between the pages

Chapter 2

Braden, Age 18

Brown eyes.

Big, big, brown eyes, and wavy, long, brown hair with the lips, oh my god the lips.

Noah; that's what her name was. An English major with an iced coffee addiction and a dorm filled with mostly books.

When I met her a thought popped into my head; Noah and Braden.

We made sense. We were going to make sense for the foreseeable future. I just...had a feeling.

I hadn't had that much time to take in all of her...everything last week. I was kind of busy fleeing for my life. It's safe to say that rush week was definitely not for me.

However, I had a fleet of drunk, blonde, trust fund babies to thank for letting me meet Noah. She was nice enough to take me in and hide me from them--after I accomplished some light breaking and entering into her dorm.

The night had been absolutely horrendous up until I met her. I found out way too much about some senior's weird, slightly Freudian, relationship problems and then, I got so drunk that I proceeded to throw up all over the frat president's bucks.

That's when I went outside to sit on the curb, you know, get some air, and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a group of guys carrying a keg.

Next thing you know they were chasing me across the quad screaming "chug" and I dove into some random freshman dorm.

Well...it isn't so random now. Noah has me over to study sometimes; we spread ourselves out on the worn-out carpet with our books and attempt to focus, even though we always end up talking about something else like Harry Potter or how Liam Neeson movies are usually complete bullshit.

Either way, I have more fun with her than I've had in my entire life. It's crazy, I mean, when we hang out we could be doing something stupid like getting coffee or watching The Lorax for the fifteenth time, and I feel at peace. Happy. Optimistic.

I just feel like I can talk to her; it's a level of comfortability that I'm not used to but hey; I'm having fun.

I don't know what to think of this but I have a feeling we're going to be in each other's lives for a really long time.

I know it. I just do.

Braden, Age 24

Sometimes I wonder how my life would be if I were a Hibachi chef. I mean, I love being an architect, don't get me wrong, but like, a Hibachi chef. Or, I don't know, a giraffe trainer. A furry? I'd be an AMAZING furry. Although, I'm not sure that's even a paying job. It can't be. Right?

"You're thinking about furries again, aren't you?"

My attention snapped to Noah, who suddenly materialized across from me at the restaurant booth. I was waiting at the new sushi restaurant she wanted us to try and it took everything in me to not order before she got here, but I didn't (because I'm a gentleman).

"Pfft, no," I said unconvincingly, "but if I was how would you feel about that?"

Noah rolled her eyes, "I would feel like you need therapy," she paused, "Okay, more therapy."

I shot a cheesy grin her way.

"Anyway, what did you wanna talk about?" I said as I looked through the menu. I felt a very evident pause before she responded to me.

"Oh, nothing," she muttered feebly.

I placed the menu down.

Something was wrong.