The girl sighed, sitting in her small dorm. She quickly grabbed a pair of gym shoes sitting under the nightstand beside her, frantically pulling them onto her feet. Ara tied the laces of her shoes tightly before standing back up straight and brushing off her work out pants softly. Around her still sat boxes, boxes she's been meaning to deal with for the two days she's been in Baltimore. She couldn't say the experience there has been amazing, but she wasn't going to label it so early into arriving. Ara huffed, walking towards the door and yanking it open. She pulled a pair of earbuds from her pocket along with her phone, putting the volume at full before walking in the dorm hallway again.
Once outside, she immediately took off jogging. She didn't know exactly where she wanted to go, so she let her feet do all the work. About an hour in god knows where, she crashed down onto a park bench. Out of breath, Ara yanked the earbuds from her ears and looked at her surroundings. In the distance, she saw a figure that looked her age. Well, this is the only way I'll end up back. Ara approached the figure, still gasping for breath. She tapped the person on the back softly, preparing herself for embarrassment on how she lost her own way back to the university.
Sean had two dozen soccer balls littered around him on the practice field on campus. The amber sun shone vivid, gliding across a cloudless sky. Bullets of sweat dripped down Sean's face and his NU Soccer training shirt, despite being dri-fit, was soaked through. His calves threatened to cramp with dehydration and his breathing was labored. But he worked on - placing his left foot about eight inches from a ball he'd placed around 20 yards from the goal, he lined up his free kick. Five steps back, two steps over. He breathed in, and focused. Left, tiptoes, plant left and strike! He kicked the ball, sending it whistling through the humid air with no spin on it causing it to knuckle into the top corner where he was aiming, and he pumped his fist in success. He'd been able to do it ten times in a row. He'd missed two good opportunities just like that in the last game, and he wouldn't be letting it happen again.
He thought about his family back home, how it was so vital for him to go pro because he was banking on it so hard as well as his dad and little brother back home. His mom had left when he was 15. She ran off because she just couldn't stand it anymore. Sean was so angry at her, when she left. His brother asked about her all the time and he never knew what to say. She called sometimes, texted him - he never answered. He didn't care about anything she had to say. He could never forgive her for what she did. She would say she loved him, missed him so much but it's been six years.
He clicked through his iPhone, changing the song in his earphones and then sat on the ground. He'd been out here for over three hours, running sprints, taking shots and free kicks, dribbling through cones. He was lucky that no one else was around - he liked training alone best when he needed to work out kinks in his technique. His set piece ability was one of the reasons NU had selected him and a recruit. Refusing to quit while he was working so hard, he stood and massaged his calves and his upper legs with his knuckles and took big gulps of his gatorade. He changed the song.
Dribbling through the cones again, he noticed someone in the stands coming down towards him - he couldn't tell who it was, but he stopped his drill and lifted the ball to his hands with a flick of his foot and jogged over to them. "I didn't see you there..."
Sweat, sore limbs and tired muscles were a few tiresome things any dancer had to be accustomed to. Dae-Jung was no different. The dance studio had sort of been his place of escape when there was some thing on his mind, and right now, he just wanted to let loose to his favourite past time — dancing and singing.
His iPhone was plugged in to the stereo, the music blaring loudly and leaving thumps against the speakers that bumped around the room. Dae-Jung watched his reflection, his body moving fluidly along with the choreography he had come up as of recently. Protect her, so she won’t forget me. I will go until the end to the place where my love is. The signature move being him bending his right knee and sliding his hand across his thigh, and as the final chorus come up, Dae-Jung got lost in his own little world and was oblivious to the sound of the door opening and a person watching. My heart is like that, I only know one thing. So even though it is bent and in pain, it will love you. He paused then, dropping his hands and glancing at the person who entered the studio while the music continued. He smiled in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, “Oh, hey!”
Gem stood outside, fumbling with her keys. Wow I'm sick of being here. Campus was starting to feel claustrophobic, between the lack of entertainment and the increase in ridiculous drama. It was funny, though, that the gossip blog didn't know what was going on. She was sure that the people involved probably didn't, either. Maybe this is why you stay in your room all the time, Gem. People are just too bat shit crazy for you. Looks like Van's cynical attitude finally rubbed off a bit. Laughing to herself, she rolled her eyes. At least Neverland wasn't a constant war zone. At least there was peace and people stopped trying to ruin lives and things.
