Explanations

Before answering Matt’s text on Saturday, I knew I needed to talk to one of the girls to see if they had any words of wisdom for me. I was like the little sister of the group with zero dating knowledge. Okay, maybe not zero, but pretty close. I had always focused on school and track, so I didn’t really have time for dating. I had the odd boyfriend in high school and summer flings, but never anything long term or serious. Maddi had been dating her boyfriend for a while now, Elena had just gotten married. (Yes, married!), and Aleah was hardly ever single. In fact, we kind of made a deal over summer to help her enjoy some time to herself and be single so she agreed to not date anyone until coming back to school. She also had some family stuff going on in her life recently so I made the suggestion so she could invest her time and energy in herself and her family. Regardless, they all had more experience in the dating game than I did so I thought it would be best to talk to one of them before deciding on anything.

I walked into the apartment on Saturday night, Matt’s text still sitting open on my phone. I could tell by how dark and quiet the apartment was that no one else was home. I decided to call Elena; after all, she was married so I figured she would have some good insight. I also missed her a lot and hadn’t really had a chance to talk to her in a while.

“Hello?” She answered cheerfully after a few rings.

“Hey pretty lady! How’s married life?” I asked.

We chatted for a little bit and caught up before I told her everything about Matt, including our date and the text he had just sent.

“Wait” she said. “He’s your TA?” She sounded pretty surprised.

“Yeah, he’s young though, and I don’t know what the rules are around that so I’m keeping everything low key until I figure all this out. I don’t want the guy losing his job or anything; he transferred out of state for it.”

“Hmmm. That’s not like you Sar” She said back.

“I knowwww” I whined. “Ugh, I don’t know what to do.”

“Okay, do you want my honest opinion?”

“Of course!”

“I think you should hear him out. In the years that I have known you, I have never heard you talk about a guy the way you talk about him. If he’s distracting you that much, then there are obviously some feelings there that you should explore.”

I thought about what she said, and she was right. Maybe I was overthinking everything and there was a simple explanation for the other night.

“You’re right. I’ll tell him that we can meet up and talk.” I said.

We chit chatted a bit more before saying goodbye, and promising to plan a girls night with all of us the following week.

After hanging up I pulled up Matt’s text and typed my reply.

You’re not an ass, but yes we can do a re do J When were you thinking?

His reply came within a few minutes.

Brunch tomorrow?

My Sunday was wide open so I figured it would be good timing. We decided on a time and place to meet and with that, I flopped onto my bed and slept right through the entire night.

 The next morning I took my time showering and getting ready before heading out to meet Matt for brunch. We met at my favourite place to go for breakfast and when I got there, Matt was already sitting at a booth with 2 cups of coffee sitting in front of him. He didn’t look like he had the first few times I had seen him. He had slight stubble growing in and bags under his eyes – he looked like he hadn’t slept in days; however, when he saw me walking towards the table he immediately smiled and his eyes brightened.

“Hey!” He said cheerfully, as I slid into the booth. “I ordered you a coffee”

“Thanks!” I said with a smile and started looking over the menu, which was pointless because I got the same thing every time I went. My go to breakfast was called the Sunrise Special. It was a crepe stuffed with egg, grilled ham, and cheddar cheese that was rolled up in the crepe and grilled to make a panini. It was a panini crepe, and probably the best thing in the world.

After ordering and making some small talk, I could tell Matt was nervous about bringing up the other night so I decided to just go for it.

“So, how’s the truck?” I asked anxiously.

“Oh you know, couple grand in damages, could be worse…” He said back.

I couldn’t tell if this was his way of making light of the situation or if he was just one of those people who didn’t hold onto grudges. Judging by how angry he was on Friday though, I don’t think it was the latter.

“I know I owe you an explanation. I’m sorry for just closing off from you the other night, my adrenaline was going and I was pissed about my truck…”

I nodded “Rightfully so.”

He sighed heavily before continuing “I don’t usually talk about my upbringing to people so it’s hard for me...”

Just then our breaky arrived but I was too nervous for what he was going to tell me to even enjoy my food. (Okay let’s be honest, I still devoured it and loved it, but my stomach was doing flips)

In between bites he took my hand, which surprised me, and look at me with so much sincerity. “There is something different about you. Something that makes me feel comfortable. The fact that you agreed to hear me out after Friday night shows you don’t judge a book by its cover. Even some of my closest friends don’t know much about my background and I like to keep it that way.”

