Five Years

Chapter Eleven: Change of Pace

I didn't fall asleep that night, I spent most of it awake thinking about what had happened during the course of the night. I honestly don't know what possessed me to kiss him. I didn't know I really wanted it to happen until I was kissing him, and it just felt right, it felt natural... like it was supposed to happen.

I laid in bed looking out the window onto the street, watching the cars and people pass by. I remembered Liam and I's conversation about music; I decided to look up one of the bands he mentioned that I'd never heard of. I opened YouTube on my phone and typed in "Blue October," and listened to a few of the first songs that came up. They were pretty good, and they were different than most of the stuff that played on the radio. I bought the album "Foiled" on iTunes. As I let it play, I laid back and let the music inspire me.

I decided to write down whatever came to mind; it was mostly a list of random words, ideas, and feelings, and some images that popped into my head. It all made sense right now. The song "18th Floor Balcony" played as I finished writing, and it was such a beautiful song. I played it again, just to listen to it and focus on the words. I fell asleep as it played through my headphones.

When I woke up, I expected to see Dev and Brian. I'd forgotten they had class this morning; it must have been miserable for them trying to wake up after being out all night. I definitely needed to shower, as I fell asleep in last night's clothes and with all my makeup on. I grabbed my towel, and my phone, and headed towards the bathroom. As I waited for the water to get warm, I played a little Bowie through the speakers on my phone and belted out the lyrics to "Changes."

"SO I TURNED MYSELF TO FACE ME, BUT I'VE NEVER CAUGHT A GLIMPSE-" I started, but the music had cut out when my phone began to ring. I answered it in a rush without looking to see who it was, "Hello?"

"Hey, Sarah, it's me," I heard the familiar voice say. I pulled the screen back from my face so I could see who 'me' was. "It's Rich?"

"Hey! Ahhh! How are you!?" I said excitedly to my older brother.

"I'm good, I was just calling to see how you were getting on out in the middle of nowhere," he said.

"It's not that bad! It's really quite beautiful, it reminds me a lot of fall back home," I said, feeling nostalgic. "I miss you. How's everything at the Hill?" The Hill was the nickname for his college, he was a junior.

"Not too bad, it snowed earlier in the week. I just talked to mom, she said they're already on their way up," he said. It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about.

"Awww, man! It's parent's weekend, isn't it? This is the first year I'll miss," I think I felt my heart sink inside my chest. "I can't believe I'm missing it."

Rich sighed, "Well, it's not that big of a deal. Just a rugby match and a rousing game of Apples to Apples." He seemed upset but I know he was trying to hide it from me; parent's weekend was the first of three times during the year I got to see my brother during his school year. "So what have you been up to?"

I turned off the running water in the shower, "I actually have some big news! We were paired up in my scriptwriting class to do a five page script, but we could only use one line of dialogue. My partner and I did such a good job that our professor approached us and wants to produce the script after we tweak it a little!"

"Awesome! That's great, bun, I'm proud of you!" Bun was short for Bunny, a nickname my dad had given me when I was little that always just sort of stuck with me. Everyone in my house used that name for me. "When will you guys start to like film and all that?"

"I'm not sure. We've got some work to do before we get to that stage, but I'm excited. To have this ability as a freshman? And in my first semester? This like, never happens," I got all giddy again talking about it.