Keychain finally in hand, she shrugged her bag back onto her shoulder. "Goddamn. Nice one, Lancaster, you can't even remember where you parked your own car." She started to walk aimlessly through the parking lot, hitting the lock button to see if her car was in range. Not paying attention, she slammed into someone. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry!"
Staring down at her laptop, Hannah finally decided that she was done watching movies for the rest of her Sunday. She shut her laptop, getting off her bed before setting her laptop down on her desk. The blonde quickly changed into a white tank top, dark denim shorts, and a pair of black vans. She grabbed her bag, slinging it onto her shoulder before tossing her phone and dorm room key into the bag. She quickly put on some make up - mascara, some eye liner, lip gloss, and a tinted moisturizer - before heading out and locking her door behind her.
Hannah wasn't really sure what she wanted to do but after a few moments of debating, she headed out of her building and towards Starbucks. It wasn't very late at night and she still needed to go over and help Bella unpack her clothes so she figured that she'd go and grab some coffee or something before she went over. After arriving at Starbucks, Hannah decided on ordering Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino and a blueberry scone.
Once she had her order, Hannah walked over to one of the empty tables and set her drink and scone down. She hung her purse onto the side of her chair closest to the window before pulling out a notebook and pen - deciding that she might as well make a list of everything she had to get done before classes started. The bell signaling that someone had came into the coffee shop caught her attention, head snapping up to see who had came in.
I go crazy when you walk in the room
I laugh at myself with the girl in bloom
The taste of sex couldn't be too soon
All afternoon then
LA parties in the phony lands
Phony grabs with the manicured hands
I always thought you were pretty like a whip
Should have watched my step
Cause I keep on forgetting myself
And I keep on forgetting myself
Who am I we both don't know
Time ticks by, where did you go
1-4-09
Sean walked slowly up the steep driveway to Em's house, choosing each step with care, as he'd slipped on the ice in the driveway only a few days before. Em had been being really friendly lately - Sean felt like they were in a good place. They were... Friends. Friends.
Sean had liked Em for a few years now - but 'liked' doesn't tell the whole story. The way it really ought to be put is, ”Sean spent the last four years setting himself on fire for Emily Rivers." Through periods of time where she'd ignore him, purposely make him sick with jealousy, date other boys in spite. She was at this time, dating a boy named John, whom she claimed to love very much. She'd never really shown Sean any sort of affection, save for one instance that Sean kept in a box in his mind, a memory he played back when he missed her especially.
He knocked on the door, and kicked his shoes against the ground softly, jamming his toes to the front, right twice, left once, and Em answered the door, smiling, biting her lip, every inch of her inviting him in as she brushed back her hair, and asked, "Did you fall this time?" She was wearing skinny, green jeans, a flannel shirt and a tank top under it, and even in casualwear she looked divine. He inhaled sharply through his nose and the smell of cold and snow mixed with hers, a faint hint of juniper and Christmas that Sean adored.
"No, I made it alive tonight."
He walked in, and she offered to take his jacket, and he assumed that it was going to be hung up by her when she opened the closet in the foyer - she pushed aside a dozen coats and found no hangers - she threw it over the chair in the living room. Close enough. They smiled together at the awkward moment. "Hi, Kevin!" Her parents chimed from the kitchen. They walked together in, and Mr. and Mrs. Rivers were putting on coats and driving gloves and winter hats, getting ready to run out the door. Em's sisters were sitting at the table, eating pizza, which was offered to Sean, but he politely declined. They asked him about how soccer had gone, what colleges he was looking at and then hurried off to their rehearsal for Oklahoma, the Musical! Her two sisters went to their respective friends houses and it was just Sean and Em.
