A New Life

8. A New Day

"Eh-hem." Sophie cleared her throat loudly after a minute. "I hate to break up the fun here, Lauren, but I do think we all need a proper introduction..." said Sophie jokingly, as she was standing next to Connor.

Nick and I broke away from each other, and I giggled.

I said, "Well, Sophie, this is my friend Nick....Nick, this is my roommate Sophie and her friend Connor."

"Nice to finally meet you Nick." Sophie said as Connor and Nick shook hands.

"Great job to both of you on your game tonight," I said as I looked at Nick.

His blue eyes were glistening in the stadium lights and his face lit up.

Connor whispered something in Sophie's ear. Then Sophie said, "Should we start walking back home?"

We agreed and began our walk with Nick and Connor back to the dorms.

Sophie and Connor walked slightly ahead of us.

Nick and I were walking silently next to each other. Then he grabbed my hand and gracefully slid his large fingers into mine. No words were needed. We both knew how we felt about each other. I leaned toward him a little more, and we walked together half-listening to the sounds of our feet on the gravel path. The moments we had together were always so meaningful. As we rounded the corner, we could see the lights from our dorm building gradually getting closer to us. We stopped at the courtyard, and we knew it was time to go home. He stepped in front of me to face me, still holding my hand.

"Thank you for an amazing day today," I repeated from earlier.

"I'm glad we could spend so much time together," he replied gazing into my eyes. He took my other hand closed his hand against mine, mirroring the other one.

"Goodnight," he said. His hands were still holding mine.

"Laurie?" he said, after a pause.

"Yes?"

He softly kissed me again, and I felt a deep warmth inside of me.

"See you tomorrow," he said.

I smiled brightly, "goodnight Nick."

We finally let go each other's hands go, and Sophie and I walked upstairs so we could get some sleep for another day of classes tomorrow.

This day had been truly amazing. I recounted my whole day in my head.

Before going to bed, I thought about Ryan. I decided I would go visit him at the hospital tomorrow.

The annoying beeping sound woke me from a dead sleep. I could not believe it was already 6:30am. I rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I decided I would loosely curl my hair today. I went to my closet and picked out a lavender top with white skinny jeans and my silver necklace my cousin Tyler had given me for my birthday last year. I wondered if Tyler had gotten the birthday present from me yet. I was especially missing Ellie and Tyler today. I went to the kitchen as usual and poured out some cereal. Sophie walked out of her room with a worried look on her face as she was staring at her phone.

"What's the matter?" I asked her worriedly.

"According to Connor, Ryan isn't doing so well. He stayed overnight at the hospital last night," she replied.

"I'm thinking about going to visit him later," I told her.

At 7:15am, Nick and Connor were waiting in the courtyard for Sophie and me to come down.

"Good morning, beautiful," Nick greeted me as he waited for me at the base of the stairs. I was almost to the bottom of the stairs when he said this, but his words completely took me by surprise. I wasn't looking where I stepped and missed the stair completely. I was sent flying straight toward Nick. Thankfully, he caught me with his strong arms, but we still hit the ground. I felt my cheeks burning.

"You know, Lauren, you are beautiful from this angle, too," he said. Both of us were laughing really hard and I leaned back on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," I told Nick still giggling as he helped me up. We walked to the building with our first classes in it. I said goodbye to Nick because Sophie, Connor, and I all had Spanish together. This class and English went by so fast because we had really good teachers. Calculus was tedious and Ryan wasn't there to talk to, either.

Physics finally came and I was super excited to see Nick again. He came in and smiled at me. He sat down next to me, and we began to listen to today's lecture on chapter 2. The long class was finally over and we left class ready for an important quiz tomorrow. 

"I think we should study for the quiz after class, what do you think?" Nick asked me.

"Definitely," I agreed smiling as we grabbed our books from our desk.

A/N: What do you think of Ryan and Nick? Which one do you hope Lauren ends up with? Let me know below and vote too! Thanks :) Elizabeth