Chapter Text

Trinity was kind of a bitch when it came to dating.

Her past relationships, if she could even call them that, always ended badly. In high school, she’d taken every one far more seriously than they deserved. That was, until her attitude eventually got the best of her. Boys her age were just too immature and weren’t capable of handling someone who challenged them.

At least, that’s what she’d always told herself.

As she nears twenty-three, loneliness creeps into every moment of Trinity’s life. Practically all of her friends seem to have found the one, and each conversation somehow circles back to their perfect love lives. Even her shifts at the hardware store involve committed couples debating which color to paint their living room, as if determined to show her how happy they are.

Trinity now sits cross-legged on her bed, watching raindrops race each other along her apartment window. Her appreciation for gloomy weather has continued to grow since moving away from Virginia. After years of sweating through muggy summers, the cool drizzle feels like a relief that also leaves far too much room for her own thoughts.

A family walks down the sidewalk, their children making splashes in any puddle they find. The parents laugh so hard they’re almost in tears every time they get drenched.

She keeps her gaze on them for a moment longer.

Am I too much for someone?

“What?”

The words leave her mouth before she even realizes she’d said it aloud.

And also while on the phone with her best friend, Kayda.

She hated admitting that they met at a speed dating event during their freshman year of college. It sounded desperate whenever Trinity said it out loud, though that wasn’t the case at all. She signed up hoping it’d be funny; but ironically found it hard to stay interested. Most of  the conversations had been painfully terrible—except for one.

He and Trinity had spent more time laughing at the icebreakers than actually reading them. Each card he picked up got more and more baffling, as the questions suddenly went from: “What’s your favorite pet?” to “What’s your favorite sex position?”

And of course, they eventually answered and picked the same choices: cats and doggystyle.

But before she could get his number, or even ask for his name, he suddenly disappeared. That was just her luck. She knew then it was a mistake to attend something serious as a joke, because she actually ended up disappointed in the end.

On her way out the door, she bumped into Kayda for the first time. They both bonded over the strangest one hour experience of their life. Two opposite ones, in fact. Trinity had met someone she never saw again, meanwhile Kayda had met Zach and somehow never got rid of him.

These days, she's a third wheel all too often. 

“Hellooo? Trinity?” Kayda waves to the camera. “What did you say?”

“Nothing. I’m just…” Trinity flops onto her pillow. “I want a man.”

Kayda scoffs. “Trust me, girl. It’s not all it’s cut out to be.”

“What happened now…?” 

“I’ll tell you later. This conversation isn’t about me, it’s about you, and we’re going to find you the best boyfriend on this planet.”

A snort escapes Trinity. “Okay, and where is he?”

“Listen,” Kayda starts hesitantly. “Ignore the shade I just threw against him, but later this week us and some of Zach’s college friends are going to go out to this bar, and I think you should totally come.”

“Are you sure? Are they like… normal?”

Kayda’s face deadpans. “Yes, dude. They’re normal.”

With a sigh, Trinity throws her hands up in the air. “My bad! Considering how much I’ve come to learn about Zach over the years, I have to make sure that the other people he surrounds himself with aren’t borderline weirdos.”

Kayda goes silent. Maybe Trinity threw that on her a little too harsh, but after everything that Zach had put them through, it was difficult to feel guilty.

Their sophomore year, after Zach had graduated, he was convinced that Kayda was cheating on him while she was on campus. He moved himself into Trinity and Kayda’s shared apartment with no warning, claiming he needed to keep an eye on things. 

His investigation lasted almost five months before Trinity finally convinced him to leave. She explained to him that he needed to stop being a “monitoring spirit” in the girls’ living space, and he reluctantly agreed.

After about ten seconds of awkward silence, Kayda breaks it. “Whatever. You’re right. But still, you should come.”

The corners of Trinity’s lips tug upward. “I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t, you’ll overthink it. We’ll pick you up at nine on Saturday.”

The words ‘call over’ blast onto the screen before Trinity can protest. 

Tossing her phone onto her sheets, she starts to stare out the window again, but stops. 

Trinity knows she shouldn’t feel so sorry for herself. She also knows she’ll find the right person eventually. She had to.

But why did it feel so much easier for everyone else?