The Second Choice

Realizations

"Crystal our death day is tomorrow" I hear Julie yell at me from our bedroom.

"I know, don't even remind me" I complain to her. I haven't even applied for a job at Starbucks yet. I was meaning to do that yesterday, but I was too caught up on catching up with Amelia.

"So, what are we doing today?" Julie looks at me with hopeful eyes. I really don't want to let her down by saying that I can't do anything, but at the same time I have to get a job, so we can keep living here.

"Nowhere today, I have to find a job before college tomorrow, but I promise next weekend we will go somewhere." I give her a hopeful smile.

She agrees with me and tells me that she will go for a walk around central park. As I am about to change for the day I get a phone call from Jonathan.

"Hey love, how are you? You're coming over today right?" he tells me excitingly.

Oh shoot. I completely forgot. I quickly check the time and see that's its only 12:00 p.m. That's enough time to stop by Jonathan's and then make my way to Starbucks.

"Yeah of course, I'll be there in about 20 minutes" I assure him.

"Great, I can't wait for you to meet my roommate, I'll see you later, I love you" and with that I take a quick shower and get changed for the day, remembering to put on my beautiful silver band.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I get out of my Uber I am left speechless at the beautiful sight of the NYU campus. I haven't gotten the chance to explore it yet, since I was so busy being terrified of it.

I take out the piece of paper with the dorm room number that Jonathan wrote out for me in which states "304". I feel as if I'm never going to find the dorm room in this maze of a college.

Eventually, I find a building that has a giant number 3 in it and when I walked inside it was easy to find Jonathan's room because it was the first few in the hallway. Of course, me being my shy self, I begin to get nervous when meeting Jonathan's new roommate, but I brush it off as I know that it just means having another new friend here.

I knock lightly at the door and was immediately greeted by the warm smile that I grew to fall in love with. "Finally," he teases me.

"Well I'm sorry that you live in the farthest building of campus possible" I smile back at him.

"So, where's your roommate?" I question him, examining his side of the room, finding it to be very neat. I also notice a pile of stacked paper and the one at the top looked like an essay, full of cursive handwriting. As I'm about to read the name of the infamous person I get interrupted by Jonathan telling me "Look babe, here he is." When I turn around I'm surprised by who is standing in front of me. He's the guy I saw yesterday, from Central Park.

"Hey, I remember you.... from central park" he smiles at me and I agree with him.

"Crystal meet Micheal. Micheal meet Crystal".

That's when it hits me. The stacked pile of cursive handwriting, the cute smile, the sea green eyes. 7th grade Micheal, the boy who helped me discover the true meaning of heartbreak. As I relive the memories my heart begins to sting again, and I feel as if it is begging and pleading not to put it through the trauma once more. I can tell he is also in shock, as we are both staring at each other in disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Jonathan asks us in confusion. I don't know how to tell him this. He had never known about the events of Micheal and I and I wouldn't want to ruin the friendship he was with his roommate, since he is so content with him.