Change

Warm air, laughters. Gloria stands in front of the house, watching. She was stunned, tears sliding down her face. "This is not real," she tried to tell herself. "Dad and mom were dead already."

She woke, Face wet. Silence.

---1 month after college started.

In a cafe near the college, Gloria is sitting in-front of her laptop and typing on it. Her essay will be due on Friday, and she's now finishing it. She raised her hand and called for the waitress.

"A cup of cappuccino, thank you."

The warm air in the cafe has a great different from the cold air outside. The wonderful smell of coffee, cinnamon, and milk filled the cafe. The yellowish light made the cafe looks warmer than it really was.

"Hey! Is there anyone sitting here?" asked a person. "There's no more seat inside."

"Serve yourself," Gloria answered.

"My name is Carter," said Carter. "How 'bout you?"

"Gloria."

"Well Gloria, why are you here?"

"I'm the student of NYU," this person is so annoying and noisy.

"Well I think you don't wanna talk to me huh?", smiled Carter. "I'm also a student of NYU. Nice to me ya!"

"Me too," well, this person is quite smart. Maybe he will be a good friend.

Then, they went silent. Gloria peeked up from her laptop. She looks at Carter's face, and found him looks quite great. Blond hair, and white skin. I will remember him. Thought Gloria, as a friend or more.

The next time Gloria saw Carter is after a week, in the library.

When Carter gets in the library, what he saw is the quiet girl he had met in the cafe last week is reading, sun light covered her face, and made her brown hair looks golden. "Beautiful," it's what Carter thought when he saw her.

"Hey," Carter said as he sit beside Gloria. "Ya remember me?"

"Carter?" Gloria smiled. "Of course!"

"I'm a 11th grader, how 'bout you?"

"Me?" Answered Gloria. "Me too, 11th Grade."

As Carter thought they will continue their talk, Gloria's phone rang. "Hello?" Gloria picked up her phone. "Oh Alex?"

"Yeah. Gloria, I'm at the bottom of your library."

"Ok bye."

Gloria turned to Carter, "Sorry, my brother is here."

"Oh ok, see ya."

Alex, Gloria's brother, watched as Gloria smiled for the whole way back to home. It's surprising. After their parents had died 3 years ago, Gloria didn't smile like this and be so happy for a long time.

The next day, Gloria saw Carter at the library again. "Gloria, how 'bout let's go watch a movie?" asked Carter. "I think there are some great movies in the movie theater now."

"Ok," answered Gloria. "Let's go."

"Gloria," speaked Carter. "Why don't you talk? Your answers were so short!"

"My parents died, three years ago."

"I'm....... So sorry."

"No it's fine," smiled Gloria, although her eyes are red. "It's a long time already."

"Gloria, may I be your friend?"

"What? You are already my friend!"

"No, I mean....... You can tell me sad things, and I won't tell anyone."

"That's..." Gloria stunned, searching for words in her head. "Thank you..." It's the only thing that Gloria can say to Carter.

They went to the theater and bought popcorns and cokes. In the dark theater, they chose to watch a horror movie, that Gloria don't know she's scared of.

"Ahh!" Gloria cried as she grabbed Carter by his arm.

Carter stunned. He doesn't know that Gloria is scared of that. He smiled as Gloria hid her face behind her hands but still peeking out like a little girl.

"Hey," Carter said softly. "It's fine now."

At night, they walked out the theater together. "Maybe," Carter thought. "Staying like this is good too."