"Are you joking?"
I smacked the top of the printer that had completely jammed.
"Hey, hey, no hitting the machines," Thomas said rushing up to me. "What's wrong?"
"The stupid printer stopped working," I said frustrated. "You would think that as much as people pay in tuition here they could afford a printer that actually works."
He nodded. "I agree, but we can't hit the equipment or we won't have anything at all."
I folded my arms against my chest, " Sorry." Maybe if the printer worked properly I wouldn't want to hit it.
He opened the front of the printer and began messing around inside of it. Closing it again, documents began printing like normal. "There it's fixed."
I pulled my documents out of the tray, "Thank you."
He leaned against the table. "I'm going to fill up the newspaper dispensers around campus do you want to come?"
I shrugged. "Sure." It's not like I was doing anything else but sitting at my desk and being sad. "Just let me put my stuff away."
"Okay, I'll wait for you in the hallway."

I walked alongside Thomas as we deposited newspapers around school. My arms were full of newspapers, I had followed along quietly. I didn't feel like talking, really. My anger from earlier has faded and now I just feel sad.

Marcus apologized, several times, actually, and he explained things. I want to believe him, but I'm not sure what's true and what's not. Whitney seems to believe that they are still together, and I know they think she's crazy but she can't be that crazy.

Besides I'm still not ready to talk to him, maybe tomorrow.

But I feel like total shit for the way I treated Sam and Crystal, especially Crystal. I was such a bitch to her. I can't even believe I said those things to her, she didn't deserve it. I was mad at Marcus, not her, I'm sure she knew nothing about

"Nia, are you okay? " Thomas asked closing the door to the newspaper dispenser. "You don't seem like yourself."

"No, I'm not okay," I replied honestly, because why lie.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I sighed. "Yes."

"Come, sit."

He sat on one of the benches that lined the walk way. It was a beautiful spring day, not too hot, but still warm enough to be outside without a jacket. East Chapel's main grounds were beautifully landscape with rose bushes planted around the building.

"What's bothering you," He asked. I completely unloaded on him about Marcus and how I was an asshole to Crystal and Sam. And how confused I was about everything.

Marcus apologized, a lot, and explained things, but I'm not sure I should be so quick to forgive him. I want to, but what if I'm wrong. I did see her kiss him, quite passionately, but he didn't move. Why didn't he move?

As much as it hurt me, I told him that I just needed time to think right now.

"Wow," Thomas said after I was finished. "You've had a rough twenty four hours."

"The worst, really." I played with the edge of the newspapers that sat in my lap. "Should I forgive him?"

He hummed, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Well, I'm not the biggest fan of either of them, but you know that, what happened is really messed up. But it really only comes down to two factors," he stated, "1. He's lying and he was with her the whole time and is just covering his ass. 2. He's telling the truth and she's delusional and thinks they are still together. It's what you want to believe."

I chewed on my bottom lip, contemplating what he said. "But I don't know what to believe. Everyone says Whitney is some psychotic control freak, but she can't possibly be that crazy, can she?" She's so pretty I'm sure she can find someone else, anyone else, why is she so caught up on Marcus?

Thomas shrugged, "Anything's possible."

"That doesn't make me feel good."

He apologized. "Sorry, I would say the chances of her being a psychotic control freak are about fifty/fifty."

I frowned, "Great, but what if I forgive him and then I'm wrong. That would be so embarrassing."

"Yeah, but wouldn't it suck if he wasn't lying and you didn't forgive him."

I groaned. He's right. "How did you become so wise, Thomas?"

"Oh, you learn a lot once you reach the ripe old age of eighteen," he smiled. "Like how to fix a printer."

"And how to deal with psycho ex-girlfriends."

He laughed, "Luckily, I haven't had any of those."

"I'm going to miss you when you graduate." I had come to think of Thomas as a friend these last few weeks. I was going to hate to see him go, the computer lab wasn't going to be the same without him.

"I'm going to miss you too. But you'll be at Columbia after next year," he said.

"I hope so," I said. "That's if I can get through Trig."

"You've got it," he smiled. "If you want to get really crazy you could come to the summer program. A full summer in New York City, can be pretty fun."

"I bet, but I missed the deadline." I had checked it out when he'd told me about it before. Sadly I'd missed the submission deadline by a few weeks.

"Maybe next year then," said Thomas. He looked down at his watch. "We should start heading back, the bells going to ring soon."

"Okay." We headed back to class, stopping at Thomas' locker to hide the extra newspapers.

"So what have you decided?" He asked as we stopped outside the computer lab.

"I think, I'm going to give him a chance to explain himself more." I'm not going to say I'm going to forgive him, but I should at least give him a chance to explain what happened.

"Well, at least make him wait a few days," he advised, "But good luck, I hope everything works out for you guys."

"Me too."