Changes

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

    Come on four o' clock, I thought to myself. I stared intensely at the clock on my night stand while patiently lying in bed. I was on my side with my hands in a praying position under my head letting thoughts run through my mind. The clock read 3:15. I still had forty-five minutes before I technically was supposed to wake up. I tossed and turned all night which I unfortunately expected considering I made the decision to go to the gym this morning knowing Dr. Easton was going to be there. Never would I have been up at this hour for any other occasion. I valued sleep too much. I sighed to myself. What am I doing? Yes, the man was good looking but I don't know what my motive is. For some strange reason, apart from him being entirely too good looking for his own good, I wanted to know more about him. I don't know if it's because he's such a mystery and he just captivates me or what it is. All I knew is that I wanted to be around him. That's the only explanation I could give myself. Even if it was a real crappy one.

    I closed my eyes for a brief moment before deciding to just wake up and start the paper that was due in his class a week from now. I sat up in my bed and propped my back against the headboard before reaching down and grabbing my laptop that was lying against the bedframe. I opened it up to see my wallpaper reflecting a collage of images of Phillip and I from the past three years of our relationship. I didn't realize that I hadn't used my laptop since last semester so I had forgotten that the home page was plastered with unwanted memories. There were pictures of us at the beach, the mountains, and us celebrating different holidays and occasions that we had spent together. Some of them displayed the kisses that we shared in different places and others just contained smiles as big as the sun. At one time the memories would have brought a smile to my face, but now they just reminded me of the pain and the betrayal that ensued. I quickly went through my pictures in the library on my computer and chose one of me and Maybel at my dad's beach house this past summer. I changed my wallpaper to our smiling faces and proceeded to open Word on my laptop. For roughly the next forty-five minutes I busily wrote a few pages for the paper before saving it onto my flash drive. I closed my computer and reached over to my alarm clock to go ahead and turn it off before it began to blare through the room. I slipped on some sweatpants and a hoodie before sliding on my tennis shoes and making my way to the front of the apartment. I paused in the hallway and just smiled as I heard Maybel's snore echoing through the hall. After smiling and shaking my head I walked over to the fridge to retrieve a water before grabbing my keys and heading out.

    As I made my way down the elevator and across the highway to the university I could feel the nerves in my stomach fluttering. I pulled my phone from my shorts to check the time. It was 4:15. I slid it back in place and continued to make my way towards the gym. I took a deep breath as I reached the doors and thought about how this could go. You're going to make him think you're a weirdo if you don't get a hold of yourself, I thought to myself. I rolled my eyes. He probably already did considering the private concert he was the audience of yesterday. I scanned my student ID card and began to walk past the basketball court but halted myself when I heard the sound of a basketball being bounced. Without being seen, I moved to the edge of the wall and peeked my head around to see if I could see anyone. Although I was relieved that it wasn't someone else, my breath hitched in my throat. There he was. Lazarus Easton. Without a shirt. He must've been playing for a while because his upper half was glistening with sweat. He moved around the court with ease, bouncing the ball and then shooting it towards the net. The muscles in his back and arms were bigger than I had ever seen, but the beauty of them were natural. They weren't steroid driven like Phillip's and his football buddies. His were real. His skin had a bronzy summer tan that only I could dream of having. His long, chestnut hair was pulled into a messy bun, just as I'd seen the morning before. The muscles in his neck and shoulders flexed with every move he made, not to mention the bulging ones in his arms. I reminded myself to breathe and took a gulp. He too was sporting sweatpants that were grey and was printed with university's name down the leg. The sweats hung off his hips a little, showing the dip in his back.