#weekonedone

“So, how was it?” Chantelle was waiting in Kai’s room when she returned. “Shit. You scared me.” “Sorry. How was it? Where did you go?” “Wait, we have to call Lydia first, so that I can tell both of you.” “Okay,” Chantelle said, dialing. Lydia picked up, and Kai proceeded to tell both of them the entire story. An hour and a half and countless questions later, the three of them called it a night, as it was nearly 1 am.

Kai woke up early and went to the gym for two hours, telling herself she was making up for missing a few days. In reality, she needed to get a hold of her emotions because she knew she was going to see Sawyer. Then she showered, dressed comfortably in black shorts and a teal hoodie, and went to breakfast, finding that Sawyer was already sitting with Cole and Gabriel. 

Are you awake? She texted Chantelle. The reply was immediate. Yeah. I’m hungry. Kai stopped in the middle of gathering pineapple from the tray and replied, Come down to the cafeteria, then. She finished grabbing fruit and contemplated if she wanted anything supplemental to her normal morning routine, as she felt hungrier than usual. On my way.

Just then, Sawyer’s shadow was cast over her as he gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “Are you coming to eat with us?” “I, uh… I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to.” He chuckled and kissed her head. “Come on.” They walked over to the table together. “Good morning, Kai.” Cole flashed his crooked smile at her and Gabriel waved. 

She was just sitting down when Chantelle walked in, saw her, and mouthed oh hell no as she grabbed a plate. “Will she be joining us this morning?” Cole asked, prodding Kai with his elbow. “It’s up to her, I suppose.” Kai wished that Lydia were there so that the odds would be evened out. “Chantelle!” Cole called across the cafeteria, bringing the attention of all of the other students to their table. Chantelle flashed Kai and angry eye-squint as she headed over and sat next to her. Sawyer smiled knowingly at Kai as Gabriel said, “Good morning. You look nice today.” “Thank you.” Chantelle poked Kai in the ribs forcefully several times before she swatted her hand away. Sawyer was the only other one who saw it, and stifled a laugh. Cole looked about, trying to figure out what he missed.

“So, what does everyone have going on today?” Gabriel asked, aware that something was happening, but unruffled by it. “I think that Kai and I are going to the church down the street.” Kai did her best to diminish her response, emitting a smile of confirmation. “Yeah, I went there a few times with Chloe. It’s kind of boring.” “Yeah, when I tried it my first year here the worship was seriously lacking and the speaker was very Middle-American.” Chantelle contributed. “My perspective on it is kind of that I have the internet if I want to listen to really good worship sets, and I have my Bible and countless podcasts if I want a really good message, but people who genuinely care about me and my growth as a person and can meet me at a biblical and spiritual level outside of my social circles is a little bit harder to find. This church provides that, I think.” “I agree with Kai. The people are why I keep going.” Sawyer said. They made eye contact as the butterflies flitted about in Kai’s stomach.

“What about you, Chantelle? What do you have planned for today?” Gabriel leaned in. Chantelle pulled back awkwardly before responding, “I’m probably going to paint for a while today and work on some more homework. I normally go to church with my mom, and she’s working today.” “Aren’t some of your paintings in the library?” “Yes.” “They’re very good.” “Thank you. What are you doing today?” Gabriel smiled, obviously pleased that she took an interest in his activities, even if it was just to be polite. “I think the three of us were supposed to put in a few hours of practice after church, right?” He looked to Sawyer and Cole. They both nodded. “Do you want to come with us?” Sawyer asked him. He shook his head and turned his attention back to his breakfast. Kai quietly laughed.

When breakfast was done, they all walked out together. As they parted ways, Sawyer said to Kai, “I’ll see you at 9:45?” “Sure.” When Chantelle and Kai reached a reasonable distance from the guys, Kai hurriedly began to explain. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t plan that. I texted you when I saw him with them because I assumed what he wouldn’t want me to come over, you know, cause he used to be douche-y like that. But then he got up and asked me to eat with them, and I was just sitting down when you came in, so I didn’t have a chance to text you and tell you what was happening. I thought that you could just nonchalantly go sit somewhere else and it wouldn’t be the end of the world, because Gabriel’s back was to you, but then Cole saw you and called you over before I could stop him. I’m really sorry.”

