Joel ran to the end of the hallway and looked both ways. No Fe. He ran to the emergency steps, hoping that maybe she had opted to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Of course she did not. He considered damn near jumping down the stairs, even though he was already panting and sweating hard both from exhaustion and from getting caught by the girl of his dreams. Even though he wanted to run down the five flights of stairs to the lobby, he knew there was no way that he'd catch her. Plus, Fe would be steaming mad by now. He once learned the hard way on the wrong end of her shoe to leave her alone for awhile when she was super-pissed. That was a lesson he wasn't in a hurry to learn again. He sighed dejectedly and walked back to his dorm room. In the heat of trying to catch up with Fe he had forgotten all about Maggie being there. That is until he walked into his room and saw her standing in the middle, her arms crossed across her chest, her foot tapping and her breath coming out in huffs.
"So, what happened to Fe?" Resentment oozed from every word that she spoke.
"You're still here?"
Joel spoke those words out of surprise as opposed to spitefulness or hatefulness. But considering all the things that just happened in the past few minutes, that message wasn't conveyed very well to Maggie. She took the statement at face value and immediately her eyes welled up with tears.
"Fine if you don't want me here, then I won't stay here. Goodbye Joel."
She pushed passed him hard in an attempt to knock him off balance and possibly knocking him into the wall because she had caught him off guard. However, the adrenaline flowing through his veins had made him as steady as a rock and he barely moved. His head turned on a slight swivel as he watched her walk out, mumbling a soft "bye". Maggie ignored it and hoped that her exit was dramatic enough to make him run after her the way he ran after Fe. It wasn't. She even stood outside of his door for a few seconds, wishing that it would fly open and Joel with be standing there with puppy dog eyes and apologizing profusely for chasing after Fe the way he did. Of course that didn't happen. Instead Joel opted for crashing on his bed for the night, hoping that he would wake up the next morning and all of this would be a nightmare. Or at least that he would've thought of a good way to make it up to Fe.
As he crossed the room, he stubbed his toe on the corner of the box Fe dropped. He groaned and cursed a number of times as he bent over to see what in the box in the first place. It was nothing but a bunch of books. Some thick, some thin, some pamphlets. In true Fe fashion, the books were organized from thickest to thinnest. A couple of the thinnest books lay on top, their backs facing Joel. He picked them up and read the titles. Suddenly he felt sick to his stomach.
"My Baby & Me, How does your body change after pregnancy?, Breastfeeding: Good for Mommy and Baby." He stared at the books in deep regret. It was bad enough that he thought he had only hurt Fe, his best friend. In actuality, he was hurting Fe, the mother of his first child. If he couldn't feel any lower, the title of the last book pushed him over the edge. It read New Fatherhood. Fe brought him a book about fatherhood because...she was actually going to keep the baby? That was the only explanation Joel could come up with. With the pain in his toe long forgotten, Joel put the books back in the box and began getting ready. He had to see and talk to Fe, tonight. If that meant risking getting kicked in his boys, that was a risk he had to be willing to take. _________________________________________________ It was after midnight when Fe finally returned to her room from the library. Originally, that's where she wanted to go to seek solace from the world after catching Joel...she couldn't even finish the thought. It would've only been around 4:03 when she returned to her room and her roommate Kayla would've been having her weekly make-out session with her less then attractive boyfriend Matt. So, Fe decided to spend the rest of her day in the library instead. When she entered the newly renovated building, she went and took care of first things first. As she raced to the basement bathroom, she could feel the tears around flowing down her face. She could barely contain herself as she burst into the abandoned bathroom. Locking herself in the farthest stall, Fe sat on the toilet seat, now completely unable to control herself. She cried harder than she ever had in her entire life, to the point that not only did her head hurt, but she was actually nauseous. It felt like it had been only moments but she had cried for over an hour before the urge to hurl was more than she could bear.
She turned around just in time to aim and empty the contents of her stomach in the white porcelain bowl. After about two minutes, it was mostly dry heave and the fact that she was incredibly upset that kept her stomach in knots. A couple of girls had entered the bathroom during Fe's emotional breakdown but had quickly retreated in an attempt to give her some "privacy". It was almost 6 when Fe finally stopped crying and felt her stomach settled enough to even dare to try to exit the bathroom. She opened the stall door on unsteady legs and grasped on the edge on the sink, resting all of her weight on two shaky arms. She didn't dare look into the mirror, afraid of what sight might greet her. She washed her hands and face a few times, hoping to rid herself of not only germs but the appearance that she had just lost a bit of her sanity in the third stall. Fifteen minutes passed before she felt somewhat satisfied that she had accomplished her goal and Fe dried herself off and made a slow exit into the unforgiving world.
She spent the next 5 ½ hours pretending to read and comprehend her biology textbook in the farthest corner of the library. It was, of course, in vain. Fe read the same lines over and over before leaning over and falling asleep in pure exhaustion. At quarter to midnight, she was rocked gently awake by a kindly older librarian. Fe thanked her and gathered her things and slowly began to get up when she looked across the library and saw Maggie sitting at another table with some of her sisters. She threw her head back, giggling at something one of them said. Fe was hoping that she'd be able to slip out unnoticed by the dimwitted girl but there was no such luck. As if on cue, Maggie put her head back down and of all the directions in which to look in, she looked directly in Fe's. The two of them locked eyes on each other and neither was willing to lose this idiotic game of chicken when Fe felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Slightly irritated but mostly worried as to who it might be, she reluctantly broke the eye contact and began digging up her phone. She looked and that caller I.D. and almost instantly wished she hadn't. It was Joel, calling and leaving his 15th message. She wondered how she could've run into Maggie and not Joel in the last place she ever expected to run into a girl who thought the UK was the capital of Europe. She pressed the ignore button once again and began making her way for the door. She continued staring down at her phone as she walked past the girls' table, hoping to appear busy so that none of them would feel the need to talk to her.
"Felicia! Hey, girl. How are you doing?"
Fe froze in her tracks and shuddered visibly. She turned back to Maggie's finger wiggling hello. She put on the most fake smile she could and tried not to look completely disgusted. Why was she calling her over?
"Hi, Maggie, Shelley and...friend. I'm sorry I don't know your name." Fe was referring to a brunette girl sitting next to Maggie. She had seen the girl at a couple of the Cherry gatherings but had never spoken to her. Good thing.
"Oh this is Marsha. She's the girl that introduced me to Joel. Best thing that's ever happened to me."
Maggie shot Fe a knowing grin, making the other two girls giggle softly. Fe wanted this nightmare to end but Maggie kept going, rubbing in the fact that Fe, Joel's best friend and biggest crush, knew that they had had sex and had even seen it firsthand. But Fe kept her composure.
"That's great. Anyways, you ladies have a good night." Fe turned to leave, with most of her dignity intact. But Maggie began speaking again, delaying her desperately needed departure.
"You know, I really want to apologize for this afternoon. I thought I locked the door. Maybe next time I'll hang my panties on the door so you'll know not to come in. That is, if Joel doesn't rip them off. In that case, you'll just get another free show."
