Saturday came quickly. Quickly in a way that doesn’t often happen. Often one looks forward to the end of the day with anticipation and it feels as though it takes several days worth of waiting for that end to come. Perhaps this law of waiting applies more to closer events, or events which contain no anxiety and for which one has only eager anticipation and conviction to act appropriately when they arrive. Any high school student could tell you, for instance, that the time between the start of their last class of the day and the time at which the bell rings and then the time at which they are allowed to leave are all exaggerated and excruciatingly long periods of time that add up to well over their actual time. But, conversely, a dreaded event, or an event about which one is uncertain, tends to approach much more quickly.

This is all to say, that though the day which Josh had been invited to help Sara move into her new apartment came sooner than expected and Josh himself was uncertain why exactly that seemed to be. He was not nervous about it, and in fact expected very little to happen as a consequence of his help. There was a small possibility he could earn a date with Sara, which was part of his motivation, but there was also a general curiosity about this girl. It was unclear who she was, shy she seemed to be so unerringly happy, and why she had asked him for help at all.

It had only been a short walk for Josh. Or it seemed short. Josh lived in the boys only dorms on the other side of campus. It was a complicated few blocks to cross from there to the mixed dorms, but the streets were all so familiar that it felt like a shorter walk than it was. Consequently, Josh arrived at the steps of the designated dorms exactly at ten o’ clock.

A particularly tall younger looking male student walked past Josh, giving him a look of what felt like mild disgust. Josh didn’t pay it much mind, some people were just mean or having a bad day and that was none of his business. But the encounter was unnerving for a reason Josh couldn’t quite place. It felt personal and informed, even when it had no right to be. But Josh ignored it and waited. He would wait, he decided, for thirty minutes.

After twenty one minutes, Sara exited the front door of the dorms. Her appearance was a relief but also concerning. She had been specific about the time, and yet Josh had been waiting on her. It gave him a bad impression of how Sara scheduled her time.

“Oh my goodness, have you been waiting out here this whole time?” Sara’s voice, despite the impression she’d made, was genuine and apologetic.

“Just a little while.” Josh fumbled with his words. “Almost thought you meant to say somewhere else… or maybe it was tomorrow. You said weekend, not Saturday, so I kind of guessed.”

“Did I? Huh.” Sara scrunched up her face in an attempt to remember, but the gesture was almost entirely superficial. “Well, I meant today. I’m just a little late. My roommate and I spent all last night putting things in boxes, and we didn’t realize we packed up most of our food and plates and things. So they left a while ago to pick something up and they got back with donuts a bit late… so, that’s why you waited… I guess.”

There was an awkward pause.

“So, Josh, you want a donut?” Sara raised and waggled a goofy eyebrow.

“Yeah.” It felt like he had saved up all the air in his lungs since he’d talked last and let it all go at once. “That sounds nice… lead the way.”

Josh awkwardly signaled for Sara to go ahead of him back into the dorm so that he could follow. He’d never actually been in these dorms, though he’d seen pictures from the housing website for campus. They had been intimidating for him, since most students seemed to think of these dorms as a means of finding a sexual partner that would be randomly selected for you. Like a blind dating service. That was the interpretation from the outside at least, what he experienced on the inside was extremely underwhelming.

The dorm seemed to be constructed in the same way as his building was. Everything from the lighting fixtures to the carpet seemed to be the same. The only thing that was obviously different were the split communal bathrooms, which made sense. The school could hardly be eager to encourage men and women to share the same showers and bathrooms. The more Josh saw of the dorms, the more he realized that he had gotten in over his head. It took him several flights of stairs to realize that he had agreed to help move someone’s things from one upper floor apartment to potentially another upper floor apartment with no guarantee of working elevators.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the fifth floor.” Sara’s words were hardly comforting.

The fifth floor meant that, without an elevator, there would be multiple trips up and down five flights of stairs and then who knew how many flights of stairs potentially at whatever place she was moving in to. That was not a workout that Josh wanted to participate in, but it was too late now. He had already agreed to help, and worse, he was already finding himself on the fifth floor of the building and leaving from there would be a very obvious departure.

