Tales of the Heart

005 | Off Campus

I still can't believe Stacy and Karl can live and fall in love with each other that long. These two are like when you take out two engines from two different cars and combine them into one engine and put it on another car and it still miraculously works.

"Where is the basement, anyway? Boy's dorm basement or Girl's dorm's besement?" I ask Karl as I put my clothes away into my closet, and clean the mess on the couch that Stacy made.

"It's a frat party at the basement of the old abandoned student dormitories northwest of Campus. It's three kilometers away from here. " Karl yells down at me while changing his clothes upstairs.

"Who will take us there then? And will your girlfriend ride with us?" I ask,

"Nathan will pick us up at eight. Stacy will go later with her other friends," he responds.

God finally answered my prayer. I'm really grateful that Stacy won't share a ride with us tonight, even though she will still be there, but for some reason, riding with her would be torture and misery for me. And if she wants to live to reach fifty, maybe sixty if she's lucky, I hope she won't drink more than three bottles of beer a day.

Am I judging her? Maybe I am judging her a little, but not to her face, of course. It's not that I completely hate people who drink beer, but she may be around nineteen to twenty for Christ's sake. She should not drink that much at her age. It's really not good for her health and especially her grades if she keeps drinking every morning like that.

"Hey, Alexander, are you still there, dude?" Karl yells at me again,

"Sorry.. what are you saying?" I hadn't realized my mind has wandered into the void that long.

"I said, please don't forget to lock the door and turn off the light when you leave to take your little adventure off campus." He says.

"Okay, I know, no need to remind me," I reply back dramatically.

When exiting the dorm, and walking along the sidewalk toward the school's main exit gate, I was still thinking about my life at high school, thinking how easy and peaceful it is compared to right now.

As I stand, waiting in front of the subway entrance thinking how long I have to wait, the train suddenly streaming in fast from my left, arrived and stop in front of me, and the doors swung open a second later.

I stepped on and look down the row of seats, and saw that most of them were taken. The subway station near the school campus was one of the last ones this train needed to stop at, so almost everyone was picked up before me. In quest of a vacant seat, I cautiously started to go down the little aisle between the rusty metal seats of New York Subway Trains. I noticed an open seat next to a recognizable face as I approached the end of the carriage.

“Tori?" I inquire, astonished to see my old friend from eighth grade. I seriously doubt she remembers my face at all, and I can understand that because it has been around five years since our last encounter.

"Alex, my man--- how you doin' this day?" She greets back. Wow, I never thought she still remembered my face. Bless you, my sis.

"Going to the city to buy some stuff, what about you?" I tell her. Seeing her brings back a lot of good memories her and I made together back then.

"On my way back to my studio downtown," Tori said.

"You a musician now? Well, congratulations to you, Tori. I know you have always had an amazing voice since we first met back in sixth grade." I compliment her and she blushes.

"Yeah, thanks man, what about you? What are you doing now?" She asks.

"Oh, me--- I am now in my first year, English Major," I tell my old friend with a smile as I take out my earphones to enjoy a real conversation with a genuine human being I have had in a long time.

"Where, maybe I could drop by someday in the future." She beams.

"Steerling University, it is ten blocks from the station I boarded." I tell her as the train started moving again to its final destination.

"You study at Steerling? That's really really amazing my man,, congratulations way more to you." She seem so surprised when I told her I studied at Steerling.

"Thanks, well if you want to stop by, have lunch and catch up with me, here's my phone number, call me," I hand her a piece of paper that contains my number, which she grabs it really quickly.

“I also have a friend studying there too. Her name is Emily. Do you know her?”

“Emily, hmm, I’m afraid not, it is just my second day there. Maybe in the future when you drop by, you can introduce me to her?” I say.

“Yeah man, will do.” She beams again.

"We are about to arrive at the Grand Central Station. Please prepare yourself if this is your designated station." said the announcer from the speaker.

"This is my station. I' gotta go, Tori, catch you later. Okay." I tell her as I get up from my seat and make my way back to the exit door.

"Okay Alex, it's nice to see an old friend. Take care." She says, and I take a quick turn to nod at her before exiting the train.

"Yeah you too" after I said goodbye to her, I exit the train station and wave my hand by the sidewalk to get a taxi to the closest Targets.

After buying all my needed stuff for the cold winter that is about to hit New York in the next few weeks, I needed to head back to my room, drop everything off after buying everything I would need for the upcoming, bitterly cold winter in New York. This was something I had intended to do two weeks earlier.