Meeting Piya for coffee at Uni.

I found Piya at Uni at her usual coffee spot. It was a small café tucked down in the basement of the sciences library. She was in her final year working on her thesis so spent a great deal of time in there as well as the labs. She was almost hidden away in a corner booth with a big mug of flat white in front of her. It had been a couple of days since I’d seen her but she still looked green around the gills. Dark oversized sunglasses covered her face.

“Wow. You look…” I started as I got close to Piya, alerting her to my presence.

She took off her shades to give me a very thin smile. The dark bags under her eyes were visible now.

“Fucking terrible!” I finished.

Piya immediately scowled at me and threw one of her library books across the table at me as I sat down. It was quite possibly the first time she’d ever not heard a compliment from me.

“Shut up, Jackass! I feel like shit,” she told me and sounded genuinely unwell.

“You were going pretty hard on the weekend. I’m surprised you’re still feeling unwell though,” I tell her allowing my concern for her to show through in my voice.

“Ugh! Don’t remind me. It’s all a blur. Did I really make a scene as Yui said?”

I was there for her argument with her friend Aor before I took her home, I don’t know if she had another fight with Yui that night too.

“You had a pretty strong disagreement with your blonde friend Aor,” I tell her.

Piya groaned all the more. “I know! She hasn’t spoken to me for days. It’s so unlike her. What did I say?

“I don’t know. I don’t really speak your language.”

She sighed. “Yeah Thai. I know.”

“No, drunk bitch! Because you were a massive one of them,” I laugh and have a second book thrown at me for my troubles.

“I’ve tried calling Aor and leaving messages saying I’m sorry but she hasn’t got back to me at all. I should probably go over there. I don’t even know how she got home,” Piya continues her lament as she continues with her revitalising coffee.

Now would be the time to lie to Piya about taking Aor home if I was going to. “I took her home,” I say truthfully instead.

Piya sits bolt upright in her chair. “Oh! Did you? That explains why we didn’t, I mean, why I didn’t see you later that night either.”

“Not to my place if that’s what you’re thinking. She was pretty upset over what you said to her, I think. I just tried to make her feel better. You should really apologise to her I think.”

“And I will if she’ll let me. I’ve been trying to for days.”

I try and move the conversation along then. I don’t want Piya to get stuck back thinking about me and Aor together.

“How were things with your boyfriend after that night?” I ask delicately. It was not a happy subject with us. Piya knew that I fancied her, having kissed her and all, and I was nearly certain that she felt the same way back but for whatever reason seemed doggedly determined to stay with a guy that was completely unsuitable for her.

“We had a bit of a fight too. I may have said some things to him as well, not just Aor,” Piya continues her glum expression.

“In wine there is truth…” I say not trying to sound condescending.

“And in Vodka there is a silly bitch Piya,” my friend counters. “But we patched things up in any case so that’s that,” Piya says throwing up her hands that she doesn’t want to continue the topic at all.

I stick with Piya for the next hour until I have to get back to my next lecture. I would have had lunch with her but she claimed she was still feeling too queasy to be able to stomach anything more than just a coffee. I’m happy that she doesn’t feel the need to pry any further into my night’s activities with Aor. I’d be hard-pressed to explain to her what happened anyway, I don’t understand them myself.

When my hour is finally up, we agree to meet up again later in the week when she is feeling better. I have study and assignments that I need to work on that will keep me busy. I should probably get a workout at the gym sometime this week too. I don’t want the muscle I’ve managed to put on in the last couple of years to start fading away.