The Last Girl on Campus

Chapter 14

Life was like a whirlwind with Hunter. Every day was something new. The day after Christmas, we walked to Publix together and bought all sorts of things, ranging from frozen chicken nuggets to fresh starfruit. We were always hungry and I had access to a stove, so there was no excuse to not make homemade food. That night, under Kayla's direction, we made (but did slightly burn) a pan of lasagna. It was heavenly.

The next day, Hunter did the gentlemanly thing of paying for a cab so we could go to the mall. I sampled all the sprays and lotions at one store while he looked for video games at another. At some moments we were next to each other and at some moments we were doing our own thing, which surprisingly was just the way I liked it. When we were together nonstop it felt too smothered. The way we behaved at the mall fell into a pattern. He'd come over and we'd spend time together, then go back to his room and do his own thing. Sometimes we'd be in my apartment but watching different shows on opposite sides of the room. Every few days he'd spend a night in his room, just so I could get a decent amount of sleep without waking up from his snoring or being smashed into the wall. One night we switched places and I slept on the outside, then ended up falling onto the floor.

Being with Hunter didn't stop my train of spontaneity. One afternoon while we were spending time apart, Cheyanne dared me to climb the fence to the campus pool and go skinny dipping. I agreed and left. Climbing over the wrought iron pool fence wasn't hard except for the pointy parts at the top. Before going into the pool, I found myself reminiscing, again. During Welcome Week, the week when only freshman and their RAs are on campus to do fun things before anyone else moves in, they held a pool party one afternoon. Cheyanne and I went. There were no chairs left and no space in the pool. We put our towels down on the concrete by the bleachers. Everything was fine until I started screaming and embarrassing myself because this huge black scorpion crawled out from under the bleachers. I found myself sitting on those same bleachers, thinking about Welcome Week and all those first memories of coming to college, how excited I was about my future.

After sitting there for around twenty minutes daydreaming, I got a text from Cheyanne saying, "Did you do it yet? Don't chicken out on me!" I tried thinking of an excuse to get myself out of it, because thinking of how many people's STD infected crotches swam in that pool over the years was really making me uncomfortable. But in life, there isn't time to be uncomfortable. I was scared to do a lot of the things I'd done so far on this journey, and this was no excuse. I took off all my clothes and jumped right in. Even though it was extremely hot out, the water was freezing.

"Okay, I'm done. I'm done!" I said to myself, swimming back over to the edge.

Then, at that moment, I saw Hunter rounding the corner to head back to Steinman Hall. He heard the noise and ran over, smiling and laughing.

"What are you doing?" he said, pressing his face against the railing of the fence.

My teeth started to chatter. "Cheyanne dared me to skinny dip." Without a word, he started climbing the fence. "No, Hunter. I'm cold. I'm getting out!"

"No way!" His feet hit the concrete on the other side of the fence and he walked over, taking off his shirt. "Just let me jump in with you real quick."

Before I could do anything else, he was naked and running towards me, yelling "Cannonball!" before jumping in and creating a swell of cold water that went over my head. Hunter quickly came to the surface and shook out his wet, flattened hair.

"Well, that was refreshing," he said.

"Great," I said. "I'm getting out, going back to my room, and putting on my slippers."