Unforeseen Echoes: A Love Tested by Secrets and Second Chances

Two occurrences in my life that terrified the living daylights out of me. One of them was waking up in the middle of the night to find a ghost pushed its transparent face into my mouth. Though extremely unlikely to happen, it's still kind of scary to consider. The second was arriving late to a packed classroom. I detested being late so much. It always bothered me when people would turn to stare the moment you walked into a classroom a minute after the session began. That was the reason I had spent the whole weekend meticulously measuring on Google Maps the distance between my University Heights apartment and the designated commuter student parking lot. And on Sunday, I took a second drive to be sure Google wasn't deceiving me. One and a half miles, precisely. In the car for five minutes. In order to arrive 10 minutes before my nine-ten lesson started, I even departed fifteen minutes early. What I hadn't budgeted for was the mile-long gridlock at the stop sign—God forbade there be a light in the old town—or the fact that there wasn't any more parking available on campus. I had to spend valuable time digging up quarters for the metre at the train station next to the college in order to park. "At least stay in a dorm if you insist on relocating halfway across the nation. Yes, dorms are available there, right? Breathless from sprinting up the steepest, most inconvenient slope in history, I halted in front of the Robert Byrd Science Building, my mother's voice echoing in my mind. Naturally, I had not opted to live in a dorm since I knew that eventually my parents would appear out of the blue and begin to criticise and converse, and I would much rather punch myself in the face than do it to an uninvolved onlooker. Rather, I took out a two-bedroom flat near university using my well-earned blood money. The Hollis's had detested that. And I had been quite thrilled about that. However, as I ran into the air-conditioned brick building from the humid heat of a late August morning, I realised that my astronomy class was on the second floor, and I was beginning to regret my small act of defiance. And why on earth did I decide to major in astronomy? Perhaps because I felt like throwing up at the thought of having to sit through another biology class? Yes. And that was all. I bolted up the large stairway, smashed through the double doors, and struck a brick wall. My arms flailed like a broken-down crossing guard as I staggered backward. I was pulled to one side as my messenger bag, which was overpacked, slipped. I teetered precariously, my hair flying in front of my face in a film of auburn that hid everything. I was going down, oh dear God. It could not be stopped. Broken neck visions raced across my mind. This was going to be awful, hence I felt something firm and powerful go around my waist and stop my free fall. As my suitcase landed on the gleaming floor, expensive books and pencils spilled all over it. My writing instruments! Magnificent pens of mine rolled all around. I was pressed up against the wall a moment later. The wall had an odd warmth about it. The wall laughed. A deep voice said, "Whoa." "You okay, my love?" There was nothing like this wall. It was a male. My heart stopped, and for a terrifying moment my chest felt like it was being squeezed, rendering me still and thoughtless. Something threw me back five years. Unable to move. unable to move. A sharp surge of air shot out of my lungs, sending tingles up the back of my neck. Every muscle contracted. "Hey," the voice grew softer and more worried. "Are you alright?" I made myself just sit down and take a deep breath. I had to take a breath. Breathe in. Let out some air. I had spent five years repeatedly practicing this. I was no longer fourteen. I wasn't present. Halfway across the nation, here I was. My head was forced upward by two fingers pressing beneath my chin. Eyes riveted on me, startlingly deep blue and framed with thick black lashes. I questioned whether they were real because the blue was so intensely vivid and electric in comparison to the dark pupils. Then it dawned on me. I was being held by a guy. I'd never been held by a guy. I was pressed up against him, my chest to his thigh, and I didn't count that one time because it didn't matter. like though we were twirling. When I breathed in the subtle aroma of perfume, my senses became fried. Whoa. It had an upscale, pleasant scent similar to his. Abruptly, a wonderful, familiar anger shot through me, pushing aside the old panic and confusion. I clung to it fervently and discovered my voice. "Give me up." Blue eyes let go of his arm right away. I staggered to the side, catching myself before I fell over my luggage because I was unprepared for the abrupt loss of support. I forced my thick hair out of my face and, breathing heavily as though I had just run a mile, I was finally able to see Blue's eyes. Blue Eyes, my little baby Jesus, was... He was all the things that made girls do foolish things because of his beauty. He was taller than me by a good head or two, with broad shoulders that tapered at the waist. The body of an athlete, such as a swimmer. His wavy black hair fell across his forehead and brushed against his matching eyebrows. Wide, expressive lips and broad cheekbones completed the package that made girls drool. And holy moley, those sapphire-colored eyes. Who would have guessed that