“Consequences?”
“I can tell you’re the type that gets attached. I don’t, but someone like you does. Just make sure that you’re one hundred percent sure you’re ready to give yourself completely,” she said. She grabbed her purse and pulled my arm. “Let’s stop at CVS before we go to the party. I need me some condoms.”
Aaron’s apartment was in an old complex that was a little run down and very dated. It was within minutes of Georgia State’s campus, which meant most of the people living there were college students who didn’t care about its shoddy appearance. There were probably twenty to thirty people squeezed into the small two-bedroom apartment that he shared with his roommate, Doug. Doug was Sidney’s latest conquest. Poor Doug didn’t stand a chance. I don’t know what Sidney’s secret was, but she could wrap any guy around her finger. And they fell hard for her instantly. She was always the one to break their hearts. She broke it off before too many strings were attached. I didn’t envy her for any of it.
It wasn’t a huge party; it was more of a gathering. A group of people sat around a large round table playing poker, others lingered in the kitchen drinking. The rest were spread out throughout the apartment talking and hanging out.
“Finn,” Aaron said to me as Sidney and I entered. “Glad you came.” He smiled. Aaron was cute even if I wasn’t into him.
“Thanks for inviting me,” I said.
“See you guys later. There’s Doug,” Sidney said and left us there alone.
“Do you want something to drink?” he asked me.
“Do you have Coke?”
“Uh yeah.” He ran his fingers through his unkempt hair and gave me a perplexed expression. “Look, if you want a beer, I’ve got beer.”
“I’m the designated driver tonight,” I said, jingling my keys. I placed them in my purse. I had volunteered to be the DD. There was no way I was going to have a repeat of the awful party I had gone to almost a year before where I was too drunk to drive home and almost got assaulted by slimy Dylan. If Jesse hadn’t come to rescue Meg and me, things would’ve turned for the worse.
“Oh.” He nodded. “Coke it is.” He handed me a cold can of Coke.
“Thanks.”
“Do you want to go outside?”
“Sure.” I followed him through his living room and to the glass sliding doors that led to the outside. He slid them open. His back yard was basically a concrete slab with a few lawn chairs and one tiny, beat-up grill. The view–was an ugly chain link fence that faced a retention pond and nothing else. His apartment complex was within the direct flight path of the airport. Planes flew in the sky constantly. It was hard to hear anything except the roaring jet engines overhead.
It was just him and me outside. We both sat down on the lawn chairs, sinking low to the ground. He drank his beer; I sipped my Coke.
“You look nice tonight,” he said.
I looked down at my blah outfit and then said, “Thanks.” I pictured Aaron’s dad telling him when he was growing up, “Compliment girls, son, because they like it.” I enjoyed getting compliments, but generic ones like that meant nothing to me.
“Are you going anywhere for spring break?” he asked.
An airplane flew over head. “To Florida,” I answered after it passed. Spending another activity-filled week in Florida didn’t sound appealing to me. I hoped my mom didn’t get the same bug to go out all the time, like she had before when I visited.
“That’s cool. I’m going back home, too,” he said. Then he did something I did not expect or ask for. He ran his fingers through my hair. “You’re hair is so soft. I love red hair,” he murmured. I shifted and moved my head away from his fingers trying to give him a subtle yet polite hint but he didn’t seem to be getting it. “I like you, Finn.”
Oh no. That was not what I wanted to hear. I didn’t want him to like me. I didn’t want anyone to like me. I tried to give a sympathetic expression before I turned him down, but he took it the wrong way. He read me all wrong. He leaned in and placed his lips on mine and began to kiss me. It was so unexpected, I didn’t have time to react, to move my face so his lips would smack my cheek or the air instead of my tightly closed lips. I could feel his tongue touching my lips. I quickly pulled away. “Aaron, no,” I said in the most gentle tone I could muster. He wasn’t a bag guy; he just didn’t know the first thing about me or women for that matter.
“Why?” he asked. “I thought you liked me, too.”
“My boyfriend and I broke up a few months ago. I’m still not over him.”
“I can help you get over him,” he said. I glared at him. “Sorry.”
“Can we just be friends?” I asked.
He twisted his lips and pouted. “Yeah. I guess.”
“You’re a nice guy, Aaron. I’m just not ready to date anyone yet,” I said. I didn’t tell him that I’d never want to date him. Rejecting him once was enough for the night.
“Kissing is not dating, Finn,” he teased. I rolled my eyes at him and then laughed because I knew he was joking. “Yes, we can be friends,” he said and smiled.
***
I went back to Florida for spring break. Thankfully, my mom didn’t take any days off of work, so my days were relatively peaceful and free of strenuous activity. I slept in, watched TV and worked on some projects that my professors had assigned to do over the break. That was what I wanted, an uneventful week.
The weeks passed so quickly. Before I knew it, finals week had arrived. The semester had flown by. Everyone was stressed out and studying–even Sidney. My grades were good, so the pressure of doing well on my finals wasn’t hanging over my head. Sidney’s preference for partying had gotten the best of her and put her in her present position–studying for hours on end and hoping to pass each exam with a decent grade or else she would end up on academic probation and have to attend summer school.
