My first day at college hadn't been exactly what I'd expected it to be, but it hadn't been that bad either. For someone who'd had spent all their life in the same school with the same teachers and the same friends, going into a new college felt much more intimidating than it should have, or at least it did to me. The prospect of making new friends felt daunting and I wondered if I'd even be able to do it.
I wasn't the kind of person who shyed away from any and every kind of social interaction whatsoever, but I didn't like putting myself on the spot either. I could hold up a conversation pretty well but the thought always stayed if the person whom I was talking to liked me or not.
I was confident in myself, yes, but whenever self doubt kicked in, I couldn't help but feel nervous. And that was exactly what I was feeling when I'd first stepped into the office to collect my schedule. Navigating through the campus wasn't that hard since I'd memorized the map and I'd easily found my first class for the day.
There were barely any students in the class when I'd first walked inside. I looked at the watch, realizing I was twenty minutes early. I took a seat in the third row and waited for the others to come in.
It wasn't long before a girl with fiery red hair and a smile as bright as the lights illuminating the room walked in and took a seat next to me.
"Hey! I'm Emily." She introduced herself once she'd set her books down.
"I'm Scarlet." I nodded at her with a polite smile, instantly taking a liking to the girl.
She took out a chocolate from her bag and offered some to me. I gladly took a cube and put it into my mouth. "You're the best." I told her through a mouth full and we laughed. We quickly compared our schedules and realized we had one more class together.
The rest of the day went by in a blur of me listening to the professors drone on and on and on about what we were going to study in their class, what all to expect as the year went by and so on. I made two other friends, Amelia and Eva. I'd sat with each of them in two of my classes and we'd quickly become friends.
By the time it was time for college to be over, I was content with the way my day had turned out so far. None of the professors had seemed too rude or scary and I'd sucessfully made three friends. I didn't know much about any of them for now, but I was sure as the days went by, I would.
It was quarter past four by the time I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, on my way to the Spring Park where I was supposed to meet Theo.
Admittedly, the thought of finally seeing him had been at the back of my mind for the whole day, but I'd pushed it back so I could concentrate on my studies. I'd received a message from Theo that morning, wishing me good luck and asking if we were still going to meet in the evening. I'd thanked him and told him to be there by five since it was nearly an hour's drive from my college campus. The park was half way between my home and college and had seemed like the best place for us to meet, seeing as it was a half hour drive from where Theo lived too.
It wasn't long before I pulled into the parking lot at the park and got out of the car. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time. It was five mintues past five and surprisingly enough, I had two messages from Theo.
I quickly opened them. The first one was sent at 12:20 pm and read 'Hope college has been treating you well so far.'
The second one was sent at 4:30 and read 'I'm leaving for the park now, can't wait to see you XD.'
His texts made me smile, it was sweet how he cared enough to text me in the middle of the day just to see how my day was going. I hadn't checked my phone at all ever since I'd entered the college and now I felt almost guilty for doing not replying to him.
I quickly walked into the park through the main gate, hoping to find him soon. The park was full of lush green grass and flowers of almost every kind, making it the best place to take leisurely strolls and find some peace. I noticed a lot of people jogging around the place, walking their dogs or simply sitting and enjoying the view. The park wasn't overly crowded but it wasn't empty either, it felt like it was just the place for this meeting. I scanned the park once but couldn't spot Theo no matter what. I looked around twice more before coming to the conclusion that he wasn't here yet.
He was running late. Biting back a smile at how I was going to tease him to no end for this, I quickly pulled out my phone and dialled his number.
It went to voicemail straight away, telling me that the phone was switched off. I cut the call without leaving a message, frowning to myself and at a loss for what to do next. Xander's phone was the only form of contact I had with the guy and now that that was switched off too, I didn't know what to do anymore.
The absurdity of the situation hit me once more as I realized that I was here to meet a guy I'd know for barely a week and had met through my friend's boyfriend, a boyfriend she'd met online at that. The whole thing felt surreal if you put it like that and I felt extremely stupid for agreeing to come see him like this. What was even more absurd was that I had been way too excited for this meeting.
I checked the time once more, it was quarter past five already. The least he could've done was inform me that he was going to be late. I tried calling him once more but it went to voice mail again.
When ten more minutes had passed with me standing near the entrance and looking like a complete fool, the cold reality that he wasn't going to come began to settle in. I felt humiliated upon realising that he'd stood me up, that too on our very first meeting.
Maybe all this had been a sick joke to him from the beginning.
Maybe this had been his plan all along.
Shaking my head to myself with a tired sigh for being stupid to enough to fall for this trap, I turned around to leave.
Only to come face to face with Theo.
