Chapter 3

GABRIEL

***

“We don’t usually accept such late admissions but your application was simply spectacular,” the woman said. I was in the Dean’s office with my mom. It was always my mom and me nowadays.

We decided to move after I finished high school. The divorce process had ended a whole year before but my mom didn’t want to uproot me when I was so close to graduating. We chose to wait until I was done and then we could go somewhere new and start a new life with new memories.

I had taken everything in stride. I went along with all of my mother’s decisions because I didn’t know how else to cope. I felt mentally and emotionally exhausted and not having to make decisions for myself made the burden a little bit easier. I also didn’t want to disagree with my mom. She didn’t need that. She needed someone who would validate and affirm her decisions so that she could be sure that leaving her husband was the right one as well.

And it was. I knew this, which is why I chose my mom. But it didn’t make things any easier. It was a miracle that I still managed to graduate at the top of my class but I did. But after that, I couldn’t seem to decide what I wanted to do. I had applied to all the Ivy League and had gotten accepted into almost all of them, but I didn’t want to choose. I wanted to stay with my mom, wherever she chose to move us to next.

We moved to Cresswell and by the time we settled in the semester had already begun. I had missed orientation but the thought of having to wait another year scared me. Having nothing to do was, for me, a recipe for disaster. It gave me time to think about everything that went wrong. With my dad. With her.

I applied to Cresswell University even though they were two months into the semester and waited for a callback. I knew it was unlikely but I waited regardless.

And it happened. I had been called in for an interview and my mom had chosen to tag along. I didn’t mind.

“It makes me wonder why you chose Cresswell when you could easily have gotten into an Ivy League,” the woman said.

“I wanted to be close to my mom,” I said, looking over at her and taking her hand in mine, “our family is going through a transition at the moment and I wanted to be as present and as available as I could, for her.”

The Dean was impressed. She smiled and nodded sympathetically at my mom as if she knew every detail of what she was going through.

“That's very nice of you. Your mother will never forget it,” she said. I nodded and smiled.

“Well, your application makes me confident that you won’t have trouble catching up with all the classes you’ve missed so I’ll wedge you right in,” she said, signing a few papers. She called in her secretary who took the papers and left.

“Welcome to Cresswell University, Gabriel Ford,” the woman said. My mom and I smiled at each other. It was moments like these that made me feel like everything would be alright.

“I saw that you were interested in football so I called some of our very own to show you around,” the Dean said as a group of jocks walked towards us.

“I guess it’s time to say goodbye,” my mom said, hugging me.

“See you on the weekend, Mom,” I said as I kissed her on the cheek. I didn’t care about the group of jocks watching, didn’t care if they thought it was lame of me to be brought to school by my mother and to kiss her goodbye. They didn’t know our story so what they had to say didn’t matter.

I watched her walk away before I turned to the guys who were waiting. I had a feeling that I would fit right in. I could tell that they were in shock but also impressed at my confidence.

“Let’s show you around,” Earl, the leader of the group, said to me.

We walked around the campus and soon enough the awkwardness of meeting new people had melted away. By the time we were getting to the library the crowd around me had gotten loud. I was a bit worried that we were interrupting the people in the library. I wanted to tell Earl this, but just before I did he saw a girl staring at us from the library window. We were already in trouble.

“I think we should go to the other areas of the campus I’m yet to see,” I said to Earl who looked at me.

“Not a fan of the library? Me too,” Earl said as he laughed. Little did he know that I was a bookworm, that beneath my tough jock exterior was a nerd.

“It’s not that, actually, it’s just that-“

“Some of us are trying to study, if you don’t mind,” a guy who had approached them from the library said. I was too late. Earl went to the front of the crowd to face him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we were standing in your way. Oh, wait, we’re not. The library is way over there,” he said, pointing to the building.

I tried to cover my face in embarrassment. I would forever be known as a jock now. A jerk. This is not the kind of image I wanted in this new environment. Not after what it cost me back in Bakersville.

I tried to look for a way to escape and ended up looking at the girl at the window again. My eyes widened in realization when she looked back at me. We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before she suddenly got up and ran out of the building.

I wanted to run after her but couldn’t get past the crowd. I couldn’t believe it. It was her.