Hey all! Thanks so much for your patience, support, and encouragement. I'm counting down the days until I'm done with school and can give you a consistent posting schedule. Just know I won't ever forget about you! In the meantime, here is a nice long post for your weekend reading pleasure!
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My inopportune run in with my
former in-laws was enough to finally motivate to make some real moves to get
out of this house. I spent Sunday
looking at listings online and emailing them to Mike. I bumped my budget up a little, expanded the
areas of town I was willing to live in, and realized that getting all of the
things on my list of preferred features was not realistic.
I also started combing Google and
Craigslist for rental backups. I
couldn’t stay here any longer than necessary anymore. I located a couple apartment or townhome
complexes that were in my price range and looked reasonably nice and bookmarked
their sites so I had them on hand if I didn’t find anything. Then, taking a deep breath, I wrote “January
23rd” on a post-in and stuck it to my laptop.
January 23rd was the
date I’d chosen for Chelsea’s suggestion of setting a date by which if I wasn’t
in the process of actually buying a house, I’d look for a rental or other short
term option instead. It was a
significant date, because it was the day I’d met Kevin.
“Jenna!”
Erica hissed in my ear.
“What?”
I asked loudly. Erica immediately
shushed me and I rolled my eyes. It’s
not like our campus cafeteria was a quiet library where everyone could hear
you.
“There
is a really hot guy that keeps looking over here. I think he’s looking at you,” she replied in
her hushed tone. “He’s over to your
left, but don’t—“
She
stopped and sighed audibly as I ignored her telling me not to look and turned
my head to the left. “I can’t take you
anywhere,” she grumbled. I didn’t even
hear her, because I had immediately made eye contact with the most attractive
man I had ever seen on this campus. I
smiled lazily at him, glanced away, and immediately looked back. He was still watching me. I let my lazy smile turn to a smirk, held his
gaze for about 3 seconds, and then turned back to Erica.
“How
do you do that?” she asked me.
“Do
what?” I asked, confused.
“Eye
fuck someone like that and get away with it?”
I was about to respond when her eyes widened. “He’s coming over here,” she hissed.
My
heart rate immediately picked up. I was
a phenomenal flirt from across the room, but my actual flirting skills left
quite a bit to be desired. I took a deep
breath, determined not to screw this up by being awkward. I didn’t even look up until I saw him right
at our table. Then I let my eyes slowly
wander his way.
“Hi,”
he said, his voice deep and smooth. “My
friends and I are having a party tonight.
You should come.” He didn’t even
introduce himself. I blinked in
surprise, unsure how to respond.
Unfazed, he continued. “Give me
your number. I’ll text you the address.”
Without
even thinking, I automatically rattled off my cell phone number. Erica had yet to say a word. In fact, she was embarrassingly staring at
him in wonder. I kicked her under the
table and she jumped and glared at me.
A
second later, my phone vibrated. I
looked down at it and saw I had a new text.
I grabbed it and saw an address and the words, “By the way, my name
is Kevin. See you tonight. Things usually get pretty wild by 10.”
I
looked up to say something, anything, to him, but he was gone. “What the hell was that?” Erica breathed.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But you’re coming to this party with
me. Kelly too.”
“Jen, he’s probably slept with at
least half of the girls that go here and has had every STD known to man,” Kelly
said practically. After lunch, we’d
headed directly to her dorm room, which was one floor directly below ours. “You don’t get that smooth and confident
without a lot of practice.
“Stop ruining my life,” I
complained. “The hottest man in the
world wants me to go to his party. I’m
going, and you’re coming with me.”
“Oh, I’ll go,” she replied. “Someone has to keep you two from falling
head over heels for this popped collar frat boy.”
“He didn’t look like a frat boy,”
Erica chimed in.
“Yeah, have you even seen the guys
in frats here?” I asked, wrinkling my nose.
“This guy was actually hot, Kel.”
“We’ll see about that,” she said,
shrugging.
By the time we got to the address
Kevin had texted me, it was 10:30 and the house looked dark and silent. “What the fuck?” Kelly asked. “He’s not a frat boy, he’s a serial killer. He’s waiting inside with a knife and a vat of
acid and we’re all going to be dismembered and dissolved by tomorrow.”
“I think it takes longer than a few
hours to dissolve a body,” Erica said.
“Probably like—“
“Don’t!” Kelly and I exclaimed at
the same time. Erica looked at us,
startled. “Just…don’t,” I followed
up. Thinking about body parts dissolving
in acid was not going to do anything good in my brain.
I did have to admit I was
nervous. I mean, I had been nervous
before. But coming to see a dark, quiet house? Even more nervous. I checked the text again and squinted at the
numbers on the house. They matched. Just as I was about to chicken out, two
squealing girls pranced into the front yard from around the back of the
house. A guy, clearly irritated by their
noise, strolled behind them, scrolling through his phone. He looked up as they approached us and rolled
his eyes. “You trying to attract cops?”
he snapped. “Go around the back and stop
standing there like neon lights pointing to the underage drinking.” As he walked past he muttered, “Fucking
freshmen.”
