Maybe Happily Ever After✔️

7. The perfect costume

Thursday, October 29th

"So I'll see you Saturday?" Will asked me.

"Yeah. Saturday ." I said reluctantly. When I told Casey about it yesterday she said she'd kill me if I didn't go. Something about me being too antisocial and never leaving my dorm room besides for class were her main reasons.

We were parked a block away from my dorm house sitting in his car. We just finished his second tutoring session. We got more done this time and his paper was coming along and in two weeks I can put this all behind me.

I reached for the door and stopped.

I turned in my seat and faced him. "I have to ask. Is there a reason why you invited me?"

The last time I went to a party, it was traumatic, to say the least. A lot of things happened because I trusted someone who only wanted something from me.

I barely knew Will and I'm not sure if I wanted to.

He looked at me slightly confused. "Um... you seem really nice and I figured you'd have a good time."

I could tell that my question made him slightly uncomfortable. "Sorry. I have trust issues."

He chuckled lightly. "It's fine. I know it's probably weird since we met like 2 days ago."

"Yeah," I said, turning towards the door again.

"I don't know. I guess it's cause I feel like we live very different lives. It's a bit weird."

"Well...I don't mean to sound weird and I promise I'm not flirting but...I feel like we've met before."

I'd be lying if I said no. Something about him was familiar. Like I've spoken to him before.

"Yeah, something like that."

I smiled reluctantly and looked down at the keys in my hand.

"A lot of the people I interact with are pretty surface level. They give off this persona of what they want you to see, but it's not real."

He looked out at the road and I watched as he tapped his thumb on the steering wheel.

"When you're around people like that, everyone starts to seem the same to you. Everyone wants something from you or wants to be around you all the time."

"But don't you love all the attention and followers. All of the praise and love has to be an ego booster." I patronized.

"I used to, " he said seriously. "But now it just overwhelms me. I mean this one class I need to pass is all I hear people talk about. It's all this pressure so that I can do what they want me to do."

I never really thought about how annoying it must be for everyone to know your grades and talk about them.

"Well from my point of view, you seem to be handling it all well," I said trying to be sympathetic.

He looked at me and the street lamps only revealed half of his face.

"That's what I mean though. You're so normal."

I scrunched my eyebrows. "Normal? Wow, thanks. That's so...nice of you to say." I said with sarcasm.

He laughed and shook his head. "I mean like you're just listening to me and understanding. You don't want anything from me."

I frowned lightly. "Wow, that's kind of sad. I'm doing the bare minimum."

"Well, I appreciate it."

I smiled sheepishly. "I should go."

"Okay."

I pulled my hoodie over my head and opened the door, hopping down, I walked quickly to the dorm house.