A Year Of Hope

Those first four days were filled with copious amounts of sex.

Every time was better than the last, which I didn't even know was possible to be honest. But after about our 15th time having sex, we were all sexed out. Believe it or not there is such a thing as too much sex.

Other than the sex and making out, our relationship was very much the same. Her and I still went on our long drives and our adventures. The only difference was now she was my girlfriend.

Jane and I hadn't really been a fan of the pet names like "babe" and stuff of that sort. Jane would occasionally call me a dork, silly, or dummy as she did, but we preferred to just call each other by our names, and I was more than content with this.

We did do this silly thing where one of us would say, "I like you," and the other person would say "I like you too." Almost like saying I love you but I don't think either of us were ready to say it. I was already hopelessly in love with Jane, although I was uncertain if she felt the same.

Sam stopped hanging out with us as much. She started spending the night at friends' houses more often. I felt a bit bad, but when I asked her about it she said, "Nothing is wrong, Cai. I promise you guys didn't do anything wrong." But I couldn't shake the feeling that we were excluding Sam. She probably felt like a third wheel, so when she did hang out with us, I typically sat in the back seat, and Jane and I didn't kiss or hug as much.

We had two weeks left until spring break. At college, many students would come up to me and Jane and compliment us for our pieces at the showcase. People began talking to me more in class too. I had gotten some people's number and made plans to hang out with them.

"Cai, this is great! You're making friends!" Jane had said, beaming at me like a proud mother would.

In creative writing we began our play unit. We read some scenes from famous plays and screenplays, and we held workshops to write them. When we came back from Spring Break, a 10-20 page screenplay was due.

Jane had her idea almost immediately.  She told me hers was on a high school teacher juggling bipolar, trying to be a good teacher, while also finding a work life balance.

My idea took a few days to come to me, but the idea finally arrived to me after a dream I had.

In the dream, I was running through a city which was a mix of Atlanta and New Orleans. I escaped from a cult and was they were after me. And then I ran into a girl, who looked a lot like Jane, except curvier and she had a pixie cut, and she was pushing an infant in a stroller. She bumped into me with the stroller, and I turned around sharply thinking I had been caught, and she told me to follow her. I didn't question her, I just followed. She told me as we ran that her wealthy husband had put a bounty on her so he could be with his mistress, and she was on the run. And I told her my situation, and her and I decided we would stick together and find a way out of America to Canada where we would be safe, and that's where the dream ended.

I had decided to write my play based on the dream, and possibly write past where the dream had ended depending on how much I had written. Sarina liked the idea. "More exciting that some of your typical works," she had told me, which she was right. I typically liked stories about very ordinary stories about ordinary people dealing with daily life struggles, but the rest of my ideas were sort of boring. I had written 7 pages before our creative writing midterm.

Dr. Van said to us one day as we prepared to leave class, "So... would it be safe to say you two are now a couple?"

Jane blushed and nodded, "Yes that would be safe to say."

Dr. Van gave us a knowing smile, "I figured it would happen eventually. How amazing that crashing your car into someone could start something so wonderful."