Only One Dream

Chapter 1

"I don't want better...I want you."

- The Best of Me, coming to theaters October 17

Chapter 1

The dull scheme of grey surrounded me. I stood in the middle of half emptied boxes with my hands resting on my hips. The sweat ran down my face from moving in all day. I cocked my head to the side and stared at the new artwork that hung on the wall. I squinted my eyes, and then opened them wide. I had no clue what I was looking at.

“You love it, don’t you, Josie!”

I turned my head to study my best friend and roommate. I looked her a little longer than normal because I hadn’t seen her all summer. She went to California while I stayed in the south to attend the summer semester before our second year of college. She left with her slightly auburn, mostly brown long hair. It was now short and black, spiking in every single direction on her head. Some of the tips were hot pink. A profile picture change throughout social media would have been a nice warning. When I opened the door to our new college apartment, I turned around, figuring I had the wrong place. Nope. It was the right place. After five years of being best friends, I would have to adjust to this.

I lifted my hand and motioned toward that … that … whatever that was, and said, “What the hell is that?”

“It’s the hip art in California!”

She walked over to the no longer blank wall and adjusted the frame of that … that … “Sara, is that a penis?”

Sara snatched her hand away from the frame and ran over next to me. She slowly tilted her head to the side and gasped. “Oh, my God!”

She ran back to the painting and yanked it off of the wall. “This won’t work.”

I bit my lip to keep in my laughter as she stormed to the front door of our apartment.

“I’m just gonna go hide this in my car before any men see it,” she said as she opened the door and ran right into someone with their hand raised to knock. I peeked around her and noticed it was a guy with intricate tattoos scrolling up his arm. Sara’s voice in my head proclaimed dibs. I just smiled and watched her do her magic. The painting fell out of her hands and the hot tatted guy grabbed it before it hit the ground. It probably should have hit the ground.

“Whoa, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to run into you there.” He smiled, and Sara swayed. She was a goner, and from the look in his eyes, he might have been too.

“Um, I ... uh …” He stuck his hand out, dropping the painting to the ground. They both looked down at it and laughed. “The name’s Wes.”

“Sara,” she answered as she shook his hand. We weren’t even in this apartment for two hours and she was already picking up dudes.

“I just wanted to come by and offer some help if y’all needed it.”

“Oh, that would be great. The television is a little bulky for us to carry up the stairs.”

I smiled as I headed off into the direction of my room as I heard Wes ask, “What exactly is this painting?”

The door slammed as I watched them head down the stairwell from the window above my desk. I was relatively done with everything outside my bedroom. Just had to hang up a few clothes and assemble my printer to my laptop. As I began wiping off my desk, the music blared from outside as people moved up the stairs. There were only four units to one complex, which meant only eight people lived in one building. From the sounds of the herd of cattle running up the stairs, I had a feeling that this might be the party complex. A smile eased up my face. If I would have known that living in an apartment would be much more fun than living in a dorm, I wouldn’t have forced Sara into it last year. I glanced out the window again, and that funny cliché happened. The one where people say time collides or earth stands still, whichever one it was, I was consumed by a sweaty country boy who continued to walk up the stairs and followed the cattle down the breezeway.