I was spending two weeks in New York before going back to Georgia. I spent the first day at the pier. Usually when I went to the pier, I brought a football with me and threw it back and forth with anyone who wanted to. Today, I couldn't find anyone to play with.

A group of four young friends caught my attention. They were standing a few meters away from me. One was a tall boy with dark hair and blue eyes. The other boy was tan with muscular legs and curly hair. There were two girls. The first girl was short and had long, wavy hair up to her butt. The other girl was also short. She had smooth, brunette hair with blond tips. I watched as the boy with the blue eyes grabbed something off the brunette's neck and playfully swung it in front of her face. She tried to grab it from him, but he ran away from her. She chased him to the edge where he flung it around again, accidentally throwing it into the water.

"Oh no! My necklace!" the girl cried.

"I'm so sorry!" he gasped. "I didn't mean to do that! I'll go get it!"

He walked slowly. I shook my head. The necklace would be long gone at the rate he was going. I don't know why I did it, but I lifted myself over the railing and dove into the water. I saw something gold and shiny a few meters away from me. I swam quickly and grabbed it. It was a gold star necklace. My heart stopped. I had given my high school girlfriend, Rachel, a necklace just like this. I got out of the water and saw the brunette rushing towards me.

"Thank you so much!" she called out.

Finally, we were just a foot away from each other. "Rachel?" I said.

She looked at me. "Finn?" She stepped forward to hug me. "What are you doing here?"

"I have two weeks before I go back to Georgia. We usually get two weeks every year. I've been staying at Kurt's." She nodded. "Wow, I didn't recognize you with the new hairstyle!"

She looked at me. "I didn't recognize you either. You look so much more mature."

I held my hand up. "Oh, here's your necklace." I expected her to take it out of my hand, but she just kept smiling at me. Then I realized what she wanted me to do. I unclasped the necklace and put it around her neck, just like I had when I first gave her the necklace. I pushed her hair out, over the chain.

"Thanks, Finn."

The boy who flung her necklace into the ocean was running towards me, his other two friends behind him. "Hey! Dude! I could have gotten that."

"It's okay," I said.

Rachel looked back at her friends. "Oh, this is Brody," she said, pointing at the boy with the blue eyes. "That's Nicole, and that's Scott," she said, pointing to her other two friends. "They're all from NYADA."

Brody looked at me. "So who's he?"

Rachel smiled shyly. "Oh, this is Finn, my boyfriend from high school."

"Ex?" Nicole asked.

I looked down at my feet, ashamed. Rachel quickly defended me. "No, it wasn't his fault! He broke up with me, because he wanted me to live my dream at NYADA. He joined the army."

Scott folded his arms, as if he had suddenly lost whatever respect he had for me. "Why did you join the army?"

I sighed, because I knew I'd have to tell the painful story all over again. "For a long time, my mom had told me that my dad died courageously in war. But then I found out it was all a lie. He died from drug abuse. And I have to bring honor back to my family's name."

Brody, Nicole, and Scott seemed disinterested. Rachel cleared her throat. "So Finn, wanna walk back to campus with us?"

Brody gave me a cold glare. He clearly didn't want me to go. So I smiled and said, "I'd be glad to."

Rachel was in the middle of talking to me, when Brody came in between us and put his arm around Rachel. "Hey, you wanna hang out later?"

Rachel shrugged. "Maybe, I guess."

"Yo, Brody!" Scott called out. Brody turned around to talk to Scott.

I went back up to Rachel. "It seems like Brody likes you."

Rachel shrugged. "I think Nicole put the idea in his head that I like him. She's with Scott, so she wants us to go on double dates all the time."

When we arrived at the campus, Scott said they were going to hang out at his dorm. "Come on, Rachel!" he called.

"I'll be there!" She turned back around to me. "Bye, Finn. It was great seeing you." She stood on her toes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. She ran to catch up with her friends.

"Wait, Rachel!" I shouted. She looked back at me. "So I'll see you around?"

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah, actually I'd like that. We're having a party tomorrow night. Would you like to come?" Brody's shoulders stiffened.

"Yeah, I think I'll go."

"Great. So I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Bye, Rachel."

I used the key that Kurt had given me to get into the apartment. "Finn? Is that you?" he called from his room.

"Yeah, Kurt. Who else has the key?" I laughed.

"Oh. I know. I was just checking." I went into his room to see what he was doing. He was folding a sweater. When he saw me, he quickly put it away. I followed him into the kitchen. He uncovered a pot. "I made spaghetti."

"Kurt, I know you made spaghetti. It's Thursday." He spooned the spaghetti on each plate and placed three meatballs neatly in the corner of the plate. He always made both plates look exactly the same. I put the forks exactly in the center of the napkins, just like Kurt wanted. We sat down and ate. For a while, it was just the sound of our forks hitting the plates. "So how was work today?" I finally asked.

"The usual," he answered. His answer left me nothing to work with, so I had to change the subject.

"I saw Rachel today."

"Oh. That's nice."

"Have you been seeing her lately?"

"No. I'm very busy with work."

After we finished eating, I stacked my plate on top of his, put the napkins and forks on top, and brought them to the sink. I placed them in the sink and picked up the sponge when Kurt stopped me. "I'll do it," he said quickly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Later, I saw Kurt looking through his fashion magazines. I squinted at the cover. I was pretty sure it said 2008. He must have read this one several times already. He looked up at me, so I quickly ducked into my room. He continued to read his magazine. I had nothing to do, so I changed into my pajamas. I went back into Kurt's room. "I'm going to sleep so…good night."

"Oh. Okay. Goodnight."

I sighed. It was the same response every night. But I didn't expect it to change.