Ally and Dez were sitting on the rooftop terrace of the Bechtel Engineering Center, which overlooked Memorial Glade. Dez had insisted on getting her out of the dorm. When she'd asked why, he'd simply muttered , "natural lighting".
The Terrace Cafe was mostly used by Berkeley's engineering students but, ever since the first time that he'd come to visit her, Dez had made it his go-to place for food. He was constantly bringing home sushi dinner for two or one of their artisan pizzas.
Currently, he was in the middle of holding a cupcake near his mouth while simultaneously focusing his iPhone's camera on Ally's face. When he took a bite of the small cupcake, a few crumbs landed on his chin, and he frowned when he realized he had to put his food down in order to wipe them off.
Ally sipped her tea and watched him. Ridiculous.
"Are you ever going to tell me why you keep filming me?"
She hadn't expected an answer, but her friend surprised her. "I'm helping someone out."
Ally raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Who would be in desperate need of footage of me drinking decaf earl grey tea?"
"People with tea fetishes?" Dez guessed, earning a laugh.
Ally sat with him in silence for a few more minutes, appreciating the beautiful view. Memorial Glade was one of Berkeley's more famous outdoor spaces. A lot of student events were held there. Receptions, barbeques, concerts – you name it. Ally had attended few frosh week events, so she hadn't spent much time there. She had, however, spent a lot of time at the main campus library – Doe Memorial Library – which was located right next to the Glade. It was where she had met Pete. It was where she felt comfortable.
But Memorial Glade was popular with most students. Ally often saw others sprawled across the lawn in between classes or chatting amongst themselves under the maple trees. Last year, a few students had organized an 80s outdoor movie night under the stars. From eight o'clock in the evening until two o'clock in the morning (when all student organized events at the Glade had to be completely over), her peers had gathered on the lawn with blankets and snacks to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Back To The Future Trilogy.
Ally hadn't gone of course, having had been much too busy with other things, but she'd always liked the idea of Memorial Glade. She'd done her research. For example, she knew that it was the filming location for the scene in Boys and Girls when Jennifer explains to Ryan that "Love is exciting, love is thrilling, and it drives you so insane that you think you're going to explode. That's the whole point.", and she also knew that –
"Why don't we go hang out on the grass down there?" Dez asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"What?" Ally asked, looking over at him. He was finished his cupcake and was staring at his phone's screen. Which meant he was staring at her.
"I said," he began, switching hands so that he could reach over and tap her on the nose, "why don't we go down there?"
"To Memorial Glade? But it's crowded."
"So? Then it must be worth it. Besides, you've been longingly staring at it for the past three minutes. You make for some boring footage."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're just trying to distract me from what's really going on here." She reached out to try and grab the phone from him, but he was too quick and snatched it away. "Who are you helping? Are you sending videos of me to some random perv?"
Dez smiled at that, which reassured her a little, but then he said, seriously, "forget that I said anything."
She frowned and Dez made sure to fixate the camera on her change in expression. "Well I think that I'm going to take a little break from your project here." She waved her hand to indicate Dez's filming.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I'm going to call Pete and see what he's up to."
She hadn't really gotten to see much of Pete the past few days because she had been spending a lot of time with her friend. Dez appeared to be a little more than visibly upset about this news, and he quickly tapped his screen to end the video.
"Is that really necessary?" Dez asked, giving her a pout.
"Yes," she answered quickly. "He's my boyfriend – he needs to see me too. Besides, you should cut him some slack. He is, after all, surprisingly comfortable with us sharing a bed."
Dez looked away and exhaled uncomfortably. "The pillow barrier gets in the way of any frick frack opportunities."
"Frick frack?"
"And you were the one who told me I couldn't use my sleeping bag anymore."
"Only because watching you sleep in that pathetic thing upset me," Ally argued. "You're huge, Dez. It would make anyone sad watching you try to get comfortable on my dorm floor."
"You never said anything before," her friend pointed out as the wind picked up suddenly, blowing Ally's hair into her face. Dez looked at his phone longingly, as if he wished he'd caught it on camera.
"Yeah, well…" she trailed off.
"Well?"
"You've never stayed with me for more than a few nights, and now you look like you're ready to move in." She looked him in the eye, daring him to look away. As usual, he didn't. "How long are you planning on staying?"
He clicked his camera back on. "Until I leave."