chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

            I went to bed that night, feeling content, though I missed Colt something fierce. It was a strange feeling, sleeping in such a large bed, alone. I had gotten used to feeling the weight of Colt beside me, and I took comfort in it.

            After what seemed like hours, I finally fell asleep, only to be awakened by my cell phone ringing at two a.m. I looked at the caller id; it was Colt. I answered the phone in a panic, praying that nothing was wrong.

            “Hey baby, what’s up?”

            “Nothing, I just miss you,” Colt replied. “This small a*s bed is lonely without you.”

            “So is this big a*s bed. It took me forever to fall asleep because I have gotten so used to you being beside me. Is it next Friday, yet?”

            “No, darlin’, but I damn sure wish it was. I wish you could come up to Chapel Hill with me this weekend.”

            “I wish I could, too, but I have a feeling I am going to be bombarded with work since we have been out of school for almost a month. I’ll probably have to take it with me when I come out next weekend.”

            “Let’s hope not. I want you to be able to enjoy the game.”

            “Me, too.”

            “Harleigh?”

            “Yeah?”

            “I love you,” Colt said. “I didn’t want to tell you over the phone, but I couldn’t wait. I thought it was coming, but I didn’t realize that I did until you left this afternoon and my heart felt empty.”

            “I love you, too,” I said, smiling through my tears. “I think I fell in love with you graduation night out by the lake, but I didn’t want to rush into anything with you. I wasn’t sure how it would go, and to be honest, some days I’m still unsure.”

            “I know how you feel. I don’t want to think about the strain football season might put on us, after spending every weekend together for the past few months. I pray that it will make us stronger.”

            “So do I. I guess we just take it one day at a time, but please, promise me now, if you feel like you see the end, tell me, don’t string me along because you don’t want to hurt me. I don’t know if my heart could take it.”

            “I won’t, Harleigh. I love you too much, and my mama raised me better than that. She would have my a*s if I did that to you, she has always liked you and is so happy that we are together.”

            “Really?”

            “Really,” Colt said. “She wants you to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with us.”

            “Wow! You bet I will!”

            “Good. Now, I will let you go, I know you have early classes in the morning, I just wanted to hear your voice.”

            “I love you.”

            “I love you, too, Harleigh,” Colt said and hung up.

            I laid my phone on my nightstand and stared at the ceiling, smiling into the dark. He loves me.

            My heart was still singing a few hours later when my alarm went off. I jumped out of bed and skipped to the kitchen to make coffee. While it was brewing, I jumped in the shower, and by the time I got out, it was ready. I filled a cup and went out and sat on the balcony to watch the sun rise. I have missed my morning routine.

            I got ready and

 rode over to the U.S.A campus for my eight a.m economics class, still smiling at Colt’s revelation last night. To say I was happy would be an understatement. I couldn’t quite describe what I was feeling. Everywhere I went on campus, everyone I knew told me I looked great and that there was something different about me. I wanted to shout from the rooftops “Colt loves me!”, but I smiled and said nothing. I would, however be calling Hillary and Madison this afternoon to tell them the news. And I’d probably tell Seth and Jared. Okay, I knew I’d tell Seth and Jared, they were quickly becoming some of my best friends.

            I got home that afternoon to a bouquet of pink and white roses outside my door. I smiled as I picked them up and read the note. Colt. My heart swelled even more and I thought it would soon blow out of my chest. I took them in and managed to find a vase in one of my cabinets. I filled it with water, clipped the stems on my roses and set them in the middle of the kitchen island. I was trying to think of something I could do for Colt, but was coming up with nothing. I needed some advice. I picked up my phone and called my girls.

            “Hey Harleigh!” Hillary greeted me.

            “Hey, Hil,” I said. “Put it on speakerphone. I need to talk to Maddie, too.”

            “Will do,” Hillary said. I heard her tell Madison to come to the phone.

            “Harleigh!” she greeted me.

            “Hey Maddie! Look y’all, I need some advice,” I said.

            “What’s that?” Hillary asked.

            “Well…Colt called me at two a.m to tell me he loved me…for the first time, and-“

            “Really?” Hillary and Madison squealed.