I nodded as I continued eating. Shoveling food into my mouth was the only thing preventing me from asking a million questions. Patience, Sarah, he’s getting to it I thought.

What kind of background could he have that made him so closed off from even his friends? Was he in the mafia or murdered his entire family?! I started panicking with the thoughts inside my head.

“I had a really shitty childhood” He blurted out while staring down at his plate. It was if he wanted to tell me everything but couldn’t look at me in the eyes. He took my silence as a cue to carry on.

“I never knew my father. I don’t think my mom even knows who my dad is. She spent the majority of my childhood sleeping with different guys she would meet at the pub in our town before finally settling down with a fucking lowlife I now get to call my step father. She’s struggled with addictions her whole life. I don’t know why, she had a great family and came from a very privileged background but at some point just strayed down a wrong path. My grandparents were great to me and tried stepping in multiple times to take my brother and me away from my mom, but she wouldn’t allow it. She would beg them for money, saying that we needed food and clothes, but whenever they gave her any she would immediately spend it on booze or whatever the drug of the week was at the time. They caught on to what she was doing and cut her off. That’s when they tried taking custody of us, and things got messy.”

I was so entranced in what he was saying that I had stopped eating and was just staring at him. At this point, the waitress had walked by a few times, but she could obviously tell it was an intense conversation because she hadn’t interrupted us once which I was grateful for.

“Anyways, right after my mom married my step dad, my grandparents refused to let us live in that house. They knew that my mom and James would use together, drink together, forget we were even there, and have all night benders with the rest of their junkie friends. I even saw one of their friends almost die of an overdose right in our living room. So, it ended up going to court and my grandparents were granted full custody of us when I was 14. Once I moved in with them, everything started looking up. We felt love, we got cared for, proper meals, help with our homework, basically everything that a normal child gets from their parents. My grandparents were absolutely wonderful and I don’t know where I would be today if it wasn’t for them…” He said with a sigh and looked me in the eyes finally.

“Matt, I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I can’t believe you turned out so well put together after all that.” I said as I looked empathetically at him. Something still didn’t make sense though. “I’m confused though, what does that have to do with your truck the other night?” I asked

“Well, my grandparents died about 2 years ago, within 4 months of each other. Because my mom was an only child and they had no relationship with her after they took custody of us, they left everything in their will to me and my brother. Since they also paid for both of our schooling, neither of us have any debt so we have just saved and invested the money.”

“Anyways, once they died, my mother started trying to contact me, so did James. She was furious, and thought that we owed it to her to give her the hefty inheritance they left us. As much as I would love to see her get better, I know she won’t. They’re both still major junkies, I’m surprised neither of them has dropped dead to be honest. About 8 months ago, James started threatening me and my brother, saying he would arrange to have someone “take us out” if we didn’t help them out. That’s when I decided to take the TA job here and get as far away from them as possible.”

Things started to make a lot more sense now. No wonder he didn’t talk about himself much on our date. I started feeling a great deal of sadness for him and what he went through growing up.

“So, James? Was he the one who trashed your truck?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess he found out where I am living now. I dunno if he’s just trying to scare me or what. I’ve had it though. I had to deal with enough of their shit growing up and I just want to move on, you know?”

I nodded back to him and reached out to touch his hand. “Thank you for explaining. You didn’t need to tell me everything but I appreciate that you did and that your comfortable talking to me” I smiled at him. This was a lot to take in. Was I putting myself at risk by hanging out with Matt? Even though there were a million thoughts going through my mind, I also couldn’t help but notice that there was still a flutter in my tummy when I touched his hand.

It was as if he was reading my mind as I was contemplating what to do “So, did I scare you off for good or do you think you could put up with me long enough for me to take you on a proper re do date?” he asked me with a weak smile.

There were so many reasons to not give this a try and just walk away. It would be easier and probably safer but I needed to stop over thinking things and just go with my gut. And my gut was telling me there was something here.

I gave him a big smile and answered, “I would love to.”

Silver Linings

**Bonus post!**

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me” Matt mumbled under his breath.

We had just left the pub and realized someone had trashed his truck.

“I can’t believe someone did this!” I exclaimed. “Do you want me to go with you to file a police report?”

“No.” He said flatly.

