Imagining Us

Ch. 10

Hindsight was very important in life. It was a thought that crossed Esi's mind as she sat on the Amtrak on the way to New York from Hartford. She had opted to not drive down to New York, thinking that it would afford her time to squeeze in some work since she wouldn't be getting any done during the weekend that she knew Alicia and Lauren had planned.

The friendships that Esi procured during her college years amazed her. The fact that they seemed to be lasting throughout her adult years made her grateful. She had met Alicia and Lauren in a statistics class during her second semester of sophomore year. It grew to the point where they roomed with her and Lena during their senior year of college. That year was one of the best and most chaotic years of her life. The sisterhood that was formed reminded her of the one that she'd shared with her cousins and Sabine, before she passed. By no means was it a replacement for them, but it gave some measure of comfort and assuaged her loneliness. It was unfortunate that Lena wasn't able to make the trip down with her, but she was glad for the opportunity to see her friends again.

Esi struggled in vain to concentrate on her final report for her Justice and Human Rights course.
She had met with her group members yesterday—there were four people in the group, but only three showed up—and they divided the project accordingly. This was not the first time that she had experienced the negativity of group projects. Rarely did she find herself in a group with everyone pulling their weight. So, for this project, they had to divide the work that was meant for four people into three. Since it was extra work, she decided to get a head start on it because her plans this weekend would not leave much room for work.

The constant buzzing of her phone was also trying to break her concentration. There were a combination of sounds coming from her phone. Notifications were alerting her of messages from different social media and texting apps. There was one sound that stood out to her particularly, and yes, it could be a message from one of her friends, but hope nudged her to believe that there were messages from Porte.
She gave in to the temptation.

They had exchanged numbers to allow for more convenient communication, but that didn't stop them from sending each other random memes on social media. As she checked her phone, Esi realized that it was a combination of notifications from him. She had posted a picture, with some poetic caption, of the sunrise at the train station. He had liked the picture, and commented by quoting the rest of the Paul Dunbar poem. Naturally, she had to send him a message after, but he hadn't responded back. It was silly for her to think that he would've texted back to her immediately. About two months had passed since she met him, and they had gotten to know each other better—as new friends do. She had also seen him a handful of times on campus.

The first time that she saw him on campus was when she was on her way to one of the small sandwich cafés for lunch. Esi could remember the bundle of nerves that took over her when she spotted him. It was that feeling after talking to someone through the phone for so long, but not seeing them face to face that brought about her nerves. The boldness that she had via text left her for a moment, and she had made the decision not to approach him. Plus, she used the excuse that he was talking to someone- a tall, broad shouldered, dark skin guy with a booming laugh that she could hear from the other side of the walkway where she stood observing him.

Since she had made up her mind, Esi used the opportunity to observe Porte where he stood. There was something about his body language that didn't sit right with her. His face also was stoic. She didn't know him that long, but there was a seriousness to his expression that she didn't recall from her interactions with him. She looked at the guy wildly gesturing to him to see if  Porte's expression would cause him to falter—it didn't. He just continued in his conversation as if he was accustomed to this side of him.

It wasn't all gloom though, she did see a flash of teeth when his friend decided to re-enact what seemed to be a TikTok dance that she'd seen before. The thought that maybe his friend was asking him to dance with him brought a smile to her face. She would pay money to see that.
Then, a group of giggling students passed along beside them, and she had never seen a happy expression be retracted so quickly. Even she could see from where she was that they were deliberately making gestures towards him, and curiosity festered in her mind.
Esi remembered that Lena mentioned that his family was known around campus, and it made her wonder about how much unwarranted attention that he'd had to endure every time he stepped foot on campus. She stayed too long in her musings, and didn't realize that he'd spotted her across the way.

When she did notice—

She was reminded of some of those fantasy novels that she read. When the authors describe that the air crackled when the main character made eye contact with their romantic interest.
Nothing crackled in the air between them, but she did feel something. A pull that started low in her belly, a feeling that was over her body.
None of them moved to even say hello.

His friend realized that he lost his attention and turned to follow Porte's gaze. A smirk overtook his friend's face when he saw her standing there. She shifted self-consciously under their gazes, and attempted to reach and smooth the kinky curls of  her hair. She saw when Porte's gaze tracked her hand and it went upward, his brows furrowed just like they did that day in the book store. Esi knew how her hair looked with the mass gathered to the top of her head. She hoped that he wasn't one of those—people who would allude that her hair in its natural glory needed to be tamed. It was a topic that she would have to bring up before she became even deeper enthralled by his friendship.
His friend waved across to her, and she slowly waved back with a tentative smile. Then, she saw him clap Porte's shoulder, whisper something to him, look back at her and then leave.

Not once did Porte move his eyes from off of her.

Esi blew out a breath and steeled her nerves. They couldn't just stand there staring at each other all day. She took a step along the paved walkway towards the edge, aiming to cross over to his side. Another step wasn't necessary because he crossed over towards her, and when they stood face to face, there was a sense of familiarity that overcame the nerves, and smiles threatened their way across their faces.
He'd ended up walking her to collect her lunch, and that was where they'd exchange numbers.
As great as it was catching up with him, she could sense the eyes on them as they walked together, and in the back of her mind, it seemed like it was more than popularity that garnered their attention, and the cautious part of her felt like it was necessary for her to find out why.