I met Sarah a week before classes started my freshman year. Freshmen registration was still done through the academic counseling staff because while we were smart enough to live on our own for the first time, god forbid we register for classes without help. Thousands of us were standing around the gym, pouring over catalogues to see what was offered and checking that against printouts to see what was still open. Then it was standing in line to actually register once your schedule was filled out. The lines stretched on for hours.
"Fuck this," I heard from behind me and when I turned around I found a shock of curly red hair looking at a printout.
"No luck?"
"This is bullshit," she looked up from the paper. A crooked smile worked its way onto her face as her green eyes met mine. "How 'bout you? Find anything good?"
"I'm just taking what they told me to take."
"Just following orders, huh?"
"The road to the American dream is paved with good intentions." I told her. I thought it was an incredibly clever thing to say.
We looked at all the people around us hunched over their catalogues, scribbling notes in the margins. We grinned at each other, momentarily separated from all the noise in the gym. When she smiled I couldn't see anything but those green eyes and the freckles that ran across the bridge of her nose.
"Let's go somewhere." She said.
"Where?"
"Who cares, lets' have an adventure."
I looked past her at the line. I'd already been there for an hour hoping to get registered. She was looking at me and biting the inside of her mouth, expectantly, waiting to see which way I would go. I shrugged and stepped out of line. Her whole face lit up with a smile and we both practically ran to her car.
We drove all afternoon, hitting the highway and heading west across the desert, singing along to every CD she had. Soon though we drove in silence. It was the first time I'd seen the Pacific. It was cooler here by the water and gone was the flat desert. I took in the gently rolling hills covered in brown grass, making them look fuzzy and soft. Here and there was a spot of green, a lone twisted tree or low bush. As it got dark Sarah pulled off the highway. She was yawning and shaking her head to stay awake.
"Your turn to drive."
"Where are we going?"
"North," she shrugged "and west." From the way she said it, I knew she'd be disappointed if I had to ask anything else.
It was a little after midnight when we pulled off the highway and into a town of about four thousand.
"Let's get some beer." She pointed at a gas station up ahead. I pulled in and started to say something when she cut me off. "Stay here. I've got my sister's ID." I watched her through the window. The kid working the register wasn't much older than us and I could see that he didn't want to sell it to her. But the way she smiled at him and ran a hand through her hair he couldn't help but cave and a moment later she came out with a six-pack. We checked into the first motel we saw, ringing the bell at the front desk until an old guy with sleep lines on the side of his face came out of the office. After we got our keys we drove out to the beach.
We walked the beach for a while with our shoes off sharing a beer. We came to a short wooden dock and walked to the end. We both sat looking at the moon reflect off the ocean, our feet hanging off the side.
"What are we doing?" she asked me.
"Drinking beer?"
"No. I mean, do you even want to go to college?"
"Sure. It's either college or working with my dad."
"What's he do?"
"Electrician. It's not bad. I worked with him in high school, but he was really happy when I got into a college. He never went so it's a thing with him."
"What do you want to do after college?"
"That's like years from now." I laughed. "I'll figure it out then. Why, what do you want to do?"
"I don't know. Everyone in my family went to college and they all had a plan right from the moment they got there. But, it's like, their plans weren't really worth a damn in the end because they're all miserable. I haven't even registered yet and my parents are already asking me 'so Sarah, what's your plan?' And all I can think to say is 'I don't want to end up like you.'"
"You don't have to grow up to be your parents."
"We all grow up to be our parents." We sat in silence staring at the water, the beer flat in our mouths. Then she stood up and stripped off her shirt and jeans. "Come on. Lets have some fun." She said and dove into the water. I pulled off my clothes and followed her.
When we got back to the motel we were wet and cold and Sarah fell into the bed and pulled me down next to her. Our first kiss made us giggle. Soon our clothes were a wet pile on the floor and we were naked next to each other. We made love in that awkward way that happens at eighteen but it didn't matter because the beer and the adventure of it made us brave. When we finished she lay with her head on my chest and I could smell the ocean in her hair. I think we fell asleep like that.
Sarah dropped me off at my dorm the day before classes started. We kissed over the center console and she wrote her room number on my hand.
"You going to miss me?" she asked.
"Nope."
"Good."
"But you're going to miss me."
"You think?
"Yeah."
"Cause you're wrong."
"Dinner later? We can have our first real date in the dining hall."
"Oh, you're such a romantic," she said and we kissed again before I got out the car.
I unlocked the door to my room. My roommate was watching TV. His side was unpacked and everything was neatly put away. My stuff was still in boxes, my unmade bed made my side of the room look lonely and uninviting.
"Hey, I'm Ryan," he said, standing up to shake my hand. "I didn't think you were coming back."
"I ended up taking a road trip. It kind of just happened."
"Cool, so you know people here?"
"No, not really. I just met this girl at registration and we ended up taking off."
"Holy shit," he said, then as if I was playing a joke on him "Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"That's nuts."
"I know. I'm sort of in shock."
"What's your major?"
"Undeclared. You?"
"History and Political Science. With maybe a minor in business."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously." He grinned at me.
"It's, like, the first day."
"It never hurts to have a plan. I've got one class in each this quarter plus an English class. I'm hoping to get the pre-reqs done quick. What about you?"
"I haven't even registered yet."
"Classes start tomorrow."
"Yeah."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I guess I'll figure it out tomorrow."
I started unpacking my side of the room. Ryan helped me, pulling open boxes and handing things to me. He was a nice kid, one of those overenthusiastic guys who'd map out their week while you were still trying to figure out breakfast. Good-natured, but terrified now that we were in college. He'd already started reading for his classes, highlighting and taking notes in the margins.
"You haven't even seen the syllabus yet." I told him. "How hard can these classes be?"
"I don't know but they said at the orientation that one-third of college students either drop out or fail out."
"No kidding."
"Didn't you go to orientation?"
"I missed my flight so I just skipped the first day."
"I still have my orientation packet if you want to look at it."
"Uhh, thanks."
I figured that we'd live together for a quarter or two before going our separate ways and by the time I graduated, I'd have a hard time remembering his name. I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me that I'd still be living with him in five years.
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Chapter 1 | Suicide and Keg Stands Index | Chapter 3
Posted by Ben Corman at 9:29 AM