Chapter One

She was the most beautiful girl in the world. When she walked through a room the people around her would stand back and stare at her. Her long dark brown hair moved elegantly in the wind. She was tall, almost as tall as me; I’m five foot ten inches. She didn’t have to dress like an American Eagle model to show off her beauty. Her style was the tee shirt and jeans type. Her eyes were the most beautiful thing anyone has ever seen, one day they would be an emerald green, the next would they would be an ocean blue. Every one she made eye contact with melted in the palm of her hand. It was incredible really how someone so seemingly simple could capture the heart of anyone she meets, and even the ones she hadn’t met yet.


I will be starting my first year of college this fall! No words could explain how excited I am to get out of this tiny town in Louisiana. University of California San Diego has given me a full ride scholarship for my 4.0 gpa and my aspiration to be an engineer. I have been waiting for this ever since I could remember. I will miss my friends that I have made through my childhood; but I can’t stand this place anymore! California will the best home ever. Being in the warm sun all the time meeting new people constantly not just the people you’ve grown up with since birth.

I have three months to get out of Louisiana and move to California. I'm planning a road trip with my best friend Claire. She is supportive in my move and is thinking about coming with me but has a little brother that she made a promise to stay with him for two more years. So she’s not sure what she is going to do quite yet. I would love for her to come with me but I understand if she puts her younger brother first. I’m taking her with me for two very important reasons, one is that if she does decide to come with me she will need to like the house we will rent, and two she helps me think rationally and realistically when I get to overwhelmed. We leave in a month.

The free month went by really slow, probably because I was so excited to leave that’s all I thought about. I didn’t do much but stay home and apply for jobs in California. I haven’t gotten any calls back yet but who would hire a girl that doesn’t even live in the state yet and doesn’t have any work experience? I’m not too worried about it though I'm just looking for a part time job since I know that I will be studying my butt off to try to get the best grades possible. I think I was just trying to get the time to pass faster.
Claire and I spend a lot of time together over the summer, she would talk about hopefully meeting California boys with nice bodies and tans, while I just dreamed of finally being there. Claire has dated a few guys but not one of them was what she deserved. They have either cheated on her or thought she was a house pet and left her to party all the time, probably cheating on her but we had never caught them.
“Are you excited about meeting Cali girls Robyn?” Claire asked with a smile on her face looking at a magazine filled from cover to cover with shirtless tan men.
“I don’t think I’ll be looking for a relationship in California. Granted I wouldn’t turn one down if the perfect girl came along but I have learned my lesson on falling for whoever shows the slightest amount of interest in me. School is more important in life to me right now.” I replied filling out a dead end application.
“Bull s*** Robyn. You are the stereotypical hopeless romantic! I know that’s all you think about is finding her.”
She was right. That’s all I dream about, finding my one true love. It’s so sad there are so many other important things in life like school, my future. But to me love is all I want or will ever need. It’s tricked me many times before a girl will show interest in me and I will hope and hope for her to be what I want her to be but it hasn’t happened. They were horrible, its crazy how bad I am at picking girls.
“I do think about true love constantly, but I’m going to try to take a break for a while. My exes show how horrible my judgment of girls is. I think I’ll try to let her find me instead.”
She nodded in approval but I knew she knew that it wouldn’t last long. I have said that every time I was single. We telepathically agreed that we wouldn’t talk about it and changed the subject. Claire knew me better than I knew myself.
The night before the trip was crazy. I couldn’t sleep I had packed everything weeks ago so I had nothing to do while my excitement kept me awake for hours and hours on end. I tried everything to try to sleep, drinking tea, working out until I needed a shower, taking a shower, and I was still restless. Claire was the same way. We were up until 6am, when we needed to leave that morning. I agreed to drive because she was getting sleepy. We loaded up the truck and we left.
I drove for six hours before I was starting to get tired. We were somewhere in Texas. I stopped to wake up Claire and get something to eat. Since neither of us are huge fans of country music we got out of there as fast, ordered to go and agreed to eat in the truck. Claire said she would let me sleep this trip. Once we were done eating I got comfortable in the passenger seat and we were on the road again, only six more hours until we reach the hotel we will be staying at for the night.
…

I'm in a field of green grass and tall trees. There are flowers everywhere. It smells so good here, like fresh roses. I feel peaceful and at home. A girl starts to appear out of the trees she’s gorgeous but I can’t see her completely I just know she is beautiful in every way looks and personality. Who is this girl?
…

Claire woke me up what seemed like a short time later. We were in front of the hotel. We were halfway to California. El Paso Texas was a really pretty place. It looked like a desert but I thought it was pretty. We grabbed our bags, checked in and walked up to our room. We were on the twelfth floor with a stunning city view, that’s what the front desk said anyways. Claire had the key so she opened the door to see two guys in our room.

Claire’s jaw dropped once she saw a tan tall man standing in front of her. He had sandy hair and pretty blue eyes. There was his friend behind him a shorter guy with blonde hair and brown eyes. They both looked to be in their early twenties. “I’m so sorry there must have been a mistake at the front desk we will go and figure it out.” I said quickly as I grabbed Claire’s hand and dragged her off. Once she heard the door shut she started almost yelling “Why on earth did you do that?! I didn’t even get his number or anything!”

“You would have just stood there drooling until he invited you into their room and gang raped you.” I calmly explained.

We got everything figured out and they gave us a bigger room for the inconvenience. We were now on the fourteenth floor and had a massive room. Claire and I didn’t want to stay in the room that night so we went down stairs to the Starbucks and got coffees and cake pops. We sat and talked about how great we hope California is for a while but then somehow my dream came up in conversation.

