1st a week after the fateful pregnancy test, Max is at the MIT registration desk with his best friend Gilbert and Alex his new roommate.
Max is looking at the social events calendar for MIT. Freshman parties, orientation, fraternities, sororities, oh and the first game of the season. The first football game of the season, this was MIT and they still had a football team and they still, it dawned to him, this was just another way of being in high school, a ton of people his age that continued their education, a bunch of people like he himself, it was a school, a form of schooling… and then it hits him...
Max suddenly grins like he just understood what was really important in life, like it just "clicked".
Max: Guys, stop, I don't need to know about all this, about the parties, the curriculum or the book-list, I mean, what am I doing here?
Gilbert grins, his best friend finally understood.
Max: My parents, MIT is, I mean look at this. A social calendar? We have a social calendar, I thought MIT was all about learning and becoming the best but this is a social calendar, Gilbert, I love Naomi and she would be all over this because she would be planning those things and, it's just another school and...
Alex: What the hell are you talking about? Gilbert, what is happening?
Max: I love Naomi, oh my god I love Naomi and I should never ever have left her, I mean, all these girls here, none can, I mean look around you, everybody is wearing a turtle neck and I am freezing and all, we have a social calendar and my parents told me I would have to learn and Naomi would distract me but we have a social calendar so...
Alex: The chick that left you? Come on you are here for a week, this is college and, the social calendar, why are we even talking about her? There are a million other chicks out here, why are you... Come on, let's go, forget her. This is MIT, this is the big leagues and of course its not all about learning, its about meeting the right people and going to class with like minded people, not the people that made fun of you…
Alex tries to pull Max away and to another desk that is full with posters and leaflets for other college activities like the chess club and astrophysics for entrepreneurs, environment clubs etc.
Max: No I mean it, wait. My parents, I am sorry Alex but you don't know me that well yet. Gilbert, you will understand but I was supposed to go to CalTech and I have a full scholarship to it. Yes, MIT was my first choice but that was before I met her but then, Alex I applied to other universities, it wasn't MIT or nothing. I applied to other universities and got it, I can still call them, this is not my only choice, not even at the East Coast. I am sorry but CalTech, oh my god I love Naomi and I need to be with Naomi because why should I go through all that drama here when I already found her, when I found my other half? A woman that has killer looks and that made me into the man I am today and I am such an idiot that I left her oh my god
Alex: Didn't you send her a letter?
Max takes a breath and thinks for a minute: I did but she is very stubborn and I behaved one of those football idiots instead of taking responsibility and standing by her all the way.
Gilbert: You did.
Max laughs again: I am leaving, I need to go to the Dean and switch schools. I think I can still do that, it's the first week and I need to book some flights and I am still enrolled into CalTech and Gilbert, please help me.
Gilbert smiles: You should have never left, I am so sorry bros but I should have helped you. It's the first time I see you smiling that tells me a lot, go and fly home.
Max: I will and I grew up, that is what college is all about and we had a great summer here, a summer I was already away from my parents, a summer that I wasn't in California which is a wasted summer and oh my god I am just realising I am from the West Coast and that is great.
Gilbert nods, he suddenly knows that his best friend had moved on, he had already taken the next step, but nobody had realised it, not he himself. Max had outgrown his old self, his life had changed dramatically during the time he had spent with Naomi Clarke.
Alex: This is madness. You don't, I mean you can't go. You decided to come here stick with it, once you have made a decision, come on you are a grown-up now. You are just homesick and not used to another environment. Stay here, have a beer, come on, we will work it out…
Gilbert shakes his head: Max, just take the next flight, leave, I ll take care of everything, I have a feeling otherwise it's too late, don't ask why, women do crazy things. Just do it if you believe she is the one and I think you do.
Alex: Don't encourage him man, you guys are insane. You made a commitment to MIT, this is your future and somebody else didn't get in, you took his place, that is a responsibility as well. Why would you risk that for some girl you knew in highschool?
Max: Because she isn't any girl, she is Naomi, Naomi Clarke. Yes, I made a commitment to MIT. But I changed my mind about that a long time ago. When I was standing there at the telescope showing Naomi that I would be in Pasadena close to her, that felt right and perfect but this, this is what my parents wanted me to do. This is giving in not growing up or being free, moving away for me meant not growing up even if that seems hard to understand, going to MIT meant following the rules and that is not what college is supposed to teach us, we are supposed to make our own decisions and that wasn't mine, I was forced to go and give in.
Alex: Why did you apply in the first place if you don't want to be here?
Max: Because it's a great school and I met Naomi afterwards. It's true she changed me but I also changed her. I did a stupid thing in writing her final paper but you know what? I should have trusted her, trusted her in the way that even if she would have failed the class and couldn't graduate with all of us she would have made it in summer school and at the end still ended up at CU because I would have been by her side all the way. But I loved her, I wanted to make her happy and it was a mistake that is why I am here, because I let my parents talk me into this. Sorry but I need to leave and btw I hate this weather, I really do.
Gilbert: I ll be here in case in doesn't work out I think. Go, I should have said something earlier but hey I wanted you for myself, sorry Max, go find Naomi Clarke.
Alex: Are you mad, she dumped him! Did you two forget that? She dumped you, Gilbert I think
Gilbert: Actually Alex, his parents dumbed her, didn't Max mention that? He just, Max just did what he was supposed to do and every man would have been happy to be her girlfriend. They complete each other, Max left her because he followed the rules at the time, he just said that, I don't know all the details but he needs go to, Max...
Max: I need to go! I am going back to California.
Gilbert grins: Yes, yes you need to go now. Don't worry, I ll send CalTech an email and everything else will follow, she will be there and if not I ll cover for you. You are booked on Virgin 365, it leaves at 11.15am and will arrive in LA at 2.30pm. Go, I ll take care of everything else.
Max: Thank you, thanks so much, you are a great friend.
Gilbert: Its ok, promise me to be happy!
Max: I will
Gilbert: CalTech is a great school and send some sun over, I am freezing, I didn't know it would rain that much.
Alex: Stay, stay she doesn't deserve a guy like you, there are other girls out here, I can introduce you.
Max: I am sorry but no, not like her. Gilbert will explain it but I need to run. Bye guys!
Alex: What about your plans and our business and
Max takes a deep breath because suddenly he knows who he is.
Max: Alex, man, I am from Southern California, Silicon Valley is just up the road. I don't have to go to MIT to get a great education or business deal, I have a full scholarship to Caltech and Stanford, if I want to. If I need some advice I just go to a café and listen to people because I know where they are. I don't know why I forgot that. I am, I am sorry but Naomi, this is a sign, the social calendar thank god.
Gilbert: Go, otherwise you miss your flight. I ll send you your things and pack your bags and if stuff doesn't work out, just call me otherwise Naomi loves shopping, you rocked that black Gucci shirt, remember?
Max blushes: Thanks man you are the best!
Gilbert: Go!
Max leaves, Alex is his roommate maybe they could have been best friends but not yet. Gilbert is right, Naomi is his other half, so he runs back to his dorm room, throws a few things in his backpack and takes the next cab to Logan Airport.
As promised Gilbert had sent the ticket to his Iphone, he boards the plane with his laptop and a bag over his shoulder hoping she will still be there. Max grins, he had installed a software for her as she was always loosing stuff including her phone, keys and sometimes her laptop, this way she was able to track everything. He had intended to make her life easier, to show her that technology was her friend, now he knows where she is, now it was his way of finding her. He smiled as the airplane was counting the miles to go further west.