"Hey Addie!" I heard as I walked to my car after my last class at Thornfield Community College, a small unremarkable school surrounded by corn fields in Ohio. My shoulder length ash blonde hair rustled in the breeze, blowing my usual perfume behind me towards my best friend, Emma Wayne, who was currently yelling my name. I adjusted my black square framed glasses and turned around.
"Hey, Em. What's up?" I smiled at her, as she rushed forward to meet me beside my small silver 2006 Honda Civic.
"Can you give me a ride home? My mom had to borrow my car earlier and now I'm stuck here," she pouted at me.
I laughed and unlocked my car. "Sure, Emma. It's not like you live that far anyway." I pulled down my denim shorts and light blue t-shirt as I climbed in. I was nothing special to look at; I mean, sure I was pretty, but no one even thought about or looked at me twice. Just your standard wallflower here. Emma, on the other hand, was gorgeous with her long chestnut brown hair that reached down to the small of her back, her kind, sea green eyes, and gorgeous golden brown tan. Today to show off her perfection, she was clothed in a tan mini skirt and low-cut hot pink V-neck, paired with a pair of hot pink flip flops. Her lime green backpack was slung over her shoulder and she looked like she didn't have a care in the world as she climbed into my car. I, however, knew differently.
Emma stressed out about everything, from the amount of homework she had to how her lip gloss looked and to how many boys had smiled at her that day. We'd been friends for as long as I could remember, and apparently before that. Our mothers had introduced us at the age of 2 and from then on, we'd been inseparable. We weren't at TCC because we weren't smart enough to go to a real college; we'd just wanted to take the basic classes and save ourselves some of the debt. In fact, after we got our degrees at Thornfield, we were both off to big name universities. At the age of 19, Emma and I were basically the last ones left in our small town from our group of friends in high school. In fact, we were the only ones left in the small town that was actually planning on doing something with their lives. We were stranded among the burnouts and dropouts while the rest of our senior class from the year prior was off to big and adventurous places.
The ironic thing was that Emma was dating the perfect guy: captain of TCC's baseball team, and then there was me. Her somewhat pretty best friend that was a total wallflower and had been single for most of my 19 years. Yes, I'd had a boyfriend but it wasn't anything too serious. I preferred waiting for the right guy to find me. I was sort of starting to give up hope though. I mean, the only boyfriend I'd had was when I was 17 and it was little more than a label. We were more friends than anything else. Sure there were a few fumbled grabs in the dark, but again, nothing too important. In fact, if it hadn't been my only real experience, I might not even remember it. Yeah, I was waiting for Prince Charming to get his butt in gear and come find me: damsel in distress style. I suppose my reading choices influenced this way of thinking. The Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, anything romantic you name it, I've probably read it. I loved Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and all the classics. I thrived on knowing that love comes in all shapes and sizes to basically anyone. And speaking of love, my eyes landed on a cute guy with slightly sunkissed skin, warm brown eyes, and long brown hair. He was definitely my type if I'd had one.
"Addie, are you even paying attention to me?" Emma asked, shaking her head and slamming me back to reality from staring at the cute guy.
"Uhh..." In truth, I hadn't been. "You were talking about Ethan?" I hunched my shoulders in and apologized. "I'm sorry, Em. I'm just thinking," I explained as I looked both ways, pulling out of TCC's parking lot, along with the other hundred people that had just either arrived or decided to leave.
"No, Addie. I was trying to discuss Romanticism with you," she pouted before bursting into giggles. "No, in all actuality, I was talking about that guy that was staring at you in Larkin's class today. He was kind of nerdy but really hot."
