I'm Not Saying I'm a Gold Digger

The alarm clock whined and buzzed, begging to be turned off. Neither of the girls who couldn't decide whether they were awake or still asleep had enough energy to reach out and put the clock out of its misery. So the clock cried on., and on. After some time the girls successfully tuned out the cacophonous noise and settled back into their dreams. Classes could wait. Right now the most important thing to either of them was sleep.

Shari and Lacey slept throughout their morning classes. Surprisingly Shari was the first to wake. The alarm clocking was still ringing and too her dismay it was just past noon. As a senior in college and owner of a scholarship, unexcused absences would not be tolerated. Shari realized she would have to tell her RA that both Lacey and herself had come down with some type of flu. Lacey woke up just minutes later. Unlike her roommate, Lacey was frantic with worry. She hopped off the couch and called the RA, armed with Shari's brilliant excuse. They had a stomach virus and would have to stay in all day. The RA accepted this with no questions and assured the student that her professors would be notified. Lacey was still not content.

“I can't believe I slept for that long,” she mumbled to Shari as she brushed her hair.

“At least we don't have classes for the rest of the day,” replied Shari with a smile. She was used to the lies and general deceit. It was a wonder after four years, she had kept her scholarship. Her luck seemed to be unending.

“We can't afford to miss classes. We have mid terms and our quarterly projects coming up,” Lacey said. Lacey was not used to the lies and general deceit. All she did was cover for Shari. Skipping class was another story, one she couldn't say she liked.

Shari crossed the room to give Lacey a hug. “Don't worry about it. It's just one day. Besides, don't you want to hear my story?”

Lacey threw out any worries she had. Above all else, she was a college student. She loved to have fun and was outgoing when she wasn't so occupied about grades. Eagerly, Lacey nodded, crossed her feet, and nodded. Wordlessly she listened as Shari recounted her story to her friend. In Lacey's opinion there was only one question to be asked.

“So this Leon guy... was he hot?”

“Lace!” Shari threw a pillow at her in response, but she couldn't help but smile. “Yes, he was very attractive for a geezer.”

Lacey giggled and expertly avoided the projected pillow.. “How old could he possibly be?”

“Uh old.” Shari rolled her eyes at her friend. Lacey was absolutely man crazed. She currently had a thing for one of her professors. Shari began to wonder if that was the real reason Lacey was so upset about missing class.

The two girls took a moment to let out their laughter and energy, but soon after the atmosphere in the room got deadly serious.

“Did it happen again?” Lacey inquired, not meeting Shari's eyes. This was a sensitive topic, one that could not be talked about without locked doors and drawn windows.

Shari ignored Lacey's question. She got up off the floor and hid in the bathroom by taking a shower and getting dressed for the rest of the day. Once she came out their common space had been tidied up. The pillows were back on the couch and the blankets were nicely folded. Shari went into the bedroom and found Lacey lounging on her top claim on the bunk bed. Instead of sitting on the bottom bunk, Shari chose to sit at the desk that faced opposite the beds. This conversation they were about to have would not bode well if they were able to see each others expressions.

“Did it happen again?” Lacey asked once more. She wasn't upset that Shari had ignored her. It was the routine when they talked about these sort of things. There had to be a routine because the topic of their discussion was not very routine.

A forced laugh erupted from Shari's throat. “I don't really have an answer to that. I didn't have time to check and I can't really go back there right now.”

“Do you want me to check?”

“No!” Shari practically shouted. Her outburst was met with silence. Shari fidgeted. She took out a pencil and began to draw on the desk. “Sorry. I want to do it.”

“But if it's happened again-”

“I know. It won't be a coincidence then. It would be real.

Recovering from these times of conversations to the normal talk of college girls was always a struggle for both girls. The topic they both talked of, rocked them to the core. It was like a door or a light bulb. But there wasn't a knob, a light switch. It couldn't be turned off or opened easily.

“It's a Friday,” Lacey said through the silence. She was always the one to first break the barrier of reality and their little secret.

