Day 2 - The next 1670 Words

“Praise be to free long distance,” I emailed back and then picked up my cell phone. I’d never spoken with Cassie over the phone before, only online. I was a little nervous – what if I’d created a charming persona online and now she would find out what a terrible dork I was and not want to be my friend anymore? I started to dial and then hesitated. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should just email her. Maybe I – no, I told myself. This is to get the girl, this is to get Elaine, and if you alienate Cassie with your less than perfect phone manner, so be it. I finished dialing and then waited before pressing the call button. I took a deep breath. Here we go, I thought, pressing the button.

The phone rang. And it rang again. One more time. I was thinking about hanging up before Cassie could pick up, because I hate the phone. But then there was a click, and –

“Wazzaaaaaaaaa!”

“Um, Cass- Cassie?” I wasn’t sure if it was her. “Wazzaaaaaaaaa!” was kind of an odd way to answer the phone.

“Speaking!” She sounded different than I had expected. Her voice was kind of high pitched, and there was a lot of energy in it. I had expected a dark sound, dry. The username DarkProphetess had probably colored my expectations a bit.

“This is Miles.”

“I know that, doofus. I just told you to call me, remember?”

“Oh, um, yeah.” I scratched the back of my head. This really wasn’t going well. I was doomed. Cassie wouldn’t help me get Elaine, and also she wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore, because I was such a loser.

“So, you want help wooing your lady fair?”

“...yes?”

“You don’t sound so sure.”

“I do, I do.”

“Okay. What does she like?”

“I... I don’t know.”

“There, my friend, is your first problem.”

I talked to Cassie for two hours as she helped me make a game plan for asking Elaine out. We even wrote a script, so I could study it and memorize it to avoid stuttering or chickening out. I would ask Elaine if she wanted to study for the midterm together. I was pretty sure she didn’t have any other friends in the class, because I was the only person she ever really talked to. When she said yes, which she inevitably would, Cassie had assured me, I would ask if she had a location preference. If she did, that was where we would go, and if not, I had a few places to suggest. The library was a bit obvious but also a last resort. We could go to any of a number of coffee shops, or some nice student-friendly restaurants. Cassie warned me off of anything too ritzy. Not only would the restaurant staff be angry, if I wanted this to be a study session I had to treat it like one. If I wanted to ask the girl on a date right off the bat, Cassie said, I should just do it already.

I didn’t think I could work up the courage to just ask her out without a pretense, so study date it was. I was feeling good about the whole thing and, to my surprise, Cassie didn’t treat me as though I had the plague, in spite of the fact that I sounded like a complete ass on the phone.

“Call me and let me know how it goes,” she said.

“Oh, I will,” I told her.

The next day I was a man with a plan. I strode into class, sat down, and waited for Elaine to walk in. I waited. And waited. Class started. I waited some more, and attempted to take notes while I did so. Class ended. I sat there for another ten minutes, waiting. No sign of Elaine.
This is just great, I thought. I had been ready to go. I was set, I was good, I was going to stride right up and sweep her off her feet, except probably I would have been sitting down.
Instead, I saw neither hide nor hair of her, when I’d like to have seen more than a little of both.
I walked back to the dorm feeling more dejected than I’d ever felt in my whole life. On the way, my cell phone rang. It was Cassie.

“Hello,” I mumbled.

“How’d it go?” she asked.

“She wasn’t there.”

“No way,” Cassie said.

“So way.”

“Dude, I’m really sorry.”

“Did you just call me dude?”

“Yes.”

“You are weird.”

“Why, thank you. Look, you’ll see her again before the test, right?”

“Yes, but there will only be a couple days until the test by then,” I sighed.

“Doesn’t your school have a directory?”

“Yes.”

“Look her up and call her!”

“I can’t do that. I’m terrible on the phone.”

“Miles,” Cassie said very seriously. “You are fine on the phone. I’d talk to you all day. You’re funny as hell. Give her a call and ask her out.”

