chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

June faded into July, and July into August, and it was time to start my first semester at the University of South Alabama as a freshman. I found out when I registered for my classes at the end of June that I wouldn’t have to leave my apartment, after all, since I have officially been a resident of Mobile for three months now. I was glad, I loved my apartment on the Bay, and I couldn’t imagine moving from there to a stuffy dorm room on campus with some girl I didn’t know.

Colt and I were doing well, trading off weekends in Mobile and Tallahassee. We still haven’t consummated our relationship, and it seems to be okay. I’m still a little apprehensive as to how our relationship is going to go, once football season starts and he will be on the road every other weekend. I don’t know how it will change things. It may bring us closer together, or it may tear us apart. I am trying to take things in stride, so I don’t set myself up for heartache, but it’s hard. I love him, I just haven’t told him yet. I want to be sure he loves me, too, when I tell him. I don’t want him to feel obligated to feel the same way about me.

I had decided to get my degree in business, with an emphasis on international marketing, and eventually get my MBA. The classes were tough, but I had confidence that I would be able to get everything done and still be able to keep going to Tallahassee every other weekend.

Toward the end of August, I was watching the news and saw that a huge hurricane was forming around the Bahamas and heading for the Gulf Coast. It hit the south Florida as a Category One, and picked up speed in the Gulf. President Bush was calling for immediate evacuations in the coastal towns, though many refused, and would later turn around and put the blame on him for not offering help and refuge, tarnishing his presidency. I had never been through a hurricane and was thinking about just staying put, but Seth, who grew up in Galveston, convinced me to pack up and leave. I had no idea where I would even go, I didn’t want to go back to Cary, and I didn’t know if it was safe to travel to Tallahassee. I finally decided to flee north to Montgomery and rent a hotel room and bunker down, where Colt was meeting me.

Colt and I were sitting in our hotel room up in Montgomery, that we paid a pretty penny for, when we heard the news that Katrina hit New Orleans. The images that ran across the television screen chilled me to the bone. So many lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in south Louisiana on Monday, August 29^th and wreaked havoc on the cities of the Gulf, from Florida to Texas. Flooding was horrible and traveled several miles inland, leaving a path of destruction the entire way. New Orleans, Gulfport and half of Mobile was devastated, the half of Mobile including the Bay Area. Seth’s family home In Galveston was destroyed beyond repair, and to top it off, our apartments were unlivable. Hurricane Katrina proved to be one of the deadliest hurricanes in US history, taking the lives of over one thousand people.

My University was closed until further notice, so they could take care of the damage there, and my apartment complex wouldn’t be available for a few more weeks. Florida State had little damage, so Colt had to go back to school shortly after, and invited me to stay with him there.

For three weeks Colt and I shared the extra long twin bed in his dorm room. There never was enough room, but somehow, neither of us ever managed to wake up on the floor.

The first time we made love, halfway into my second week staying with him, Colt’s roommate was on the other side of the room, sleeping. We tried to be quiet, but we wound up waking him up.

“Get a room, Black!” Jonathan Douglass said, laughing, throwing his pillow at us.

“Sorry, Jon,” Colt laughed. I pulled the covers over my head and blushed. I was so embarrassed, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to look at Jonathan again.

We lived and loved for those three weeks and by the time South Alabama re-opened, my apartment complex was restored and ready to move back in. I left on a Sunday afternoon towards the end of September to go back to Mobile, for the first time in a month. I missed it, but I didn’t know if I wanted to leave Colt. I wouldn’t see him for two weeks; he had a game up at Chapel Hill the next weekend and I would return to Tallahassee for his first home game the following weekend.