“Don’t you think it’s better to have 2 people as witnesses to the damage instead of one? It might be better for insurance reasons and filing a report…” I said back. I couldn’t believe that no one saw what happened or tried to stop it, I mean who just trashes a random person’s truck?!

Although, there are a lot of high schools in the area so it could have been some kids thinking that vandalism is a good way to pass the time.

“I mean I don’t need to file a police report” He said while angrily walking around the truck to assess the rest of the damage.

“Wait, what do you mean you don’t need to file a report? Of course you do! I’m sure your insurance company will require that and how could you not…”

Matt cut me off. “I’m not filing one because I know who did it.” He started walking towards the driver door “Come on, I should get you home.”

I didn’t know what to say – we had just met each other so I didn’t want to pry into something that was obviously personal, but I also wanted to know what the hell was going on.

I got into the truck and looked over at him. His previously friendly eyes were icy now and his mouth was so tight I could see his jaw bone shaking. He put the truck in drive and sped out of the parking lot.

“Matt, who would do this to you? You just moved here, I don’t get it…”

“Look Sarah, we just met and you seem like a really great girl so I don’t want to drag you into something stupid, can we just drop it?” He said coldly, while still speeding.

I started going over various situations in my head that could explain what happened. It didn’t make any sense to me. Matt seemed like such a down to earth guy and had only been living here a couple of weeks so I had no idea why someone would go after him like that. I didn’t even realize we were back at my apartment until the closing of Matt’s truck door snapped me out of it.

He opened my door and walked me to the front of my apartment building.

“Umm, well thanks again for dinner. If you want to talk or if I can help with anything, just call me okay?”

He nodded and forced a small smile. “Thanks”

I turned to go inside when he gently grabbed my wrist. “I’m really sorry about tonight…” he said softly.

“It’s not your fault. I’d be pretty ticked too if someone did that to my car” I said while nodding and trying to understand what happened still.

He gave me a deep hug goodbye and it was if I could feel his tension and anger. I just wanted to help him or have him talk to me but knew that the night was over and it was best not to push anything with him this worked up.

After he left, I walked up to my apartment, cleaned my face, brushed my teeth and flopped onto my bed. Usually my mind would run rampant after something like that, causing me to toss and turn for hours but for some reason, I fell asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The next day was my dinner with Chloe so I was looking forward to having some catch up time with her. I also knew that having a good girl chat about my date with Matt would be helpful.

At 6:20 I heard the buzzer and ran over to let her in.

“Hey hey!” She sang as she came into the apartment.

I smiled at how she was always able to make everyone else feel as positive as her.

“Hey! I’m just about ready why don’t you grab 2 glasses of wine for us?” I shouted from inside the bathroom as I finished up straightening my hair.

“You mean a glass for me and a red solo cup for you?” She said teasingly with a grin.

“Oh shush! I’m quite capable of drinking from a GLASS and not breaking it” I mused back.

She just rolled her eyes with a smile “Whatever you say!”

We got to the tapas place a little after 7 and had to wait another 10 minutes before getting a table.

Once we were seated and each of us had a drink, we started talking about what we did over the summer and caught each other up on everything going on. I knew I shouldn’t have talked about going out with Matt since Chloe is on the track team too, and I didn’t want any gossip going around, (especially with Matt being a TA) but I knew that I could trust Chloe with my whole heart. It was also kind of hard to avoid talking about him since she brought him up anyways.

“So, did you notice that new hottie on the track team? He looks like some sort of Greek god. I mean he’s perfectly tanned and has movie star teeth!” Chloe gushed.

I blushed. “Ya, his name’s Matt. I, uh, actually went out with him last night…” I said while sipping my white wine.

“What?! And you’re waiting until now to tell be because?!” Chloe yelled. I’m pretty sure we got a dirty look from the older couple at the table next to us.

“Well it was kind of weird. He’s a TA for my social psych class too so I don’t really want anyone knowing we’re hanging out. Or hung out. Whatever it was.”

She held up her hand "Scouts honor! But what do you mean it was weird? Did you guys hook up?!” She asked excitedly.

I laughed a little “No! Come on Chlo you know me better than that anyways.” I continued on and told her about our whole night including the truck incident. When I finally looked up Chloe looked surprised and intrigued all at the same time.

“Crazy ex! That’s gotta be the only explanation. It’s totally something a psycho ex would do. Think about it, Sarah. She probably saw him out with another girl and went bat shit crazy” She said with confidence.

