Julie raised an eyebrow. "Or it was an unhinged M.I.T nerd who wanted to take over the apartment with his techie gear, leaving little room for necessary things like furniture."
Matt tapped the side of his head. "Now you're thinking."
There were a few ads that looked like possibilities, so Julie stored the numbers on her phone. Matt had to get home to get the car and pick up Celeste from school, so they grabbed sandwich wraps to-go from a place on Mt. Auburn Street and then Julie set her sights on locating her coveted coffee beverage as quickly as possible. "I need a Coolatta, Matt. Please tell me we can get one here? I may accidentally reenact the escalator scene if I don't find one soon." Julie tripped on the cobbled sidewalk. "See? I'm already beginning to derail."
"Yes. Right away."
Matt led them across the Square to a quieter side street, then back down Mass Ave, then down a shorter one-way street, occasionally glancing at Julie.
Julie followed him obediently, wondering why he'd passed three Dunkin' Donuts without heading in to any of them. She stopped him and dropped her head to the side. "Oh, you poor thing. You don't know what a Coolatta is, do you?"
Matt actually appeared to squirm a bit. "Well, no. I don't."
"Hold on, I have to mark this event." Julie whipped out her phone and updated her Facebook status, which she read aloud to Matt.Julie Seagle Have discovered noticeable gap in know-it-all's knowledge base. Will celebrate enchanting news with Coolatta.
She was unable to stifle a grin.
Matt put his hands on his hips. "Hysterical. I never said that I knew everything. I'm just confident that I'm well-informed on many subjects."
"Apparently not important subjects." Julie marched ahead. "And, by the way, there's a difference between confident and cocky. Look, there's a Dunkin' at the top of this street. Do you know how far I have to drive at home to find one? And here you are, surrounded by one on every street corner! This is obviously the best city in the world. And the reason you've never heard of my favorite drink is because you're probably an uptight coffeehouse, double-espresso, no-sugar kind of guy?"
"I'm miserably transparent, huh?"
"No. I'm a coffee psychic. You have that bitter double-espresso look about you. But today you're joining up with the masses and getting a Coolatta."
A few minutes later, Julie was happily inhaling her large frozen coffee drink while they headed out of the square.
Matt looked less than thrilled and made an exaggerated disgusted face after his first taste.
"This is a very popular drink, you know," Julie informed him. "There's no reason to be making such an expression."
"This must be why I'm not a social icon. You've finally pinpointed it. I don't blindly follow popular culture's love for overly sweet, pseudo-coffee, ice crystal concoctions. It's a relief to finally understand why my social status is on a downward course."
"It's either that or the shirts," Julie muttered. "Hey, can we walk home by the river?" Julie could just glimpse the blue water from where they walked and was aching to stroll back to the house along the picturesque path that ran through the grass.
Matt brushed his shaggy hair from his face. "Unfortunately, we don't really have time right now. It's faster to cut directly through the Square, and I have to get Celeste."
"Sure. No problem." Julie took another sip of her drink. "Thank you for helping me out today. I'm sure this was a huge drag, but I really appreciate it. This was incredibly nice of you, and I'm sorry if I've been grouchy. I didn't expect to start off my freshman year in such flux. You've become a social icon to me," she teased.
"Yeah, right. You haven't been grouchy. You've been expressive and feisty. Both of which I like. Considering that your first days in Boston are far from what you were expecting, I think that you're doing great. I'm happy to help."
They walked quietly for a few minutes, and Julie noticed that despite the lull in conversation, there was nothing the least bit uncomfortable about being with Matt.
"So, do you pick up Celeste every day?" She hoped that he wouldn't bite her head off for this Celeste-related question.
He nodded.
"And do you stay with her after school, too, until your parents get home?"
"I do."
"How do you get your schoolwork done? I imagine you've got more homework than the average student."
He shrugged. "It's not a big deal. I stay up late, which I like. Sometimes I go back to school at night if I need to use one of the labs. It works out fine."
"Is that why you don't live in the dorms? Or an apartment?"
"It would be rather silly to pay rent when my parents' house is so close to school."
"I guess so."
Matt took another sip of his drink. Aha! Julie smiled to herself and kept walking. He did like the Coolatta. Everyone did.
Chapter 6
Julie tapped her foot anxiously as she listened to the outgoing message. She had just called the last number from the group of potential apartment rentals and was hoping this would be it. A girl's chipper voice said, "Hi! You've reached Sally, (that's me!) and Megan, Barb, and our newest roommate, Chelsea! Leave us a message, and if we're not too busy having fun, we'll call you back!" Julie growled and hung up. She didn't know if she was jealous of that fourth roommate or not. That Sally sounded an awful lot like the perky-yet-vacant crowd she'd left behind at home. On the other hand, there was something to be said for a core gaggle of girls who would love nothing more than to order pizza, do each others' hair, and watch tawdry reality shows.