Cerulean

The first day I went to meet up with Edith, the day after I'd met her, I sat out on the curb across the street from that 7-11 for what felt like days. As it turns out, I was only there for about an hour or so, give or take a few minutes.

I didn't get it. If I'd heard her correctly she'd said tomorrow. Same time. I'd gotten there around six in the morning, expecting to see her there, and was left sitting on a curb feeling like a desperate loser seeking friendship with a girl he knew nothing about.

The second day wasn't much different.

Neither was the day after that

or the day after that.

By the fifth day, I expected to sit outside again feeling stupid. I'm not sure why I even bothered to go out and look for her. Maybe I wanted answers, or maybe it was just something to do. I wasn't even thinking that I'd find her out there on the curb drinking a big gulp. It never even crossed my mind that she'd be out there talking to some other hopeless guy who reminded me all to much of myself.

Her name simply fell out of my mouth and onto the cold, hard concrete before I could hold it back.

"Edith?"

At first, she didn't look up, but the guy she was with? He sure did.

He tapped her shoulder and pointed in my direction. It was then, that I realized how cold I was and wrapped my arms around myself in a pathetic attempt to keep warm.

Edith smiled, unfazed by what I thought was an awkward situation. "Evan!" She stood up and crossed the street, stopping when she was standing directly in front of me. Her new friend stayed put outside the 7-11.

When Edith hugged me, I wasn't sure of what to do. Just to be polite I hugged her back, but inside I was burning with all of the questions I wanted to ask. Or just one question.

"What happened?"

The words, once again escaped and flew out into the wind before I even had the chance to catch them.

Edith cocked her head to the side, furrowing her brow. "What do you mean?"

I glanced over at her friend. I didn't want to be rude by stealing her away. "Are you busy?" I asked, pointing at the boy. "I can always talk to you some other time."

Edith shook her head. "Nahh, I just met that kid. He's kind of weird if you ask me. I don't like him all that much."

I closed my eyes, running a hand through my hair. "Okay then... maybe you should tell him that then," I suggested. "Not that you don't like him, but that you're done talking to him."

"Will that make you less anxious?" Edith responded, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

She chuckled. "Oh well... we'll try that anyways."

I watched as she turned to face the opposite side of the street and cupped a hand around her mouth. Leaning forward, almost dropping her soda she yelled at the boy across the street.

"Hey, Kid! I'm kinda done talking to ya, okay?"

The boy looked sort of bummed out after she said that, but he stood up and walked away anyways. Edith turned to face me looking slightly concerned, but mostly unfazed by the situation.

"Better?" She asked.

I really wasn't feeling all that much better, but I decided to say I was just to keep everything smooth. "Yeah."

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about then?"

I took in a deep breath, and the exhaled loudly. "I was just wondering what happened to you. I mean... I just... I came out here to meet you the other day like you said, and I was alone. You kinda stood me up."

Edith bit down on her lip. "Sorry about that," she said. "I forgot I told you I'd meet up with you again. It just slipped my mind and I went out with this kid I know from work. He's a real swell guy, you should meet him sometime."

"At six in the morning?" I asked.

"Edith nodded. "Yeah, we hung out the night before, and he crashed at my place. We woke up real early and went fishing. He's a friend of my cousin."

It really wasn't any of my business, everything she was telling me, but I wanted to know more. Like, why didn't she show up the days after to see if I was there? Why didn't she look like she felt bad about the situation.

"You okay, Evan?" Edith asked. "You look warm."

I nodded. "I'm fine. I hope you had fun fishing."

"I did," she replied. "I had a lot of fun. It was my first time. We should go fishing together, you and I. I mean... I don't know you all that well and you don't know me, so the quiet and the fish and all that should be fun. What do you say?"

It was funny how little you can know about a person, but feel so much towards them. I wondered if this was what it was like when you meet the girl you think you're going to love for a long time. You know, that one person that you may not end up with but will love more than any other person you'll ever meet.

I wondered if Edith was that girl.

Before I knew my answer was spilling from my lips. Word vomit.

"Okay. We can go fishing. How about next weekend?"