Semester Abroad

ch 6

JOHN'S POV

"Come on man, what's up with you?" Flea asked as he walked over to me sitting on the couch across the room from the other guys. "You've been out of it all day."

"I know, I'm sorry, I just can't focus," I told him.

"I got you, but I feel like there's more to it than that..." Flea added.

"What? What are you talking about?" I asked him.

"Seriously, man? You don't think that we haven't all noticed that you have a thing for Cassie?"

"Are you kidding?" I was trying to pretend Flea was wrong but I could feel myself blushing. I really had no idea any of the guys had suspected anything. I hadn't told anyone anything. I leaned in closer and whispered, "Does Chad know?"

Flea grinned having finally gotten something out of me. "Yeah, but he's fine with it. She's a real adult now, out of college and everything. He has no control over her and isn't opposed to it, anyway." I sighed with relief and Flea patted me on the back and walked away.

We continued to jam for a couple more hours until it was around dinner time.

"Hey, John, could you go get Cassie for dinner?" Chad asked from across the room.

"Yeah, no problem," I said, setting my guitar against the side of the couch. I started heading up the stairs to Cassie's room. I knocked on the door, but I didn't hear anything back. I slowly turned the door knob and peeked my head into her room. She was still asleep, under a big pile of covers. I quietly walked into her room. Her room didn't look how I had expected it to; I looked all around, examining it. I immediately noticed all of the decorations. They were cool. I was impressed and honestly surprised. I saw posters of Bowie and Syd Barrett, some of my favorites.

I walked over to her bedside table and knelt down to look at her record collection. On top of them all was Loaded by The Velvet Underground, the record sleeve laying next to it on the floor. I looked at her record player. The top was open and, sure enough, side A of Loaded was facing the ceiling on the record player; the needle in the center of the record indicated that she had fallen asleep before side A had finished playing. I kept looking through her records. Power Corruption and Lies by New Order, The Doors' self titled album, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Flag, John Denver, Eagles records, and more. God, she has everything, I thought. She had quite an impressive collection.

Just as I picked up a Creedence Clearwater Revival record time examine the back, Cassie inhaled deeply and turned over in her sleep. I flinched and then froze, trying to stay perfectly still so as to not wake her up. That's when I realized: I had been in there for nearly ten minutes and had completely forgotten to wake her up.

I got up and sat on the side of her bed. I placed my hand on her arm, about to wake her up, but I paused. I just watched her for a second. She looked so peaceful. I had never seen her so tensionless. Her face was puffy and her skin was smooth and soft like porcelain. I woke her up by gently rubbing my hand against her arm and whispered, "Hey, Cass, wake up." She slowly turned over, blinking confusedly. Her eyelids were heavy with hours of sleep. "Dinner's ready. Just come down whenever you're ready." I smiled gently at her, got up, and left.

I paused at the top of the stair case. I had forgotten all about this morning. It didn't matter anyway. I really liked Cassie. She was beautiful and we had so much in common. I wanted to get to know her more. She had changed so much since I saw her last. I set a goal for myself to talk to her more and walked down the stairs.