Maple’s Story (Part 2)
Maple’s Story (Part 2)
At the best of times I was unable to hide my frustrations, and this time I had a reasonable excuse.
The odds of having Cory as a roommate were possibly as slim as being attacked by a pack of rabid wolves in a library, but sure enough I was subjected to the torment of having to see his charming face everyday during my final year, usually attached to the face of a pretty skinny girl.
I wasn’t jealous or bitter or anything: I’d tried a fair bit of dating myself. Sadly, I only seemed to attract the clingy geeky types.
‘I have the entire box-set of the original Star Trek, you should come over so we can…’
‘….Noooooo.’
Truthfully, I felt bad about the guys I’d turned down: I was rather geeky myself and had always wanted to watch the entirety of the original Star Trek series.
I realised I just needed to find the right guy to do it with. 
And it seemed the right guy was still out of my reach. Cory had done his best to ignore me for the entire term, although I hadn’t exactly made an effort to talk to him either. However, on the day before my graduation, we passed each other in the hallway of our dorms for one final time.
‘Good luck tomorrow, Mape,’ Cory announced, several moments after we had crossed paths. 
I spent the remainder of that evening in the comic book store, pretending that Cory hadn’t spoken to me, heart drumming frantically against my ribs.
I had my graduation to worry about the following day, after all, and I couldn’t afford to obsess over the guy who had broken my heart.
Luckily, that all went smoothly, unlike Almond’s graduation day, where she almost missed the ceremony due to there being a massive crowd outside.
Later, I returned to the dorms with a smile on my face, proud I had managed to graduate with first class honors.
‘How did it go?’ A deep voice asked.
Turning around sharply, my heart sunk when I realised who those words belonged to. Cory was holding a stack of plates, they wobbled in his hand slightly as he made his way across to the sink; I was convinced he was about to drop them.
Pursuing him, I tried to answer his question before the atmosphere turned too awkward. But, when he edged by me after washing up the final plate I realised I had left it too long.
‘Listen, Cory, I don’t want things to be funny between us.’ Nice start, Maple, my thoughts teased. 
‘I’ve spent the last several months trying to think of the right thing to say to you,’ I continued, ‘and well, that hasn’t worked out so well. So now I’m…’ Cory interrupted my ramblings, thankfully.
‘Why do you think I’ve been trying to make small talk?’
A girlish giggle rose from my throat. All this time, we were both just searching for the right words to say to one another. If only we’d known sooner.
For the next several minutes we reminisced on the drunken times we had experienced, before our fatal one night stand.
‘I missed talking to you,’ Cory ended up confessing.
There was a heavy silence; we gazed at one another, unsure where this moment was heading. I could hear the loud voices and laughter of our roommates and a few other students coming from outside as they larked around in the hot-tub. Suddenly, something inside me snapped.
‘You know what, you really have some nerve!’ I growled at Cory, all my resentment for him pouring out, like raindrops crashing down from the sky. 
‘I’ve waited over a year for an apology, and now you’re trying to breeze over things like nothing happened! Well guess what? You’ve blown your chance, mister, and…’ 
‘I’ve got the entire box-set of the original Star Trek in my room,’ Cory announced.
‘Wanna go watch?’
With that, I forgot all about why I disliked Cory; at least temporarily.
We did end up watching Star Trek, but I probably shouldn’t have slept with him again that evening, but I did, and naturally he was gone by the morning. A year later- after his graduation- Cory did end up moving to Setra, but unfortunately not to be with me. A career opportunity presented itself, which he couldn’t turn down. However, with him living in close proximity, something was bound to happen between us…
