One Kiss Later

17

Same apartment, same dance team, new and old friends, new me, new school year.

Freshman year was full of good and bad memories. 

I hope sophomore year treated me well.

"Do you really need to go to class?" Drew asked me as he put his arms around my waist.

I smiled as I put on mascara. "It's the first day. It would look terrible if I missed class."

"Plus my coaches would absolutely kill me." I reminded him.

Drew let out an overdramatic sigh. "You're right, but I think that I'm going to take you out to dinner tonight. We can talk about how we feel about our classes over a good meal."

I nodded my head. "Wait, not tonight. I have practice from 6:30 to 9 tonight."

"Hmm, we'll figure out something then. I'll Venmo you some money so that you can get your nails done tomorrow or something." he kissed my cheek.

Drew and I reconciled over the summer. 

Getting back together was not a thing that I took lightly. We spent a lot of time talking through our problems, character flaws, and where we went wrong last time.

I decided to let myself love again.

Drew hadn't made me regret it for a second.

He always put me first, paid for me to get my nails done, and got me random gifts. Gift-giving was definitely his love language. 

"You're the best." I hugged him. "What time is your first class?"

"Not until noon." he gently stroked my back.

I pulled back. "I gotta get to psychology." 

"I'm right behind you. I'm gonna go back to my place to eat then hit the gym." he picked up his phone and lanyard off my dresser.

I walked off to class and Drew headed towards his place.

Psychology seemed like it would be interesting. I liked feeling excited about classes. After psych, I had an English course that felt like it would be an easy A.

I prayed that I felt that way throughout the whole semester. 

Those were my only two classes for the day. Both of them consisted of the usual first-day run-down: syllabuses, expectations, and a brief background of the professor.

Now I had a whole three hours to kill before I had to go to dance practice. 

I felt someone tap my shoulder as I walked back to my apartment.

There was a split second that I thought it could be him.

I had to remind myself that it'd been five months.

"Hey." Matteo spoke casually.

Matteo and his roommate made sure that we never ran into them. I didn't know how they managed to do that, but they did.

"Hi." I stood there awkwardly. 

'I know this is weird and probably uncomfortable, but Beau wanted me to give this to you." he held out a white envelope. 

On the front of the envelope was Natalia/ناتاليا.

"It's your name in Arabic, I think. He took a bunch of classes over the summer. He forgot how to write it, you probably don't care, I'm just rambling." he clarified as I took the envelope. 

I looked at Matteo. "What does he want? It's been forever."

Matteo shrugged. "I didn't read it. He just wanted me to give it to you. He was scared, he feels guilty, which he should. I told him to not self-sabotage, but he's Beau.'