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“Woah girl, it’s just me,” Ana laughs as she sits on the edge of my bed. She looks at the rumpled sheets before looking back at me with questions in her eyes. “Anything to tell me?”
I take a big breath, tapping my finger on my chin. “Uhm…nothing I can think of…no,” I say feigning innocence.
“Madeline,” She says in her mock motherly voice.
“Seriously, nothing happened. We talked for a bit…we might have kissed a little bit…and then we fell asleep,” I say, trying to hide my smile.
“He slept in your bed,” She states.
“Mhm.”
“With you in it,” She clarifies.
“Obviously.” I try to sound nonchalant as I sit down next to her.
“This is moving pretty fast, Maddie,” She says and I hear the concern in her voice and read it on her face.
“I know,” I agree. “I know how crazy it seems…I really do. But Ana, I can’t even describe the connection I feel to him.”
“You two have always had that crazy connection. I don’t doubt that or his feelings towards you. I know he cares about you…but just be careful…” She sounds worried.
“Of course, An. It’s me,” I tease. She gives me a small and unconvincing smile.
“I know, amor. I know.” She sighs. “Just get to know each other…be careful…you know all this already, but I feel like it is my job as your best friend to remind you. As you have done with me many times.” I lay my head on her shoulder and she rests her head on mine.
“The feelings I feel for him are unreal, Ana,” I admit. “I know it sounds crazy…I know that. But I’ve never felt more sure of anything.”
“I believe you,” She says. “While I’m not surprised at all at the change of direction with you two…I just want you to be careful with where you take this new path with him.”
“I know.” I sigh. She kisses the side of my head before leaving me to finish getting ready.
We take Elliot’s truck to his dorm on campus. He opens all the doors for me and humors me with my small talk the whole way there. I am desperate to know everything about him.
I have a tendency to go all in with whatever it is I’m doing. When I found a love of tutoring and teaching, I started to try and study harder so that I could help more of my classmates. I advertised my ‘helping skills’ to my class, but most of them picked on me and told me that I wasn’t the teacher. I spent a few minutes being hurt and embarrassed before getting over it.
When I wanted to run for class president, I put everything I had into my campaign and even dragged Ana along to be my campaign manager. She wasn’t thrilled and I ended up calling her my campaign-in-the-ass manager. She ended up liking that name too much. I won, so all of my late night preparations and crazy plans were worth it.
But I definitely don’t know how to ease into something. It’s all or nothing with me. I have a tiny fear that Elliot, who seems to be my exact opposite, might be spooked with my over the top personality. But I was raised to never apologize for being who I am. If I am too much for some people, then they aren’t the right people for me. Sometimes it is harder to hold on to that knowledge and truth, but I really try to always be my authentic self. Elliot doesn’t seem to mind though…yet.
While I talk and ask him questions, he seems comfortable and content. He answers all of my questions and waits patiently for the next one. When he parks in student parking, he walks around to help me out of the truck.
We walk together into the building and I follow him up the stairs and down a few hallways before we get to his room. He unlocks his door and motions me forward to his empty room.
“I can’t picture you sleeping in here,” I joke as I look around. It is a decent size college dorm room. Both sides mirror each other with a small twin sized-bed, dresser, desk and closet. “You have a roommate?”
“Yeah, his name is Maverick.”
“Maverick?! I’ve never met a real life Maverick! That’s so cool,” I comment.
“Yeah…he’s a cool guy,” He answers with a laugh. “I’m going to take a quick shower down the hall. No one will bother you here.”
“Okay. Don’t worry about me, I can fend for myself.” He chuckles at that.
He leans in to kiss my forehead. “I don’t doubt that at all.”
He leaves with his shower stuff and a change of clothes. I sit down on his bed, open a book on my phone and begin to read. About three minutes go by when I hear the door being unlocked. ‘That was fast.’ I think.
But it isn’t Elliot that walks in. It is a jock looking guy with a backwards baseball cap and a sweatshirt with a football team on it. He does a double-take when he sees me sitting on Elliot’s bed.
