A COLLEGE AFFAIR

SIX

Walking the three steps that led to the front door, Mathew let himself inside the house. He crashed onto the couch wearily, and immediately, a beautiful picture popped in his mind. Just like the first of her classes he attended, Mathew had once again looked at Miss Kent all through. She is smart as she is beautiful, he thought. And young. Younger than most of the other staff at Campus. And he would guess unmarried, although her title was a giveaway. He smiled as he recalled their brief conversation where she enquired his absence in classes. He had been so close to her, he had had an unyielding urge to pull her against him to whisper to her ears how beautiful she was.Today, after thanking her for what would have been too entangled to explain, he walked out of the hall, sure he had left her puzzled. When Grace had told him about the new teacher, he was skeptical and had hoped he or she wouldn't bother him. He had reasons for constantly missing classes. Now, he would make more efforts at attending. From the curtains parted by the cool evening breeze, he saw that dusk was already settling. He stood up. Time to get to work. At least, he had beautiful thoughts to occupy him tonight.

* * *

Out of the blue, Aurora received a call from an old friend.

"Melissa?"

"Girllllll!" Melissa squealed from the other end. The piercing noise made Aurora put the phone away from her ear.

"How are you?" Aurora asked when she summoned the courage to put the phone back on her ear.

"I'm good. How are you? How's your job? Have you made friends yet? Is there a hot Professor or better yet a hot student? How's Dean Collins?" As usual, Melissa threw a barrage of questions not allowing her listener a breath to answer.

"I'm fine. Work is going well, no, there's no handsome co worker stealing my breath, most of staff are the same from when we were here, and no, there's no student threatening my morality" Aurora said pushing away visions of brown eyes and pink lips. "The Dean is quite alright." She added.

'Okay, okay. I'm happy to hear all that. How's good old Seattle?" Melissa asked again and for a second, Aurora paused waiting for more questions to tumble. When none came, she answered. "Seattle's fine, still beautiful and bustling. How's Vegas? That's where you are right?"

"No. I'm in Texas."

"well, howdy! What's ya doin' in Texas?" Aurora drawled, putting on her best Southern accent.

"Oh well, you know me, always riding on adventure."

"Soooo you." Aurora parroted trying not to poke into the evasive answer.

"You know, I may pay you a visit."

"Really? That's great!"

"Don't sound too excited. It may be sooner than you think." Melissa says with a small laugh. They talked more before Melissa ended the call with a promise to update Aurora on her plans of visiting the city.

Sipping her scalding tea, Aurora reflected on the call. Melissa and her had been 'close to best friends' in College. The circumstances leading to their friendship was something they still laughed over. They'd both been sneaking back into their dorms at night when they ran into each other. They'd screamed thinking the other was a ghost, then laughed realizing their foolishness. Melissa had been returning from a party she said didn't turn out well, while Aurora was coming from the campus library where she always went in and out through a bad window. With funny secrets over one another, they became friends. That was during their final year, very close to exams. Still, they were close. After graduation, while Aurora stayed back, Melissa, who wanted to travel the world before being 'chained down to marriage' left for Las Vegas. For someone who'd wanted to be as far away from love as possible, Aurora told her she chose the wrong city. But Melissa had assured her saying she was she'd only 'love 'em and break 'em.' They had a good laugh over that. For the first few weeks, they'd exchange calls often, but months later, they just drifted apart as if by momentary agreement. Aurora had always thought the foundation of their friendship built not long before graduation was not deep enough to withstand the distance. Now Melissa has called. Through everything, Aurora missed her. She smiled, looking forward to spending a weekend with the fun loving Melissa.