Better Than Normal
We all came back to campus late Monday night. Kenley knew most of her former sorority sisters wouldn’t be back yet, so it seemed like a good opportunity for us to help her pack everything up and bring it over to the suite. None of us wanted to risk running into any Tri Deltas, so we didn’t waste any time. Taylor brought his truck and we loaded everything—including ourselves—into the cab and bed of it. It might have only been a few blocks drive back to Zink Hall, but the brisk November air felt pretty nice, and no one could argue that it wasn’t the most efficient way of packing up and moving a dorm room.
By the time we finished helping her put everything in its new place, it was pretty late. Luckily, Dominos delivered all night, so we ordered a few and sent Taylor out for beer. When he and Zac came back in, loaded down with pizza boxes and six packs, I had an uncanny moment of déjà vu.
Hadn’t this been exactly how this semester from hell had started? Pizza, beer and a sorority girl invading my space. This was different, though, and not just because it was our choice to let Kenley move in.
For one, neither Zac nor Taylor had ogled her the way they did Bella. Kenley was pretty enough, though; it wasn’t as though they hadn’t noticed her looks, I was sure. But it was strange to see Taylor being faithful to someone.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Zac asked, plopping down next to me with a plate in each hand. He handed me the one with cheese pizza only and took a big bite of his own meat lovers.
“Nothing,” I replied. “Well, everything. Just funny how things work out. Funny how we’ve come so far this semester, even though this feels like kind of coming full circle.”
He nodded. “Yeah, but this is nice. Back to normal, but better than normal.”
“Who would have thought I would actually enjoy hanging out with the nerds?” Taylor interjected. “But geek girls beat the hell out of jocks and frat guys.”
I rolled my eyes. Maybe Taylor hadn’t changed that much after all.
“Really nice, Tay,” Molly said. “Way to make a girl feel wanted.”
“Let’s go to your room, then, and we’ll see about making you feel wanted.”
“Okay!” I said loudly. “We get it. Taylor’s horny, and hanging out with a group that’s mostly female, even if we are nerds, suits him just fine. You can get a girlfriend, but it’s not going to change who you really are, I guess.”
“Hey, I’m good guy,” Taylor said, holding his hands up in defeat. “I’m a lover, not a fighter. You know that, Georgie. And, you know, this is my last year of college. It’s time to grow up. But only just a little, because where’s the fun in that?”
“Where indeed?” I teased, shaking my head.
Taylor just smiled. “But you know—and no, I can’t believe I’m saying this—we really should add another guy to the group. Just to even things out, you know.”
“I think the, uh, odds are fine just the way they are, actually,” Peyton replied, shooting Kenley a look that I wondered if anyone else noticed.
“You would,” Taylor shot back.
“But seriously,” Zac said. “Think about this semester. There were times when we couldn’t even stand to all be in the same room together—well, mostly me and Georgie. Nights like this stopped happening. And I guess it’s probably way past time I apologized for my role in that.”
“Me too,” I added softly and soberly. “We were serious assholes, to each other and sometimes to the rest of you, too.”
“Hey, we’re all just glad you both finally pulled your heads out of your asses and admitted you were in love,” Elijah replied.
Everyone laughed, but that really was perhaps the most accurate way to describe what happened. We had both been so caught up in our own minds, so consumed with our mistaken perceptions of the situation that even though we were supposedly best friends, we never really talked to each other, at least not about the stuff that really mattered.
But that was all over with now. Maybe, like Taylor said, we were all growing up a little bit. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing, if it meant I could still sit around eating pizza at midnight with my best friends and my boyfriend, without a single worry or secret plaguing my mind.