“I thought of that, but I get the feeling it’s not an ex” I replied. “He’s only been living here a few weeks, so that’s not long enough to have an ex.”

“She could be from wherever he lived before; did he mention anything that would give you a hint about it during dinner?” Chloe asked.

As I thought back to our conversation that night, I tried to think of any clues he would have given away but nothing came to mind.

“No, nothing. He was so angry after it happened though, and he doesn’t seem like the type to get that furious towards an ex-girlfriend. I think it was bigger than that but I don’t know for sure because we didn’t really talk after. He just dropped me off...” I said quietly.

“Where did he transfer from? Maybe we can cyber stalk him and see what’s up!” Chloe suggested.

I went to open my mouth to answer but closed it when I realized I didn’t have the answer to her question. I had no idea where he transferred from or what school he went to, where he was from, or anything about his family. He had spent most of the time asking about me and my background, that I realized I literally knew nothing about him.

“I…I don’t know. We spent most of the night talking about me and my background. It was so comfortable talking to him that I didn’t even realize he didn’t talk about himself once.” I said.

“Hmm, that is kind of odd. But maybe he was just trying to get to know you better and be polite?” She suggested with a smile. Oh gotta love ya Chloe, always looking for the silver lining and giving people the benefit of the doubt.

“Ya, maybe” I smiled back and changed the subject to our upcoming meet.

Chloe and I spent the rest of the night eating, drinking, and chatting about our summers and the school year ahead. Before we realized, it was already 11 and we headed home.

As I was walking back to my apartment, I kept thinking of the night before and how after talking about it with Chloe, I just got a weird feeling from everything. The fact that we only talked about me and he didn’t share anything about himself made me re think things. And then the truck incident. He refused to file a police report and said he knew who did it, yet he wouldn’t say anything else and said he “didn’t want to drag me into something”.

I was having a mental debate to myself. If Chloe was right and it was some sort of ex-girlfriend situation, I knew it was something I did not want to be involved in. Messy breakup with a crazy ex? No thank you. I know it would be easy enough to just cut ties since we only hung out the one time and is it really a good idea to start things up with a guy who has someone after them like that?

On the other hand, there was something about Matt that pulled me towards him. Despite the weird feeling about him not talking about himself and the whole truck thing, my gut was telling me he was different.

Ugh, why do I always over think everything?! I thought, as I was walking into my building.

Should I give him the benefit of the doubt and go with my gut? Or just take the easy route, call it a bad date, and keep our interaction to school and track?

Just as I got onto the floor for our apartment my phone vibrated with a text.

I pulled it out of my purse and saw it was from Matt.

I’m sorry again for last night. I feel like such an ass. Can I make it up to you? I need to explain some things…

New friends, new enemies?

After my conversation with Matt on Thursday, my mind was pretty clouded and the rest of the day went by fairly quickly. I have never had a guy instantly consume all my thoughts, and as hard as I tried to concentrate on other things, it just wasn’t happening. It was actually annoying me how much he had taken over my mind after meeting him only one time. I was always able to shake off distractions and focus on classes, but there was something different about him.

By the end of my last class, I was ready for a night of binge watching The Mindy Project on Netflix and a glass of red wine to unwind. I knew Aleah was working at the Racquet Club, Maddie was out with her boyfriend, and Nellie had evening class so I was looking forward to having the apartment to myself. Being the classy lady that I am, I twisted off the cap of my $8 bottle of wine and poured it into a plastic cup before plunking my butt on the couch for my TV marathon.  For the record, it’s not that we don’t have proper wine glasses; it’s just that I have a tendency to break glasses. It’s become kind of a running joke in our group, and so for part of my birthday gift last year, Elena got me a Costco sized bag of plastic cups so I wouldn’t keep breaking ours.

After about 6 episodes, I decided to call it a night and headed off to bed. I woke up the next morning around 9:30 and went for a quick run before our first track meet at 11. I knew if I just sat around the apartment until the meeting I would just obsess over running into Matt there so I figured some fresh air would do me some good.

After a solid 40 minute run, I hopped in the shower. The hot water felt amazing so I just stood there enjoying the bliss for a few moments before getting out and putting myself together. I quickly made a coffee in my to-go mug and darted out the door.

I got to the Athletic Centre about 2 minutes before the meeting was about to start when I heard someone calling my name. “Sarah!!!!” I heard a familiar voice yell from across the room. I looked over and spotted my good friend Chloe, who also throws discus for the team. I scurried over to her and gave her a big hug.

