Okay. So this chapter is really special. It is, essentially, the reason we even have a sequel at all. This was originally envisioned as a one-shot, kind of peek into Jimmy and Cindy's relationship while away at separate schools. It would have needed a lot of background detail though. As opposed to making one extremely long one-shot, I went ahead and wrote an entire story instead. I hope you don't mind.
Please enjoy!
FIVE WEEKS LATER
Jimmy's POV
"You are so hot!"
I managed to step to the side just before she stumbled on her own feet and bumped into me. She got close enough, however, that I could easily smell the alcohol on her breath.
"Sorry!" Her friend said to me as she guided the inebriated brunette into the rowdy crowd.
As if I didn't have enough of a reason to want to leave.
Seeing as I had been, as my roommates put it, "uptight as hell" the past few days, they thought it'd be a good idea to try to loosen me up by going to a rager they heard about going on near BU. I ended up going but not for the reason they tried to convince me with. It was mainly because someone out of our group had to be the responsible one.
We have only been back at school for a few weeks since winter break ended and despite that each one of us had our own plans, we were easily able to get back into old habits, particularly when it came to our weekend plans. While I usually don't have an issue tagging along to whatever event or, most likely, party they hear about, this one was something I could have gone without.
A part of it was because I didn't want to be surrounded by all the drunk co-eds, such as the one I had just encountered, that seem to be in high quantity at these types of parties. They also seem likely to be present due to the upcoming event that gives them an excuse to be particularly social.
But to be completely honest, tonight I would have rather stayed in my room getting a good night's sleep.
Tomorrow morning, there's an early train to New York I need to catch.
After months that seemed to have no end, I was finally going to get to see Cindy again.
This visit was not as difficult as I thought it would be to plan. We mutually decided that I would be the one going to her instead of the other way around.
It turned out that the trip would be easier for Cindy. However, a part of me couldn't help but think the real reason she preferred it this way was out of fairness, since, because of my internship, I'm the reason we have gone as long as we did without seeing each other.
It's also convenient because her roommate will actually be out of town all weekend, meaning that we are going to, miraculously, be left entirely by ourselves. Seeing as this never happened back home, saying I was excited for this weekend was an incredible understatement.
While I knew there was no way for me to speed up time so that I would be able to see her sooner, I never stopped wishing that I could.
"Ey, Jim! You seen Charlie?"
I shifted my attention to the tall and dark haired guy my age that I also happened to live with. Nyle was easily walking through the crowd and it didn't take long for him to stand in front of me, Red Solo Cup in hand.
"No." I confirmed that I didn't know the whereabouts of our other roommate. "Why? You ready to leave?" I replied a little too eagerly.
He snorted before bringing the cup to his mouth and taking a drink. "Nah, but there's this girl I want him to meet. She's got this friend and they're real cute, ya know?" He nudged me as if I didn't already understand what he was saying.
We have enough in common to be able to call ourselves friends. But we have many differences as well. One of which includes our relationship statuses.
Nyle and Charlie, though they've each had girlfriends in the past, were not in relationships when they came out here for school and haven't been in one since. That was something they took full advantage of nearly every time they got a chance. I'm the only one in the group who isn't single, and at times like these, they do not let me forget it.
"Ah, there you are, man!" Facing the direction he was looking towards, I saw Charlie only a few feet away. He nodded his head in acknowledgement and approached us.
Once he got to us, Nyle spoke again but more to Charlie than me.
"I got us these two girls in the other room. Smokin' hot. What do you say?"
"Yeah, let's go." Both of them turned facing the room where Nyle originally came from. "Jim, you coming?" Considering what they were about to do, I knew he was asking more out of politeness in an attempt to not exclude me than anything else.
"I actually um, I'm going to head out now."
"You sure?" asked Charlie.
"Yeah," I confirmed. "I have an early day tomorrow."
They were both aware of my plans for the weekend and I even told them that I was likely going to leave the party early because of it. But if they didn't already know, the huge grin I had on my face after I said that I was leaving would have given something suspicious away.
"Alright then. Have a good weekend." Charlie said with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows while Nyle laughed alongside him.
"Bye guys." I shook my head playfully as I turned and walked towards the exit.
Since the party was off-campus, I had a bit of a walk ahead of me. I took on the walk, knowing it was something I needed.
It was a huge relief to finally get to see Cindy not just because of the action of doing so, but also because being physically there with her will make it a lot easier to work on our relationship.
Even without all the present and unfortunate factors, I knew that entering a romantic relationship with Cindy would be no easy ride. Her brashness, along with my slightly inflated ego can understandably appear to be reasons for us not really being a good match. We overcame that boundary, but have since then faced more. Due to our circumstances, I've come to realize, though I don't plan on telling her, that we really have no idea what we are like in a romantic relationship since we've had such little time to develop one.
On my end, I plan to use this weekend to make an attempt at it. I owe her -I owe us- that much.
It wasn't perfect timing when I was accepted to the NASA internship, I know. Everything related to that from the time I found out I got in to telling her about it brought out the worst in me and it's something I wish I could take back. I don't regret taking the internship though. The weeks I spent at NASA were some of the most unforgettable and one of the best parts of my life.
I learned so much. Some things, I probably never would have been taught. I am endlessly grateful for more the experience and increasing the love and interest I have for the world outside of our own. There were, of course, still times when I wanted to work on what was going on in my own world as well.
Despite that, I didn't plan out ahead of time to have phone sex with Cindy.
