I quickly turned my attention to Matt, judging the expression on his face as he looked up at the gorgeous girl standing in front of us. She wasn’t even making eye contact with me, let alone even looking at me. Rude much? Insecure much, Jen? Shut up little voice.

“Marissa! Hey, hey how are you?” Matt asked, stuttering a bit. Why was he so nervous in seeing her? I shifted in my seat, this was getting uncomfortable.

“I’m good, I’m surprised to see you here, this isn’t your normal hang out spot,” Marissa said, still not looking in my direction. Hello, I exist too, you know. “Yeah I’m studying. I’m here with Je- my friend, Jen. Jen, this is Marissa,” Matt said, looking at me and finally introducing me to Marissa. She looked slowly towards the other end of the table where I was, studying me for a bit before saying the world’s most plastic Hello greeting ever. I smiled back.

“Did you know that Angela’s back? She just arrived a couple of days ago, she’s settling back into her place before fixing her schedule for the semester,” Marissa continued, pretending I wasn’t even there. Wow, she was really rude. I just decided to focus my attention on Matt’s face. Why did he cringe a bit at the name Angela? I was so curious now. “Oh she is? Good for her. I wouldn’t know and I’m kind of really busy, especially now, got lots of school stuff to do so yeah,” He said. Why was he so affected? Marissa looked back at me, eyes cold, “I can see that. Well, I’m just letting you know. You should give her a call you know, catch up. Ask her how she is and whatever. Well, nice seeing you Matt and Jen,” she finished, half smiling and walking away. I swear she was about to vomit trying to say my name. What was her problem? I hated her already. Matt smiled politely and turned to me, pressing his lips together. I don’t think he knew what to say.

“So, she was nice,” I said as sarcastically as I could, shaking my head and taking a bite from my oriental chicken salad. “Yeah well, that’s Marissa for you. She’s very, how would you say…” “Rude?” I finished his sentence and took another bite from my salad. He laughed and nodded in agreement, twirling some of his chocolate chicken pasta. “And who’s Angela?” I asked, I decided I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t hear anything when I heard everything that went on. Who was this infamous Angela that Marissa practically begged Matt to call. “No one, Marissa’s friend,” Matt said. Could he be morevague? He took two more bites from his pasta, not saying a word and barely making any eye contact with me, flipping through some of his notes from class. I played around with my salad, I couldn’t eat with the thought of Matt keeping something from me. I was curious and I just had to know. It was something about me that I’ve had since I was a kid, I had to know everything. Everything.

“So let’s get started?” Matt asked, it had been 20 minutes of silence after the encounter with Marissa and we were both done with our meals. He moved his notebook around and brought out another notepad for our discussion. I brought out my extra pens and highlighters and fixed them neatly on the table. Angela Angela Angela. The name just kept repeating in my head and I couldn’t shake it off. Part of me wanted to know who she was and the other half didn’t. I was a conflicted lunatic in the café, not even noticing anything else except that I had to know who she was.

“Matt, before we begin, you have to tell me. Cause seriously, I hate being left in suspense. So tell me! I’m your friend anyway, who’s Angela?” I asked, smiling. I had to know. “You’re not going to stop until I tell you, huh?” He asked, looking concerned. “Yup,” I said, “Come on just tell me and I’ll leave it alone. No more questions after that. You’ll make me the happiest girl and best tutor ever if you tell me,” I said, smiling. This was it. He was going to tell me, I was so happy I was finally going to know.

“My girlfriend,” Matt said, looking at me with a serious expression.

My heart sank to my stomach. My body froze. My face went numb. I suddenly wished I had never asked. I suddenly wished I wasn’t there.

His girlfriend.