“Heyyyy! Long time! How was your summer?!” I asked excitedly.

“Oh the usual, but I missed you! Wanna do dinner tomorrow night to catch up? We can try that new tapas place. Apparently it’s really good and a lot of students go so it must be fairly cheap” she said with a laugh. Chloe always radiated positive energy, which is why I loved hanging out with her so much. I’m a firm believer that we feed off of the energy of others.

“Sounds great! I’m not working so that works perfectly” I whispered back just as the athletic director stood at the front to start the meeting. Chloe was my closest friend on the track team. She was a bit shorter than me with long dark hair, bright green eyes, and olive skin. Everyone on the team said she looked like Sarah Hyland from Modern Family, even though she would just laugh and say “I wish!” when people told her that.  She was one of those girls who could make anyone feel better even on their worst days.

I did a quick scan of the room and saw Matt standing at the back with his arms folded over his chest. The second I saw him, my heart started beating fast and my stomach was in a knot. God, his body was perfect. He had just the right amount of muscle and a golden tan that made him look like he could have been a model for a cologne ad. He must have noticed me staring because he made eye contact with me and gave me a friendly smile. I smiled back, turned around, and tried to focus on the meeting for the remainder of the time. 

The meeting went on for about 40 minutes and just went over the standard start of the year stuff. I didn’t have class until 2 pm, so I wanted to head to the grocery store to grab a few things since our food situation was looking pretty sad at the apartment.

“Hey, why don’t you come by my place around 6:30 tomorrow and we can have a drink then head over to the restaurant together?” I asked Chloe just as we gathered our things.

“Perfect! Gotta go to class I’ll text you when I’m on my way!” She said over her shoulder as she hurried out of the room.

I bent down to grab my bag from under my seat and when I stood up, Matt was standing right in front of me.

“Jesus!” I said surprised.

“Sorry” he giggled. “Am I that scary?” He asked wryly.

I blushed as soon as he smiled. “Not at all! I’m probably just jumpy from drinking a big coffee on an empty stomach”

“I know the feeling” he said back while grabbing his stomach.

“So, how are you finding your first week here” I asked awkwardly trying to make conversation and not stare like a complete idiot.

“It’s been good. Busy, but good. I’ve been so focused with trying to get myself organized with my TA job that I haven’t really had any time to get to know the campus or the city” His eyes were so intense as he spoke.

“Yeah, that makes sense. I know moving to a new city is hard, especially when you don’t know anyone” I said while nodding.

“Hey, do you know of any good Irish pubs? I’ve been dying for a Guinness and a good meal since I got here!”

I laughed as I said, “Funny that you’re craving that, there’s actually a great Irish pub about 15 minutes away called Guinness. Hands down best nachos and fish and chips I have ever had.”

I wasn’t sure if he was looking for an invitation or just a suggestion. He was hard to read. While his winks and smiles certainly seemed flirty, he could just be looking for a friend since he didn’t know anyone yet. Also, with him being a TA, I’m sure there are rules against dating students.

He laughed at the irony as well. “Well isn’t that just too perfect! Thanks for the suggestion”

“Anytime” I said back with a smile. “I gotta run some errands before my next class, so I guess I will see you in social psych on Monday?”

“You bet!”

I went to turn around to head out of the room when Matt started talking again.

“You know….a beer is never the same when you’re drinking it by yourself and since you rave about the food, why don’t you come with?” He looked kind of uncomfortable as he was asking me. How could a guy that looks like him possibly be shy around girls?  I thought to myself. I didn’t want to look like a loser for not having any plans for a Friday night, but I also didn’t want to miss out on hanging out with Matt outside of school.

“Umm, sure I don’t think I have anything going on tonight. Do you want to meet there around 7?”

“7 is great! But don’t be silly, I’ll pick you up. No sense in taking two cars. Plus then you can be my co pilot and direct me there” He said with a wink. He needs to stop winking at me or else me knees are going to give out.

I giggled “Okay that works! I’ll text you my address”

After we exchanged numbers, we said our goodbyes and parted. I left the meeting feeling like a giddy school girl. I knew it was very possible he was just looking for some company, but I still couldn’t help feeling overly excited for our get together.

