Cristina stood on the steps of the library. She was waiting for Owen. He said he was going to come and escort her to her first class. She looked at her watch. He better get there soon or she was just going to just go by herself. It would just be awful to be late at your first class on your first day of college, she thought.

Cristina was already at Northwestern for about a week, now. She had to go through Orientation last week and this was actually the first week of classes. She was living in the dorms and her roommate was Carly Mitchell from Kentucky. Carly was a brown-haired girl with brown eyes, the same shade as her hair. She was very excitable but very friendly. She was a good roommate, so far.

Owen had wanted her to move into his apartment but she nixed that idea. Her parents would never allow their 18-year-old daughter to cohabitate with someone at such an early age. It was a bitter pill for them to swallow when they found out that she was sexually active and they gradually learned to accept that. But she knew they would never agree to her moving in with Owen. He had been disappointed but he knew that they would not have agreed to that.

She checked her watch, again. Where the heck was Owen? Then she heard someone say her name. It didn't sound like Owen and when she looked around, she was right. It wasn't Owen but a tall, young man with brown hair and green eyes. He looked familiar but she couldn't place where she knew him. She would have remembered someone that tall.

"Cristina," the boy yelled, again. He ran over to her. She gave him a quizzical look. "Don't you remember me? It has only been three or four years." As she looked at the boy's face closely, she could finally see the younger version of him. When the recognition hit her, she broke out in a huge smile. "Oh, my God, Bobby Chamberlain! It has been ages." She gave him a tight hug, realizing that she only reached him, somewhere around his chest. "You have grown so tall," she said. "And you have changed. You look so much more grown-up."

"Yup, I never thought I would get this tall. I probably was a late bloomer. I am six foot four," he said. "So you're going to Northwestern, too."

"Yeah," she said. She looked at him like if she couldn't believe he was standing there. "So how was Dubai?"

"Hot, interesting. I actually became popular for once. Since nobody knew me there, I kinda re-invented myself. I have thought of you, sometimes and wondered how you were doing. So it is just great that we meet, once again," Bobby said.

"I am sorry," she said. "For what?" he asked, puzzled.

"I wished I had been a better friend. We seemed to drift away when we stopped contacting each other during sophomore year," she said. "I am sorry for that. We just lost touch."

"Yeah, well, don't worry about that," he said. "We were living different lives, meeting different people. These things happen. People drift apart."

"Well, let's make up for that. We can be friends, once again," Cristina declared. "Let's do that, especially now that we were both freshmen here at Northwestern."

From a distance, Owen could see Cristina talking to a tall boy. There was something familiar, yet still unfamiliar about him. He had promised her that he would take her to her first class and he was running a little late. He rushed across to where Cristina and the tall boy were.

"Hey, sorry I am late," he said, giving her a kiss on her mouth, before taking a look at her companion.

"Owen Hunt?" the boy said. Owen took a second look at the tall, young man. "Bobby? Bobby Chamberlain?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, I am glad that you recognized me. So you two finally got together. That's great."

It was rare that Owen had to look up at someone but he had to with Bobby, since the younger man was four inches taller. He did remember how much Bobby had liked Cristina and how they were rivals for her affection.

"Yes, we did," Owen said, putting his arm around Cristina's shoulder. He looked at his girlfriend. "We better head to your class, now, so you won't be late."

"Yes, yes," she agreed. "I am heading to English 101, one of those foundation courses we have to do. So, I will see you later, Bobby."

"Really? I am going to that class, too," Bobby said. "I will walk with you guys." Owen gritted his teeth, as he heard Cristina say, "Sure, that would be awesome. We can catch up with each other after class."

The three of them walked to the large lecture hall. It was one of those foundation courses that all freshmen were forced to do, so there were lots of people there. They scoured the room for seats. "Oh, there are two," Bobby said.

"Where, where?" Cristina said, not seeing the seats.

"There," he said, pointing across the hall. "It pays to be tall. We can see things before other people can. Let's grab those before anybody else gets them."

"Okay," Cristina agreed. She gave Owen a quick kiss before she and Bobby disappeared into the crowd of freshmen. He stood at the doorway for a moment. Of all people to show up, why must it be Bobby Chamberlain? Owen felt like he was in high school, once again. He watched them take their seats, before he left. He went to his first class of his senior year.

After class, he was going to work a shift at the library. He gave Cristina a call to remind her that he would not be available for lunch.

"That's okay," he heard her cheery voice say. "Bobby and I are going to grab lunch, together and catch up. We have so much to talk about. I really want to hear about his life in Dubai. It sounds really interesting. So talk to you later." She hung up and he found himself, staring at the phone. It really was like high school, once again.