“So, here it is. The mess.” Sara stopped in front of an open dorm room and gestured wildly into the door as she spoke. “Ooh, and there’s some donuts left if you want one, I forgot to mention that.”

“They’re gluten free…” a male voice from within the dorm started, but then the voices owner and Josh locked eyes and the sentence was not finished.

Just inside the room, amid a pile of boxes and with a very plain looking donut in hand, was the guy that had passed in front of Josh earlier that morning and given him a very judgemental look. It was strange, to Josh, that he remembered this person at all given how brief the exchange was and how detached from any sort of real interaction it had been. But for some reason the feeling returned when their eyes met.

Sara sighed a deep and slightly embarrassed sigh. “Connor, what the hell are you doing?”

“He looks like a creep.” Connor’s words were cutting.

The words had no basis, but they hurt. Josh felt a sudden and intense sadness upon hearing this strangers opinion. He hated himself for feeling it, and he couldn’t explain it, but it was terrible. He had offered to help in his free time, he had stayed knowing full well it would be a hassle, and he was called a creep. For what?

“Nah. He’s fine. He passed the shirt test.” Sara shrugged. “He only took one look too, so he passed with an A.”

“Oh?” Connor’s look instantly changed to a more friendly countenance. “Good job dude. Have a donut.”

Connor, without any hesitation tossed a brown paper bag with three donuts to Josh and then turned to share a pointed look with Sara. What transpired between them was something of an extremely quick but succinct conversation of glances. One gesture on Connor’s part, combined with a questioning look, and a head shake and shrug with a look of uncertainty from Sara. That was all they needed to say to each other, and they understood without a word spoken. What’s more, Josh didn’t see any of it. He was too busy catching the bag of donuts.

There was a moment of confusion. Josh found himself the center of attention as he held the bag of donuts. He had never been in a situation like that before, going from one extreme to another in a way that didn’t seem to have a reason or a way to respond.

“What do… what?” Josh muttered in confusion.

“Dude. Just eat a donut. We’re weird and we don’t socialize well.” Connor slapped Josh on the shoulder as he turned to the mess of boxes in the dorm. “Or you can even leave if you want. But, it’d be a dick move.”

Josh turned his attention to Sara, but she was grinning like an idiot. She was as cheerful as ever and giving Josh two thumbs up.

“Sorry he’s so weird, but you’re doing great.” Sara hissed under her breath, her voice fully of support. “This is a good first impression.”

Without knowing how else to respond, Josh reached into the bag and pulled out a donut. It was delicious. For the few second it took him to eat it, he didn’t mind that he’d essentially been bullied into doing so. And after he was done, the interaction felt less weird. He’d had time to think things over, and he’d come to the conclusion that anything was weird if you thought about it enough. And even though Sara and Connor were acting weird, they were being very honest. Even though they were behaving strangely, like they might not be well psychologically, they clearly didn’t have any ulterior motives or bad intentions. Sara still had that aura about her, that vibration that sent out the signal that she wanted to be friends. And Connor, though Josh was having an incredibly hard time figuring him out, seemed very uncomplicated and sincere.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

With all the thinking ad donut sugar rushing through his body, Josh hardly noticed that he was starting to pick up boxes and carry them down to the bottom floor of the building. He just was. And it felt nice to help. And at some point, after making two trips down to the front lobby of the dorm on the ground floor, Josh realized that they weren’t actually loading boxes into a moving truck or a car or anything like that. They were just stacking boxes on a different floor. And the number of boxes was surprisingly large, much larger than it had initially appeared. These dorms weren’t just a small room with two bunk bed desks, they had closet space and a small meal preparation space and desk space and space for storage under beds. The rooms were actually somewhat bigger than the dorms that Josh lived in.

“Hey…” Josh called out to Sara as she reached the bottom floor of the door with a stack of boxes in her arms. “Where… where’s your new place? Shouldn’t we be getting all this in a truck?”