After my last class, I raced home to get ready for my dinner with Matt. As soon as I got to the apartment I went into the bathroom to turn my straightener on while I chose something to wear. I stood looking at my bursting closet trying to think of something that would look good without looking like I put any thought into it. I settled on black skinny jeans (Okay, they’re jeggings don’t judge) with a flowy pink chiffon blouse. I had texted Matt my address about an hour ago and knew that I had about 40 minutes before he would be picking me up. I did a brief touch up on my make up and ran my straightener through my hair so it didn’t look like a rats nest. Sometimes I contemplated chopping it all off so there was no maintenance, but at the end of the day, I really do love having long hair and I would hate myself if I cut it all off.

At about 5 minutes to 7, I heard the buzzer to my apartment. I did one more quick look over in the mirror before grabbing my clutch and heading out the door.

We made small talk on our way to the pub which wasn’t too far from campus. The reason I liked Guinness is that it had great food and drinks, but also the crowd was so diverse I found it pretty interesting to people watch there. It always had a mixture of college students, young professionals, sports fans, and even an older crowd.

It was fairly busy when we got there but Matt managed to spot an open high top table near the bar. We made our way over and settled in before a peppy waitress approached our table.

“Hey guys! Can I grab some ID off ya while you look at the menu?” She smiled and waited for us to give her our licences.

She glanced at them for about a millisecond before handing them back. I’m pretty sure 90% of the time waitresses don’t even look at the date and just do the check to make sure you have it to cover their ass.

Matt ordered a Guinness while I opted for a vodka and cranberry juice.

“So tell me about yourself Sarah” Matt said while taking a sip of his beer.

I wasn’t crazy about that question because I never knew where to start, so I briefly told Matt about my family, what it was like growing up in Michigan, how I got into track and how I met the girls I lived with. Conversation flower easily throughout dinner, and Matt seemed so genuinely interested in everything I said. I don’t think I had ever been out with a guy who didn’t glance over at the TV screen multiple times or check out the waitress. It was refreshing, and he made me feel like I was the only person in the room.

It was already 11 when we figured that we should each be heading home so Matt asked the waitress for our bill when she walked by.

After she set it in the middle of the table, I went to reach for my clutch to put some cash down but before I could even undo the zipper Matt said “Don’t even think about it” while he put down his card.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

When we got out of our stools to leave, Matt guided me to the door of the pub with his hand on the small of my back. I could smell his cologne from him standing so close to me and I could feel those butterflies in my stomach again.

We were just getting into the parking lot when I said “I had a really great time ton-…”

I didn’t finish what I was saying because when I looked up at Matt, his eyes were focused straight ahead with a look of shock on his face.

His truck had been completely trashed. The windshield had a crack right through it. There were dents all over the body of it and the passenger side mirror was hanging by 2 wires.

“Oh my god” I said.

As we got closer, I noticed whoever had done it had also spray painted the side with just 2 words

“WATCH OUT”

Back to School

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to give a brief intro before the first post is up. This will be a fictional “sister” blog to “Life by Aleah”. It will be written from Sarah’s point of view (Aleah’s BFF and college roomie). There will be some crossover in the story lines since Aleah and Sarah are roommates still. I am planning on having a regular posting schedule on Wednesdays after this and if things go well, I will bump it up to Wednesdays and Fridays. This first one is going to be kind of a long one because I want to get some background information on Sarah into the storyline

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section! J

Back to School

I woke up to the sound of my phone alarm blaring One Republik’s “Love Runs Out” way too early for what I was used to over the summer but September meant back to classes, back to reality. I needed to make a point of telling Tom (my boss at the restaurant I was serving at) about my school schedule so he doesn’t put me on any closing or late shifts. Without opening my eyes, I patted my hand around my nightstand until I found my phone to silence the alarm. I quickly scanned to see if I had any texts or emails, but with it being 6 am I wasn’t surprised to see the background wallpaper of my family’s German Shepherd staring back at me with no notifications on the screen. 

As I was looking through my closet for something quick to change into before class, I heard Aleah (my roommate and best friend) stir in her bed and hoped that I hadn’t waken her with my alarm, then again, that girl sleeps like a rock. Aleah was never a morning person, so whenever I had early class (which I tended to always have because I liked starting earlier in the day and finishing earlier) I tried to be as quiet as possible just as a courtesy because she always does the same if she comes in and I’m asleep.

