The Thing about Falling ✓

Two • The Thing about Meeting New People

Owen
The sky was a wondrous palette of reds, purples and oranges now that the sun was about to set. Clouds were thinning and the darkness can be seen from the horizon. A few hours had passed since Athena and I headed outside campus to eat and might I say, there are countless things in this place that terrify me.

Among things such as cracks in the pavement, stairs, dysfunctional elevators and that professor I am beyond scared of, another thing that can send a chill down my spine was Athena.

It may seem rather unlikely to be terrified of her since she is such a unique and kind character yet her shear extrovertedness just bemuses me.

"CHARLIE! Can we like, get drunk and stay up til 6 in the morning?" Athena exclaimed loudly through the small crowd of people inside the showing room where we can watch the movie.

As much as I want to stay hidden and unnoticed, Athena's loud personality just makes my presence around her known. I pulled up the hood of my jacket and folded my arms across my chest as I attempted to stay out the public's eye. The people inside this room may be few but I still couldn't help but feel so conscious of the chair and all since this was a new place that had new people. I didn't know how to handle those things.

"CHARLIE, WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE TINY UMBRELLA THINGS? ARE THOSE TOOTHPICKS?" Athena said again as she tried to get Charlie's attention.

I shook my head and pushed my chair towards the area where chairs were all organized into a semicircle and I parked it right around the corner in the farthest area. If Athena's done trying to get drunk again after Calix's party before, she can find me herself. I am pretty much a prominent character in this room.

Eventually, as more and more people piled into the room, I took out my phone and just started breezing through photos I had in my gallery. Most were photos of either Maxie or Athena; it was something pretty weird for me personally, since before I met her, the only things I had in my camera roll were memes and random photos I saved.

It was not long before someone sat by the chair beside me. It took Athena quite some time to run out of energy and as I looked up from my phone, it wasn't her. It was someone else.

"You also look like you need some friends. No offense." she said smilingly.

It was a girl. She had long, silky, dark, raven hair that fell below her chest and her dark brown eyes were slanted. Her complexion was buttery and her figure was small, just like Athena yet my girlfriend is obviously much more superior than whoever this is since it was pretty common among Asians to have heights within that range.

I shook my head and turned off my phone, shoving it back into my pocket.

"No thanks. I have someone with me, actually." I said.

She nodded along as if she was interested and beamed at me.

"Really? Sorry. I just thought you needed someone to have on standby because of your--" she said, stopping mid-sentence as she hinted my chair.

As much as I want to be left alone to stare at photos of Athena and her dog, I was polite to this stranger. She was alone and I thought she might need company as well.

"No worries. I get looks about my chair a lot. You aren't the first."

The girl smiled and nodded, pulling back a chunk of her dark hair behind an ear that showcased three sparkly earrings.

"I'm glad to hear that. I'm Maya, by the way." she said, extending a hand.

I smiled subtly and reached out for her hand to shake.