Sara, for once, did not seem enthusiastic. In fact, she almost looked a little worried. “Oh. Right. My… uh… my mom… is coming by with a truck. She should be here soon. But you can leave before that… if you want. The new place has a freight elevator and my mom is going to stick around to help unpack and… stuff.”

“Oh.” The elevator made it sound like the place was interesting, maybe even a little upscale. It definitely piqued Josh’s curiosity, as did the strange tone that had arisen from the topic. “I mean, I’m free to stick around. I cleared my day out to help. And no offense, but Connor is starting to look a little pale.”

Connor, who had just made his way down the stairs one more time with several boxes in hand, did indeed look pale. He was winded from the constant slow motion and dodging around other students on the stairs. He had started out energized, but it had not lasted very long.

“Maybe we should take a five minute break…” Connor muttered through deep breaths, though he was trying very hard to keep the severity of his windedness under wraps. “You know. Wait for Margot to show up. And she can carry stuff down.”

Sara shot Connor a devilish look, one of both mischief and revenge. “Okay then. Would you go back up and lock the door so we can all wait down here where half of our things are?”

Connor, who was not very happy, took one deep breath and turned back to the stairwell. “You’re lucky that I like you.”

For a moment, as Connor walked away, Josh wondered how much the two liked each other. Sara and Connor were roommates, but they acted like they were best friends, maybe even siblings. But they had chemistry too; there were clearly on the same wavelength—if not when Josh had been properly introduced, then certainly every time the two of them had shifted around each other in the confined space of the dorm and never once bumping into each other.

But as soon as Connor was out of view, something else stuck to Josh’s mind. Something that seemed so mundane and could have easily been explained away, but that seemed very intentional. Why had Connor called Sara’s mom by her first name? Or was that what had happened? Josh was assuming that “Margot” was Sara’s mom, but it very easily could have not been. And even if it was, that could have just been a part of the relationship that they shared. It wasn’t entirely uncommon for friends to call each others parents by their first names, particularly if they were trying to assert themselves as adults. But it was still strange. The familiarity that Sara and Connor seemed to have with each other felt like a friendship forged over years, long enough to have gone back into middle school or maybe even longer, and that didn’t seem like the kind of relationship where you called each others parents by their first names. At least, not to Josh. And while it could be explained away, it was still stuck in his head that something else was going on.

“You look like you can see into the fourth dimension.” Sara, who had gotten very close to Josh’s face as he had begun to stare into the distance, sounded almost impressed by the vacancy in his stare. There was definitely a hint of disappointment as the comment snapped him back into reality. “What’s eatin’ ya?”

Not wanting to admit that he had just given as much thought as he just had to the way that Connor had spoken, he tried to shrug the question off. “Nothing. Just… I think maybe that donut is starting to wear off.”

“Oh. You know what that means.” Sara took a step back and held out the paper bag that still had one more donut left. “You need more.”

“Are you trying to get me on a sugar high at… oh jeez it’s almost lunch.” Josh had just checked his watch.

And looking to the pile of boxes that had grown next to where they were standing, he was also taken aback by how much they had accomplished. It hadn’t felt like a lot in the moment, but a five minute break seemed to give it all perspective.

That moment of perspective was burst like a soap bubble as a woman who neither Josh nor Sara had seen approach jumped out and grabbed Sara by the shoulders. Sara was startled, Josh jumped.

“Oh my gosh… ma-mom,” Sara stuttered, nearly saying something else before correcting herself to say mom, “you can’t just scare me like that in public. People might think you’re trying to kidnap me or something.”

“If I was going to kidnap you, sweet-pea, I wouldn’t be so loud.” The woman gave a huge grin before laughing.

Sara laughed too, but less loudly.

Josh gathered that this was a common occurrence. Or at least he hoped it was semi-normal… or maybe hoped wasn’t the right word. In the wrong context, he could see it being a recurring event in a cycle of abuse, scaring your child by sneaking up on them. But it could also be a game. That was a better hope. A familiar game they were both willing participants in.