We had decided to share a dorm again the following year. She wasn’t difficult to live with and had become a good friend. I didn’t want to deal with the painful process of trying to acclimate to a new roommate’s habits and peculiarities. We had finally meshed.
Chapter 12
I lay on my bed with my headphones on listening to music. I still couldn’t bring myself to listen to jazz, but other music had found its way back in my life again. Sidney was sitting at the desk, typing like a maniac. She was on her sixth cup of coffee and was completely wired.
“Once I’m done with this paper, I’m through,” she said to me, speaking at a record rate. The caffeine had kicked in.
I pulled my ear phones off. “That’s your last exam?” I wish I were lucky enough to have a paper as an exam.
She nodded. “English Literature.”
“Oh. I still have a project presentation in my business class,” I said. “Which reminds me; I need to call my grandfather.” I had called him more than once in the last few weeks. He knew more than my professor did about running a business, and his advice for my business plan was really helpful. Plus, I just liked talking with him. I missed seeing him everyday.
“Have you practiced for it?” she asked.
“I don’t need to. We had to create a business. So I chose a diner. I just have to stand up in class and talk about it. It’ll be easy.” I shrugged.
“Better you than me.” The click, click, click sound of her fingers pressing against each key pervaded.
I picked up my phone and called him. “Grandpa,” I said, as I walked out the door. Even though I had to suffer through Sidney’s constant phone jabber, she couldn’t stand it when I talked on the phone while she tried to study.
“Finn.” He sounded really tired, almost exhausted.
“You okay?”
“Just really tired. What can I do for you?” He perked up a little.
I walked down the stairs
and pushed the door open to the outside. The campus was quiet. Everyone was in their dorm rooms studying. Everyone but me.
“I have my presentation tomorrow. Do you think there’s anything I left out that I need to add?” I had sent him a copy of my business plan in the mail. I tried to email it to him, but he said he needed to hold it in his hands in order to read it. Grandpa was seriously old school and refused to read anything electronic even though it cost me fifteen dollars to print it and ship it to him.
“It looked good to me. But what do I know. That professor of yours is the one with the high-falutin’ degree,” he said.
“I think you run circles around him, Grandpa.”
He chuckled. “We gonna see you soon?”
“In a few short weeks.” Sidney had invited me to go back with her to New Hampshire and stay for a couple of weeks once finals were over. I had never been anywhere north of South Carolina and was dying to see that part of the country. “I can’t wait,” I said, and I really meant it. I wanted to go back home–to Graceville.
“Well, good. Your Nana and I miss you.”
“Me, too,” I said. My phone started beeping. “Listen, I have to go. My battery is about to die. I’ll talk to you soon. Love you.”
“Right back at ya,” he said, and I hung up. I punched in my code and walked back up to my dorm room.
I lay down on the bed again and put my ear phones on, listening to music. Time passed, and I was about to go to sleep. My eyelids felt heavy.
“Finn,” Sidney said, waking me from my meditative state.
I flinched and said, “Yeah.”
“Take off your ear phones,” she ordered. I took them off and looked at her, waiting. She looked at her phone again. “Kaley just sent me a text.”
“That’s great.” I started to put my ear phones on again.
She huffed, “Don’t put those back on.” She took my headphones off of my ears. “We’re going to do something fun.” She gave me a devious expression.
I titled my head and arched an eyebrow. “Like?” I asked skeptically.
“Like swimming in the campus pool,” she said with a broad grin.
“The pool is closed,” I said. Harrison had an indoor swimming pool that I hadn’t used my entire semester there.
“Kaley has a key,” she said.
“How?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’ve got one more sentence to type, and then we’re going.” Each of Sidney’s fingers quickly tapped on the keyboard. She pushed the print button and gathered the paper from the printer, placing it in a nice, neat stack. She stapled the pieces of paper together and laid it down on the desk. “There. All finished.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Let’s go.”
I didn’t think it could do any harm to jump in a pool. It did sound like fun, and it couldn’t be trespassing if Kaley had a key–or at least that’s how I rationalized it. It wasn’t breaking in if she had a key. The crazy notions people will come up with to justify their illicit activities. We dressed into our swimming suits and put shorts and t-shirts on over them, grabbed some towels and headed out the door.
Several girls were already swimming in the pool when we arrived. Kaley told her friend who had told another friend, who then told her friend, who told that friend. By the time it was all said and done, there were over thirty girls either in or around the swimming pool.
I looked around nervously. “Sidney, we’re going to get caught. There are many people here.” I felt like I was all talk and no game.
“Please, Finn. Like campus security would ever figure out we’re here. They’re too busy watching sports and eating doughnuts,” she quipped and stripped down to her bathing suit. She jumped into the pool. Water splashed everywhere. “It’s cold!” she shouted. “Quit being a wussy,” she barked at me.
I took off my clothes–the skimpy bikini Meg had loaned me the summer before was on underneath–and walked slowly into the pool. The water was cold. Ice cold. My teeth chattered. “It’s cold.”
“Move around. You’ll warm up.” She swam away from me toward the group of girls.
