Part 2: Holly

For a few months now Leah has been telling me about this girl in her chemistry lecture class. She describes her as one of those uncomfortable people who feel the need to share their own personal stories regardless the relevance or enhancement it’s not going to give to the lives of the people around them. I laugh about it and think to myself, oh yeah, I’ve known a few of those in my day, haha. I never give her much thought.

The other day Inch and I are at Blockbuster. I am facing the movie wall trying to find something to watch that night and he is standing next to me. I am shocked when the lady standing behind me starts talking. I turn around, keep in mind that I wasn’t looking at her or even facing her, and she’s holding up the horror flick, American Werewolf in Paris, with a big smile on her face.

“This is when you know your boyfriend needs to take a shower.” She repeats while pointing to the werewolf on the cover. I break out my typical why-is-this-stranger-talking-to-me look of confusion with the added twist of what-the-hell-am-I-supposed-to-say-to-th

at-unfunny-gem-of-a-punchline? She keeps looking at me while laughing to herself and I look at Inch standing off to the side.

“Yeah.” He superbly mutters.

“Don’t you just love it when strangers just start talking to you?” Lacking a socially acceptable response to the question I continue to look at her dumbly while screaming inside my head that no, I don’t in fact like it when strangers strike up completely meaningless conversations with me when I am trying to make a decision that is going to affect my entire night.

She continues.

“I actually made a friend with one of the people I did this to once. I was outside the chemistry building when I saw these two people making out. I walk up to them and say, ‘Oh the chemistry outside of the chemistry building!’” Again she laughs and looks at me expectantly waiting for the joke to dawn on me and for me realize its comedic value. Thinking the story is over I begin to inch away from her. As I slide past her she doesn’t miss a beat and swings her whole body around to face me square on. I notice a deforming scar on her right shoulder running down her arm.

“The boyfriend says to the girl, ‘What interesting friends you have.’ And she says to him, ‘I don’t even know her.’” Turns out the story isn’t over. Then just today I show up at the chemistry building for a make-up lab and guess who my partner ends up being. That’s right the same girl.” She gives me no time to guess. “So who knows, maybe you and I will end up being friends one day.”

After the threat she turns around and continues her search for a film while Inch and I discreetly yet quickly head for the other side of the store.

That night I tell Leah the story. When I finish she looks excited and asks me how long the girl’s hair was. We do this type of thing for a bit until I’m finally like, “Whoever she is she has a noticeable scar on her right arm.”

At this point Leah can hardly stand it anymore and yells, “Holly! I can’t believe you met Holly!”

Come to find out this is the girl from her chemistry lecture who she’s been telling me about all semester. Suddenly I understand why Leah keeps bringing her up.