Everyone Pretends They're Happy

Harriet didn’t acknowledge me in college. Instead she paired up with some snobby looking girl who looked almost identical to her. On the odd time she’d glance up at me and smirk, but they didn’t speak to me.
I did get paired with a girl also, though. She was nice, quiet, didn’t want to know everything about my life and why I’d chose Arizona over New York. She just accepted that I wasn’t a city girl.
Her name was Loretta. She had naturally long, brown hair that fell into ringlets down her back. She had the most beautiful, oval shaped brown eyes and full red lips. Just like I did, she wore dark coloured jeans and a white tank top. I had jeans through no fault of my own, I hadn’t yet bought a new wardrobe, Loretta on the other hand wasn’t phased by the heat. It didn’t bother her and she was able to wear dark clothes happily. The day hadn’t went on too long, in fact, it felt like I’d only been there a few hours by the time it was three. I said goodbye to Loretta and waited in the spot Kennedy said he would come pick me up. I walked along one of the painted lines on the ground, pretending it was a tightrope, but luckily enough I didn’t fall into anything if I lost my balance.
‘‘Doing a balancing act?’’ I heard a voice ask me as I stared at my feet to make sure I was walking on the line. I shot my head up to see Garrett hanging out of my car window.
‘‘I thought Kennedy was coming to pick me up?’’ I asked him, shocked to see Garrett in my car.
‘‘I offered instead. I don’t like to be cooped up inside all day.’’ He smiled and I walked round to the other side of the car and got in. I pulled my belt across my chest and clicked it into place. ‘‘So, how was college? Make any new friends? Were they nice to you? Meet any cute boys?’’ He asked like a mother would and prodded my arm lightly.
‘‘Yes, yes and yes.’’ I replied, his smile faltering immediately.
‘‘Oh, so soon too?’’ He was clearly disappointed.
‘‘No, silly. I don’t go looking for cute boys on my first day. Give me at least a week.’’ I joked, but Garrett still seemed rather upset. ‘‘Garrett, I’m joking. All I did was make a new friend…since Harriet ignored me all day.’’ He looked slightly guilty when I told him.
‘‘She’s so stubborn. I wouldn’t worry, you did nothing wrong, Evie. Harriet is psycho, she’s really not normal.’’ I chuckled at his comment. ‘‘Anyway, I knew you wouldn’t look for boys right away, you don’t seem the type to do that. You’re practically the perfect girl, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if boys were dropping at your feet.’’ He started up the car and I groaned at his comment.
‘‘Please don’t refer to me as the perfect girl, Garrett.’’ I snapped, staring at him.
‘‘Why? Is it not a compliment to you?’’ He asked me, confused.
‘‘No one is perfect. Especially not me. I don’t want to be perfect, I’m sick of people thinking I am. I had that enough back home, I thought moving away, people would take the time to get to know me better then to jump to conclusions on first glance.’’ I ranted, startling Garrett making him stall my car.
‘‘Do I sense New York being a touchy subject for you? Because everything I say or do you seem to freeze and tense up and not want to talk about it.’’ Garrett asked, starting up the car slowly this time and driving off.
‘‘Yes, ok. New York is a place I want to leave behind and forget. I want to forget everyone there and just move on.’’ I felt my carefree side blowing out of the window. I was starting to care, a lot. I was starting to care that people wanted to know about me and I wasn’t letting them. I wanted someone to talk to instead of shutting everyone out, but that just wasn’t possible.
‘‘You want to talk about it?’’ His voice was small and he sounded scared.
‘‘I just want you to drive me home.’’ Garrett didn’t speak after that. We drove in bitter silence. I wanted to apologise, but I was too stubborn for that. I also thought, that if I apologised, then Garrett would take that as a sign to ask me about my life again, it wasn’t, and I didn’t want to shout at him again.
It didn’t take him long to get us home, and when he did I jumped out of my car and ran through the house up to my room, I tripped on the last few steps and carpet burnt my elbow but I ignored how much it hurt and went into my room. I’d promised to talk to my mom when I got back from my first day so I started to set up my laptop and webcam.
‘‘Evie, I’m sorry about before.’’ Garrett said on the other side of my door. ‘‘I didn’t mean the perfect comment, I just…never mind.’’ He sighed and I heard footsteps walking away from my door. He shouldn’t have to apologise, it was me who snapped, me who had to be sorry.
‘‘Garrett…come back.’’ I called and my door opened, revealing a sorry looking boy on the other side.