Later that day, he waited for her at his apartment. She was supposed to come over at 5 p.m. but she hadn't shown as yet. He gave her a call but she didn't pick up. It was at 6.30 p.m. that he heard the key in his apartment door. She came in and dropped a bag of books on the floor and dropped her schoolbag on the sofa. She came and lay on the bed next to him.

"Hey," she said. "How was your day?" He was not happy with her. "Not a very good day," he answered.

"Why?" she asked.

"You tell me," he replied. "Where were you and why are you late?"

"Oh, Bobby and I went to the bookstore to stock up on our reading lists. When you're among books, you kinda lose track of time," she said. "Sorry about that."

"So why didn't you take my call?" he asked. "I called and you didn't answer."

"You did? I didn't hear anything. Oh, shoot, I remember. We had to put our phones on silent during the lectures," she said. "I just forgot to put it back on. I am sorry."

"So you spent the whole day with Bobby," he asked, a little icily. She caught the tone in his voice, immediately.

"Yes, we have a lot of classes together, so we are going to form a study group with some of the other folks, who have the same classes," she said.

"Hmm," Owen said, rather drily. "So he has become your new best buddy here." Cristina certainly did not like his tone. She got up from the bed and picked up her schoolbag from the sofa and her bag of books from the floor.

"Where are you going?" he asked, as it was clear that she was about to leave.

"Back to the dorms," she said. "I will see you when you are in a better mood." He didn't try to stop her, as she left. He didn't feel that he had done anything wrong. She was the one who came late.

As she walked back to her dorms, she felt she really hadn't done anything wrong. She and Bobby had just got excited about school and lost track of time at the bookstore. She had apologized, hadn't she? There he was, giving her a whole lot of attitude. She was still deep in thoughts, when a car pulled up next to her.

"Hey," Bobby said. "Why are you walking here by yourself? Didn't I just drop you off at Owen's apartment building?"

"Yeah," Cristina said. "I am going back to the dorm. He seems to be in a foul mood."

"Sorry about that. Do you want to have dinner with me? I am just heading down to that Thai place. I want to check out if it is good. Gotta start looking for good places to eat, when you're studying," he said, laughing.

"Yeah, it is good. Owen had taken me there, a couple of times," Cristina said. "You know what? I think I will. I will get to my readings, after dinner." She jumped in the passenger seat and threw her schoolbag and bag of books into the back seat. "Let's go, Bobby."

Back in his apartment, Owen was reading his assignments. He made himself a sandwich and decided to have that for dinner. If Cristina had stayed, he was going to get some food delivered. He wondered where she was. It had been a full two hours since she left. He had been waiting for her to call him but he couldn't take it anymore and called. The call rang a couple of times before it went to voicemail. She still had her phone on silent mode. He groaned. He should have stopped her from leaving. He just wanted her to be with him. This was not the way he had envisioned their time together at college to be like.

He left a message. "Sorry about my mood today. I was feeling a little bit jealous since you were spending the whole day with Bobby. And then you came late and I got mad. Please call me." He waited and waited but there was no call.

After having a great time at dinner with Bobby, they headed over to the coffeehouse where a lot of students hung out. They met up with a couple of their classmates there and then, someone started this conversation about life and their place in society as young people. The conversation got extremely animated and Cristina found that she was really enjoying herself. She looked over at Bobby, who was excitedly making a point. She realized that he had changed from when she knew him as a boy. It was a good change because now, he was a confident young man.

When it was close to midnight, he turned to her. "I will drop you off at your dorm. Got to go to my dorm, too." It was a good thing the dorms were close by and they got there in a couple of minutes. "See ya," he said, as he drove off.

"Yeah, tomorrow," she said. As she went into the building, she didn't notice the SUV parked a little away from the entrance. But the person inside the SUV noticed her. Owen watched as Cristina got out of Bobby's car. He had been waiting for her to come home so he could apologize about how he acted, earlier. Her roommate, Carly, had told him that she had not come in as yet, so he had decided to wait for her in the car park.

He sat in the car, stewing at what he had just seen. So after she left his place, she had gone out with Bobby. So not only did she spend the entire day with Bobby, she also spent the night out with him. He was angry; he was jealous; he could not even think at this point. He knew if he went up to her dorm room, he would say things that he was probably going to later regret. He decided to do the best thing he could, right now.

He turned the ignition and drove off.

A/N Please leave your comments. Thanks for taking the time to leave your reviews.