They talked about school, and friends, and music for a while, and it wasn't at all awkward. They were just two friends, hanging out. She offered to play his favorite movie, citing her text from earlier that day, "want to come over and bum out and eat food and watch West Side Story?" And he accepted graciously. Sean loved West Side Story. She ran upstairs, presumably to her room and returned with a bit more than a DVD. In her other hand was a half empty but still sizable bottle of gin and two shot glasses. She set everything down on the counter, and he breathed to protest, and she said,
"Sean, want a drink?"
"Uhm..."
"It's cool if you don't. We don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not going to like, pressure you into anything."
Emily, while still a complete lady, had a bit of a reputation for liking to drink. As a freshman, she partied a lot, but waned down towards senior year, reserving her bacchanalia for smaller gatherings. West Side Story played dissonant, quirky chords as the Sharks and Jets chased each other through their neighborhoods.
"I mean, Sean... It'll be fun!" She smiled at him, biting her lip again and giggling a little."
"One drink." One couldn't hurt, right? He walked over to her as she poured both shots. He picked his up, examining it, and she said, "cheers!" clinking his shot glass and knocking hers back expertly -
"Oh, shit! Shit shit!" She said, laughing, "I didn't get anything to chase it down with," and she opened the fridge, procuring a two liter of soda and taking a swig. This didn't bode well for Sean, who muttered his mantra, "Why always me?" before knocking his back as well.
His throat immediately rejected the alcohol and the musky weight of the gin - he coughed, "Fuck!" He said, and Em laughed at him. They laughed, and she stared at him, and he said, "I think I might need another one of those."
They drank the gin straight, no chaser for a little while before Em mixed it with some sort of juice and put it in coffee mugs for them to sip while they watched West Side Story and laughed at the most innate things. She stood up during the dance at the gym number, offering Sean her hand. She had never offered to dance with him before.
The pas-de-duex played and they slow danced. She played with his hands. Touched his face. Giggled. Made faces. And then said, "God, Sean, what would I do without you?" Looking right into his eyes. And then she kissed him.
Warning bells police sirens Air Raid Sirens went off in his brain but the alcohol drowned them and he kissed back. They kissed and things progressed.
Notes: Hannah's grandmother loses her battle with cancer, and she decides that she wants to try to help people who have cancer and their families.
At the age of fourteen, Hannah had seen enough of hospitals to last her for a lifetime. She always when in with her grandmother when she had her treatments at one of the hospitals in New York City, usually with her mother or father tagging along if they weren't busy with work. The young female had always been close to her grandmother - going shopping, watching movies, or just spending time with her grandparents.
Within the last month, her grandmother had taken a turn for the worse - no longer responding to treatments for her cancer. After a couple of weeks of constantly needing to take her to the hospital, her mother and Hannah's aunts decided to have their mother admitted for further treatment and to try to make the sixty-five year old more comfortable in the last month of her life.
The five adults stood near the hospital bed as the beeping of the heart monitor slowly started to stop. Hannah was laying on the single couch that was in the hospital room, not really knowing what was going on when a line suddenly appeared on the monitor and doctors and nurses suddenly came rushing in. Her parents were pushed off to the side of the room she was on and her two aunts and one of their husbands off to the other. Hannah's mother quickly grabbed her daughter, tears streaming down her face, as the young blonde looked on in complete shock. She had never seen someone when they were dying - especially at a hospital - but after a couple of seconds, she realized that her grandmother was dying. She had been in denial for the last month, not wanting to believe what the adults knew would happen.
After about twenty minutes of the doctors trying to resuscitate her grandmother, one of the doctors finally turned to her parents and then her aunts, letting them know that they had done all that they could but that they had lost her. Hannah stood there in shock before a few tears finally slid down on her cheeks, not even realizing that she was crying until her mother suddenly hugged her, rubbing her back soothingly as she cried along with her daughter and the rest of the family that was currently in the room.
After a few minutes, Hannah wiped her green eyes, standing up and walking over to her grandmother's bedside. A shaking hand slowly reached out, holding onto the now cool to the touch hand of her now deceased grandmother. It was then that Hannah realized that she wanted to do something to help everyone who had cancer along with their families. She scanned the room, seeing everyone completely broken as she waited for the death to sink in.
