Losing Love

One Year Later

“Mandy?” She turned hearing her name. The sound bounced off of the walls in the empty hallway.

The smiling young face of her history teacher, Alec Rosworth, came running towards her. He was about the only good looking lecturer in the whole university. He was the teacher that girls drooled over and dreamed about. Well, maybe not all girls. Mandy simply looked up to him. For such a young man he had so much knowledge. His talks were captivating to those who listened and not just stared. He made his students feel like they could do anything with his uplifting and enthusiastic views on life. His passion for history always fascinated her. That was probably one of the reasons why Mandy got on so well in his class, she finally found someone with the same amount of heated passion towards a subject.

History was either a subject you loved or hated. Evidently, she adored it.

“Mr. Rosworth.” She greeted him with a wide smile of her own.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to keep you. I thought I would catch you in class today but I didn’t.” He said, his breath was heavy from running as he brushed his fingers through his sandy coloured hair. “I just wanted to congratulate you on the results of your exams.”

Her brows furrowed for a moment wondering why he was congratulating her. Did he run after everyone of his students to congratulate them too? She wasn’t so sure.

“Thank you.” She half smiled at him but she was still confused.

“You have no idea why I am saying this do you?” He laughed at himself, nodding his head at his lack of explanation.

“No.” She answered honestly, relieved he was about to give her a reason.

“You got the highest in your class, Mandy.” He finally said, a proud smile conquering his tanned face. “Well done. That is impressive. But you deserve it, you work extremely hard. So keep up with whatever you are doing and you will have a good chance of getting the honours programme at the end of all of this.”

She glared at him through bewildered eyes for a moment. She was definitely going mad. A sure sign was that she was hearing things.

Did he just tell her she got the highest in her class?

Wow. He really did tell her that she got the highest in her class.

She bit down on her lip to contain the smile that was spreading across her cheeks and an over-whelming sense of accomplishment came with it. All her hard work had paid off. She knew she had done well in her exams which gave her entry to her second year but she didn’t think she worked hard enough to get the top results.

She was proud of herself and she didn’t care. She had a right to be proud of herself.

“Thank you.” Mandy spoke realizing she wasn’t the only one standing in the hallway. The words were the first that came to her head and she felt a need to say something.

“Don’t thank me. I only give what is necessary to learn and you go and do all the work. You should be thanking yourself.”

“Well, thank you anyway.” She said gratefully, placing her bag firmly on her shoulder.

“So are you going home for the summer?” Alec questioned using his best attempt of small talk. It was odd for Mandy to stand there and have a casual conversation with her lecturer.

“No actually.” She closed her eyes lightly for a moment, feeling the pain of the knot that had formed in her stomach. Mandy still had to tell her parents she wasn’t coming home for the summer. Of course, they would see her on the weekends she decided she wanted to go home but she knew her mother was going to have a minor fit on the phone when she tells her.

At the same time, she was excited about staying on the college campus for the summer. It was about time she started embracing college life to the fullest.

“I got a job in the local museum.” She was also excited about that. The same museum housed many artefacts and historic features that she couldn’t wait to lay her eyes on.

“Great. That experience will really stand to you when you go looking for a job after this course.” His pale hazel eyes squinted as they always did when he spoke seriously and he folded his arms in a serious manner.

After a few moments of awkward silence Mandy shifted on her feet and found her voice. “I better be off.” She gestured, waving her hand.

“Oh yes, of course.” He stuttered.

For a cool young teacher, he still acted nervous and twitchy around the girls; even if they were his students’.

“Have a great summer and I will see you in September.” He called after her.

“You too.” She nodded, waving at him as he walked away.

Outside the sun was shining on the lush green grass and the glaze filtered through the gaps in the branches and reflected onto the cobble pathways.

Mandy shivered as her skin finally found the heat outside and the contrast from the cool air inside the college and blazing sun outside gave her goose bumps. It was nice to walk along the old campus was just listen to the silence. There weren’t many people around. They had all left to go home.

Ouch! There was that knot again, twisting at her insides until it made her feel nauseated. Her mother was going to kill her. And she knew she would have to get it over and done with soon because the longer she waited the worse it would get and her parents knew she was finished college for the summer.

There was an upside to staying at college for the summer though. Sally and Ben were coming down to spend some time with her and Garry. Thankfully, her worst nightmare had not become reality. They had kept in close the contact the whole time and met with each other most weekends. Mandy was really looking forward to meeting them and she could introduce them to her knew friends.

Speaking of which, one of them was walking straight to her.

“Where have you been?” Caroline wondered as she got closer to Mandy. Her dark skin looked comfortable in the heat of the sun. Her dark brown wavy hair feel down onto her shoulders and her killer brown eyes looked like two pools of chocolate against her gold eye shadow.

Mandy met her the very first day in History class and they got on like a house on fire. They balanced each other out almost.

“I called to your apartment and Garry said you were out. He didn’t know where you went.” Mandy had to bit on her lip to stop herself from laughing. She couldn’t help but notice the way Caroline said Garry’s name like he was some kind of god.

Mandy didn’t get it. They both liked each other but none of them would do anything about it. Caroline, even though she didn’t come across as shy, she was when it came to matters dealing with the opposite sex. And Garry was just stubborn and enjoyed doing nothing too much. They flirted like hell when an alcohol made her eyes dizzy. Other than that they were just the silly pathetic awkward people.

“I went to clear out my locker and I got talking to Mr.Rosworth.” They both began walking in the direction of Mandy’s apartment.

“Ah, he is just too gorgeous for his own good.” Caroline dreamed.

“Ugh, I don’t get it.” Mandy gagged.

“You are blind that is why you don’t get it. What were you talking to him about anyway? Did he suddenly confess his undying love for your over enthusiasm in history?” Caroline mocked.

