Ten years earlier…
A Monday morning alarm started yet another long day of boring college classes. Josephine studied journalism at the University of Auberlin City. With just over 70,000 undergraduate students, UofA was one of the largest schools in the country. It was like its very own miniature city.
Josephine groaned as her eyes slowly blinked open, and she sat up on her twin sized bed. Her phone continued to buzz and vibrate as she reached over to shut it off, “7 a.m.”
She sat still at the edge of her bed looking over to the lump of hair bundled atop her sleeping roommate’s pillow. The alarm hadn’t woken her, and Josephine was relieved.
There was approximately 45 minutes left to get ready for her 8 a.m. psychology course with Dr. Felcha, a course she loved but also dreaded. Standing up to her feet, Josephine stretched and yawned quietly as she pondered what she’d wear for class.
Opening her closet door, she searched for something comfortable, warm, and attractive. Her hands brushed through the shirts until they stopped on a soft pink long-sleeve. She caressed the fabric gently then removed it from the closet, placing it down on her bed.
Josephine gathered the rest of her clothes from a drawer including a comfortable pair of black leggings. She then undressed, covered herself in a towel, and left out the door, making sure to close it lightly to not disturb her sleeping roommate.
She entered the hallway with the dread of psychology weighing on her mind. On the way to the showers, another resident met her path.
“Morning, Josi!” The short blonde-haired girl greeted with an exuberant smile. Coffee in hand, she marched with pep in every step. Stamping the ground like she was experiencing happiness for the very first time.
“Good morning, Merideth! Don’t you just look happy to be alive?” Josephine responded, trying but failing to match her energy.
“Oh! Aren’t I always?” She stopped, looking up to Josephine with wide eyes. “Hey, you’re going to my party next month, right?”
“Of course, I am!” Josephine’s face lit up. ‘Party’ was a key word for her that always triggered excitement. “I wouldn’t miss your party for anything!”
“Good!” Merideth reached over and hugged Josephine tightly. “Try to see if Kairus will come, yeah? We need to get him drunk for once!”
Josephine hesitated and scratched her short brown hair. “You know Kairus doesn’t drink. I wouldn’t really want to pressure him.”
“Well, I think he should live a little.” Merideth released Josephine from her hug and looked directly into her eyes. “I’m sure he’ll open up to it if you ask him to!”
“Yeah, maybe. We’ll see, Mer. I gotta take my shower and get to psych. We’ll talk later.” She smiled again and began to dismiss herself.
“Alright, Josi. We’ll talk later. Have a good class. Mwah!” Merideth blew Josephine a kiss as she began to walk down the hallway away from her.
Josephine returned the kiss and said goodbye as she continued to her shower. She thought about the upcoming party and Kairus as she removed her towel and turned on the hot water. She climbed into the shower and pondered her day and the rest of the week. There was homework due today and Wednesday and an advanced communications test on Friday.
As the warm soap and water rushed down her body, her mind wandered to Kairus. She was worried about inviting him to the party because she didn’t want to pressure him. They were very close, and Josephine did not want to ruin that.
She knew Kairus was a lot shyer than herself, and even she didn’t enjoy partying as much as people thought she did. A lot of the time, Josephine enjoyed just having peace and quiet with Kairus on a Saturday night, but all her friends were animals, and being around them inadvertently made her one too.
She finished up her shower, got dressed, and exited as a few other girls entered, speaking amongst themselves.
“Hey, girl” one of them said as she politely smiled and continued to her room. She walked in quietly once again and retrieved her glasses and backpack. She put on a dab of make-up, tied her shoes, and left.
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She checked her phone. It was only 7:40, and it took about fifteen minutes to get to psychology from the dorm room. She exited the building with the relief of knowing she had plenty of time to get there.
The familiar smell of coffee, perfume, body spray, and pollen rallied together in her nose just like any other college morning. The late-September sun was bright, but it was cool and comfortable, and Josephine felt secure in her tank top and long-sleeved shirt as she began her mile walk to class.
The streets weren’t busy like they would be in the afternoon, but still she met several students on their way to class and drivers weaving through the campus streets.
