Dark Night

First quarter

I left a couple hours later; it had been really nice, he hadn't pushed me to go farther than I was comfortable, but it turned out that he made me feel pretty comfortable with some new activities. And we'd talked too, it hadn't been only messing around. He'd played me some music he'd composed, and I liked it.

I went back to the room for a little nap--Serafina was out--and later I got together with some new friends for dinner and a movie.

This happy state of affairs lasted through October; I'd gone surfing once more before the water got too cold, and I experienced new facets of college life, like tailgating and football games, including Homecoming. College football was a whole other level than high school games, I found out immediately and Serafina and I had a good time with a few friends that we added to our group, Sherry Greer, Olivia Fleming, and Essie Morris. Sherry wanted to be an architect, Essie was doing near-Eastern studies, and Olivia was studying political science; she also wanted to go to law school. That was the part of college I liked the most; there were so many interesting people all around, with all different aspirations, and we were all thrown together.

I kept moving forward, not allowing myself to be too introspective about my experience, because it was easy to feel overwhelmed by college. As it was, both Serafina and I had a couple crying jags and had to talk each other out of feeling like we were in over our heads. I was more and more grateful for my pass/fail classes although my grades were getting better and there were rumors of a curve in both calculus and chemistry. John and I kept up our lunches and added an afternoon study session afterward; I loved having this time with him. My relationship with Arthur was also deepening, we were spending a good amount of time together, and at the end of the month, I went to the health center and got on birth control. I also got a variety pack of condoms the next time I went to the drugstore, not having enough experience to know what either of us would prefer in terms of texture and lubrication. But it wasn't until shortly before the Thanksgiving break that we had sex for the first time. It was so much better than I'd thought it would be; we'd fooled around for a long time and I was completely comfortable with him and trusted him. I was a little sore the next day from the movement of sex, but that was the only slight negative.

I didn't go home for Thanksgiving; we only had four days off for it, and besides, there was less than a month before finals. John didn't go home either; his parents and Paul came down to his grandparent's and he invited me for Thanksgiving dinner. My family was disappointed I didn't come back, but staying on campus also meant that I had three days of intensive studying, and I needed it. I'd managed to pull my calculus grade up to a B. Serafina went home, but her family was closer than mine. It was weird to have the room to myself. The dinner was delicious, and I finally got to try Mrs Park's famous Korean barbeque. It was every bit as wonderful as John had said it was. I was glad to see Paul and as I was entertaining him with stories about surfing (he was interested) he asked how John was really doing.

"He's putting up a good front for the family but I don't know how he's really doing," he muttered sotto voice.

"I think he's doing better than he expected," I murmured back. "The adjustment to college is pretty rocky for anybody. His grades aren't as good as they were in high school, but then mine aren't either. But we have lunch and study together once a week, text or talk more than that, so I think he's going to be ok. He's dating and having fun, so he's not being a weird hermit."

Paul harrumphed. "I'm surprised you're ok with him dating, is all I'm going to say."

"I'm dating too. It's a whole new world and all kind of experiences are out there." He didn't look like he liked that answer any better, but while I liked Paul, he wasn't going to run my life. Then Mrs Tang had a question about how I was liking school, so that finished the topic nicely.

Arthur's suitemates all went home for the holiday but he didn't, and we took great advantage of the privacy. I still managed to get a lot of studying done.

The week after Thanksgiving was the annual USC/UCLA game and I got to experience the buildup to that for the first time. One night was a huge bonfire and party, and one day you could exchange a piece of red clothing (USC's color) for a blue Bruins t-shirt, along with other activities. The game was hard fought, but UCLA squeaked by for the win by a field goal. That night the campus and Westwood were lit up in celebration.  The week after that was the Stanford game, which we lost, along with the championship of the PAC 10. Bummer. But finals were coming up and I had no time to spare for the fate of the football team.

I didn't actually pull any all nighters; I got at least five hours of sleep a night and I was finished with my finals Wednesday of finals week. I slept in almost until noon, goofed off the rest of the day, going swimming for my workout and when Serafina came back from her last final, we went into Westwood for dinner and doing absolutely nothing that was not frivolous. We did our laundry that night and the next day I packed up and headed for Duke's Crossing.