For you - 3. Chapter 3

Rhys hadn’t texted me since then. After a week, I felt like I had to take initiative now. So I decided to pay him a visit to the university where he studied. He must have already written all the exams and essays for this semester, so I figured, he might have some time for me during lunch break.

I knew, he studied mechanical engineering, but when I arrived at the campus, I realized that this knowledge was not of much help on its own. From some signs, I could tell, there was a mechanical engineering building, but walking there turned out to be a stupid idea since only half of the classes were taught there. So I was back to wandering around the campus. I was about to give up when I ran into Steve, a guy I knew from a few parties and I remembered, he talked to Rhys a couple of times. Lacking other options, I approached him and hoped, he could help me.

“I’m not sure …,” he replied hesitantly. “But if I’m right, your best chance is …” He turned around and pointed in the direction now ahead of him. “Don’t try to find the classroom. I tried a couple of times and I always got lost. Just wait for him, when he leaves the building.”

It worked out almost as expected, except that Rhys almost walked away without seeing me.

“Hey,” I started a conversation when I caught up with him.

His eyes widened in surprise. “Hey! What are you doing here?”

“I thought, I could join you for lunch in the cafeteria.”

“Cool,” he responded. “But I’m not heading for the cafeteria. It’s Friday and that seems to be their lazy day—if you know what I mean. Anyway … I wanted to check out that new burger place a few blocks from here. Care to join me?”

“You bet.”

The place was overly hipster, but the burgers delivered what they promised. I thought about how some people preferred the more rustic places that served for fifty years or more. Probably, this place was gentrified since it was the town’s east and a huge portion of the people living and working here could hardly afford eating here.

I asked Rhys how his studies were, and we talked about his classes, exams, and classmates for a bit.

“'nuff talked 'bout school stuff,” he said when he was halfway through his burger. “It’s my lunch break, after all. Do you have any plans for the summer?”

“I had rough ideas about what I could do and with whom I would like to spend time, but hadn’t settled on anything really.”

“Maybe, this is a bit spontaneously, but I was thinking, that I’d love to do a little road trip this year to leave all the stress and bad vibes behind me, to break a bit free. I’d like it if you joined me. What do you think?”

This was different from what I usually did and different sounded great right now. So without any further ado, I agreed.