I stood in the pool shivering. I looked at all the girls swimming, splashing each other. Some were drinking alcohol. Others were bouncing an inflated beach ball back and forth to each other. Someone had brought a CD player. The volume was turned up, blasting loud rock music.
At the far end of the pool was a diving board and a high dive. It had been a long time since I had dived off of a high diving board. The last time was with Jesse–he was the one who had taught me how to dive. The last time we had gone swimming was at the end of summer when I had decided to stay in Graceville. I swept that memory to the side and thought to myself–now is as good a time as any. I got out of the pool and walked to the deep end and climbed up the steps to the high dive.
“Look, she’s gonna dive!” a girl shouted.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!” they chanted in unison, pounding their fists against the surface of the chlorinated water. With that type of pressure, I couldn’t go back. I continued up the steps and got to the top of the board. Most of them peered up in my direction.
“Show us your best kick-ass dive!” Sidney shouted.
I raised my arms above my head and clasped my hands together and dove forward, deep into the water. I came up from the depths of the pool and saw huge grins on on the thirty-plus faces. They clapped simultaneously and shouted “Woo hooo!” I bowed and smiled.
“Again!” they shouted.
And that’s what I did. I got on the high dive and did it again and again and again. After a few hours, campus security came in and threatened to expel us all if we didn’t vacate the premises immediately. We ran out of there as fast as we could. Sopping wet and still in our swim suits, Sidney and I ran across the lawn in the middle of the night trying to elude campus security. We laughed the entire way to the dorm room.
“That was so much fun,” I said to her when we reached our room.
“Oh my gosh, it so was. Stick with me and you’ll always have fun. I know things, know what I mean?” she said and raised her eyebrows up and down. “I’m taking a shower.”
“Okay.” I put on my oversized fuzzy robe that my mom had bought me for Christmas and crashed on the bed, not waking up until late the next morning.
***
“Finn! Oh my frickin’ god, wake up!” Sidney shouted.
I sat up. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes were wide. She gave me a frantic look. “We slept in! I have to turn this paper in or I’m toast. You have a presentation to do, don’t you?” She was still shouting.
I looked at the alarm clock. Ten a.m. My class had been in session for thirty minutes. I only had thirty more minutes left of class before it ended. No presentation meant NO final exam grade which meant a big, fat “F.”
“I forgot to set the alarm clock!” I leapt out of bed and quickly put on a pair of jeans, t-shirt and tennis shoes. My hair was a complete wreck. I pulled it back into a pony tail and put on a baseball cap. Hopefully Dr. Norton, my professor, wasn’t grading my presentation on appearance alone.
We ran out of the room and flew across the campus. I reached my classroom in record time. I had fifteen minutes left of class. I opened the door and everyone looked at me. So much for trying to sneak in.
Dr. Norton pursed his lips and shook his head. “Miss Hemmings, nice of you to grace us with your presence.” He looked at his watch and then back at me. “You’re up,” he said.
He was baiting me. But I wasn’t worried. Talking about running a diner was as easy as breathing. I could’ve stood up there for hours, but I only had five minutes to get my points across.
When the assignment had been given, a lot of the other girls in class were panicking, worried about having to come up with a business plan. After working with
my grandfather at the diner and seeing how he ran things, I felt pretty confident in coming up with a business plan for running a diner. Plus, having his advice throughout the project made it all the easier. Running a Business the Right Way had turned out to be my favorite class of the semester. I didn’t know for sure, but I was thinking that business may be my choice of major after all.
“That was a good presentation. You know a lot about the restaurant industry and show a strong head for business. Next time, dress more professionally for a presentation. This would never cut it in the business world,” Dr. Norton said to me when class was finished.
I received an “A” which meant I would keep my scholarship. Whew. That was a relief. Not that I was anticipating a bad grade; it just reassured me that I could keep going to Harrison. All I had needed to keep the scholarship was a 3.0 GPA, and I was pretty confident that mine was at a 4.0. I wouldn’t know until final grades were posted, but I had a feeling that I had done well on all of my exams.
I stopped to get a cup of coffee and strolled back toward my dorm room. I was on cloud nine. One semester down and seven more to go. The sun was shining bright. It had just rained, and the grass was still wet.
I should’ve realized that it was strange to see them on campus standing in front of my dorm building. I should’ve noticed their grim expressions and their stiff body language. But I wasn’t that perceptive. All I could think was “It’s him. He’s here, and now I can’t breathe or think straight.”
Chapter 13
He spoke first. I just stood there gawking at him like an idiot. Seeing him after all that time was heartbreakingly painful. I knew I missed him. But seeing him for the first time in months affirmed that. I missed him. I missed our talks. I missed that feeling of being so incredibly comfortable around him–how I could really be myself. No one knew me as well as Jesse. No one.
Distance in time meant nothing. He would always hold a special place in my heart. He looked older, more mature, and maybe even more handsome, if that were possible. His dark wavy hair was cut short and cropped closely to his head. It looked good on him. I wanted to reach out to touch him, to see if he was real or if he was some mirage. Was I that tired? I had gotten four hours of sleep. That was enough. No one starts to have hallucinations from not getting their required seven hours of REM.
The Year I Almost Drowned Page 12
