Author's Note
Thank you times a million to all of you who have continued to read, vote and comment. It means the world to me!
xx Katerina
Chapter Ten
The day had been dragging on, painfully. So painfully in fact that I believed it was a Monday until someone mentioned it was fact Wednesday at lunch. A Wednesday has to be pretty awful for it to feel like a Monday. And it was awful, for several reasons.
The first being the time of year, it was the second week of November, too early for the radio stations to begin playing carols and much too close to Christmas to see the point in attending class. Second, I had a lab report due. No day ever starts out well when you have an assignment due in your morning class. Finally, I hadn't spoken to another human being in a meaningful way in three days (grunting my coffee order at the barista did not count). At this point I was just trying to survive until Thanksgiving break, still two weeks away.
I was walking back to my dorm with my backpack slung over my shoulder and a cup of tea clutched in my hand when a voice behind me called out.
"Hey Althea, wait up!" I turn around to see Ethan in a red sweater and jeans jogging towards me.
"Hi, how've you been?"
"I've been meaning to ask you out actually, since about, Halloween?" His words are rushed and I wonder if he registered my greeting. He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and glances at me through his eyelashes. A small laugh escapes my lips.
"Halloween? That was ages ago,"
"I know, I know. But midterms happened and then my nerves happened"
"Understandable,"
"So, tonight? I thought maybe we could do coffee and dessert?" I mull it over for a moment before nodding somewhat hesitantly. What exactly was I agreeing to? A date? A kind-sorta-date? There were few things worse than going out with a guy under the pretence that you were friends and having him say psych, this is a date halfway through the evening...
"Great, I'll pick you up around 8:00?" He smiles and I return it before heading once again in the direction of home. My grip on the strap of my backpack tightens involuntarily.
"Oh, Althea!" I glance behind me to see Ethan standing a few paces back, his blush obvious even from a distance. "Forgot to ask for your address."
"East dorm. Room 303." I wave at him and he shoots me a thumbs up.
I continue my trek across the campus lawn while pulling my phone out to dial the too-familiar number.
"Al? What's up hun?" Andi sounded like she was in the midst of doing some sort of studying, I can picture her with the lid of her pen stuck between her teeth (hence the subtle lisp in her voice) and her textbook open in front of her.
"Hypothetically speaking, if a guy tells you he's been meaning to ask you out since Halloween, the outing would qualify as what?" I cradle the phone between my cheek and shoulder in order to throw away my coffee cup and readjust my bag.
"A date."
"What if it's just coffee?" I squeak, not liking the trajectory of this conversation.
"Still a date. With who?"
"Ethan from my elective class..."
"Smoking hot firefighter dude?" Her voice goes up an octave and I know I've had garnered her full attention.
YOU ARE READING
Where You and I Began
Romance"I'm in love with you and it scares the hell out of me. My first instinct is to run. That's exactly like my mother." Althea was raised by a driven and headstrong career focused women with precious little time to spend being a parent. A childhood...
