She watched me put my things in the car from the window. It was raining that day—pouring. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help looking up at her. Her eyes were wide and her fingers were pressed against her lips. I couldn’t tell for sure if she was crying—knowing her, she was—or if I was merely seeing the raindrops splashed against the windowpanes. I didn’t have much with me; I hadn’t had much when I came here, either. A duffel bag and a backpack, my guitar. A year ago, I had met a girl with blond hair and an easy smile and I had decided to stay, which wasn’t something I had ever done before. But the roads would be getting bad out west soon enough, and I heard the Rockies calling my name. The world is bigger than a girl, I figured, even one who laughs at all your jokes and tells stories that make your stone heart ache.
It was miserable and rainy and I felt about the same. I took my clothes off and burrowed under the covers, trying to forget myself for just a little while.
I put on my favorite sad songs and I looked out the window and I daydreamed about him. I must have fallen asleep because I was awoken by a knock at the door and when I looked at the clock, two hours had passed. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and opened the door. My heart skipped a beat—it was him. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me back to the bed and kissed me over and over and suddenly I felt so much better.
I caught his gaze from across the classroom and it was one of those strange, intense moments where two people’s eyes meet and a Connection is forged. I became his in that brief moment that seemed to stretch on for ages.
He was handsome, in an ordinary way—not my usual type. He wore sweaters over button-down shirts and he always looked so neat. Somehow it made me weak at the knees.
We didn’t speak that first day, or for a while afterward. I’m terribly shy, and when I saw him coming down the hall I’d duck behind a corner until he passed, aching all the while to hear him say hello, maybe my name.
He finally did, on a miserable rainy day a few weeks later. I was waiting to cross the street, shivering in the cold. He put his umbrella over me and his arm around my shoulder, like it was the most natural thing in the world. And it was.
We went to lunch and I never looked back.