“I can’t.”

“You’re exhausting!” Cassie declared. “Think about it. I’ve got to get to class myself, but if you need coaching just on calling her even, you can call me later. Okay?”

“Yes,” I grumbled.

“Peace out, starshine.”

“Weird. Weird, weird, weird.”

“Later.”

“Bye.” I got off the phone with Cassie just as I was getting into my dorm room. The landline was ringing. I made a mad dash for it.

“Hello?”

“Miles?” a female voice said between coughs.

“This is he,” I answered.

“This is Elaine. I looked you up in the directory. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, that’s – fine.”

“I’m sick, that’s why I wasn’t in class today. You’re the only person I know in the class so I was wondering, do you have notes I could borrow or something?”

“Yeah, sure. Where are you? I can bring them to you now.” That was the most I’d ever said to her without stuttering.

“Oh, I’m in... my dorm... But I don’t want to make you sick.”

“No, don’t worry about it. Where do you live?” She gave me her room number and her phone number so I could call her and ask her to let me in. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” It wouldn’t have taken me twenty minutes to walk to her dorm, but I had had a flash of inspiration. I would go to the cafeteria and get a bowl of soup for takeout and take it to her. This would be sure to impress her. And then once I was there, I could ask her about the study date. It wasn’t the ideal situation but I was running out of time.

I grabbed my notes and dialed Cassie’s number as I walked to the caf. I got her voicemail. “This is Cass, with your prophecy of the day: DOOM! DOOM! DOOM! Leave a message and I’ll call you and tell you things that you won’t believe. No, really, you’ll think I’m lying or something.”
“I am walking right now to the cafeteria to get soup and to take it to Elaine’s room. I am kind of in a panic. I am going to ask her about the study date. I am freaking out here, Cassie. I’ll call and let you know how it goes.”

I got the soup and walked to Elaine’s dorm. I found the callbox and called her.

“Hello?” she rasped.

“Elaine, it’s Miles.”

“Just a minute, I’ll let you in.”

A minute or so later, the door opened up. I know women work really hard to make themselves look good. I don’t know if they do it for men or not, but I guess I’ve always assumed they do. If they do, I don’t know why. They don’t need to. Elaine was wearing pajamas and had her hair thrown up in a bun and didn’t have her glasses on. She was just as beautiful as every day when she came into class. I guess this was how you could tell I had it bad; at her least attractive I still thought she was amazing.

“I brought you some soup,” I said, holding the bowl out to her and walking into the front hall of the dorm.

“Oh, that’s really sweet!” Oh, yes, I thought to myself again. She will be mine.

“It’s nothing, really. I just thought, since you were sick-“

“But did you remember the notes?”

“That I did,” I said, and held them out in one hand as I bowed with a flourish.

“Thank you, Miles. You’re the best.” She reached out as if to hug me but then drew back. “I don’t want to get you sick.” It would be worth it, I thought. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, though.

“I’ll take a raincheck.” Things were going remarkably well. I hadn’t stuttered at all. “Speaking of...”

“Yeah?” She was tired. I better get this out quickly.

“Since the midterm is coming up and we each seem to be the only person the other one knows, I was wondering if you’d want to... study together?”

“That would be great,” she said. The hard part was officially over. “Where were you thinking?”

“I don’t know, someplace informal, like, uh...”

“Why don’t we have lunch in the cafe at the Museum of History and Natural Science?”

“Sounds great.”

“Excellent. Well, I’m going to go eat my very yummy soup, copy these notes, and then hop in bed. I’ll see you in a couple days. Thanks again, Miles.”

“No problem.” I watched her go up the stairs before I left.

Life was good.


The next few weeks where a whirlwind. You probably know how it is. You go on a first date. It’s kind of awkward. I think it being a lunch date for studying made it even more awkward. At the end of it, we hugged. More awkward. I told her I’d call her. I meant it, too. And I did, the night before the midterm.