Love of a Lifetime Ch. 01

The curtains on the window of our one-bedroom apartment were left a skewed. The sun poured in and blanketed us with warmth. Our naked bodies were entangled along with sheets and blankets. Everything about this moment was perfect. I trailed light kisses up her back, taking extra caution on the nape of her neck, my favorite place of all. I snuggled closer and breathed in her scent, something so indescribable, but so intoxicating. It was the smell of soft lavender and her shampoo. It was the smell of home.

I whispered softly, "I love you." She craned her head towards me and kissed me with the utmost passion. Then that's when I remembered; things weren't always this blissful.

It started about six years ago. I was starting as a freshman at NYU. I left my home, my family, my friends, and left everything that I knew to come here. I realized at a certain age that even if I didn't come from a broken home, I felt suffocated in the small town of Cement City, Michigan. Truth was, I loved architect, and I promise you, Cement City was not the place to be for thriving, young architects.

So my first day at NYU was a disaster. I was lugging around 5 ton books, walking around like a lost puppy. My laptop bag decided to keep slipping off my shoulder, rendering me unaware of the people I was running into. I managed to bump into someone and knock the books out of her hands. I quickly knelt down and picked them, and when I looked up, everything I knew about beauty turned into a complete lie. It was like a blind-man seeing for the first time. Her dark, brown hair was parted down one side and draped over her shoulders like silk. Her eyes were a glimmering sapphire, like the deepest parts of the ocean. Her nose was cute and sloped down as to compliment her full lips. She was petite, but not fragile looking. Her breasts were the perfect size, not small, but not annoyingly gigantic to the point where they would get in the way. I stopped staring and finally started talking.

"I-I'm really s-sorry. I'm, uhm, I'm Andrew," I stammered as I reached my hand out.

In the most aggravated tone, "Well Andrew, watch where you're going next time."

And as she walked away, I couldn't help but notice the round and firmness of her butt with each stride she took. So much for a first impression, way to go me!

For the rest of the day, I stayed in my dorm room and started unpacking. The room was quite spacious and had a very nice view of New York. It was the perfect scenery to inspire a few drafts. Hayden Hall was quite accommodating; there was a cafeteria, a lounge, and a wash room. I haven't met my roommate yet, but get this, his name is Hayden. I finished putting away my clothes and fitted clean, white sheets onto my twin sized bed. I plopped down next to the window and took out my sketch pad. The city was buzzing; yellow cabs filled the streets, honking as they went. A sea of people were walking and chattering on their phones as they try to reach their destinations. Tall buildings were towering over the streets, casting a shadow and an endless shade of protection. I drew rough drafts of 19th old century buildings. It was so close to detail; every line, every curve, it was flawless. The door opened and popped my concentration. A dirty-blonde haired guy came in carrying two duffel bags. He was about average height, a little scrawny, but you can tell he was built. He put his bags down and I immediately got up to introduce myself.

"Hayden, right? I'm Andrew. Guess we're roommates, eh?"

"Hey, nice to meet you," he shook my hand, "Haha, looks like it. What's your major?"

"Architecture, how about you?"

"English lit," his eyes brightened, "I love writing! My name's gonna be plastered all over the New York Times man, watch me haha."

With that, I left him to unpack. He seemed friendly, and I thought we'd get along well. I returned to my bed and ripped out my sketch. I crumpled it up and threw it away, unsatisfied with it and unsatisfied with myself. Hayden seemed sure of himself. He knew what he was doing here, but for me, I felt like a little fish in an ocean. Was I doing the right thing?

"Hey Andrew, you wanna go get a bite to eat downstairs? I'm starving."

"Yeah sure, I'll meet you down there. I just uhm...gotta put away some books of mine."

He walked out and I stared long and hard at the door after he closed it. At home, I never really had many friends. I mean I had friends, but since it was such a small city, we all knew each other since diapers. They were boring and mediocre and it was the same thing over and over. Movies, baseball, or hanging around places we weren't supposed to be. We couldn't even get in trouble much. It was an uneventful city with uneventful people, but I knew this would be different. Maybe finally, I'll hang around people more worth my while.

I quickly hurried down the stairs, careful not to trip and fall and break my face. The cafeteria was large, but with so many people there, it felt claustrophobic. I grabbed an apple and a soda; I didn't have much of an appetite. I scanned around the room for the messy mop of blonde hair, and saw him waving me over.

"HEY ANDREW, OVER HERE MAN!" He was sitting with a group of people already. Nervously, I walked towards him and sat down at an empty chair. He introduced me to each of them.