            “Yes! Anyway, I got home from school today and there was a dozen pink and white roses sitting on my doorstep from him. What do I send him back?”

            “That is so sweet!” Madison said.

            “See, I told you that night at the party that he had it bad for you. I just didn’t see all of this,” Hillary said.

            “Neither did I,” I admitted. “So, any ideas?”

            “Send him some back?” Madison suggested.

            “I already thought of that, but I want to do something original,” I said.

            “Do you have any pictures of y’all together?” Hillary asked.

            “Yeah, a bunch, why?” I retorted.

            “Make him a photo collage and sent it to him,” Hillary said.

            “That is a great idea! Thank you!” I said.

I talked to them for a few more minutes and when I got off the phone, I went and found my digital camera. There were pictures from graduation night, one of him kissing me before we left that I knew had to be taken by Hillary. There were some of us out on the boat with Seth and Jared, and a ton of us in random places on the Florida State campus.

            I jumped up off my bed, grabbed my pocketbook and was out the door, heading to the nearest Walmart to print out some pictures.

            I printed a bunch of pictures, more than I needed for the collage, but I wanted some to put around my apartment. I bought a couple tack bulletin boards and some scrapbooking paper and headed back home, rolling through Popeye’s drive-thru on the way. I was going to be too busy to cook tonight. I wanted to get this collage done so I could mail it on my way to class tomorrow morning, and I also had statistics homework and had to read for my business management class.

            When I got home, I put on a pair of cotton gym shorts and a t-shirt and pulled my hair up on top of my head. I was sitting in the middle of my living room floor when Seth and Jared came in. We were at the walk-right-in-the-door stage of our friendship already. If our cars were in our spots, our apartments were free game.

            “What are you doing, Harleigh?” Jared asked, plopping down on the floor beside me.

            “I see someone sent you roses,” Seth said from the kitchen.

He was already raiding my refrigerator. They rarely bought groceries for their apartment, because the always ate here, but they always contributed to my grocery money, so I couldn’t complain.

“Yes, they were waiting at the door when I got home from class today. And as for what I’m doing, I’m making a collage to send to Colt, as a thank you for my roses. Oh, and he called me at two a.m to tell me he loves me,” I said, beaming.

“That’s big,” Seth said. “And you weren’t even having sex the first time he said it, so he means it.”

“Wow, is that what you do, Seth?” I asked, laughing.

“I may have done it a time or two, caught up in the moment. Talk about awkwardness the next day,” Seth said, sitting down beside me with a ham sandwich and a Pepsi.

“That’s low,” I said, laughing.

“I’m a man, it’s what I do,” Seth said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

“How do you live with this pig?”  I asked, turning to Jared.

“Its not easy sometimes,” Jared said.

“Don’t let him fool you, Harleigh. He does it, too. He’s just worse, he literally bangs them, waits until they fall asleep and comes back home,” Seth shared. Jared just grinned.

“Dear sweet baby Jesus. I am so glad I’m your friend and not some girl on the street vying for your attention,” I said, shaking my head.

“Don’t tell us you have never done it,” Jared said.

“No, I can’t say that I have, not like y’all. I never slept around. I mean, I had one boyfriend I slept with in high school, and when that ended, I had a friends-with-benefits thing going on with another, but he started dating a whorebag towards the end of the school year from Chapel Hill, so I hadn’t slept with anyone else until Colt,” I admitted.

“How can someone who looks like you and is as cool as you are not have a whole line of guys trailing after you?” Jared asked. I swear, this was the most I have heard him talk the entire time I have known him. My sex life must interest the Hell out of him.

“I didn’t say I never had guys try and get with me, I just didn’t really give in, other than a make-out session here and there. I just never was one of those girls who really did it for the hell of it. Nor did I want the reputation of half the girls in Cary. I guess being a Senators daughter and knowing pretty much everything I did, right or wrong, would get out, I tried not to do anything that would get out.”

“That makes sense. That and girls get bad names for sleeping around and its cool for the guys to do it, something I have never understood,” Jared agreed.

“Me, neither,” I said.

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[Charlotte Kennedy]

I am on pins and needles waiting for the next chapter. :)