“And who’s this?” Sara’s mom tilted her head in Josh’s direction as if just noticing him. “Is he…?”

Her voice trailed off as she gave Josh an assessing look, as if sizing him up. It made Josh uncomfortable, like he was being given a value of some kind based on his appearance.

“Oh, no.” Sara stammered, still smiling, but now blushing heavily as well. “No. This is Josh. I asked a lot of people to help me move and he was the only one that agreed to help and then showed up. And Connor approves of him too, so I trust him.”

Sara’s mom nodded, as though Connor’s approval meant more than her daughter’s.

“Josh,” Sara turned to speak to him directly, “this is my mom, Margot.”

With a proper introduction Josh made an assessment of his own of the woman. It only seemed fair after she’d looked him over so directly. Josh elected to be more subtle of course, keeping eye contact while offer to shake her hand, but also giving strategically timed glances at her person when she looked to Sara.

This woman, Sara’s mom… Margot, the strangest thing about her was that she hardly looked older than Sara herself. If Josh had to guess, he would say she was maybe in her late thirties… maybe. And that observation alone led to a cascade of speculation. When had Margot had Sara, was she the result of a high school romance and teen pregnancy? Was she adopted? They seemed very informal, so either could be the case. But then there was more as well. Margot’s attire seemed out of place for someone in a maternal role. She was wearing what looked like legitimate military style camo pants and a black tank top like a marine straight out of a movie, she even had the ball cap on that hid her hair. And she looked sturdy. That was the best way Josh could put it. Not muscular, not at all, but she had perfect posture and a confident stance to her; it made it seem like she was prepared to twitch and catch an oncoming projectile at any moment.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Josh. And thank you for helping my daughter.” Margot accepted the hand shake, revealing a very firm grip.

“She’s nice and it’s been easy enough work.” Josh forced a polite smile. “And she gave me a donut, and that doesn’t hurt.”

Margot frowned. “Just one donut? You’re not paying him anything?”

“I already ate, ma’am. And I don’t need the money.” The first part of that statement was true, the second part was a blatant lie. A polite lie, but still a lie.

“Nope.” Margot reached around to her back pocket and retrieved her wallet. “How long have you been helping? Thirty an hour is pretty standard for movers…”

“Really, I’m fine…”

“Yeah, Mom. He’s fine, and you’re making a scene.” Sara looked, probably for the first time, uncomfortable to Josh.

At the best possible moment, Connor descended from the upper floors of the door with a small box in his hands. He seemed to read the room in an instant.

“Ms. Margot, is your truck ready to pack up?” Connor’s smile seemed genuine, which made Josh think this was a common occurrence

Margot seemed to soften immediately upon seeing Connor. “We’re all set to go… but this isn’t everything… is it? You haven’t been selling your things to get by, have you?”

“We were just about to take a lunch break, actually.” Connor still had that curt sort of opinionated tone to his voice when he spoke to Margot, but he was definitely making an effort to cut it back with her.

Margot smiled as she put away her wallet. “If you don’t mind doing just a bit more, I already ordered pizza to be sent to the new apartment in about a half hour. And I picked up some things for you Connor, the pizza place didn’t have a non-dairy, non-gluten option.”

“Go figure.” Connor gavea halfhearted laugh that sounded very practiced. “You think we can really get the new apartment loaded with all the boxes in half an hour?”

“Maybe a little more than that, but only if we hustle.” Margot picked up a stack of boxes as she spoke. “Connor, you help me load up the truck. Sara and Josh, you can bring down the rest.”

“Yes ma’am.” Connor gave a mock salute and threw the apartment key to Sara. “Will you guys be okay getting the last few boxes down? They’re heavy.”

“I think we’ll manage.” Sara gave her friend a faked sarcastic frown before turning to Josh. “You wanna split the last donut?”

Josh couldn’t’ help but smile at her. “Sure.”