"Andrew, this is Alex," he pointed towards a tanned, dark-haired boy, "Chico," a rather large Hispanic boy, "Kristina," a girl with wavy blonde hair, "And this is Joanna," it was the same girl I ran into. My mouth dropped open, I was clearly in shock.

"Ugh, not you again," she nodded in disgust towards my direction.

Hayden lifted his eyebrow up, "You two met already?"

"More like he ran into me this morning. He wasn't even looking at where he was going!"

I bowed my head down in horror. I was right; I'm not ready for this. What was I thinking?

"C'mon Joanna, cut him some slack! He's probably new to this city."

Hayden came to my defense even though I just met him, I was grateful for him. Maybe I could get by with just one friend, that'll be enough.

"Sigh, I'm sorry Andy boy. Eat your...apple and I'll show ya around."

The mood quickly became lighter around the table. Hayden was practically swallowing a hamburger whole while Alex and Kristina were talking about how their first day of classes went. I slowly bit into my apple, until I felt the burning intensity that someone was watching me. Joanna was staring in my direction, raising her eyebrow and squinting her eyes, as if she was trying to decipher a difficult calculus problem. She looked down immediately and idly started flipping pages of her book. I finished my apple and soda and got up to throw away the trash. The scraping of the chair and the floor was deafened by the sound of the loud cafeteria. I tossed the apple core and the empty can into the bin, but when I turned around, Joanna was just standing there. My heart skipped a beat. Her beauty was unbearable, what I wouldn't give for just...

"Ready? Let's go. Gosh, you need to speed things up if you're gonna survive in this city, pretty boy."

As she was leading me out of the loud cafeteria, I couldn't help but wonder why she would want to show me around when she probably had better things to do. My mind wandered as my eyes had a mind of its own. I couldn't help it, I was only human. She had the most amazing...

"So do you like...not talk or something Andy? Hope you don't mind me calling you Andy. Less syllables. "

"N-no, I talk. And I don't mind. So uhm, Joanna right? What are you majoring in?"

"Ah, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? It's like another way to ask me 'what I wanna be when I grow up?' Who the hell knows? Why pick a major when you're 80% guaranteed to change it?"

"Uhm...I'm..sorry?"

"It's okay Andy. Anyway, I didn't really pay attention during orientation, but this is the lounge. That's all you really need to know about this hall. Let's go explore somewhere less boring!"

Before I knew it, we were off campus and walking around the busy sidewalks of New York. It was getting a little windy, and I was getting the chills. I only had cargo shorts and a t-shirt on, but Joanna never complained. She only had shorts and a thin shirt on. The skies were getting dark and the clouds were moving in; rain was definitely a possibility. Joanna pointed to several billboards and signs about pointless advertisements. None of them really captured my attention. If anything, I was overwhelmed by the crowdedness, and by Joanna herself. She was absolutely beautiful.

"...and while you're here, you gotta see ONE play. Even if I don't make you, Hayden will. He's all for the suffering writers/poets crap."

I only nodded and trailed closely beside her. Next thing we know, rain is pouring down like bullets.

She grabbed my hand and whispered, "Run run run run run." Her hand was soft and carefully entwined with mine.

We ran back into Hayden Hall, still holding hands and laughing at the unfortunate turn of events. Soaking wet, we stepped into my dorm and Hayden was sitting at his desk on his laptop, typing a million words a minute.

He turned away from his chair, "Huh, I guess it's raining."

"Shut up douche and get us a towel."

He threw a towel at me and I wrapped it around her first. She was shivering as I rubbed the towel against her arms. Her clothes were clinging onto her skin, wrapping around her every curve. What a lucky shirt.

After Joanna left to go back to her dorm, I dried off and bombarded Hayden with questions.

"So what's her story? How do you two know each other? Does she have a boyfriend?"

"She's from here. We're friends from high school, including Alex, Chico, and Kristina. And nah, she's single. Haha, don't do it bro, she's a handful."

"No...I'm just curious."

That night I dreamt of Joanna. We were raining in the rain, but this time, no one was around and it was only us. I pulled her hand back to stop her from running only to wrap my hands around her waist and kiss her. I brought her back to the empty dorm and started tearing at her clothes while she struggled to unbutton my shorts. After leaving a trail of clothes behind, we ended up on my bed. I raised her leg up and entered her with force. She clawed my back, screaming my name as I pumped in and out of her. Before either of us had came, I suddenly woke up. Never have I ever wanted to self-induce a coma to get back to a dream.