He was all but running as he entered the park through the metallic white gates, worry etched onto his features as his brown eyes scanned the park frantically. Even though I'd never seen him in person, I instantly recognised him thanks to the picture he'd sent me of him on our first day of talking with each other. He looked handsome dressed in a white button up and black jeans. His hair fell over his forehead as he looked around and pushed them away with his hand as he walked further into the park.
I knew the exact moment his eyes fell upon me because his face broke out into the most blinding grin I had ever seen on a person. It made me smile a little too. But the smile soon turned into a frown as he began jogging towards me and I realized how late he really was. He was almost half an hour late and it might seem like nothing but it was a our first meeting and I'd expected him to be here early, or at least be on time, not this late.
I crossed my arms over my chest as he neared me. "You're late mister." I told him once he'd reached me.
"I know." He looked guilty as he looked down at the ground almost shyly. "There was an accident on the road and I got stuck in the traffic." He explained.
"Oh." That was all I could say as I took in his words, my irritation at him being late slowly fading away. It wasn't his fault that there had been an accident but I still felt bad that he'd made me wait so much on our first meeting.
"I'm sorry." He told me when I hadn't said anything else for a while. "Shall we go sit somewhere?" He asked, looking a bit uncomfortable and that alone made me feel uncomfortable too. Late or not, maybe coming to see him was a bad idea after all. Things didn't seem as good as they'd felt when we'd talk on the phone over text messages. It felt almost awkward as I nodded at him in reply and followed behind him in silence.
It wasn't long before we found an empty bench and took a seat, leaving a respectable amount of distance between the two of us.
We both looked anywhere but at each other and I played with the heart shaped locket I wore around my neck all the time, something I did only when I was nervous about something. To say things were awkward between us would be an understatement. I didn't know what to say or do and it seemed like he didn't either if the way he kept looking here and there was anything to go by.
"So.." we both began at the same time before quickly shutting up and looking at each other. We laughed rather awkwardly before he motioned with his hand for me to go on, almost as if to say 'ladies first.'
I nodded at him with a small smile. "So the weather seems nice today, doesn't it?" I asked, cringing internally at what I'd just said.
The weather seems nice? Really, Scar? That's the best you can come up with?
"Yeah. Yeah, it does." Theo agreed, looking up at the sky.
"How was college?" He finally asked and I launched into a mini speech about how it had been. Anything to break the tension between us and ease the awkwardness. He seemed more at ease too as he nodded at me and listened intently to everything I was saying.
"Seems like you really enjoyed it huh?" He asked once I was done telling him all that had happened today.
"Yeah. I guess you can say that. It seems pretty good to me so far." I agreed with a smile.
"Fun fact, I've never talked to a girl one on one before. At least not in person or like this." He admitted suddenly, gesturing between us with his hand.
"What?" I uttered, baffled at his confession. He shot me a small embarrassed smile before quickly looking away. I realized what I fool I must've looked like with my mouth hanging open and my eyes wide.
I quickly composed myself before asking in a voice that sounded much softer than before, "Why?"
"I've studied at an all boys school for as long as I can remember and have had little to no one on one interaction with a girl before this." He mumbled shyly, a blush creeping up his cheeks at his admission.
I would've cooed at him had I not been so shocked at what he'd just told me. "Oh. Okay." I murmured back, realizing that even though we'd talked over messages, there was still a lot we didn't know about each other.
"Yeah." He said and we fell into the same awkward silence again. This meeting was not going as I'd expected it to. At all. I'd figured we'd be bickering back and forth like we'd done before but nothing even close to that was happening. We were left sitting next to each other in an awkward silence, looking for things to talk about.
Theo seemed like a much more reserved and serious person when we were face to face which was so different from the playful guy I'd come to know over the past week that it had thrown me for a loop, not knowning what to do or say to make things less awkward between us.
"Where's Xander?" I finally asked in a lame attempt to change the topic.
"He's gone home for a few weeks since he came down with the viral just this morning. He left after I texted you that I was leaving." He explained.
"Oh. I hope he gets well soon." I said and meant it too. Despite what I'd heard of him, he'd seemed like a nice enough guy from what little I'd talked to him.
"Yeah, me too." Theo said. "I'm going to get my new phone once I leave here though. I'll text you from my new number when I have it okay?" He told me.
"Okay." I nodded. We made small talk after that as I asked him about his day, the tension between us thawing a little, things seeming a little less awkward. Conversation didn't flow as easily as it had when we'd talked through text messages but it was still better than the awkward environment we'd started with when he'd first arrived.
Soon it was time for me to leave and Theo walked me to my car before waving me goodbye. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, my mind consumed with thoughts of the meeting I'd just had, wondering if it was all a big mistake.
***
Author's note
Welp, here it is. Not quite what you had imagined, or was it? Let me know what you think about this chapter so far in the comments guys :)
Onto the mentions now!
triqqedbxtch and RiverMecancy thank you for your votes and all those lovely comments guys!
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Until next time,
Xander