Overcome [n.m]

Two

I woke up the next morning to a buzzing noise. I was dripping in sweat. The last thing I remember from my dream was Thomas yelling at me from across the street. I had began to walk away after I saw him with another girl. That was far too close to home for me.

In my dream, I went to his house to bring back his bookbag that he had left at my house and stumbled upon that devastating scene. That was not exactly how it happened in real life, but it still did the trick of making me feel like shit all over again.

Taking a deep breath, I rolled over to take my phone off the charger. I squinted my eyes harshly and read the text message from Addison.

"Meet me outside, we are going up to the college to get our student ID's and parking passes."

I got up and went straight to the shower. I had to wash off the sweat and bad memories of last night's nightmare. I threw on a sun dress and some sandals and pinned my hair up. I came to an abrupt stop outside my room when I realized that I forgot my makeup. I whipped around and walked to my bathroom. I slapped on a thin coat of foundation, colored in my eye shadow, and finished with my mascara. I looked in the mirror and nodded, silently approving my five-minute make up session.

That was actually the fastest I had ever gotten myself ready. Maybe I wouldn't feel the need to get pampered up before leaving the house if I hadn't been told so many times in the past that I needed it. I should be able to feel beautiful without it, right?

Thinking these thoughts reminded me of what Thomas used to say to me. In the second year that we dated, Thomas got more disrespectful with his words. He went from 'You look beautiful regardless' to 'you really should spend more time on your appearance.' His words made me scowl. How could someone who claims to love you, strive to make you feel horrible about yourself daily? I didn't want to think about him anymore as he was once again destroying my mood. I had seen far too much of him already in my unwanted dreams.

I met Addie by the door, and we walked side by side to her car. We drove through the city in search of our college. During the ride I explained to her my nightmare and some of my thoughts that I had this morning.

"Kass, I wish you wouldn't let that jerk bother you so much. He has no clue what he lost and also don't even get me started on that hoe," she explained to me while rolling her eyes.

I knew she was right but how do you fix those feelings? I can't ever unhear the things that he has said to me. I will always have the image in my head of seeing him with that perfect girl. I will always have the underlying feeling of not being good enough and for that I want to hate him forever.

I stared off into the city as we made our way to our college campus. I admired the scenery. It was much different than San Antonio. There were a lot more bridges and interstates and as sad enough, homeless people. I brushed off my feelings once again and carried on with my day. This was such an exciting day, I needed to pay more attention to the good things coming my way and stop dwelling on the past, but I knew in my heart that was easier said than done.

Once we found our school, we parked in front of the Administration Office. We both got out and slammed our doors in sync. Not only were we here to get parking passes and such, but also to get an early start on signing up for sports and printing our schedules for the fall semester. We still had a few weeks left of summer to go, but we were so excited, we didn't want to be late for anything.

While we walked through campus, a feeling of nervousness and excitement overcame me. I felt slightly nauseous. I knew it was just nerves though, happy ones at that. We proceeded into the admissions office and got everything important taken care of. We asked the desk receptionist if we could have our schedules printed out also. She generously printed them for us and sent us on our way.

Of course, we had the same schedule, that's what happens when you sign up for classes early. Walking around the campus, being next to Addie reminded me of when we were exploring New York one summer. It was a month before school started and we were so excited to be freshmen in high school. Mrs. Thompson took me with her and Addie to eat lunch at a Waffle House and after we walked down the street. We noticed a bunch of different styles on people. Some were dressed like hippies with the different colored sunglasses. Others were in business suits, while some were homeless, begging for money. That summer was the first time I had gotten to ride in a taxi. The streets were so crowded, and everyone seemed to be in a rush wherever they went.

Escaping from the memories provided to me by my brain, we quickly found the recreational building. It was one of the biggest buildings and kind of hard to miss. We walked in and noticed that they had football practice going on.

"Ooh, football players," Addie giggled.

I smiled back to her comment.

We continued in and both of our eyes started wondering around. I noticed there was a track around the top of the gym, and then two separated gyms below. We walked up to a young man behind the counter looking at his computer and typing very fast.

"Excuse me, we were just wondering what kind of sports you guys have at this campus."

He looked up and smiled. He kicked and rolled his chair to the right, picked up two hand outs and rolled back.

"Here you go. Let me know if you have any questions," he smiled and began typing hastily on his computer again.

After scanning the handout Addie looked at me and said, "They have Cheerleading. Competition and Game!"

She was so happy. I was kind of relieved too. I actually enjoyed cheering on the side lines every Friday night.

"When are try outs?" I asked.

"It says there will be tryouts held in the Recreational Center," she paused, "In a week. Wow, do you think we could come up with something that soon? I guess they like to get their practices started early, but I am not complaining."

"Of course, have you not met us?" I winked at her.

She turned her worried look into a satisfied smile. We got the sign-up sheet from the counter and wrote our names and contact information down. We had been cheering so long there were endless routines and sequences we could do. We were also state champions twice in a row at our High School.

Satisfied with our walk around the campus with the wind in our hair and making sure we were up to date with where our classes were located, we made our way back to the car. I was kind of bummed on the ride home when I realized I hadn't seen the Zaxby's guy on campus.

"Do you think the guys from a few days ago were really from Ga State? Or were they just fans?" I asked desperately as if she could possibly know the answer.

"I think they go to our college, and I think they have to play some sport wearing those shirts and being sweaty like that," she assured.

"You never know, we will probably run into them with us being in that building all the time. You can finally work up the courage to talk to him!" she added, taking her eyes off the road for a few short seconds to smile at me.

I slipped her a smile back. I was always super awkward when it came to flirting with guys. I couldn't tell you why. Actually, I knew why, but I wasn't going to think about that again.

When we got home, we went our separate ways and ate dinner with each of our families. We texted each other goodnight and I slowly dozed off.

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-Tay 🌸