The Way Love Changes You; Book One: Love's Firsts

25/XXV: Her Mark

~Indy Serenity~

Friday, October 4, 2019

Four days into one of my favorite months of the year. It had been a while since I'd hung out with my new group of friends, but it felt like centuries since I'd last seen my honey bun Avella.

The last time I saw her was last Sunday night and Monday morning when I had to work and she had classes. Sunday was that night for us. The soft cuddling, the deep make outs, the amorous gazing. "Pure bliss" for that night was an understatement. It made me miss her so much more than I wanted to. We texted since Monday and kept it up since, and even today, but that only made me miss her a little worse each time.

Avella couldn't visit me, and I couldn't visit her. I was held up by my job because a coworker of mine was on vacation this week. Avella had a pile of schoolwork since Monday, mainly projects, whose deadlines were in December. She was the one person who'd want to get their projects done early. She didn't seem like the one to sweat out so easily, but this? I felt that she needed a distraction from it all for just a day, and with friends, at that.

I was just getting off work that evening, so I hoped that Avella would be at home. I wanted to call her as soon as I got home. I haven't heard her voice in a while. Her soothing, deep, womanly voice. It'd give me chills up and down my spine every damn time.

I reached my house and jolted inside to the office so I could have some privacy. I'm the only person in the household who ever uses the office, and everybody knows this, so they hardly barge in and intrude. It's my own personal space, basically.

Anyway, I speed-dialed Avella's number and put her on speaker as I sat down at the desk. I was relieved that her phone was ringing, but I was really hoping that she'd answer.

"...hello?" A deep, raspy voice spoke through the receiver.

I was getting fucking chills...

"Avella? Hey!"

"Oh, shit! Indy! Cariño! Hey! Are you doing okay, baby?"

I was amused the second she realized that it was me calling. By how raspy her voice sounded, she had probably just woken up from a nap and didn't look at her phone to see who was calling. I wasn't even mad. She could never make me mad.

"Yeah. I just wanted to check on you and see how you were doing," I said. "Even though we've texted every day, it doesn't make up for lost time that we haven't spent calling or just hanging out with each other. I've been thinking about you more and more each day, and with college being overwhelming to you now, I wanted to make sure that you're okay."

Silence was getting loud for a moment. I hoped that she didn't drift off, for if she did, I would laugh my ass off. Then, I heard sniffling.

"Honestly, Indy, like, ever since I started getting dogpiled by schoolwork, I haven't had time to really relax," she said. She sounded a bit choked up.

"I've been going to classes, working on my projects and classwork in between, and then more classes, then when I get out, I'm back to my projects and homework before I head to bed. Even then, I don't fall asleep until almost two in the morning, giving me, like, four to five hours of sleep. It's been rough. I know that, like, they aren't due until December, but I really want to get them out of the way. I haven't been this stressed since living with the fosters. I just want to fuckin' chill for just a little while."

Even more sniffling came through. Avella was so upset because of college piling work on her. It made me feel sad with her, although we weren't in the same room. However, I kinda had an idea that would probably cheer her up for now.