 Chantelle gently grabbed Kai’s hand to assure her, “It’s fine, I know you didn’t do it on purpose. I just think it’s funny how hard he was trying. And also, how Sawyer was being very couple-y.” Kai threw her hands up, “I know; I was so confused. I was like, ‘where’s the old Sawyer who argues about everything and speaks only negatively, of himself, or about basketball? Who’s this person?’ I really didn’t know what to do. Also, it’s been a long time since a man behaved that way with me, so that took a little adjustment.” “I bet. Well, you’ve got about forty-five minutes to figure it out before you go to church together.  I don’t know how much more couple-y than that you can get.” “Shut up. Gabriel likes your art.” Chantelle punched her arm while Kai laughed.

She found him waiting outside of the dorm a couple of minutes early as before. “Do you want to drive again?” “Yeah, no one ever lets me drive.” “I actually hate driving.” He smiled at her as she handed him the keys. They were immediately ambushed by various members of the church as they entered, who were all excited that Kai had returned. She overheard many people questioning Sawyer about them coming in together. 

They finally found seats and she did her best not to react as he placed his arm around the back of her chair. After the worship set was over, there was the customary fifteen minutes of greeting one another before the sermon, during which they enabled each other to be introverted and spoke only to each other. Kai did, however, notice that many people were watching them. After the sermon, they socialized a bit more, and the entire time, the men talked about how great Sawyer was, reminding her of things like his work in children’s ministry and how it prepared him for fatherhood, his shooting average and how he was consistently the team’s highest scoring player, and even how tall he was, as they commented on the height difference between the two of them even as she was in six inch heels.

When it was all over, Kai returned upstairs to her dorm and finally picked up her little black script booklet and set to running lines for Antony and Cleopatra while she waited for Lydia to return. When she did, Kai and Chantelle listened to the story of her weekend, and shared a bit of their own. “So, are you considering Gabriel? I mean, with you being unsure of how you feel about Charlie after all the BS that he’s pulled, it would be okay if you started liking Gabriel.” Chantelle violently shook her head. “I don’t,” both Kai and Lydia raised their eyebrows at her, “I don’t!” “Okay.” They continued talking for a few hours until Kai decided to go to the gym again. “You just went this morning.” “I have to get back into my routine. You guys can come with me.” Kai replied as she changed. “We could.” Lydia said, nodding. “We probably won’t.” Chantelle laughed.

After her cardio was done, Kai was too tired to do anything else, and being that she had run a total of nine miles aside from her time on the weights this morning, she called it a night. She told herself that her trip tonight was just to cement the habit. As she was walking out, she ran into Brett’s roommate, Jake. “Hey, Kai, have you seen Brett recently?” He seemed extremely concerned. “No, not today. Why?” “When was the last time you saw him?” “I think it was Friday morning, in the cafeteria. We didn’t speak, I just saw him come through to get water.” His expression darkened. “Okay, thank you.” She gently touched his forearm before he walked away. 

Her stomach wrenched violently against her as she walked back to her dorm. She did her best to sleep, but when she got up the next morning, she couldn’t shake the anxiety. She went through her day, through breakfast with Sawyer, class, her drive up the mountain, through her meeting with Caedmon, lunch with Chantelle and Lydia, and through work completely disconnected and apathetic, on edge, yet barely present, caught up in her head. She felt guilty for being unavailable to the people she cared about, and knew that her work likely suffered for her distractedness. But she could not stop her intrusive thoughts.

As she was leaving the Arts building after work, she was stopped by an officer’s badge in her face. “Are you Kai Dinwiddie?” “I am. What’s going on?” She assumed that something had happened with Gloria. “I would like to ask you a few questions.” She nodded in agreement. “What is the nature of your relationship to Brett Swizek?” He asked, pulling a notebook out of his pocket. 

“Brett? We’re friends. Has something happened?” the pain in her stomach returned as her heart dropped. “And when was the last time you saw him?” It grew deathly quiet as she hunted her memory, forgetting all at once everything from the past few days. 

“Um… Friday morning I saw him pass through the cafeteria.” She visualized his hands filling black canteens, his bitter expression, Sawyer’s hand on her arm. “Were you aware that his roommate reported him missing this morning?” 

She remembered seeing Jake alone, in the coffeehouse, in the parking lot under the lamp post, outside of the gym, she remembered her concern and his sadness and frustration when they spoke the previous night. “No, I was not.” 

“We found some video this morning on the security cameras on campus here. It appears that you and Brett had a disagreement last Sunday night, and another Thursday night that a few others students were in and that this particular disagreement escalated to violence. Do you have anything to say about that?”