There aren't really any good opening statements for this story.
No riveting first words, no "attention-grabbers"...
But it's still an important story to me. It's essential to every piece of me that I am today. This is the story of how my life quickly became so helplessly entwined with the life of the closest friend I've ever had.
And this may sound ridiculous...
But this is the story of how I offered up my beating heart to Jean Kirschtein.
I can't say the beginning was really that spectacular, either. I was just a freshman in college at Trost University, barely able to find my way from class to class. I didn't know anyone. That's right- I knew absolutely no one. I didn't even have a roommate- the one I'd been assigned had transferred to a different dorm on move-in day.
So there I was, dawdling along with a campus map in one hand, my class schedule in the other, and my eyes were trained on the map when something hard slammed into my shoulder, spinning me around.
"Shit!" he hissed, and I found myself staring at a thin, tan-haired young man, a venomous scowl sliding acidly across his features as he stared back at me. "Watch it!" he grumbled, rubbing his shoulder with his free hand; the other held a steaming Starbucks cup. The guy looked as though he wasn't someone you wanted to mess with prior to him getting his caffeine (this later proved true), and I'm not the kind of person to instigate a fight, so I backed away and squeaked out an apology. I may have been a few inches taller than him, but I was pretty sure he could take me on regardless.
He mumbled a "whatever" and went on his way, and that was that. I made sure to be more careful and pay attention to where I was going from then on.
The rest of that week went on without a hitch. And by "without a hitch", I mean aside from the usual college freshman problems. I struggled to find my way to my classes, and even showed up late to some. I still hadn't been assigned a roommate, and to be honest, unless someone who had been assigned a different building decided to transfer to Sina, I wouldn't get one. Most other people would kill to have their own room to themselves and no roommate to share it with, but for me, it was pretty lonely. It meant that I had the whole flat screen TV that my parents had bought and mounted on my wall to myself. Which wasn't so bad I guess... but still lonely. And whenever I went out to eat, it was on my own. I felt incredibly homesick around mealtimes. But other than that, things went along smoothly.
It wasn't until the next Monday, exactly one week from the coffee guy incident, that I noticed...
The thin, tan-haired young man with the coffee? He was in my astronomy class.
During a brief pause in the lecture, I had taken the opportunity to look up from my notes and glance around the lecture hall... and there he was. One row in front of me, two seats to the left. I found myself transfixed by him, my wandering eyes settling comfortably on the form of his bony shoulders, a thin gray jacket hanging off of them. My gaze slid over the side of his face that was visible from that particular angle, and I found myself admiring his jagged features. He had a strong, sharp jaw, and his nose was prominent, pointed... I couldn't see his eyes very well, but his thin eyebrows were furrowed as he glowered down at the notes he was writing, long and lithe fingers gripping his pen hard as he scribbled haphazardly across the paper.
I couldn't help but smile softly at his harsh scowl... maybe he just naturallywore a foul expression all the time. That assumption made me feel a heck-of-a-lot better about bumping into him the week before. He probably hadn't been as pissed off as he had seemed... right?
Unwilling to consider the more negative possibilities of last week's screw up, I quickly returned my attention to my notes. However, the sight of the thin and tan-haired guy became a frequent distraction throughout the rest of that lecture.
And the lecture after that.
And the lecture after that.
And the lecture after that.
For the next few weeks, actually.
