lost↠m.c

vii

another boring day at my house had suddenly become truly enticing when that morning i received an email from the dean of nyu himself. he wrote that he had reconsidered and gave me another chance to present my project and win the scholarship.

needless to say that i was jumping around all day, screaming to my mother that i'm going to new york. it didn't take me more than two hours to have most of my clothes packed up. i was leaving next day for the presentation and hopefully i was staying there for good.

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"good job. that was indeed excellent." professor parker complimented me. i was sitting behind him when he decided to talk to me, while other students presented their work as well. "it was a shame that you couldn't be here last month. we are aware of the incident and that is why we decided to give you another chance." he told me and i raised my eyebrows surprised, to say the least. and that is because the only other person that knew about the 'incident' was michael. i chose not to tell my parents yet, knowing that they would never allow me to move to new york.

"um, thank you mr parker. this university is my dream. but may i ask you how did you find out about what happened?"

he suddenly smiled and nodded his head. "well, if it hadn't been for your boyfriend's father, i don't think we would reconsider this." by the time he had finished his sentence, i was gaping at him.

"oh, that's really nice of him. um, can i go out for a couple of minutes?" i asked him and he nodded, dismissing me.

i only had to stand up and turn around to see michael leaning against the wall, just like he had that day at my hotel. only this time his hair was different shades of blue. he had an eyebrow quirked up as i neared him.

"what the hell, michael?" maybe i was unnecessarily freaking out, but i had every right to be freaking out when a gang member couldn't leave me alone. this past month, of course, we didn't keep in touch and i thought he had already found another -stupid- girl.

"yeah, i missed you too sam." he smiled and pulled me out of the huge room.

"michael, why are you doing this?" i asked in a serious tone and he actually gave me a serious answer.

"i just couldn't forget the sadness on your face as you told me that you had lost your chance of getting accepted in nyu. i know how it is to lose chances, hell my whole life consists of lost chances and i didn't want you to lose this one because of me." did he just blame himself for what happened to me?

i shook my head at him. "firstly, it wasn't your fault that those men attacked me and secondly, i could work harder to get in another college next year. you weren't obliged to do this, and mostly, you didn't have to involve your father."

i shook with fear just thinking about his father, a gang leader. this man must be intimidating.

"i know i wasn't obliged. i wanted to do this for you." michael sat on a bench outside of the building we were just in and hid his face with his hand. "i did this to say thank you for baring with me, even liking me, well until you learnt who i was." he sighed.

"it's not that i don't like you anymore, it's just that, that i'm afraid." i admitted. michael didn't seem like a bad guy, but that didn't prevent me from fearing him. "for god's sake, you had a gun and you used it on a person."

"i know. i did that to protect you." he raised his head to look at me.

"if you shot someone to protect me, would you kill anyone to protect yourself and your people?" i crossed my arms over my chest.

"that's what i've been taught to do my whole life and you know it." he stood up and walked up to me. i caught his arms and stopped him from coming too close.

"you and i, we are from two different worlds, michael. don't you see that? you look so calm talking about death while i'm still trying to get over the sight of you shooting someone."

"and sam, what you don't understand is that i never chose this life. i want to be normal, just like you."

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i may change this