“Yup,” Shari said as she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She had just woken up an hour ago and yet her energy had been sapped by the conversation.

“Then I think we should go to the gallery after your job,” Lacey said. Shari could hear the squeaks of the bedsprings as Lacey got off the bed. She finally turned from the desk to face her friend once again.

Shari smiled. “Definitely.”



Part of the requirements of the scholarship was to get a campus job. At first Shari had worked the typical coffee store, waitress job. As the years passed she began to find out who she was stylistically and took more art oriented jobs. Her senior year, Shari decided, would have to be filled with risks for the sake of her art. This mentality resulted in her working in a figure drawing class. She was the model.

Getting naked in front of a whole group of students at first made her timid. The first couple of sessions had been filled with her posing in ways that were simply thought of to cover her body. But the job grew on her and she learned to embrace it. If she was a student drawing a model she would want the model to contort her body into different angles, creating fascinating shadows. So that's what she did.

It was hard sitting in one position for the duration of a hour. Shari felt it helped to focus on one certain thing and let her mind wander. However, on that particular day, it was almost impossible. There was a new student which was odd. It was already far into the semester. Midterms and quarterly projects were a stone throw away. Yet there he was was because of course it had to be a male. One thing that was hard for Shari to cope with was unfamiliar faces popping into the class for a moment or two, especially if it was a male. But this one was a student. He was to be here for the duration of the hour and he was staring at her.

Shari fought the urge to cover her chest. It wasn't that she was ashamed. Her body was the best the students had seen so far. Her athletic build from her morning runs and dancing helped her. She was toned, with nothing hanging or bulging. There was a deep curve after her chest into a tiny waist and back out into her full hips. Most of the boys treasured this hour simply because she was the model and more than once she had been approached and thanked for having such a lovely body to lend to the class. So no, she wasn't embarrassed. Just uncomfortable because though she didn't want to admit it to herself, she was attracted to this new guy.

He was handsome. And exotic. He looked like he was at least three different ethnicities melted into one. His curly black hair rose up inches above his head in an afro. His eyes were light and contrasted shockingly with his rich cream colored skin. He was breath taking. And he was staring at Shari's naked body.

The painful hour was over. Shari quickly donned her robe and wrapped it tightly around her. Now she felt more confident. She approached the male student with a shy smile on her face and her hand outstretched.
“Hi, it's nice to see a new face,” Shari lied. “I'm Shari Anne Cohen.”

“Shari Anne Cohen? Hmm,” the student said and took her hand. “I'm Jhon Levine.”

They smiled at each other before Shari said, “So how are you liking the class?”

To her surprise Jhon blushed. “It's my first one of these. You were um... interesting, but honestly I didn't draw anything.” He showed her his blank canvas.

It was Shari's turn to blush. “Uhh... It's nice to know I have that effect on people.” Shari looked around the room, at her bare feet, anymore but at Jhon's face.

“Do you want to have coffee sometime?” he suddenly blurted out.

Shari looked up, stunned. “I don't really like coffee,” she said but after seeing his face drop quickly added, “but I'd love to just go to the cafe and chill. Drink tea. Eat pastries. Talk art.”

Jhon nodded. “Then it's a date. Tomorrow? At three?”

This was all new to Shari. She had never been in on a date. She didn't have time and honestly the whole situation scared her. That's exactly why she readily excepted his proposal. She was always up for trying new things. An idea suddenly popped into Shari's head.

“Are you doing anything after this?” she asked.

Jhon shook his head. “Studying can wait.”

She laughed. He was her kind of guy. “Okay then you and I are going to a gallery tonight. I have to go put some clothes on... so how about we meet in like fifteen in campus center?”

“That sounds great,” Jhon said with a smile. Shari smiled back and so they stood there simply smiling at each other.

Shari let out a little squeal. “Sorry... Okay I'm going to go now.” She pointed at the door and exited the class before she could embarrass herself further.

Though she didn't see it Jhon laughed to himself. He could already tell he was going to like this girl. She was beautiful. Jhon put his hand over his face as he remembered her body once again. How was he possibly going to survive the class?