As far as college living situations go, I’d say mine is pretty great. In our apartment, Aleah and I share one bedroom, and our other friend Maddie shares a bedroom with a new house mate, Nellie, who was a neighbor to us last year.  Ohhhh, Nellie. It’s not that we disliked her, she was just a bit awkward and I think it would all take adjusting for us to get used to our other friend of the group, Elena, living with her new hubbie instead of us.

I quickly grabbed a pair of black leggings and an oversized U of N track and field hoodie and headed to the bathroom to change. I personally have never understood the girls who are able to look like they are about to walk down the runway of a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show for an 8 am class. I mean, all the power to them but I would just rather spend that time sleeping an extra half hour or getting a quick workout in before class. Me and the girls like to joke around that those types are just here for their “M.R.S Degree” but I supposed they could just believe in the idea that “if you look better, you feel better”.

After a quick workout and shower, I headed over to the sciences building for my first class – advanced social psychology. I grabbed a seat a few rows back from where the instructor would stand and opened up my MacBook. While waiting for the others and the prof to arrive, I mindlessly scrolled through Pinterest before making my way over to Facebook. I had a little notification in the top right hand corner telling me I had a private message. I clicked on the notification and opened up the message, smiling immediately when I saw who it was from. Katelyn, my bestie from my hometown sent me an old video she had found of us doing a dance to the Spice Girls song “If You Wanna be my Lover”. Classic. I shook my head and laughed to myself as I sent her a quick reply thanking her for brightening my day and reminding me of how lame we were and also reminding her she owes me a trip up here for a visit. I decided to close down Facebook and open up the course outline I had downloaded from our U of N student portal to read along as more and more people filled up the room. Finally, “A.Stark” entered the room and walked up to the front where she began unloading her lecture materials and introduced herself as Andi Stark to the class. She was an older, slightly chubby woman with a warm smile and when she talked, she seemed as though she genuinely cared about the well-being of her students. She went over the structure of the course and mentioned that instead of lectures twice a week, she will lecture on Mondays, and Wednesdays we will have “labs” with one of her three Teaching Assistants. I wasn’t too surprised by that since a lot of psych courses tend to have a lab where you basically just do smaller assignments related to the course – in other words a way to bring your grade up by 10% as long as you show up and complete the assignments.

She then asked the three teaching assistants to come to the front to introduce themselves. Two girls and a guy walked to the front of the room and my jaw almost hit the floor when the guy turned to the class, flashed a smile and introduced himself as Matt. He was easily the hottest guy I had seen in person (Obviously, no one has genes like those Hemsworth brothers). He was tall with dark brown hair, extremely blue eyes and an athletic build. I snapped my mouth shut so it wasn’t totally obvious that I was basically drooling over him as they all started calling out their groups. As much as I thought he was absolutely gorgeous, I did not want to be in his lab group, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get anything done. I also had the tendency to be completely awkward around attractive guys. I cringed slightly when I heard him call “Sarah Parker” as the last lab member for his group. This should be interesting, I thought, and walked over to where the rest of his lab group had gathered. There were 10 of us in total and the rest of the class was spent in our groups with the T.A’s going over the mini assignments we would be doing. Well, I think so anyways. I spent the rest of the time daydreaming what Matt would look like naked. I noticed that it was 9:30 as the other people in my group started packing up their laptops and it was time to go. I was just about to leave when Matt called out “Miss Parker?” Shit, did he ask me something while I was daydreaming of him?!

“Yes? Sorry, I was just thinking of that first assignment we’re going to be working on…” I said, trying to cover my ass.

He let out a little laugh, “I was just wondering if you’re on the track and field team?”

Confused, I replied “Umm, yes I am, how did you know?”

He smiled, showing his beautiful teeth, and just pointed at me. I looked down and forgotten I had worn my U of N track hoodie. Wow, I’m sure he thinks I’m just brilliant. I laughed a little “Oh yes! Sorry, a little out of it, still trying to get back in to the swing of classes” I explained.

“It’s no problem, I was just asking because I’ll be on the team as well. I just transferred from out of state to get this Teaching Assistant job.”

“Oh, I’m sure you will love it, it’s a great group of people!” I said, a little too enthusiastically.

Not wanting to embarrass myself even more, I quickly added “Well, gotta run! I have back to back classes this morning. I, uh, guess I will see you at the first track meet tomorrow…”

He smiled, winked (OMG), and said “Looking forward to it”.

Great, not only would I not be able to concentrate in class with him but on the field as well? This could make for an interesting semester.