Our Story, Part 3: Spring Semester and Feelings

For previous installments of Our Story, click here!

Finally Spring semester rolled around. Steve and Marquette had broken up, Amy and Cameron had fizzled, and Marquette’s roommate Jalayne and her boyfriend had broken up. The three started hanging out a few times each week. They were all tired of the dating game and weren’t interested romantically in each other so they got to know each other really well without the fakeness of the dating world. Sometime early that semester Marquette got a call from her Uncle Roger in Edgewood saying that he’d set her up on a date. He had talked to the guy, told him what he was going to do and everything. He said that this boy would be calling to get the time and details all set up. Marquette was quite wary at this point and had a pretty good idea who he had set her up with. To say she was a little frustrated would be an understatement. Marquette’s family had all started pushing about dating Cameron and the last thing she wanted was for people to get involved and mess up their friendship. Marquette’s grandpa called her a little bit later and she was able to get him to tell her what was going on. Roger had set her up on a date with Cameron. She didn’t appreciate that at all; they were just friends and they weren’t interested in each other. Marquette was in a bit of turmoil and didn’t know what to do…she didn’t want to be rude and cancel the date, but she didn’t want Cameron to think that she liked him either. So finally they did decide to go on the date…and brought Marquette’s little sister Diedre along as a buffer. It was quite possibly the most awkward and weird date either of them had gone on…but they were able to tell Roger, “Yes, we went on the date and Yes, Cameron paid for my dinner”. It was a little awkward between the two for a day or so, but they eventually laughed it off.

As the semester went on, Jalayne, Cameron, and Marquette began hanging out nearly every day. They probably saw each other 5-6 days out of the week. They laughed, joked, went to plays and concerts, and hung out all the time. Left Crawdads in the tub for the roommates to find. A random last minute fake prom. Funerals for not-dead roommates. They enjoyed getting to just be themselves around each other, and weren’t trying to impress one another or put on a show. They all knew what they liked and didn’t like about each other. Pranks were played on the other roommates, dances were attended, and they just had a ball. All guards against “romance” were down.

April came around and things started to change just a little bit. Marquette picked up on a budding romantic interest and was sure that Cameron liked Jalayne, but Jalayne was sure that he liked Marquette, and both of the girls claimed that they weren’t romantically interested in him, even though they both agreed he was awesome. Cameron did indeed like Jalayne, but was trying to play it cool and get things figured out where it wouldn’t disrupt friendships.

One night, after Marquette and Jalayne’s final choir concert of the semester, they went out to the car to go home and found Cameron waiting at the car with a rose for each of them. Cameron had gone to the campus rose garden before the concert to cut each a rose, but there had been people there and he felt funny about cutting a rose with other people watching, so he waited and waited until they left and got the roses…but by this point the concert was nearly done, so he just waited at the car. Cameron had really just wanted to bring Jalayne flowers, but he didn’t want Marquette to feel bad and he wasn’t ready to make that kind of gesture to Jalayne, so he got a flower for both girls. 

At that time Marquette was getting ready for graduation in May and making preparations to transfer up to Idaho to BYU-I for school the next semester. As that got closer and closer she began to feel really sad about the idea of not being around Cameron. She tried to brush the feelings aside, claiming at first that it was just because they were really good friends, but slowly she had to concede that she did indeed like Cameron. One night a friend came by and asked to talk to Marquette in private. She explained that she really liked Cameron and that she wanted to try to pursue that, but she knew that Cameron and I were good friends and that we hung out together all the time. “Is there anything between you two?” She asked. As much as she didn’t want to say it, Marquette replied, “No, he doesn’t like me. We’re not dating, we’re just friends. You go ahead!” She hated having to give that response. She liked him a lot, but that didn’t do her any good as she was positive that by this point Cameron really did like Jalayne, so she didn’t say anything at all. 

That last year at EAC Marquette was on the Student Council, and had talked Cameron into running for the following year’s student council. He won the election for his position, and so both Cameron and Marquette got to go to the post semester Student Council retreat for the outgoing and incoming council members. There were a few days between graduation and the retreat though, and most the college kids left town as soon as school was done, so Jalayne, Cameron, and Marquette spent a lot of time together. One day while Jalayne was at work Cameron and Marquette went and hung out in Home Depot and took goofy pictures for 2 hours. 

For one of the final pictures they were both on a riding lawn mower and Cameron put his arm around Marquette and panicked because he liked Jalayne and didn’t want Marquette to think he liked her. Still knowing Cameron didn’t like her, that one move gave Marquette a little bit of hope. 

Marquette was going home for the weekend in between school and the retreat and invited Cameron to come along. Feeling that it’d be awkward and give the wrong impression he declined…but Marquette’s family ended up convincing him to come. It was a fun but awkward weekend. In church Marquette’s cousin passed her a note that said “Mazie and I like Cameron and want him to stick around. You should do something about that.” The note was quickly crumpled with hopes that Cameron hadn’t seen…but Marquette hadn’t been fast enough, Cameron had read the note. Later Marquette’s Aunt pulled her aside as well and told her “I like this one. If you don’t do something to keep him in the family, I’ll do it for you.” Marquette kept trying to explain that they were just friends, but no one would listen.

Finally the time to head to the retreat arrived. Marquette was friends with all the girls she had served with, but she was closer friends with Cameron so they visited and played pranks and just did all their normal hanging out during the retreat on the ranch. The last night Cameron went out by the corrals to look at the stars and one of the girls in his council followed him out there. Marquette sat there fighting back feelings of jealousy and sadness that she was leaving Cameron behind in a few weeks so she would never get a chance with Cameron. Luckily for her though she was on the spring/summer track at BYU-I so she could leave Rexburg for the winter. The plan was to spend the off semesters at EA so that Marquette could be with friends and still take some classes. She knew that with that plan she’d be back and could see Cameron more, but she also knew that she’d just end up leaving to go back up to Rexburg after a few months and leaving everyone behind again. So, again, she didn’t say anything and tried to just act like everything was normal. 

Click here for Part 4