Under the Blue Moon

Chapter 1

Another night of work at the library. Tonight, there were some stragglers coming in around 10:00 PM that left around midnight. Since then, you have been sitting behind the help desk with no one to help. You were able to get all of your homework for this week finished and even got the paper, that is due at the end of next week, halfway done tonight. When you look up at the clock again it reads 2:35. You tell yourself, "Okay time to start getting things ready to lock up. You come out from behind the help desk, and start to push in chairs, turning off computers, and other tasks that you always do before closing down the library for the night.

As usual, when your shift is over, one of the two security guards drive you back to your dorm, and tonight, it's Jasmine's turn. Jasmine comes into the main part of the library and says, "Hey, you ready? I'm taking you back tonight. Lazy Renaud just wants to sit on his behind."

You reply, "I'm almost done.... Alright. I'm ready now."

The ride back from the library to the dorm is less than three minutes and during the day, you can walk it in 7. But the security guards always insist that they bring you back. You are thankful for it. However, you think that the part of the real reason why they insist on driving you to your dorm, is because whoever drives you, gets to take the long way back to the library and get in an extra break.

By the time you get into your room, it is 3:15 AM. You have a roommate, Anna, but she is rarely in your room, on account of her sleeping over at her boyfriend's place, five to six nights a week. Most people think that you are so lucky to have a room practically to yourself. But in reality, you are not a big fan. You grew up in a household that had 6 people always bustling around. So, coming home to silence after spending most of your time at work alone wasn't always something that you liked.

Your roommate has been dating her boyfriend for about three months and she tells you that they are "madly in love." You are sure that if she wasn't on birth control pills, she would have been pregnant 30 times over in that 3-month span. You are always so amazed by their stamina. They spend practically 24 hours together. You are happy for Anna, but still have a difficult time imagining being together so much with another human being.

You are single and have been since your boyfriend in high school. You dated Jeremy for two years and when you had to take on more responsibilities at home, you didn't have any time left to spend with him. So, the relationship came to an end. The breakup wasn't dramatic or traumatic for either one of you. The both of you understood why the relationship wouldn't work anymore and decided to break it off mutually. You still text each other once in a while and have been friend since.

When you came to college, you found out that the dating culture here wasn't what you were accustomed to. When it came to dating, you were more used to the traditional way. Dating was a way to get to know a person, to see if you liked them enough to want to be with them exclusively. However, what actually went on at school was more along the line of shoot first and ask questions later. It was sex first and then getting to know each other. You were not a prude by any means, but you didn't feel comfortable engaging in sexual activities with someone you barely knew.

For college age men, when given the choice between sex first then get to know each other vs. get to know each other first, then maybe sex, they will almost always choose the former. So, you haven't actively sought out someone to date. You tell yourself, "It's better this way. I need to study and do well, so that I can get into a decent law school." By the time you get ready and lie down in bed, it is almost 4:00 AM. Mercifully, you can sleep in tomorrow morning on account of not having any early morning classes. So, you set your alarm and fall quickly into deep and dreamless slumber.

You were off from work the last two nights, but you are scheduled for work at 7:00 PM tonight. You are looking forward to it because one of your first Poli-Sci classes already has a paper due in two weeks. As often as possible, you try and stay ahead of your work and what you hope to do tonight is to finish most of the paper. If you can get the first draft down tonight and maybe do the revision during your next workday, you would be in great shape to get the paper done before the deadline.