We were happy by fascinatedbytay
Being on your own during college break while each one of your friends were probably out tanning in their favorite beaches at their homes was probably the worst thing to ever happen. Attending summer classes in order to complete the college credits we needed to graduate in time was even worse. Looking back, it was partly my fault. All those nights during freshmen year, I spent partying all night and sleeping in all day, didn't help my case, either. Today was one of those days, I put on my sleeveless blue floral dress that ended above my knees, my hair was straightened to perfection, with my bag slung over my shoulder. I might not have my summer break, but dressing like I was on summer vacation was the closest thing to perfection.
Walking down the hill to a little gazebo by the lake where the class was supposed to be held. This was another good thing about summer classes, all the office was closed or at least trying to considering the staff was too lazy to be opened on a break, and very few people came in for help anyway, so most of summer classes tended to be outdoor. When I saw the class had started earlier than I thought, I took an aisle seat because that was the only seat not taken, right next to this guy wearing a grey t-shirt and a flannel over it, his hair was laid back messily like he'd just gotten out of the bed, but the cologne he put on was so strong that I might or might not be attached to it.
I quickly took my notebook out of my bag, scribbling something on the blank paper, looking away at the lake, wishing I was anywhere but here right now. But the deep, raspy voice of the guy sitting next to me, startled me and made me tilt my head to look at him. "You're Mia, right?" He asked, in a low voice, so the other students and the teacher who was still standing and talking could barely hear us.
"Yeah, that'd be me." I replied, shortly, back to looking at the lake again. Curious as to why this guy knew my name, but I just pretended to look busy by scribbling something on my note, taking in what I'd just heard from the professor and writing it down.
"I'm Josh." He introduced himself, taking his hand out for me to take it, that I gladly took and gave a smile to him. He continued again, "I had no idea you'd be here, I thought you were one of the smart kids who would never be in a summer class." He retorted.
I turned my head again to him, raising a quizzical brow. "How do you know me, again?" I questioned.
"I'm in your class. But I can understand if you don't know that," I just nodded my head, pretending like I cared. He opened his mouth again, lowering his head to avoid eye contact with the professor, "Listen, you want to get out of here?" He asked.
Putting strands of hair behind my ears, I shrugged, "And do what? You know summer class is supposed to be taken seriously, right?" I reminded.
He chuckled, taking my statement lightly, already putting his notebooks inside his bag. "And so are regular classes. But here we are," He remarked, smirking. Knowing for a fact that he was right and my ditching side started to make an appearance once again.
I packed my notebooks to my bag as well, getting another smirk from him. "Lead the way." I said, low enough so the professor couldn't hear me. Slowly getting off of the bench, but to my surprise, he raised his finger, excusing himself and I out of this class, that was surprisingly taken lightly by the professor. Apparently, the professor had no interest in teaching the class whatsoever. Guess it wasn't exactly a surprise because if they were told to spent their summer by teaching yet another class, I would've been freaked as well.
He had his hands in his pocket, as we were passing by the lake, all the way to the stadium where morning joggers usually did their thing up until the sun truly rose. And to my judgement, I was right. Many people were running in circle; some alone, some with their friends, some were playing football right in the middle of a field.
"I knew there would be people here, thought everyone was out on vacation or something." I muttered, looking in the distance.
"You run here?" He tilted his head, looking down on me, in a quizzical tone.
I crossed my arms over my chest, standing in the sidelines, shrugging. "Sometimes." I gave a short reply.
And then in one quick moment, he pulled me away, forcing me to run behind him. I was obviously startled by his action at first, but acted quick anyway. We were running around for about an hour or so, burning body weights as we went.
Later in the afternoon, we decided to meet up again. Not to attend classes obviously, he told me to go to the main building in campus. It was almost down when I got there, the sky hadn't turned dark yet, but I knew it would be soon when that happened. I had no interest to ask what we were going to do over there so I obliged. He already waited by the bridge, with the flannel hung around his waist. His black shirt showed every muscle in his body.
I put my arm on the railing of the bridge, cocking my head to the side to look up at him. "I think it was a bad idea to come down here. I can see our classmates down there." My eyes looked in the distance, where the gazebo was lied. A couple of students looked our ways, but I just pretended I didn't just see them.
He looked down at me. "They are so jealous," He remarked, letting out a mocking scoff.
"And we are so busted." I retorted, noticing that the professor was now looking at our direction. He noticed it too and took me by the hand, running into the building's elevator.
The elevator was moving up slowly, making the tension between us pretty darn clear. Too bad, there was a transparent glass window overlooking the lake so we couldn't do anything crazy even if we wanted to. The mass of people on the ground were watching us intently, making the ride to the top of the building even harder by the second.
Finally, we arrived at the destination.
The elevator dinged and it opened immediately. I got out of it, with him trailing behind. Hesitating whether to walk ahead of him or wait until he decided where to go.
At the end of the day, it was my eyesight that took me completely off guard as soon as I saw the beautiful flowers by the railing, moving my feet almost immediately, with my phone already taken out of my purse- ready to take a picture.
Leaning on the white railing, he was watching me closely, his eyes asked a million questions as to why I did just that. "You take pictures?" He asked.