Kelly looked like she was about to
retort, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the back of the
house. Erica trailed behind us. As soon as we got around to the backyard, we
heard the faint thump of muffled music coming from inside. The door opened, momentarily making the music
louder, and I saw Kevin standing on the porch.
“My buddy texted me that there were three lost girls standing out
front,” he said, and I could see his smirk even in the dark. “Sorry, I should have told you to come around
the back. Come on.” He motioned with his head back towards the
door, so we walked up the porch steps.
“Hi,” he grinned at each of us in turn.
“I’m Kevin.” His gaze landed on
me and I struggled to remember my name for a second.
“Jenna,” I said finally. “Hi.”
Next to me, Kelly snorted, clearly aware of why it took me several
seconds to answer. I would have glared at
her if Kevin’s eyes weren’t still trained intently on me.
Erica and Kelly introduced
themselves, and then Kevin took us inside.
He immediately grabbed us a few bottles of beer from the fridge in the
dark, empty kitchen. “There’s a keg
downstairs,” he informed us, “But feel free to drink the good stuff that’s up
here. I like to treat my guests
right.” He winked as he said that, and I
almost died. I could practically hear
Kelly rolling her eyes, but I didn’t care.
He took the tops off each beer bottle as he handed them to us. “We can go downstairs if you want,” he said, raising
an eyebrow, “Otherwise I was hanging out in a quieter room with a couple of my
friends if you want to join us.”
I immediately replied, “We’d love to
join you,” while Kelly said, “We’ll head downstairs,” at the same time. I glared at her and she sighed and said, “I
guess we’ll join you for a little while.”
We followed him to a bedroom that
had 4 other people inside. Kelly quickly
changed her tune as one of Kevin’s friends started chatting with her. We spent the entire time in this room. Kevin was a senior, majoring in biology. He wanted to go to med school, but was going
to take a year to get his resume in top shape before applying. He was smart, funny, and seemed genuinely
interested in me. He was also kind to
Erica and Kelly, which was something that seemed kind of rare in a lot of the
guys any of us had hung out with so far.
When we were ready to go, he and the
guy that had been chatting up Kelly insisted on walking us back to the
dorms. The house was just 3 blocks from
campus, but it was really late, so it probably wasn’t a bad idea. When we got to our dorm, Kevin pulled me
aside. I didn’t even notice the cold
when he smiled at me. “I’d like to take
you out to dinner,” he said. I was a
little thrown off by it being a statement instead of a question, but I had to
admit I liked his confidence.
“I think I can allow that,” I
replied with a smirk.
He
laughed. “Good. I’ll text you tomorrow and we’ll figure
something out. Thanks for coming
tonight, I’m glad I invited you.”
“I
had fun,” I responded, feeling a flutter in my stomach. “I’m glad you invited us.”
“I
invited you,” he said. In the moment, it
didn’t feel like an odd statement, it just made the fluttering feeling spread
beyond my stomach. I wondered briefly
what it was about me that this incredibly attractive guy found so appealing,
but was quickly distracted by him leaning forward and planting a soft,
lingering kiss on my cheek. “Goodnight,
Jenna.”
And
then he was gone. Erica and Kelly were
standing just outside the door to the dorm, watching me expectantly. I turned, slightly dazed, and followed them
in.
Kevin came home Monday evening to
find me packing up some of my rarely used kitchen items. He leaned against the counter and watched me
for several seconds before saying, “You found a new place?”
“Not yet,” I replied. My answer sounded short, and I decided to try
to be a little nicer to make my time in this house less awful. “I’m looking pretty seriously though, and I want
to be ready to move when I find something.
You know how I am about packing and stuff.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”
He paused and then said, “Could you remind me when you leave for your
parents’ house?”
“Wednesday morning,” I said. “Whenever I get up and moving. I plan to be gone by noon for sure though.” I didn’t make eye contact. I’m sure he was asking because he wanted to
have a girl over. At least he was
waiting until I was gone this time?
Maybe.
“Okay,” he replied. “I’m working an overnight tonight and
tomorrow, just so you know.”
“I’ll try to be as quiet as I can
while I’m getting ready to leave on Wednesday, then,” I said, agreeing to his
unasked request.
“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate that.” He stood for a second longer, then said, “You
can take all the kitchen stuff if you want.
I don’t like the pattern on the dishes. I can just buy better stuff after
you move.” Then he turned and walked
out.
I closed my eyes briefly, wondering
why I’d even bothered to try to be nice.
I tucked my partially packed boxes into a nearly empty hallway closet
and walked downstairs. I sat on my bed
with my phone in my hand and composed a text.
“Hey, you free to hang out
tomorrow night before I head down to my parents’ house?”