While You're Still Here – 2

On Monday morning, Tom and Erik sit at their usual table at the campus’ coffee shop. The two of them couldn’t be less alike but little rituals like Monday coffee have kept their friendship going for almost two years.

“So what’ve you being doing this weekend? Other than ghosting me…” Erik asks.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was really tired.”

“It’s fine, I was hoping you were hanging out with other friends.”

Tom slowly stirs the cappuccino in front of him. “Friend-s?”

He observes the people around him, getting in and out of the place. He doesn’t usually like that sort of crowd: the unsettling chatter, dangerous hot drinks being swayed around carelessly, coming across known faces which he could rarely associate a name to. On the other hand, he can’t keep bailing on Erik forever.

A couple of tables from them, there is a girl in a red coat, with long brown hair, tied up in a messy bun. She reads an old book with a yellowed cover and an almost unreadable title. She keeps taking off and on her round glasses to stroke her eyes and she changes position every few seconds, huddling in her coat.

Erik hits Tom’s arm. “Hey man! You did it again!”

Tom turns his eyes back to his friend. “What?”

“You zoned out! I was asking whether you have any friend outside uni, but you always zone out just like that. I’m a bit worried about you, man!”

“It’s nothing.”

“Since this conversation is as lively as a three-weeks corpse, I might as well go to class.”

“OK, sorry.” Tom keeps his eyes on his drink as Erik gets up.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I’m such a jerk, Tom thinks, I hope Erik would realise how bad a friend I am and just…

“…Leave forever?” Maeve sits on Erik’s chair, in front of Tom. She grabs a napkin and starts folding it over and over.

“I wasn’t going to say…”

“You were. And you realised how untrue it was before the end of the thought.”

“What else could I say to him?”

Maeve stops toying with the napkin to stare at his friend. “Yeah, because, should you open up a little about how you feel, he would totally run away screaming and crying.”