I was finally done admiring the picture I'd just taken. Surprisingly, I only needed to take one, usually, I had to take more than one just to get the perfect shot. "Yeah, it's fun." I shot him a quick reply, still scrolling through my phone, attempting to filter the picture I just took.
"That's nice; so, why did you have to attend summer classes?" He threw in another question, standing on the side of the railing, while every then and now, looking at the sky.
"Cause I want to graduate in time." I answered, casually, in a duh tone.
He chuckled, "Obviously. So how come that you don't know me at all when we're in the same classes almost every single semester?" He asked again.
Starting to think this was an intervention against me, but instead of calling him out for doing such a thing, I formed a thin smile across my face. "Maybe cause I sit in the corner all by myself and never pay attention to my surroundings?" I stated, shrugging.
"Fair enough," He said, looking away from me, into the orange-colored sky. "You know, I'm surprised we never got partnered together. Considering, the many group projects we have to do." He added.
I nodded my head, "Yeah, life is weird like that." I stated, matter-of-factly.
Silence surrounded us afterwards. The only noise filled the air was the janitor cleaning the floors, every once in a while watching us closely, probably thinking what in the world we were doing up here all by ourselves.
Looking down on the lake below, there was a boat in the shape of a duck, waiting to be rode on by anyone who wasn't ashamed enough to ride it right in the middle of campus. He looked down on me once again, "You ever ride on one of those ducks?" He asked, more like a persuasion rather than a question.
"No." As soon as the word left out my mouth, he immediately took me by the hand, and just a minute later, we were already by the lake, ready to jump in on one of the ducks.
He had the thing ready and helped me get in by reaching his arm out. I gladly took it, muttering all kind of prayers that I didn't fall in to the water.
I sat next to him, he had taken control of the boat, his feet on the pedal, pushing the boat forward.
He spoke, breaking the silence, "You can take a lot of good pictures from here, if you want," He told.
I was surprised that he even cared, but before he mentioned it, I already had my phone taken out of my purse. Silently hoping that the calm, monotone wind didn't push my phone away into the water.
"Please tell me what you've been doing on campus that you never decided to ride one of these." He said, motioning towards the boat.
I shrugged, "I wanted to; but I thought you couldn't ride it unless you're one of the people who have permission to do so." I answered.
He chuckled, shaking his head too many times at my response. "You're funny; what do you think our tuition is for?" He joked.
"Ha ha." I mocked him with a monotone laugh, the sky was already in the shade of lilac and my phone was already on camera mode.
He watched me taking a picture with his arms resting lazily on top of his head and his leg crossed over his thigh. Once I was done taking pictures, my camera took me to his face, unintentionally clicking the red button.
"Hey, I wasn't ready!" He exclaimed, grasping me, snatching my phone away from him, but I did whatever it took to get it back. Even if I had to bend over his body and touch him.
Too bad for him, I successfully got my phone back and stuck out my tongue at him. He rolled his eyes, pouting like a kid he was, but opened his mouth to say more anyway. "You can take as many pictures of me as you want, just ask first, okay?" He pleaded.
"Thought you wouldn't care." I said, holding my phone up, but not really taking pictures anymore. The sky already turned dark and the sunset had long gone now.
"You women aren't the only one who know about feminism and stand by it, you know." He retorted.
Just when I thought he was one of those guys who winked and sent flirtatious lines at girls passing him, he proved me wrong. The truth was I knew him, but I pretended not to just because I didn't want him to know just yet. He had stolen my heart ever since he walked past me with his cologne filling out the air. And now knowing this fact about him, my adoration for him only increased.
We were finally under the bridge, in the dark, not doing things we were supposed to. Instead, I was admiring the sky and he, well, to be completely honest, I had no idea what he was thinking about. But, he took me by surprised when he held my hand softly, that I turned around to face him.
"Just, don't say anything," He decided to say, still looking away from me, his hand rested on top of mine.
I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. All of a sudden, there was spark surrounding us, forcing us to do the things we weren't supposed to. But he kept peddling the boat even faster, until we finally reached the end of the lake. He was still holding my hand up until then.
"We're here." I said, breaking the silence.
"I know," He looked down on his thigh, sounding like he had more to say but decided against it.
"I should probably go, it's getting late." I lied, trying to avoid him. But as I was about to stand up, he grabbed me and pulled me into his embrace. He landed his lips on mine; a kiss that caught me off guard but I acted quick and cupped both sides of his cheek, kissing him back, practically sitting on his lap.
We said our goodbyes but not after he took off his flannel and put it on me. I wanted to ask why, but when I turned around, he just shrugged.
The next day, I asked if we could meet again to return his shirt. So when he said yes, I put on a short, sleeveless white dress, walking down the hill with a smile on my face. Only to find out that from five feet away from me, right along the sidewalk, below a tree, next to the helipad, there stood he, pressing his lips on another girl's mouth, with his hand holding her waist, as she casually lifted her leg up in a 90° angle (it was so cliche yet I was envious that she got to do that, with him).
I wasn't shocked because I knew he had a girlfriend but still, how naive and stupid I was to think he'd change his mind about that after yesterday. Seeing him like that, made me realize that I would never stand a chance, regardless of our connection the other day. With that fact, I was grateful that I still had yesterday's moment saved in a drawer inside my brain for one of those rainy days.
Though he still went home to her, at least we had yesterday, and I know for a fact that, judging from our short time we spent together, we were happy.