My Kingdom

Cale Finley knew she was lost, and going in circles. She had passed that building three times already in her search for her dorm room. Sighing she sat on the ground, her 2 medium sized duffle bags and her small backpack beside her she stared at the campus map in her hand. According to the map she was supposed to be on a completely different end than what she was on now, only going over what she had been told to go she couldn’t see where she had went wrong.

“You look like you could use some help?” Cale turned, her hair flopping into her face as she looked up to face the boy with blonde hair who stood before her. His smile was endearing and mischievous and Cale found herself picking herself up off the ground and pulling her bags with her. The boy took the two duffle bags off her shoulder, offering one to his brunette friend and taking the map from her hands and studying it, “Oh we’re right near you, come on we’ll show you where you go.”

Cale followed behind him, confused and curious, the brunette fell into step with her as the blonde continued to babble on in front of them, “That’s TJ. I’m Jonathan.” Cale smiled up at the brunette and for the first time she realized just how gorgeous he was. His brown eyes shining with youthfulness, his tanned skin glistening from the sun, the smile that danced its self upon his lips took her breath away.

“I’m Cale. You two didn’t have to do this you know, I could have found it myself.” She said as they rounded a corner that she had never seen yet, and Cale immediately knew this was the step she had in fact missed. Jonathan smiled and readjusted his hat on his head, the beak still at the back of his head. Cale had always hated when guys wore their hats like that, but this one, it looked right on Jonathan, “so Jonathan, how old are you because you look like really young?”

Jonathan chuckled at her and shifted her bag on his shoulder with ease as Cale chewed on her lip, “I’m 18, sophomore here. And sure you could have done this yourself but then we would be jerks for not helping. So are you a freshie?”

“Um yeah, I just turned 18. Wait, how are you a sophomore but 18?” Cale had always been a curious girl, part of the reason she got into so much trouble back home. That and the fact that wither her big brown eyes and ‘California’ good looks she had a lot of guys after her. It was safe to say in the past 4 years of her life things had changed, gone was the good little girl she used to be, now she had been replaced with a girl who drank too often, smoked too much, had sex too often with guys she didn’t know all that well. Choosing North Dakota was an obvious choice, as her best friend had told her there was a lot of partying there.

“I graduated high school early so I could get a year or two of university in before I got drafted.”Cale nodded as Jonathan spoke for a while about his hockey as she had asked him and found herself disappointed when they arrived at her door. She was going to ask the boys if they would like to stay and have a drink, for helping her, but her roommate walked in and demanded they talk. So when the boys left, after exchanging numbers with a promise of hanging out in the near future she sat on the bed with her roommate, a girl with light blonde hair and a pretty smile.

“So roommate, let’s not be total bitches to each other alright? I don’t really want to move to another room. I’m Lizzie by the way.” The girl stuck her hand out and Cale eagerly shook it, glad to at least know someone who was a girl at this school. Cale nodded, still not understanding and Lizzie went on, “my last room lasted 3 days, we got a complaint because of us fighting all the time so they moved me. My roommate, Peyton, always got mad at me because I talked to Chris Vandevelde lots, when she’s liked him since she first met him like 3 years ago in their hometown. But it’s like fuck how am I supposed to know that?”

“I’m Cale. And who’s Chris Vandevelde, is he like some big deal here?” Lizzie laughed at her new friends limited knowledge of their school. Vale simply shrugged and smiled over at her.

“He’s a freshman, just like us, and he is going to be playing on the hockey team, just like Jonny and Teej, the two guys who walked you over here. By the way how did you get them to do that?” Cale nodded, taking in all the things Lizzie was talking about and merely shrugged at her when she asked. Cale wasn’t even sure herself why they offered to walk her home.

“I don’t know, I was just sitting on the grass looking at the map when TJ walked over and grabbed my bags and told me him and Jon would walk me to my dorm because theirs was that way anyways.” Cale explained as she playing with the charm on the gold string around her neck, Lizzie snorted and rolled from her back to her side and looked at Cale.