Everything I told her about where I was was true. I was on schedule to be in the data control room overnight, being watchful of new data that enters. Those that had gone previously warned me about how boring it was. Thinking it was an exaggeration, I didn't preoccupy myself much with what they said. I was only a couple of hours into it when I finally understood.
While I had seen the photo Cindy sent to me so many times that it had been engraved in my memory, I decided to pull my phone out and take another look at it. Seeing the curve of her naked body and drops of water glistening off it always got to me and served as a reminder of how much I missed her. Seeing as I was always thinking about Cindy anyway, on that particular night, I decided to do something about it.
There wasn't any rule against it, but I knew making that type of personal phone call probably wasn't allowed while I was, technically, on duty. On the very off chance that someone found out, or even worse, caught me in the act, I don't know what would have happened and I'm not entirely sure I want to find out.
Luckily, the conversation ended up going better than I expected.
That wasn't something either one of us had done before so there were a lot of ways it could have gone. I expected some kind of awkwardness at the beginning and I suppose that kind of did happen. As I figured though, Cindy caught on pretty quickly and, based on what I could hear, easily became a more than willing participant.
Since it was unplanned, I also didn't think this was going to do much, if anything, to fix our issues. In fact, the idea many never have occurred to me on its own had I not looked at the photo. I couldn't deny, however, that this placed us on a completely new stage in our relationship.
Finally, I made it to my room, tired enough that the sleep I had ahead of me would be greatly appreciated. As I moved around the room and bathroom getting ready for bed, it reminded me of another reason why it was preferred that I go to New York instead of Cindy coming here.
It's not hard to imagine what the condition of a cinderblocked dorm room inhabited by three teenage men is like. I wouldn't say it's an embarrassing enough mess though. But it also isn't the type of place I'd like to use to host my girlfriend that I haven't seen in months. While I haven't seen what her room in New York looks like, I doubt she'd be able to find the proper similarities to make her feel comfortable and at home.
Once I got settled into bed, I found that actually getting to sleep was a lot harder than I thought. There was so much to look forward to this weekend that I was not able to wait for the greater part of it to begin.
My lack of proper sleep last night surprisingly did not affect my ability to stay awake on this train ride. I suppose all the excitement at seeing the woman I'm in love with after such a long time had something to do with it.
Even with the unexpected delay, the travel time seemed to take longer than planned. I felt like I was sitting on this train for ten times longer than I really was. On the bright side, I hadn't heard any announcement that we would be arriving at Grand Central Station any later than scheduled so at least I don't have to worry about that.
Having never been to the iconic terminal, or New York at all for that matter, Cindy and I had arraigned to meet under the clock at the information desk. 'You can't miss it,' she said to me when we were deciding where to meet up.
Our impending reunion seemed surreal.
It was obviously going to happen sooner or later. But even with all the conversations we've had about it, it still somehow seemed like it was never going to occur. After such a long wait thought, the day was finally here.
In less than a half hour, I stepped onto the platform and made my way to the main terminal as quick as I could and trying not to look like the tourist that I was. Cindy sent me a text message only minutes ago saying that she had arrived at our rendezvous point. As soon as I read it, I knew it would not be a good idea to keep her waiting.
Since I still wanted to keep cool about the situation, my reply to her was a quick 'okay' and nothing else. To keep her on her toes, I didn't text her when I got off the train or see if she could guide me to where she was from my location. Even though she knew I was coming, I wanted to see if I could still surprise her somehow and see the look on her face if I managed to do so.
Despite the hundreds of people walking across the terminal at that moment, seeing her ever-recognizable wavy blonde hair made her stand apart from everyone else.
She was wearing a burgundy peacoat, a wise choice for the type of weather that consists of a New York winter.
Cindy didn't spot me at first, but I could see her face. She looked around quickly, her head moving from one side of the room to the other, a mixture or nervousness and impatience, though I figured it was more of the latter. A small black cross-body purse was across her chest but I noticed that she held her phone in her hand. She squeezed it every few seconds, probably letting out her frustration that I had yet to appear.
She looks, essentially, exactly the same, and yet a thousand times more beautiful than I last saw her.
When our eyes finally met, she smiled so widely, it was hard to believe it came from the same person I was just describing.
Within seconds, I held her in my arms, both of us locked in an impossibly tight embrace.
"I…I can't believe you're actually here!" Cindy said as she pulled away with tears in her eyes.
"Well, it's not like you didn't know I was coming." I replied as I wiped one of her tears away as she let out a laugh. "How are you?"
"So much better now that you're here."
Once our lips met, I felt like we had never kissed, not really, before that moment.
It was incomparable and I knew a part of her felt it too. People were likely staring, but I didn't care. No one could take away this moment of happiness for us.
When we broke apart, she had a grin on her face that I knew all too well.
"I hope you aren't tired from that train because you've got more to go before we get to campus." Since we were standing so close to each other, there was no denying my groan of a compliant. But I also had no difficulty hearing her next words. "And once we get there, I promise it'll be worth it."
So if you can't tell, this will have a part two (since I sure as hell can't leave you hanging like that). That will be the first time we have one of those in this story. The chapter numbers will be weird now, thanks to the site. But just keep in mind that chapter 9 on here will really be chapter 8: part 2, chapter 10 will really be chapter 9 and so on. To avoid confusion, in the future, when I reference chapters, I will be sure address them according to how the story is going and NOT how they are listed on the site.
I apologize tremendously for the long wait, but I really hope you still enjoyed it. Please leave a review. I can't wait to read what you guys think!