someone with this kind of appearance would be hidden in Shepherdstown? And I happened to meet him. in the true sense. Good. "I apologise. I had to go to class quickly. I'm running behind schedule, and As he bent, his lips turned upward at the corners. He began scooping up my belongings, and for a few second I wanted to cry. Tears were starting to well up in my throat. I could not have possibly made it to that first day of class on time, as I was now extremely late. Err. I started picking up my pens after dipping down and letting my hair fall front to protect my face. "I don't need your assistance." "There is no issue." He looked up after picking up a piece of paper. "Astronomy 101? I'm also going in that direction. Fantastic. I would have to see the guy I almost murdered in the hallway every day of the semester. "You're running late," I muttered. "I sincerely apologise." He stood and returned my bag to me, with all my books and pencils inside. "That's alright." His lopsided smile expanded to show a dimple on his left cheek but nothing on his right. "I'm accustomed to girls hurling themselves at me." I blinked, certain that I hadn't heard the cute boy with the blue eyes correctly because there was no way he had said something so stupid. He hadn't finished yet. However, trying to jump on my back is something new. I kind of liked it. My cheeks starting to burn, I pulled myself together. "I wasn't attempting to throw myself at you or hop on your back." "You weren't, were you?" The skewed smile persisted. "Well, that's unfortunate. If true, this would have been the most successful first day of classes ever. I held the hefty bag close to my chest, not sure what to say. Back home, no guys had flirted with me. In high school, the most of them had not ventured to glance in my direction, and the ones who had, well, hadn't engaged in any flirtatious behaviour. Blue Eyes lowered his gaze to the piece of paper he was holding. "What is Emily Hollis?" My heart leaped for joy. "How are you aware of my name?" The smile crept up on him, and he tilted his head to the side. "You have it scheduled." "Oh." I stroked the loose waves of hair away from my smouldering face. I took my schedule back from him and slipped it inside my purse. I fumbled with my strap and felt a whole lot of weird. "I'm Ethan Reynolds," Blue Eyes introduced himself. But everyone addresses me as Cam. Cam. I liked the name as I considered it. "Once more, thank you, Cam." I didn't notice the black rucksack he bent over to pick up. As he straightened, several dark hair strands fell across his forehead, which he pushed away. "All right, let's make our big debut." As he turned to walk the few feet to the closed door to room 205, my feet remained fixed on the area where I stood. With a look over his shoulder, he reached for the handle and waited. I was unable to complete it. The fact that I ran into what might have been the prettiest guy on campus had nothing to do with it. I couldn't enter the classroom and expect everyone to turn to stare at me. For the previous five years, I'd had enough of being the life of the party wherever I went. My forehead started to get speckled with sweat. I took a step back, away from Cam and the classroom, and my gut constricted. He looked away, eyebrows furrowed as an inquisitive look took hold of his remarkable visage. "My dear, you're headed in the wrong direction." It seemed like I had been headed in the wrong path for half of my life. "I am unable to." "Is it not possible?" He stepped in my direction. And I took off running. I truly twirled and dashed as though I were competing for the final cup of coffee on the planet. I heard him yell my name as I approached those terrible double doors, but I persisted. I sprang out of the science building, my face burning as I hurried down the stairs. My legs continued to move till I stopped in front of a bench in the nearby library. I lifted my head and closed my eyes, feeling as though the early morning sun was too bright. Oh my god. What a great way to start a new life in a new place, new school, etc. I relocated more than a thousand miles to begin again, and within minutes, I had made a lot of mistakes. At this moment, I had to decide whether to go home, go into bed, and pull the covers over my head, or accept that my first college class had been a complete failure and move on. Though it wasn't me, I really wanted to splurge on the second option. My strategy of hiding and running would not have allowed me to finish high school. I reached down to make sure my large silver bracelet was securely fastened on my left wrist. I barely made it through high school. When I told my parents I was planning to go a university all the way across the nation, they became very upset. They would have been all over it then if it had been an Ivy League school, but a non-ivy league university? Shame on you. They were merely ignorant. They never did. I had no intention of enrolling at the college they had attended or going to the place where the parents of half of the country club back home forced their children to go. I desired to go someplace where I wouldn't encounter a well-known sneer or hear the whispers that continued to drip like acid from people's lips. Where individuals hadn't heard the narrative or the iteratively repeated version of events, to the point where occasionally I started to wonder what had actually occurred on Halloween night five years prior.