“Why would they help you out when they never help anyone else, and let alone walk you half way across the campus when they don’t live by us, they live on the other end... Oh I get it! One of them thinks your hot, thats gotta be it!”Cale rolled her eyes at Lizzie and stared at the ceiling, feeling slightly tired and angry with herself. Lizzie picked up on this and brought Cale up with her when she stood up, “come on, there’s a crazy good party tonight we have to get ready. Chris invited me and you, and well...Jon and TJ will be there.” Lizzie said wiggling her eyes brows jokingly; Cale rolled her eyes at her friends theatrics and opened her duffle bag, taking out a pair of skinny jeans and a blue Hollister long sleeve. Lizzie had insisted on Cale wearing her blonde and brown highlighted hair down and wavy, and after the two put on some light make-up they were out of the door.

It was packed, Cale hadn’t even seen this many people at a party since the party she went to after prom in California. People were everywhere, dancing and drinking and laughing. She felt slightly out of place here but knew that after a few drinks in her she wouldn’t feel so out of place. She had filled a red plastic cup with Corona beer and sipped on it sparingly. Her eyes trailed through the crowd looking for a familiar face that she did not see. Sighing to herself she leaned back against the counter in the kitchen and bit her lip, “what’s a girl like you doing sitting all alone?”

His light brown hair hung slightly in his face, his smile was charming and kind and his eyes seemed to rake over her body for a moment. Cale shrugged, bringing her cup to her lips and taking a long sip of her beer before staring at him intensely, a coy smile on her lips and saying, “looking for someone.”

“Might I be of assistance?” Cale shook her head and pulled her buzzing phone out of her pocket, smiling upon seeing the name that popped up and she typed back her answer before shoving it back in her pocket. The boy in front of her smiled cheaply and she knew he had a few beers. His arms snaked around her body and she shrugged away from his touch, his hands sweaty and cold as they slid up the front of her t-shirt slightly. Once again Cale found herself moving farther away from him, her body now wedged between the corner of the counter and his body.

“Brandon leave her alone.”Cale turned, her face reddening when she saw Jon emerge from the living room and into the kitchen, immediately this Brandon guy let go of her, mumbling things before leaving the room. Jon chuckled, patting his back as he left the room and made his way over to Cale, who was now propped up on the counter and swinging her feet in the air.

“I could have handled that.” She lied. Truth was, she couldn’t. Cale wasn’t a strong girl, she knew that, sure she could make a guy leave her alone but not guys like that. Because Cale wasn’t one to refuse a guy, only there was something about that boy that sent shivers down her spine and made her want to gag.

Jonathan chuckled at the girl before him, who merely shot him a glare, “sure you could have, and I could kill a bear with my bare hands right?” Her glare softening Cale smiled, before the two began to laugh at each other. Before long Cale was wiping tears from the corner of her eyes as she stopped laughing. Jonathan smiled at her, handing her another cup of beer as she grabbed himself one. Smiling greatly at him Cale took a long drink and looked up at him innocently from behind her cup. She knew what she was doing to him, and smiled as he gulped and tried to hide it with drinking more from his cup.

“So Jonathan where’re you from?” Cale shifted on the counter, making room for him as he hopped up. Jonathan turned, his eyes glistened slightly from the amount of booze in him.

“Winnipeg, Manitoba. How about you?” Jonathan was not one to open up but found himself doing so with Cale. It was easy to talk to her, easy to tell her things. She smiled up at him with a goofy grin.

“Canada huh? Born in Edina, Minnesota moved to California when I was 14.” Jonathan smiled at her, his arm wrapping lightly around her shoulder as the two of them helped each other walk to the door. Once out on the cold lawn Cale found her legs weak as she dropped to the ground, laughing at herself Jonathan lay beside her laughing at her as well.

“Do you want to go for dinner tomorrow?” Cale snapped her head to the left, toward Jon who stared at her with a warm smile. Biting on her lip Cale nodded, smiling at Jon who moved closer, his fingers brushing the hair from in her face and tucked it behind her ear. Tomorrow was going to be a whirlwind.