January's Holiday

Holiday

I had finally finished all of the homework I was planning on doing that morning, and packed up my stuff to head out of the library. I was still a little bit confused as to why Nathan had suddenly asked me out, but he was adorable, and I was more than willing to give him a chance.

I headed back to my dorm room just as Gwen was getting out of the shower.

"Hey January, just got back from the library!" I called through the bathroom door. Being girls, it wasn't weird for us to talk to each other while one of us was in the bathroom..

"Okay, I'll be right out!" came her muffled reply.

"How was your date?" I asked her, overly curious of the complex situation between her and Joe.

"I'l tell you in a second, hang on!" she called back. I sat down on the bed, taking off my shoes. I still had a few hours to kill before my date tonight, so I though I'd see if Gwen could hang out for a little bit. She emerged from the steamy bathroom with her hair in a towel, already ready to go out.

"Where are you headed?" I asked her.

"Joe and I have a lot of work to get done on the project today" she answered. I was a little bummed that we couldn't hang out, but I couldn't help but notice that her mention of Joe wasn't accompanied by the usual grimace. She actually smiled a tiny bit, much to my surprise.

She went into the bathroom to grab her brush and sat down on the bed to untangle her long hair that I was totally jealous of.

"So, how was it?" I asked again.

"Hm?" She snapped her attention back to our conversation, very clearly having been thinking about something else. She stared at me for a few seconds before answering.

"Oh, the date! It was...good. Yeah, it went well." She seemed reluctant to admit that she had a good time, as vague and dismissive as ever. I furrowed my brow, not having so much as a clue as to what was going through her head, but I let her space out again and thought about what I would do for the next couple of hours. Ten minutes later, Gwen was leaving with a short goodbye, and I was alone in our dorm.

I got ready to go hang out with Nick when I suddenly realized that I had no idea where his dorm room was. Defeated, I decided to go for a short walk and maybe grab a quick lunch at the cafeteria. Nick was nowhere in sight, so I ended up just heading back to my room and watching a movie by myself. How pathetic was that? Oh well, at least I had a date that night.

---

January still hadn't returned from her "studying" with Joe, so I was left on my own to figure out what to wear. I chose a pair of my best fitting jeans and a flattering t-shirt. After all, I wouldn't need much else to watch a movie. I shoved on a cardigan for the short walk to the boys' dorms, and hurried through the packed snow. I made it there without getting lost, and went up a flight of stairs to Nathan's room. I knocked on his door and he opened it with an adorable and charming smile. I was surprised to find that the lights in his room were all dimmed. Immediately red flags popped up in my mind, but I suppressed them uneasily, trying to convince myself that movies were meant to be watched in the dark. Nathan and I, hardly knowing each other made awkward small talk while he asked me what movie we wanted to watch. I immediately chose Fifty First Dates, figuring that an easy going Romantic/Comedy would be the safest bet. He put the movie on and sat on his bed, patting the spot next to him. Nervously, I sat next to him, and tried to calm myself down.

The movie was funnier than I remembered, and I relaxed as Nathan and I laughed at the same things and commented in the same places. I was surprised to find that he talked almost as much as I did in movies, something that usually annoyed my friends. I was just starting to feel really at ease when Nathan started tracing my thigh with his hand. I looked at him, confused, and his easy-going smile faltered a little bit. But then, he smiled again, and kissed me. Hard. It was nothing like I expected my first kiss to be, with his tongue all over my mouth and his hand creeping further down my thigh. I pushed him away, knowing it wasn't right, and he looked at me quizzically.

"Are you okay?" he asked, not sounding like he actually cared if I was okay but that he wanted to know why I stopped kissing him.

"I'm sorry, it just... it's not right." I answered, not wanting to upset him. To my utter shock, he rolled his eyes.

"Did it feel right with Nick?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I was completely confused. He just shook his head.

"Nevermind. Let's just watch the movie." I stared at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to explain further, but he didn't, so I settled back as uncomfortable as ever to finish watching. There was a palpable tension in the air, and the rest of the movie crawled by painfully. Finally, it was over and I had an excuse to get out of there.

"So, it's getting pretty late. I should probably..." I trailed off mid-sentence, feeling a little bit guilty that I had stopped him earlier. Had I just misconveyed something? Maybe he asked me out for a different reason that I thought. Or maybe "watching a movie or two" in someone's dorm was some kind of code at Lakeside that I didn't know about. Either way, it was awkward, and had ended awkwardly, and I was just happy to leave.