“Wow, she does sarcasm.” Mandy fought back, rolling her eyes. “He just wanted to know was I was going home for the summer.” She answered avoiding the reason why he really wanted her. She did not want to boast about her grade. Especially to Caroline, whom loved the course, she just found it difficult sometimes.

“Stalker much?” Caroline blurted in disgust.

Now Mandy regretted not telling her the real reason.

“Ok, besides your stalker issues, what are you doing tonight?” Caroline asked, turning to face Mandy as they walked into the shade of her apartment building.

“I don’t think I am doing anything. Why?” Mandy questioned sceptically. She wasn’t in the mood for doing something overly exciting.

“Some of the guys are having a party tonight on the beach to celebrate the end of the school year. Come on, come with me?”

Mandy’s eyes widened and she shook her head frantically in protest. “Me. Water. Alcohol. Not good. You know what happened the last time.” Mandy moaned at the funny yet disgusting and painful memory.

“Just don’t go near the water because we all know what happened last time.” Caroline nodded, her eyes shouting pity and hilarious all at the same time.

“I needed to wash my hands somewhere. What better place than the ocean?” Mandy shrugged, rummaging through her bag for keys.

“Well you shouldn’t have sat up on that wall in the first place. That way you wouldn’t have had all that white stuff on your hand.”

“It was ice-cream.” Mandy shouted quickly, trying to erase the horrid memory.

“At four o’clock in the morning? Honey, that was not ice-cream. That was a funny night.” Caroline chuckled as Mandy watched her face, the memories playing behind her dark eyes. “I can’t believe you lost your sandals in the ocean. You only needed to wash your hands and you came back to use, waist high with seaweed and no shoes.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Come on you have to come. Everyone is going. And there will be lots of hotties there for you to stick you claws into.” Caroline’s voice rose in pitch as the sheer excitement took control of her.

“First of all, I don’t have claws and even if I did I wouldn’t be sticking them into anybody whether they were hot or cold.”

“Come on Mand. It is about time for you to get a man. You can’t stay single forever you know?”

Mandy had told her about Nick and how he died. She didn’t mind talking about it now, just not to everybody. Caroline was good to her. She was like Sally in many ways. She completely understood everything and she didn’t judge her once.

Of course Mandy didn’t tell her about Ellie. She wasn’t comfortable with talking about that yet. She probably never would be. There was still a massive whole in her somewhere and it formed the day she gave her precious little girl away. Mandy just hoped that she was living the life she dreamed Ellie would have. All she could do was pray her wish came true.

“I know I can’t stay single forever.” She finally answered. “I’m just not ready yet.”

“That’s ok but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Come with me. We can go together and pretend we suddenly turned lesbian or something.”

“Fine.” Mandy groaned, opening the door to her apartment.

The telly was making quiet humming noise. As the both walked down the hall, Shane was slumped on the couch, his legs graced over the coffee table. The sulk on his face was louder than the TV.

“What is wrong with him?” Caroline whispered, so low only Mandy could hear her deep voice.

“They guy he met last week still hasn’t called.” Mandy informed her.

“Aw the poor thing.” Caroline pouted. “Come here sweetie.” She rushed to his side and hugged him close.

Mandy did that many times before with Shane. She soon realized he was a drama queen and he knew how to play on it. But she loved him all the same.

Quickly, she dropped her bag into her room and changed into a powder blue t-shirt.

“OK then.” She took a deep breath rushing from her room. “While you two are there on your little comforting session and doing girlie things I have to go and see my brother because he is not getting away with letting me speak to my mother alone.” She said sounding firm.

“You go girl.” Caroline clicked her fingers. “I will see you tonight about eight. I’ll call you to let you know where about I am.”

“Perfect.” Mandy agreed, grabbing her dark sunglasses from the counter.

She said her goodbyes and placed her large glasses over her eyes to block out the blinding sunlight.

Matt’s apartment was only five minutes from hers so she decided to walk and get some fresh air. That was the best about being by the ocean, there was always a cool breeze.

She passed his familiar jeep and made her way through the apartment block doors. The whole place screamed student accommodation. She could almost sense the hundreds of hangovers as she walked through the narrow corridors.

She stopped outside the black door of his apartment and knocked lightly three times. She didn’t bother calling first because he probably would have given her some excuse that he wasn’t there just to get out of calling their mother.

Slowly, the door creaked open and the sunlight from his apartment filtered through the door, shining onto her body.

She looked up and almost choked at the breath stuck in her throat as a pair of very familiar brown eyes greeted her.

“Mandy.” Josh exclaimed, feeling as surprised as she looked. To him, she was as beautiful as the moment he first saw her. She looked more content this time though. Her brilliant green eyes glistened and her full lips parted slightly as she stared at him.

“Casanova?” She laughed, sounding shocked. “You’re back.” Her eyes astounded.

His black button down shirt clung to his muscular shoulders and his ash brown hair was slightly longer than the last time she had seen him. It was still short but it made her notice his strong jaw line and the way his lips curved up into a cheeky smile. Maybe it was because she was riddled in self pity and pain when she last saw him that she couldn’t notice those things. But she could see them now and she learned to appreciate the sight.

“So, you I didn’t think you would do it. You survived a whole year without me.” He teased, reminding her of the conversation they had in his car almost a year ago.

“It was tough. I became immune to crying myself to sleep. It hurt like hell not hearing your cheesy remarks for a whole year but I am standing here. Even if it is a miracle.” She played along and he chuckled for a brief moment.

“Well, Mandy Parker I have news for you. Along with that humour of yours, Josh is back.”

She bit down on her lip as she kept his gaze. She could feel the blood pulse beneath the skin.

Yeah, he was definitely back.

Oh God, Josh was back.