Surrounded by tall buildings and city noise, Josephine’s senses were overloaded. With light reflecting off the large glass windows, she kept her eyes lowered to the ground, occasionally shielding them with one hand.
Many of the buildings were familiar to her as she had been a student at UofA for three years now. Even then, she had not explored most of the campus herself. Being so large, it was often difficult to navigate and to identify what everything was. Before she got comfortable with her schedule and where she needed to be throughout the day, she used an interactive campus map on her phone that could guide her to every building in the vicinity.
Josephine stopped at a street crossing with the orange hand sign lit as a few other students grouped up to cross as well. Josephine quickly glanced around at them, noticing that most had earbuds plugged in, and a few others were speaking to each other. She recognized one of the students standing on the corner and addressed him.
“Loren!” She exclaimed. “Good morning! I didn’t know you went to school here!”
Loren looked over to her slowly with a blank expression. “Oh hey, Josephine. I… never thought I’d see you again… small city, right?” He chuckled nervously and smiled. It seemed forced, but Josephine didn’t notice.
“I know! It’s been SO long! I haven’t seen you since we were what? Ten or twelve? How have you been?” Josephine was excited to reunite with her old friend, but Loren didn’t seem to reciprocate those feelings.
The walk light lit up and the two began to cross the street along with the rest of the crowd. Loren’s long shaggy black hair sat restless on his shoulders, bouncing up and down as they walked across the street. Then, he spoke again, hesitantly.
“Yeah… uh fifteen… but yeah it’s uh… been too long, Josi. I’ve been doing okay though.”
Josephine detected sadness in his voice and frowned. Her eyes focused on him intently as she thought of ways to comfort him.
“Oh I’m sorry. I forgot you left our freshman year of high school, right? That’s when your family moved into the city?”
“Yeah… that was the last time we saw each other. How’d you forget that?” He said as they neared the end of the cross walk and stopped in front of a large window sealed building with big blocky letters spelling, “College of Mathematics.”
“It’s just been so long. I tend to forget things.” She laughed it off but noticed that Loren didn’t find it nearly as amusing. “Is something going on with you? Do you need to talk to someone?”
“I am fine…” He paused with his head hanging low. “My family… Something happened a few weeks ago, and I’m thinking I might have to drop out and take over my dad’s business.”
Josephine looked up to him with a sense of pity. “Do you want to tell me what happened? Or is it too personal?” She asked politely.
Loren hesitated for a moment and shrugged, “No, I don’t mind telling you,” he said, looking back down at her. “It was just a big business scandal. A man from another company we work with claimed that my father had uh… swindled him out of some money. He told him that he’d uh… that he’d hurt our family if he didn’t get what he wanted…” He spoke quietly, hoping no one else would hear him as he shared his thoughts with Josephine.
“I am so sorry to hear this, Loren,” she paused with her head hung low. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just keep being yourself. That always made me happy when we were little.” It was a bit of a strange response, but Josephine didn’t seem to be bothered. “My class is here. I should uh… get going I think,” he continued.
“Okay, Loren,” Josephine said as she hugged him tenderly. “It was good seeing you. If you ever need to talk to me about anything, call me or text me, whatever you need.” She held out her hand for Loren’s phone and waited for him to give it to her. She typed her number into a saved contact as “Josephine <3.” and returned his phone.
“Thanks, Jos,” he said, heading towards the automatic doors of the College of Mathematics building. “I’ll see you around. Tell your mom I said hi.”
“I will!” She responded and continued her walk to psychology. There was still plenty of time left to get there, so she moved with no rush and thought back on her conversation with Loren. He and her had been childhood friends because their parents were neighbors. Growing up together, they spent countless hours with each other’s families and they knew each other well.
She remembered spending time at cookouts with Loren’s older sister, dad, and mother, having fun on their backyard swing sets. They used to play tag, hide and seek, and so many other games when they were together, but eventually, they grew up, grew apart, and Loren’s family moved deep into the city after their father purchased a new property.
They had a great friendship until then, and in their freshman year of high school, Loren and Josephine shared their first kiss with each other. At some point, he thought they would have been boyfriend and girlfriend and someday married, but childhood fantasies rarely turned out to be reality for anyone.