A Quick Dinner, Alone

You feel a little drained after hanging with Helen, and after refreshing yourself, you head off to the dining hall for a quick bite. You grab a plate of pasta, find an empty table, and begin wolfing down the food.

As you eat, you scroll through your phone, responding to errant texts and notifications. They mostly turn out to be fairly mundane—the most you do is text something mildly flirty, but even that is pretty tame.

A blonde figure slides onto your table, and you look up, seeing a familiar face.

“I knew I’d catch you here!” Jeanne says, flashing you a wide smile.

“So you have been following me?” you ask, arching an eyebrow.

“I swear I just happened to be hanging around here after dinner and you happened to come in and so I just wanted to drop by,” she says, bouncing a little on her seat.

“I guess that puts you in luck,” you say, and you glance over at a nearby table, where there’s a guy who’s shooting you a dirty look. It’s Arthur, but what’s the look for? “You know that guy?” you ask, nodding towards him.

“Oh yeah, I was just grabbing dinner with him when I saw you over here and figured I’d drop by and say hi,” she says, looking a little embarrassed. “I promise it’s nothing serious though! Just you know, he’s in the same Yurok class as me, so we just sort of ended up hanging out today afterwards and got dinner and…”

“That’s good to hear,” you say. “So, what’s a Yurok class? Is that a major?”

“No, just a language class that I’m taking for the requirement. It’s super neat—it’s technically an extinct Native American language, but enough of it was preserved that people have become fluent in it again! Anyways, um… so I came over to ask, because you know after dinner last time, we talked about meeting again later, and so I was thinking maybe we should do some time next week?”

“Thursday should work for me,” you say, and she nods in quick succession.

“Okay okay let’s do it then!”

With that, she gives you a wave goodbye and retreats back to her table with Arthur, leaving you bemused and with an empty plate in front of you. You figure there’s still time to get a little more done before you really bunker down for your studies, and so get up, heading out of the dining hall.

Jeanne +5