Relapse

Chapter 20

Note: I apologize; this will be another short chapter as I cannot move on to the next part without separating this bit from the next. Thank you for understanding. :)

~~September 20, 2012 [THURS] // 4:00 pm ~~

o   Carol

I headed for the C2 hallway to find Miguel. When I was there, I found him at his locker, sorting through his books.

Walking up to him, I gave him a playful little bump with my hip. “Hey.”

He glanced at me, evidently surprised to see me. “Oh, hi, baby.”

I smiled brightly. “Hi yourself. Want to go to Chinook? We can go watch a movie—”

Miguel took his jacket from his locker and began to put it on, looking hurried. “Um, I’m sorry, baby, I… I gotta meet up with my friend at Southcentre Mall right now… He says it’s urgent.”

My smile vanished entirely.

“But…but…” I stammered, feeling helpless, “You and I didn’t get to be together yesterday, either.”

Miguel shut his locker and picked up his backpack, looking a bit apologetic. “I’m really sorry, babe. How about tomorrow? We’ll watch a movie tomorrow, okay? Promise.”

I hung my head. “Well… okay, if you say so.”

He pulled me into a quick hug. “Tomorrow, I promise. It’s on me.”

“Sure,” I mumbled, still very disappointed that he couldn’t spend time with me again.

Miguel let go of me. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Okay, bye.” was all I said; he was already walking away.

I watched him disappear through the doors to the stairs leading down to the C1 hallway.

Something in the back of my head told me that I was probably being a tad too lenient with my boyfriend’s schedule lately; it was now three days in a row that he had excused himself from spending time with me. Maybe I should have been slightly more demanding of his time.

But that wouldn’t have been like me. I wasn’t the kind of girlfriend who would hinder my boyfriend from having time with his other friends; I didn’t want him inwardly yearning for guy time because I kept him with me too often. I wanted a relationship where I could be reasonably loose with how my boyfriend chooses to spend his time, even if I wanted to be with him often. Up until this point, Miguel was the guy who managed his time well enough, but now, he seemed to be distancing himself from me a little.

Perhaps it was just a once-in-a-blue-moon thing. Besides, I knew and understood that no one ever said a relationship would be a walk in the park. Avoiding problems wouldn’t work – we had to address them and accept that there would be periods of difficulty, times we would have misunderstandings and the like.

Deciding to go upstairs to the C3 hallway to see if any of my friends were still around, I turned around and climbed the stairs that led to one end of C3.

When I emerged into the hallway, I found it almost completely empty except for a girl quite a bit farther down the corridor. I recognized her almost instantly as I approached.

“Ate Jess!” I greeted, bounding up alongside her as she shut her locker.

“Oh, hi, Carol,” she smiled pleasantly, “What’s up?”

“Wanna go to Chinook Mall with me?”

“Exactly where I was going,” Jess said, slinging the straps of her backpack over her shoulders, “I have work though, Carol. Sorry that I can’t stick around with you there.”