Peter motioned to the
plate of fries, “Did you want anymore? I feel like I’m hogging them all.”
“I probably shouldn’t. It’s becoming a major part of my diet
lately. I’m thinking next time we meet we should split a salad.”
“I don’t know. Something healthy might send my system into
shock.” Peter tried not to smile about the “next time” comment. He and Ellie
had started out talking about how worried they both were about Gloria and how
she had been acting off for a while, but he had to admit he was now just
enjoying Ellie’s company.
“I’ve decided that I’m just going to ask her what’s going
on. Because something is for sure going on. Every time I bring up next semester
and where she thinks she’s going to do her student teaching she has to rush off
somewhere. Work, or the library. I don’t know what is happening, but something
is wrong.”
“Direct is your normal approach.”
“I know! This is the first time I think I understand why
mother would just avoid unpleasant things. I’m worried about what she’s going
to say. I mean, what if she just doesn’t like me anymore?”
Peter laughed, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t nice of me. But you
have to stop thinking that. Of course, she still likes you. You’re her best
friend.”
“But she hasn’t been around. I mean all last summer she was
with Adele at the bookstore, and if she wasn’t there, she was talking about
Adele and the bookstore. I thought this semester we would have more time to
spend together, especially since next semester she will be busy student
teaching and might even be living in a different town for a few weeks at a
time. It’s the last stretch we can just be together before everything changes.
And she hasn’t been around at all. It feels like maybe she doesn’t want to be.”
“Okay, then for sure it’s time to talk to her. If for no
other reason than to clear your head of that bullshit. You two have been in
each other’s pockets since you were little kids. Your plans for the future are
even all around each other. There has never been a moment where the two of you
weren’t going to be friends.”
“She hasn’t even made it to our writing club all semester,
she’s had to work every time we’ve met, I mean can’t Adele give her that one
night off? I know I sound jealous, but I thought she liked being in the club
with me.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, because I know you hate that,
you do sound jealous. And do you think that maybe that’s all this is? That
she’s made a new friend that you don’t know, and it makes you uncomfortable?”
“Well, why are you bothered then? You said you were going to
reach out to me to ask about her as well, you can’t be jealous too?”
“Fair enough. I have been concerned. She’s withdrawn from
everything. We haven’t met in person all semester. I know she hasn’t needed to
run as many papers by me, but we had talked about meeting regularly to help
guide her next steps through the system. To help get her set up in the
classrooms she really wanted to work. She’s done everything via campus mail.”
“See? She’s avoiding us.”
“Right. Both of us. So that means you don’t have to worry
about her not liking you anymore. Because she’s avoiding both of us and there
is no way she doesn’t like me, because I am extremely likeable.”
Ellie laughed, “It’s true. You are. Okay, that settles it.
Operation make Gloria talk to me is a go!”
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