Chapter 3

"Giovanni! Wait up!" Marissa called the next day as she ran towards her friend. Gene walked at a slow place behind her.

Giovanni, a tall, lanky and dark curly hair guy turned around. He smiled sweetly at Marissa stopping to wait for her. Gene noticed a pretty petite black girl standing nearby smiling at them.

"Hey Marissa. Look there is Camille, she said she'd wait for me here," Giovanni said as they entered the student lounge.

"Camille! Look who I found along the way," Giovanni said loudly in a voice that sounded like he was going through puberty.

Camille waved at her friends and they all found a nice quiet spot outside to drink coffee. Gene listened to them as they chatted about class, family and other miscellaneous things. He noticed Camille's pretty brown eyes focused on Giovanni. Giovanni however had his sights on Marissa. They laughed and shared a very intelligent conversation over poetry and writing. Camille seemed to be stuck on romantic poetry as so was Giovanni. Marissa had finally finished her essay on Frost's Poem "Mending Wall."

The three friends headed off for class and Gene followed silent as a mouse. He couldn't help but notice Marissa's mind in a far away place. Dylan. She's thinking of Dylan.

Marissa smiled to herself abut what happened the previous night with Gene. It had been sexy as hell masturbating with him, but she knew he was not a "real" person. He was this imaginary man in her life and she couldn't deal getting close to him, otherwise people would really think she'd lost her mind. She'd just have to concentrate on Dylan, the guy she'd been lusting for.

After class, Marissa headed off for the library and Gene walked besides her in silence. He looked as her two friends were walking away and Giovanni kept his big brown eyes on Marissa while Camille noticed with sad eyes.

"Hey you know, I think your friend Giovanni has got the hots for you," Gene said confidently.

Marissa laughed. "Giovanni? No way. He's just my friend. Nothing else."

"Yeah well that may be who you see him as, but he sees you as the object of his desire, love."

"Whatever Gene."

"And to top it all off, I think Camille has the hots for Giovanni."

Marissa stopped and looked around making sure no one was looking at her. "Look, Camille would never be interested in Giovanni. She dated a guy that looked like LL Cool J for crying out loud!"

"Who?"

"Never mind. I'm heading off to creative writing. You wanna come?"

"No. I think I'll go home now. I'll let you be free just for this afternoon."

Marissa shrugged and walked away leaving Gene alone. He cheated though, he didn't go home. Instead, he went to look for Giovanni and Camille. He wanted to learn more about Marissa's friends. He sat and listened to their conversation as they drank milkshakes later on that day.

"So do you think if I ask Marissa to be my date at the science awards ceremony she'd say yes?" Giovanni asked Camille.

"Y-yeah I suppose so. Do you think she'd want to go?" Camille answered sarcastically.

"I don't know. I hope so. I want to get the nerve to tell her how I feel about her, but Camille, she is so blind to see that. Even the little hints I give her. You know what I mean?"

Camille nodded and sighed. "Yup I know exactly what you mean. I know how you feel too."

"She's just so hung up on that Dylan bastard, that I don't even stand a chance."

Camille reached out to put her hand over his. Comforting him in a friendly way. "Don't worry hopefully Marissa will soon see what a wonderful person you are."

Giovanni blushed and moved his hand away leaving Camille feeling more hopeless than ever. Gene wondered how Camille could deal with loving Giovanni and not having him respond back. Or how she could even be friends with the girl that Giovanni admired so much. Camille was a strong and beautiful woman and Gene knew what he had to do.

Back at her apartment, Marissa lay in bed reading up on her history lesson. She heard Gene come in but he seemed very silent. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows.

"Gene, you weren't home this afternoon and you weren't in your bottle. May I ask where you were?"

He grinned deviously. "I was going around the campus practicing my magic on cute girls.'

Marissa sighed. "Gene come on now."

"Ok I was just checking out your friends Giovanni and Camille. They are really nice people. You're lucky to have them as friends."

Marissa agreed. "Yeah I know. But I can't really talk to them much about Dylan. I can't talk to them about a lot of things."

"I'm sure if you open up to them they'll love to hear what you have to say just as much as I do."

"Oh Gene your too kind to me."

He fell next to her on the bed and touched her soft face. "I have a plan for you Marissa. I can get Dylan Fulton to notice you and maybe even fall in love with you."

She raised herself off the bed and stood up with a huge grin on her pretty face. "Really? Oh Gene you're the best! Tell me please what your plan is!"

He shook his head. "No way. It's a secret. You'll see."

Marissa pouted. "Oh Gene please!"

He laughed and again refused to tell her. "Just watch. Soon enough you'll have Dylan crazy for you."