Gretchen. Oh God, Thomas thought to himself. How many times had he punched some boy or put a brazen loudmouth in their place over that name? They had been friends ever since he shoved David Anley's face into the sand for pushing her and calling her name stupid. It was like a curse and a blessing. It brought them together, but forever cast him in the role of her protector anytime someone decided to mess with her.
That responsibility wasn't helped by her personality or the fact that she had grown into a once-in-a-lifetime beauty. She was, to put it mildly, difficult. Gretchen operated on her own time zone. Seriously. "Gretchen Time," she called it. A time zone that centered entirely around her and extended outward to any environment she directly or indirectly influenced. It worked in her favor almost entirely, except for "Gretchen Savings Time," a single day each year where she would tell the world to screw off, except for Thomas.
That day, she said, was like a second birthday for him. She had decided, somewhere along the way, that if she was destined to rule the world, she might as well start observing the inevitable holiday that would one day be his day. Of course, it was still called Gretchen Savings Time, named after her, naturally, and she insisted that was a mark of her benevolence.
As you might guess, a girl like that, beauty or not, had no other close friends. She had an obvious disadvantage in dealing with any authority figure, whether a teacher, a parent, or even the occasional patrol officer.
So the question Thomas was always asked, mostly by his male friends, was obvious: Did he have a crush on her? Because why else would anyone put up with her?
He put up with her, honestly, because her attitude had never really bothered him. Once you got past the "Gretchen" antics, she was a creative tomboy, always ready to leap off cliffs, both literal and metaphorical, with him. He never really thought of her as a girl in that way. So his answer to whether he had a crush on her was always no.
Was.
That changed when they moved in together in their twenties.
Their youth had been a wild ride. Life with Gretchen was chaotic, often exhausting, and occasionally miraculous. Just surviving high school together with bodies and minds intact felt like a feat worthy of epic poetry. His father often joked that if Thomas ever became a successful writer, it would be because he finally sat down to write The Adventures of Gretchen and I.
After high school, they went their separate ways for college. He attended a modest state university, earning two degrees: a B.A. in Literary English with an emphasis on modern folk storytelling, and a Master's in Film. Yes, he knew. It sounded like a waste of a Master's degree. But it meant classrooms full of fellow cinephiles, plenty of alcohol, Twizzlers, and some genuinely fun times. Sheila alone made that phase of life memorable.
Gretchen, of course, was valedictorian. Everyone assumed she came from money, and with good reason. Without it, she likely wouldn't have survived her own chaos. She got into her dream Ivy League school, the very one she had scrapbooked about at age four when she wrote her "Life Plan." Yes, believe it or not, that plan included a boy-shaped cutout labeled "future best friend," which, as of now, featured a third-grade yearbook photo of Thomas.
As far as he knew, Gretchen's life plan was on track. They had lost touch toward the end of their undergraduate years. She had gone deep into biophysics and engineering, while Thomas had been watching 1980s Brat Pack films with friends pretending they were MST3K.
Needless to say, "The Adventures of Gretchen and I" days had come to a close.
Thomas graduated, got his Master's, moved to LA, and lived like a pauper until he caught a lucky break. He landed a solid writing gig for a syndicated sitcom. It hadn't just fallen into his lap. He had written spec scripts, doctored a few pre-production episodes, and worked tirelessly. It was a reward well earned.
Which, of course, meant karma had to strike. He caught Sheila, whale-tailed Sheila as his friends mockingly called her, sleeping with a wannabe thespian, from her local theater troupe.
And just like that, the Sheila era was over.
So what does any of this have to do with developing a crush on Gretchen?
Well, just as life began to stabilize after the She-Monster incident, there was a knock at Thomas's door.
It was Gretchen. She was disheveled, frazzled, with what looked like all her worldly possessions piled behind her in the hallway.
He had never seen her like that before.
She needed a place to stay. And just like that, Thomas stepped back into the Gretchen Time Zone.
Soon after, he realized a lot had changed.
Including his feelings for her.
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