In the 7th grade he had a crush on her. They rode the bus together. One day someone said "hey Ashleigh broke up with that guy John!" and he had slammed his fist on the seat and yelled out "Yess!!!!"

He regretted it immediately. Wished he could take it back. But everybody was already laughing at him. He was scared Ashleigh would be laughing too. She was grimacing. Like she was disgusted.

It wasn't until high school that they started texting. It's not like they had phones until then. But it came suddenly out of the blue. And the conversation never reached real life. They just kept sending messages to each other on a regular yet not so frequent basis.

He thought about her now while holding his pourover coffee. He didn't even want more coffee. Just wanted to have something warm in his hand and the smell in the room. After moving back into the dorms he stopped making his own coffee. That's one thing he missed about living at the co-op. But now that he had more time he was trying out his old routines.

He checked his phone to see if she had texted her back. The college Ashleigh, not the one from his home town. No response. But there was a text from his friend Michael Bo.