Coast to coast

It was a cold, dreary evening as the first snowflakes ever drifted through the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Winter had settled in with an unanticipated feeling of optimism for the holidays and the upcoming Christmas that was just a month away; for Jordan Bartel, that is. Jordan stands tall at a healthy five feet, eleven inches with tight curls loosening to a short taper. Less than a month away, he was bound for halfway across the country to attend the University of California, Los Angeles. He was young, naïve, and in love. The truth was that he did not want to leave New York as bad as he made it seem. To stay within driving distance of Jersey, he would finally be able to see the single biggest threat to his relationship end; long distance. he daydreamed of going to visit Rachel at Princeton, and what their lives would be like in the tri-state area in the future. The idea of it all just made Jordan giggle. His family and friends were a constant reminder of why he must leave. The family was poor. He would no longer burden them. His father had passed away the summer after graduation, and his older sister, Naomi, had been kicked out of their home in the sophomore year of high school. With her addiction problems, the family was nearly bankrupt and his parent's relationship had soured, with every argument being centered on Naomi. After the passing of his father, his mother had begged her to return to Brooklyn, but every plea had gone unanswered. It was said that she had been arrested at least twice since her leaving, and had last been seen wandering the streets outside downtown Miami. His mother was all he had left; his sister, the angel he used to cherish as a child, had become a monster. Her leaving had forced him to grow up and be the man that his father had hoped he would become, making the sacrifices that his mother struggled with daily. When Christmas arrived, Rachel came up from Jersey. The entire time, she blabbered on about the future and how they would spend all their weekends together once he got settled down at NYU. What she didn't know was that Jordan had rejected NYU's offer to him a few months back in favor of UCLA. Every opportunity he had to tell her, she was busy, preoccupied, or his hand was shot. Desperate, he had called his best friend, Tyrese. Another black kid from Brooklyn, Tyrese, was a richly pigmented teen who had been his friend since middle school, mainly because of the church that their mothers attended together. Tyrese was going to Arizona State, which made him sympathetic to Jordan's cause considering the two would be in neighboring states. "Follow your heart, my brother, and right now, that's Cali," Tyrese had said over the phone, "If she loves you, the distance won't matter. If it does, maybe she wasn't the one." "Right," Jordan said, hanging up. Now, in his room, Jordan gazed into Rachel's beautiful hazel eyes. "Rachel...can we talk?" "Yeah, what's up?" "I...I really love you. You know that, right?" Rachel's smile faded into a frown, "Jordan, what's wrong?" "I'm going to California," "For New Year's?" "No! I'm going to UCLA. I've wanted to go there since...forever, and when the acceptance letter came, I couldn't say no. I tried telling you sooner, but it was so obvious how excited you were about us being close...I don't know what came over me." "So you lied to me," "No—no, that's not fair. I just didn't want you to be mad," "Freak out? You didn't even give me the chance to be happy for you. Am I happy that you're moving halfway across the country from me? No! But you should've been honest about it so we could've come to terms with it together." "I know, I'm sorry." "When do you leave?" "In less than a month." Rachel looked up at him and smiled, "Well then, we're going to have to make the most of the time we have left," She pulled him into a passionate embrace, her lips finding his, and the world spinning. As Jordan loosened his shirt, tossing it to the floor, everything went hush. It wasn't until Rachel's phone lit up on the nightstand and began to ring loudly that she broke away. She turned her head sideways to see who it was. "Who is it?" Jordan asked, sitting up from his nearly naked state. "Vick. I wonder what she wants," "Just answer it," Rachel picked up the cellular device, placing it in her ear, "Hello?" "What took you so long to answer?" Vicky said, already annoyed, "Get over to my place now! This is an emergency." Rachel was about to ask what the emergency was, but the call had already ended. She placed the phone back down on the nightstand, confused as to what was going on. Without a word, Rachel stood up from the bed, grabbed her clothes, and was dressed. As she was putting on her jeans, she leaned down and gave Jordan a quick peck on his lips. "I'll be back," "What? Now? What happened?" Jordan asked, now sitting up fully clothed, "Why didn't she tell you what was going on? Do you want a ride?" "It's fine, I'll get a cab," Rachel said, grabbing her purse and the phone from the nightstand as she made her way over to the door. Once the door shut, Jordan lay back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering if long-distance relationships could truly work. They loved each other, but their pasts had such an ugly history. Back in high school, their 'relationship' had begun on the most ridiculous occasion. Rachel had approached him with the idea of dating to make her boyfriend, Terrence, jealous after he had cheated on her. Jordan thought it was the most ridiculous notion in his life, until his best friend, Tyrese, told him the underlying reason of it all; to get close to Rachel's friend, Ayanna, a girl that Jordan had had a crush on since middle school. It didn't work out the way that Tyrese wanted it to. Ayanna was a complete tease and never looked at Jordan the way that he wanted her too. The only difference about Rachel, however, was that she and Jordan became something...special. Despite all the odds, being complete opposites, in high school, they grew fond of each other. Jordan was the starting point guard for the basketball team. He was stylish and charming, and oftentimes had been described as a "pretty boy", but he was never considered to be better than Damari, the star quarterback. Damari was the talk of the school, with nearly all the girls pining after him throughout Saint Davidson High. So popular was he, that when it was discovered that he and the science teacher, Ms. Christine, were seen sneaking around behind the gymnasium, she had gotten fired, and no charges were ever brought up against him, despite him being eighteen years old, and two years older than the rest of the school. The rumors of his affair with the teacher spread throughout the school for weeks. In high school, Rachel didn't play any sports. While Jordan's world revolved around basketball, Rachel's was in the classroom. She was book smart and was a constant straight-A honor roll student. Extracurricular activities included being president of the debate club and volunteering at the animal shelter, all to build up her resume for getting into her dream school, Princeton. When she cried over ninety-four percent on a math test, her classmates mocked her for being such a nerd. What Jordan had given her, however, was something she couldn't get from spending hours and hours in the room with her nose stuck in a book; the acceptance that she wasn't perfect. Princeton had accepted her into their program, and Rachel was under the impression that Jordan was committed to NYU, which he had casually spoken about since their sophomore and junior years of high school, but never followed up on.