Summer Has Come and Passed

1 year later

I blew on my hands, shivering, standing and waiting at the crosswalk. I had just gotten out of my 5 o’clock class; traffic was a complete mess.

My class ran later than usual due to the fact we had gotten into a full blown debate on the riots that were going on in Los Angeles.

‘ The Rodney King Riots ’ they were called, Tonya, a girl in my class had the notion that it’d be a big Civil Rights movement that would be in Los Angeles, thus, starting the class debate. Thus the reason why instead of 5 o’clock that I left class, it was now a quarter to six and the already cold fall temperature had dropped what felt like 20 degrees.

I pressed my hands together, rubbing them back and forth trying to warm them up; I could kick myself for not wearing gloves today.

I let my eyes wander about at the things placed on the other side of the busy street. A small smile found its way onto my face as I saw across the street; a mother and her toddler son. The mother was trying to pull the young boy, who looked about 2 or 3, from the large pile of leaves piled in a stack sitting on the curb. I giggled at how he hopped and jumped around so freely as his mom, tired and weary, tried to control him.

The mother's eyes locked with mine as she had finally gotten a hold of the young hyper boy. I smiled pleasantly as she did the same. While her young boy threw a handful of leaves around, many landing on his hat covered head. Despite it being quite cold and chilly, he continued to smile his toothy smile, although of course one tooth was missing from his smile. I chuckled shaking my head lightly. The crosswalk was then clear, and I jogged across the street, eager to get to my warm dorm.



“Hello,” I said, returning the greeting of the girl sat upon her bed.

The only roommate I’ve ever had was Gloria—and that was when we were kids. So knowing that I was living with someone who I knew nothing about brought on so many different emotions: nervousness, fear, and a little excitement. This girl and I were either going to become great friends, or, try and smother each other in one another’s sleep. I wasn’t hoping for the latter this time.

She had long dreadlocks, each having a bead at its end, a medium sized hoop hung from her septum as another piercing was in her left nostril.

“I'm Ashley.” she announced removing herself from the bed walking over to me taking my hand in hers in a friendly manner. Perhaps we wouldn’t try killing one another.

“Vienna,” I replied with a courteous smile while I set my bag on the floor. “Mitchell.”

“Hanson.” She nodded; the dark dreads placed in her head shook as she nodded.

She moved from my path as I took a hold of my duffel bag and directed myself to the empty bed placed at the left of the room, sitting upon it.

“Long drive?” she asked shutting the door closed.

“Long flight,” I retorted with a light chuckle. “California.”

She pursed her lips and gave a low whistle. “That is a long flight. I’ve lived here all my life so it didn’t take much to get here,” she dropped back down into her bed. "What are you majoring in?" she asked after a moment.

I found it nice that she decided to break the ice between us both since we were going to be roomed together. “Linguistics along with Psychology and some other classes as well.” I said with a smile.

“Two majors, huh?” She asked. “I'm guessing you don't plan to have a social life here.”

I laughed. “I've figured out how to balance fun and work," I said. "What better place to use it than here.”

“Nothin’ like going to class with a hangover.” she grinned, as did I, becoming more comfortable as the moments went by.

“I'm guessing you're a sophomore?” she queried.

“Quite the opposite,” I corrected. “I’m a freshman—why?”

“Your stack of books,” she pointed. “I had thought you'd been here the year before seeing that you had your books and all.”

I chuckled to hide the tiny bit of embarrassment I had just gotten. “I thought it'd be a...y'know, a good start to the semester.”

“Right on.” she nodded laying herself back on her bed.

“What are you majoring in?” I asked after a moment, not wanting to sit in an awkward silence.

“Illustration.” she answered.

“You're an artist?” I asked.

She nodded. “Indeed I am,” she gestured her hand toward the wall. “I already took the liberty of hangin’ my art and shit on the wall—hope ya don’t mind.”

I shook my head as I walked over toward her side of the room, eyeing the pieces she had taped to the wall. There were so many different things she had drawn, large and exaggerated cartoon like pieces, dark and gray drawings which looked as though they were charcoal, portraits and so on and so forth. It was endless and beautiful, incredibly beautiful.

I would’ve pegged her as someone who would’ve gone to a college strictly for arts and nothing else, but, we had just met so it didn’t feel like my place to ask why she hadn’t.

“They’re so—,” I paused a moment, trying to find the right word. “—Awesome.”

She gave a laugh, tossing a dread out of her face. “Thanks,” She said. “Hey, I’m sorry I gotta cut this meet ‘n greet short but I got some stuff to tend to.”

I nodded understandingly. “It’s okay.”

“Don’t ‘chu worry though, we’re not done shootin’ the breeze just yet, alright” She said grinning and left from the room.



I slid myself into my warm and toasty dorm, quickly kicking off my leaf and mud covered boots, they made a thud sound as they hit the wall. I slid off my coat and tossed it on my bed.

“Hey V,” Ashley called out, the both of us had really hit it off and were as thick as thieves. “You got a call earlier.” She said peeking her eyes from the large textbook she was reading.

“Really?” I asked. “I talked to my mom earlier—what’d she want, did she leave a message?”

She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t your mom—it was a guy calling.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “What—Who?” I asked, incredibly confused and intrigued.

She shrugged her shoulders, fixing her reading glasses which were sliding on her face. “Dunno, but, I do know it was totally out of state. Because I got asked if I wanted to accept the charges, it’s only a few bucks so I did.”

“Out of state?” I questioned. “Out of state where?”

“California,” She said putting her face back into her book. “Some guy in California.”