Need the Sun to Break

.003

Seven weeks later, I only have a few days left before my college experience officially comes to an end. I've worked my ass off this semester in an attempt to maybe change fate's course, but in the end all I was left with was a 3.94 GPA and plenty of good memories with the boys.

I told them the news about a week after I first decided to forego my last two semesters. They were surprised and upset to say the least, but they ultimately understood that I didn't have much of an option at this point. After they recovered from their initial disappointment, we all agreed that I had to live it up as much as possible for the rest of this semester in an attempt to pack in all of the fun of senior year that I was now going to miss. And to be honest, we did a damn good job. These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of crazy nights at O'Leary's, spontaneous house parties, bar crawls from one end of the city to the next, and loads of drunkenly forgotten things in between.

Eliza even joined us for some of those nights. Although I never got as close to her as I had originally hoped, we did end up seeing each other a couple times a week. Even though we cultivated a casual friendship, I never did have the heart to tell her that this was my last semester here. I made the boys promise to keep it from her as well, so as far as I know, she still has no idea. I'm not quite sure why I never told her, but it was nice to still be a regular, returning student in at least one person's eyes. And if I'm being honest, her eyes were the only ones that seemed to matter to me.

I have to admit, I do regret not asking Eliza to go out with me. But with everything else that was going on this semester I didn't really have time for a relationship. At least that's what I have been repeatedly telling myself. Regardless, I feel lucky that I just got to spend at least a little extra time with her throughout my last few weeks. Enough time with her, in fact, that I know that today, Tuesday, May 2nd, is her last day on campus before summer break.

Maybe that's why I now find myself passing by the bus stop, where I know she'll be leaving to take the 4-hour bus ride back to her home in Illinois, right around the time that I know she's leaving at. And by "know" I mean looked up the bus schedule and saw that the only bus leaving for Illinois today is scheduled to depart at 2:24 pm.

It's 2:15 and I just passed the bus stop with still no sign of Eliza. I'm beginning to worry that I have somehow missed her entirely or maybe read the bus schedule wrong when I hear someone in the distance yelling "Shit!"

I look up to see Eliza struggling to get through her dorm-building door with her some five-odd bags of varying shapes and sizes.

"Need some help?" I yell at her as I jog the short distance between the bus stop and her building.

Startled, Eliza looks up and responds, "Oh my god, you scared me! I guess I was making a bit of a scene, huh?" she asks, looking defeated as another bag slides off her shoulder and hits the ground with a thud. She winces. "That was probably my laptop."

"Yikes. Here, let me help. You're heading to the bus stop right?" I ask, pretending I hadn't checked the bus schedule for the third time this morning in the hopes of catching her.

"Yeah, it's just over there. Thanks, Jack," she replies, grateful for the assistance.

"My pleasure," I respond, hoping she doesn't catch on to how sincerely I truly mean this cliché.

Now carrying what feels like at least 70 pounds of luggage, I see the bus pull up to the stop. 2:20 pm. Still four minutes to departure. Plenty of time for me to think of something charming and cool enough to say to Eliza so that she remembers me forever. Four minutes. No pressure.