Not the One

After a good and satisfying meal, Tina and I walked around the mall. We practically went inside every store. Tina was nice and she purchased a black jacket for me. I accepted it and gave her a hug.
“I’m tired of the mall. Let’s go to my school,” Tina suggested.
We left the mall and went to the nearest bus stop. The bus arrived within a matter of seconds. We got on, but it was too crowded to get a seat, so we stood. Tina was extremely close to me. I could practically smell every inch of her. She had a soft vanilla scent. It reminded me of vanilla ice cream and cookies.
Suddenly, the bus came to a halt. Some people in the front screamed. I was scared we ran into something. Tina looked absolutely shocked.
“Oh my God, what was that?” She panicked.
“Calm down, everyone. I hit something on the road,” the bus driver informed us.
I looked around the bus; no one seemed to have gotten hurt.
“I’m afraid all of you have to get off the bus. I need to contact the bus administrators.” With that, everyone rushed out of the bus.
“Whoa, look at that smoke,” said Tina. “I think we should just walk to Pepperdine. I’m not going to risk something happening to us again if we do take another bus.”
“Sure. Seems much safer.”
We started walking straight.
“I’m excited to show you the campus. I hope my friends are there so they can meet you.”
We arrived at the school after several minutes of walking.
“Let’s go inside.” Tina held my hand. Um, what was this? Why did she keep holding my hand today?
We walked through a hallway.
A girl came up to us and said, “Tina! Hey! Is that your boyfriend?”
“Ha, as a matter of fact, he is.” Tina leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Just play along.” She winked.
The girl looked shocked. “Since when?”
“Since yesterday. He came all the way from Iowa,” Tina was smiling.
“Seriously? We need to talk about this later, girl. I gotta go talk to my professor about some stupid summer assignment.”
“Okay, talk to you later, Ashley.” They waved goodbye. Wow, that was lame of me. I just stood there looking like a lost puppy while they chatted. I could have at least introduced myself. But then again, I wasn’t smooth with talking to girls.
Tina gave me a mini tour of the campus. It was beautiful.
“Um, I think we’re done here for now,” Tina said. “Do you want to go to the beach, and just relax?”
“Yeah, that would be nice.” The beach was not far from Pepperdine.
Tina took off her shoes and walked along the sandy beach. I stood there on the pavement, shoes on and everything.
“What’s the matter? Why are you standing there?” She asked, sounding a bit worried.
“I’m actually not sure.” Then I started laughing. Tina was laughing along with me.
“Okay, that was super random. Come on, take off your shoes. The sand feels nice and warm,” Tina said.
I did as she told. I stepped onto the sand and my feet were instantly submerged under the grains.
Tina took a seat on a spot near the water.
“You must be wondering why I made you pretend to be my boyfriend back when we were at school, right?” She asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Well, all my friends have boyfriends. Some are even engaged and one’s married. I’m the only single one in our group. I haven’t been with anyone since my senior year of high school. I just thought… if I pretended to be taken, I would feel better about myself.” Tina looked sad as she told me this.
“Oh. What happened between you and your ex? If you want to tell me.” I scooted closer to her.
“He broke up with me a few weeks before graduation. When all of our college acceptance or rejection letters were sent, we had to make a decision of where we wanted to go. I got accepted into Pepperdine and that was where I wanted to go. He also got accepted into Pepperdine and some school in Paris. He broke up with me because he wanted to go to Paris to study art. He didn’t believe in long distance. I really thought we could work it out, but I guess he didn’t want to put any effort and at least try. God, I loved him.” Tina was crying. I hated seeing girls cry. Especially in front of me. I was bad at comforting people.
“I’m… so sorry.” I pulled her close to me so she could cry on my shoulder.
“It’s not your fault. You shouldn’t say sorry.”
“Is he the reason you haven’t went out with anyone in the past years?” I asked.
“Pretty much. I really thought he was the one, and I still think he is. I begged my mom to let me follow her to Paris, but she wouldn’t let me. She made me stay here to finish school.”
“Will you go after you graduate?”
“I really want to… but after 4 years, I’m not sure he still has feelings for me. He probably found some gorgeous French girl by now.” Tina wiped tears from her eyes.
“Probably not. You never know.”
“Enough about me, do you have someone?” She turned to look at me. Teardrops on her eyelashes. It looked like she just went for a swim.
“No…”
“No? Really?”
I sighed, took a deep breath, and prepared myself for my sad story. “Um, I was never with her. She was my childhood best friend. I liked her for all these years, and I finally had the courage to confess my love to her, but she had plans. Plans to go to Paris.”
Tina gave me a hug. “Just like my Damien…”
I continued, “Yeah. Um. She just left. She told me she liked me at one point, but since I didn’t have any big goals like she did, she stopped liking me.”
“What were your goals? What were hers?”
“Mine was to stay in Iowa and help my parents with the farm. Hers was to go to Paris and become a fashion designer.”
“Wow, we have similar heartbreak stories.” Tina chuckled. I thought it was a weird coincidence how this was.
“Yeah… I guess I lost her. Even though I never really had her in the first place.” I felt tears, but I was not about to cry in front of Tina.
“Maybe one day we can go to Paris and get together with our lovers. But for now, let’s just enjoy the days here.” She lied down on the sand and closed her eyes. I did the same.