and I don’t like walking into class late, so….” His voice trailed off as he gave a shrug. Melinda noticed that he had stepped closer to her as they had been talking. Feeling the need to flee, she looked down at her thick math book, and quickly searched her mind for a reason. Noticing that she didn’t have her calculator, she quickly said, “Oh, shoot. I forgot my calculator,” and turned to leave.

Christian nodded and answered, “Well, if I’m still down there, I’ll see ya.”

“Okay,” Melinda nervously answered, hurrying to her room. Feeling her cheeks turning red, Melinda pulled her calculator from her purse, checked her appearance in the mirror, and headed toward Tia’s room.

* * * * * *

The rest of the freshman year for Melinda, Tia, Molly, Jana and Kathy went smoothly, and when spring semester ended, they all vowed to stay in touch, even going out to eat one last time before finals week; exchanging phone numbers and e-mail addresses after their meal. Melinda sent her friends e-mails almost weekly, but she never got a response. Thinking that her friends were busy, Melinda went about her business.

Fall came, and Melinda moved back to campus, sharing a triple room with Tia and Molly. The quarter started out “normal,” but as the weeks passed, she noticed that Tia and Molly were often absent from previous social activities that the girls had shared. Then she started to notice that if Tia and Molly were talking in the dorm room, they would suddenly stop and do something else whenever Melinda would enter. Sometimes she would hear them whispering on the other side of the room, and every time this occurred, she swore that she would hear her name. Then Melinda’s journal was missing for days, and then suddenly reappeared in her desk drawer.

Her friends’ absences didn’t really bother Melinda; it gave her time to study alone in her room, listen to her music really loud, and go to bed early, which she often did much to her roommates’ chagrin, since they often liked to stay up late on weekdays. What did bother Melinda was the fact that she knew that they were going through her stuff (and reading her journal) on a regular basis. Luckily for Melinda (and un-luckily for them), she had brought some of her things in a silver trunk that was complete with a lock. She kept the key to the trunk in a pouch in the bottom of her purse; that way she always had it with her, and her greedy roommates couldn’t get into her stuff then.

Melinda thought she had solved the problem…that is, until finals week. She had just returned from her last final exam, and was trying to get her things together to pack. As she was reaching for her dishes on the top shelf of the bookcase, she knocked down some bowls (which were plastic) onto Tia’s desk, knocking over a stack of books, and Tia’s journal. As Melinda gathered up the books, the journal lay open on the floor. She picked it up to put it back when she saw her name, and then what Tia had written:

“Melinda, my stupid ignorant roommate, doesn’t even suspect that Molly and I are reading her journal. Too bad she writes everything in there. Let’s just say that’s why her relationship with Christian ended after three dates: we told him that she had a psychopathological condition. In other words, we told him that she is a serial stalker.”

Melinda couldn’t believe it…they were backstabbing her! Fuming with anger, she grabbed the five journals that Tia owned, and stuffed them in her suitcase. She quickly packed everything else up and left, leaving the door open to the room, because she just didn’t give a damn anymore.

* * * * * *

About a month after she left, she got a “hate letter” email from Tia. Unfortunately, she had written ideas and unpublished poems in her other journals, and was pissed that Melinda had taken them and “thrown them away.” But that’s not what Melinda did at all. She kept the journals, rewrote the poems and sculpted the ideas to become her own. The two remaining journals were blank, so Melinda kept one for herself, and gave the other to her sister.

Melinda was glad to be living at home and not with her “friends.” She continued school at a branch campus of another university in the fall. She made new friends, and even had a boyfriend from the main campus. She started to forget the bad memories from her old college when she got another email from Tia. This one was much nastier than the last one:

“You’re fucking crazy, and you need to take your pills, bitch! We ALL knew you had mental issues, even Christian. Didn’t you figure out that’s why he left you, you stupid bitch? You’re so fucked up; you don’t even deserve an English major. So stay out of MY MAJOR, whore!”

Melinda felt her eyes start to burn, then painful tears welled up and ran down her cheeks, creating perfect little streams on her shocked face. She couldn’t believe that Tia would send something so nasty and hurtful. Then the hurt turned to anger. The anger turned to rage.

“You’re the fucking bitch,” Melinda muttered, the computer mouse whirling on the desktop. She saved the letter, then forwarded it to the dean of students at her old college. A week later she received another email, this time from Molly, telling her that Tia had been placed on probation. Melinda smirked, stating softly, “well, wasn’t that the point?”