The Life We Made

Chapter 1

A few days later I was sitting in class, thinking about the great time I had had with Ty. It wasn't your typical one night stand. Sure, we had sex and didn't exchange numbers or last names. But he was so kind and friendly. We talked. We got to know a little about one another. And we made a 2 am trip for fast food because we were hungry. We sat around laughing while we ate. After we ate, we jumped in the shower and indulged in a second round.

"Hello?" Hanna, my partner in my methods class, called.

"Huh?" I asked, turning my attention to her.

"Dr. Lambert dismissed class. We lost you," she said with a chuckle.

"Sorry, I was just...I, uh," I didn't know what to say.

"It's good, just didn't want you to be left there. Who is this guy anyway?"

I looked at her, shocked that she knew what I was thinking about. Then I started to panic, scared I had said something out loud.

"Relax, I just know that look."

I let out a sigh of relief. "I met him at a club."

"Name?"

"Ty."

"Hmmm, such a sexy name," she said.

"It's fitting. He's the sexiest guy I've ever seen," I said.

"Sexier than your ex?"

"Hell yes. I loved Finn, and he was very cute, but he wasn't sexy."

"I totally get it. My ex was pleasing to look at, too. But he was cute in like the nerdy way."

"Exactly."

"Are you going to see him again?" She asked excitedly.

"I doubt it. I don't even know his last name."

"Damn."

"I know."

We both had one more class for the day and it happened to be the same class. We made our way toward it and sat outside the room when we arrived. It wasn't supposed to start for close to an hour. Hanna ran and got us coffee while I called my mom.

"Hi, Darling," she said when she answered.

"Hi, Mom."

"How are classes going?"

"Seems like it's going to be a pretty good semester," I admitted. It was a week into the spring semester, a week away from February.

"Stay on top of things," she reminded me.

"I will, Mom. How's Dad doing?"

"He's so tired, Honey. He's working himself way too hard," she said sadly. My dad was the CEO for a big company in Chicago and the winter months always brought tough times for him. He had a lot on his plate and overworked himself. By the end of March or beginning of April, he was always sick and run down. He and Mom then took a two week vacation to somewhere quiet and he came back good as new.

"He'll get through it, Mom. He always does."

She sighed. "I know he does."

"Have you heard anything from Jenna?" I asked of my sister, who was currently traveling through Europe with her boyfriend.

"She sent a postcard from Ireland. We got it a couple days ago. Did you not get one?"

"No," I said. Though I wasn't surprised. My sister and I never were close, despite her only being a year older than me. My sister who's a year younger, that's a different story. We were best friends. Always had been. She was in school in California. She wanted to be a director in film and television so she went to LA where her chances were the greatest.

"I'm sure it just hasn't come yet," she said.

"Yeah, probably," I said, but only to get her off my case.

"I think I'm going to look for tickets to fly home for spring break," I tell my mom. I hadn't mentioned it to her yet, but I had pretty much decided before I left home over Christmas break that I wanted to go back home over spring break.

"That's wonderful!" she said happily. "The sooner you look, the cheaper tickets will be."

"I know, Ma. I'll look and see soon. There are a couple other things I need to take care of, first."

"Well let me know! I'll let you go because I know you're between classes. I love you, Darling. It was good hearing from you."

"I love you too, Mom. Bye."

"Bye," she replied, and we both hung up.

Hanna had just returned and sat down beside me. "Thanks," I said as she held out a coffee to me.

"No problem," she smiled.

"I heard you say something about flights. Are you going somewhere for spring break?"

"I'm thinking about flying home. It was so different this last time I visited. And Cara and I have the same break this year, so we could fly home and see each other."

"That'll be fun. My roommates are talking about Cabo this year."

"That'd be awesome. I've never been there."

"Me either," she admitted. "I just don't know that I want to go with them. Last year all they did was get drunk and sleep with random guys. That's not me."

"That's not me, either," I said, and I couldn't help but laugh at the irony because that was exactly who I was Saturday night. But there's a first time for everything, right?