What You Mean To Me

Missed Me? Jake

Chris holds out two options for me- pink and blue.

I groan when I see the pink. Firstly because I hate pink, and secondly because it's Kristen's favorite colour.

"Aw, gross, get the blue one man."

Chris raises an eyebrow at my extreme reaction.

"Still don't like pink?" He asks, laughing.

"After that chart in geography, I was scarred for life." I answer back.

"So, what's new?" He asks, as we walk towards the checkout counter, a patterned, ice blue pillow and some matching bedsheets in hand.

"Not much. I'm loving life at Columbia, got a really cool room mate- Aaron and I'm doing extensive sports training 5 days a week."

"Busy busy." He notes.

"Yeah man, how's UC, Berkeley?"

Chris whistles. "Sweet man. Life's good. It's hard work but the team is incredible and the subject choice is mind-blowing."

"What have you got this term?" I ask, grinning.

"Pysch, PE, Finding India and Macro Economics." He grins, back.

Look at us now. Kristen and I at Columbia, Chris in UC, Berkeley and Nats in Yale. Our school has excellent results each year but IV League college's are a dream come true. Nats was destined for an IV League but Chris, Kristen and I worked hard to get here.

"That would be 25 dollars and five cents please."

I pass her a 50 note and five cents and Chris objects, shooting me "I had the money and could pay" look.

I ignore him and smile at the girl across the counter, a blonde wearing short denim shorts and a playful smile. So-cal style.

As we walk out, I hand the stuff to Chris and start to speak quickly before he gets mad at me. "My mom wanted to give you a going to college present and she said I should get you this."

He looks surprised but touched. "Wow, that's really sweet of her. I'll thank her." He says, already grabbing his phone out of the pockets of his beige shorts and sending her a quick email.

"The boy who forgot about Natalie's birthday, now so efficient."

He smacks me with the pillow.

"I'll never live that down, will I?" He grins his lopsided grin.

"Nope." I laugh and he whacks me with the pillow again.

We hop into the red convertible I rented for my trip to LA. Why LA? Well, I was missing Chris and needed a change of scenery. It's 'parents weekend' at college, this tradition they have after a month, for all those parents that want to come meet their children. I couldn't expect mine to fly out all the way for just a long weekend, dad is busy with work after all, so they gave me the opportunity to fly to LA and meet Chris and my cousin Mel, a sophomore at UCLA. She's meeting us later in the day. In fact, Chris already knows her and thinks she's pretty cool. He's still going strong with Nats, despite the distance. Like he says, it's about a two day trip away.

"Turn the music up." Chris starts drumming against the side of the car.

"Tone it down dude. I'm trying to drive here."

He drums even louder, to annoy me.

"Which song is that anyway?" I ask, liking the beat.

"Remix of Every Teardrop." He answers, drumming his hands against the side of the car and nodding his head at the build up.

I put the volume up on his ipod. "Amazing for a remix." I say.

"It's insane. It's by Swedish House Mafia." He replies.

I look ahead, LA has so many highways that we've been stuck in the same spot for precisely ten minutes. I jerk my head towards the traffic jam up front.

"How do you manage?"

"I just do. It's a great city, you'll see." He says, grinning.

"Yeah, I'm loving the chill vibe already."

My phone starts ringing, blasting 'I'm a Barbie Girl'.

I take one look at Chris, who's laughing uncontrollably and smirking at me and give him the "you'll pay later" look.

"Pic-*laugh*-k it up *more laughter* man."

Chris is one of the most immature people that I've ever met. Sorry, the most immature person. He finds joy in the stupidest, simplest things, like changing people's ringtones to ridiculous songs.

"Hello."

I pick up the phone only to hear more laughter.

"Barbie girl? Seriously?" It's Mel on the line, her laugh and sarcastic tone instantly distinguish her.

"All Chris." I say, laughing.

"Chris's with you?" She shrieks.

"Idiot boy, give him a smack from me. Never calls back." She adds, explaining the very un-Mel-like shriek.

I smack him and he groans.

"Ouch dude."

I grin back. "That's from Mel. Supposedly, you don't call back."

"Give her the phone."

I toss it over.

"Hey, Mel! I'm sorry, my phone hasn't been working properly. My room mate, the dimwit that he is, dropped in the Laurence Fountain last week."

I can't hear anything Mel's saying but Chris hands back the phone after two minutes, saying that she said she'd reach the mexican restaurant in about half an hour.

"What's it called?" I ask, Chris, excited to finally be eating some good Mexican.

"El Pamerino, it's the best in town." He says, smiling.

"So this is where all you Berks eat at?" I ask, as we pull up to the restaurant a good half an hour later.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Berks?"

I try not to laugh. "Yeah, Those who go to UC Berkley."

He thumps my back. "Where did you read this?"

"In an article written by Berkley's very own Chris Danay." I answer back, smirking.

"I didn't even write the stupid article." He says, his eyes closed, leaning back and groaning.

"I paid a freshman girl to write it for me. I had 5 tests the next day and there just wasn't enough time."

"Mhmm" I say, laughing.

"Stalker." He shoots back, as we walk inside.

The inside of the restaurant is colourful and very mexican, decorated with murals of the desert and other scenes of nature. Mel was already there and had picked the best table, by the windows, overlooking the sea.

"Hey there shortie."

She pouts and Chris and I laugh.

The service at El Pamerino was super fast and efficient, we had our food in under ten minutes. Chris ordered beef tacos with a side of jalapeño nachos, Mel got a burito with quinoa salad, and I got a plate of cheesy quesadillas with salsa. After an hour of catching up, eating delicious food, and talking about future plans, Chris and I headed back to UC Berkley. While the berk worked on his research for Monday, I took a nap (I can just hear Kristen saying "No surprise there") and we spent the rest of the day at Newport Beach, playing volleyball with a couple of guys we met there. For a guy who didn't used to embrace change easily, I think I now understand how change can be good.