“I had that dream again.” I told Claire.

“About the pretty girl coming out of the trees.” She said after a sip of coffee.

“Yeah it’s the third time it’s happened and it never changes. It’s the weirdest thing.” As I said this, her attention turned to the two boys we walked in on coming out of the elevator. She looked down quickly. The shorter one of the two spotted us and told his buddy to come over to us.

“Oh my god what do we do? They’re coming over here!” She exclaimed panicked.

“We act normal that’s what we do.” I told her calmly. A few seconds later I felt a man’s hand on my shoulder. I turned and looked up “Oh look at that the boys we walked in on Claire.” She just nodded at them staring at the boy with blue eyes.

“We just wanted to come over and say hi. I'm Matt and this is Jordan.” The taller man said while the shorter guy smiled at me.

“Well I'm Robyn and this is Claire” Claire smiled and waved shyly.

“May we join you? “ Asked Matt.

They pulled up a couple of chairs and they told us that they are heading to California too. They have both been going to San Diego for a year and were away seeing family for the summer. After we told them our story and some additional small talk we realized it was getting late and we all had a long drive ahead of us tomorrow. I was the first to get up when matt asked Claire to stay behind for a few more minutes. I told her I’d see her later with a wink.

Jordan followed me to the elevator and asked me if we could meet up with them for lunch tomorrow in Phoenix Arizona. I agreed to go with them but I wasn’t sure how if he meant something by it, until he tried to kiss me a few seconds later, the door luckily he pressed the wrong button and the door opened on my floor first right before our lips met and I turned out of it and left the elevator.

I thought to myself boys are so cocky with girls. They always think that just kissing girls is ok. Well at least the ones I’ve met anyways. I’m sure they’re not all like that. Ill have to tell Claire to bring up the fact that I’m gay at lunch tomorrow. I went to the room and watched a movie for a couple more hours before I could fall asleep again. I never heard Claire come in.

I woke up to Claire getting new clothes the next morning. I rolled over, “Someone had more fun than I did last night” I said kidding with her.

“Probably, but I came back around one this morning, you were out” she said with a giggle “Matt is a really nice guy. I like him he’s sweet and nice” She told me smiling.

“Good ‘cuz if you didn’t know we are meeting them for lunch in Phoenix later today” I told her getting up out of bed.

“He told me last night that he asked Jordan to ask you, did he really try to kiss you?” she said slightly surprised.

“I suppose he told you that too. You guys got pretty friendly I see.” I laughed.

“We just talked a lot! We weren’t doing dirty things you sicko! I told him you were gay after he said you juked him kiss.” She told me while putting a pair of skinny jeans on.

“Thank you I was going to ask you to tell him today. I’m going to take a quick shower since it looks like you already did.”

“Its all yours”

I had that dream again last night but this time it was a little different the girl came a little closer to me I could tell that she had long dark brown hair. There was also a new soft aura of light around her. She looked like an angel so peaceful and happy. But the dream ended before I could see her face clear enough. I thought about me dream until I got out of the shower. I wasn’t going to put a lot of effort into looking pretty. I’m too lazy for that and who needs to to just drive around for six hours. I look at Claire, well except for her. She is wearing a cute flowing dress that shows off her perfectly curved body. She had straightened her hair, it was usually wavy on top and she had ringlet curls for her under layer. She wore sandals that matched the color of the dress and she had started doing her nails. “C’mon girl you can do that in the car I’ll drive us there.” I nagged as I threw my hair up in a pony tail and threw some jeans and a tee shirt on.

“Ok but can we stop by their room first? Please” She asked like I was her mom.

“Alright hurry it up I want to get to San Diego some what early today.” I said hurrying to pack everything I used last night and this morning.

She saluted me and we rushed down to their room and they were already gone but they had left a note for us. Claire read it to me “Meet you girls at Mel’s Diner at One O’clock” Claire smiled and then we rushed down stairs to check out and get on the road again.

We listened to our favorite pop station the entire way. Claire and I liked to keep it loud in the truck especially if we have a long drive. We sang along with the music and the next six hours went by relatively fast, maybe because I was concentrating on the lyrics of every song that came on. We arrived at the diner where the boys were already waiting for us. Claire told me not to get out of the car so I sat and waited for a few seconds after I cut the engine before Matt saw us. They both stood up to grab the truck door for us. Matt grabbed Claire’s and Jordan grabbed mine. As I hopped out smiling at how cute Matt and Claire were together Jordan said “I’m sorry I made a quick move on you last night, I’m really awkward around girls and I think you’re really pretty.”

“That’s ok. I don’t mind I don’t wear a sign that says “I’m gay” so it’s bound to happen sometimes” he chuckled at the comment and opened the diner door for Claire and I. They walked us to the table and we all ordered.

We talked about what we wanted to major in. Matt wants to major in Bioscience, Jordan in Political Science, and Claire in Psychology. Claire and I asked them about the school and campus and all they said was “We’ll if you let us show you the campus in a few hours we will tell you what we think at the same time.” So we agreed. We all agreed that we should hit the road again for a few more hours to arrive in the day light. “If we leave now we will be in California at 5 pm their time” I said as I dropped a twenty dollar bill for Claire and I. Jordan looked at me and shook his head “Put that back matt and I will take care of it.” Claire picked it up for me knowing I would argue with them.

The boys walked us out to our truck and opened our doors for us again Claire was driving this time, so Matt picked her up and hugged her tight giving her a soft and sweet kiss then putting her in the drivers seat carefully. I was already in the truck watching all of this happen. They were so stinking cute! I couldn’t get over it. They made me happy. Claire started the truck blushing; that was the first time he had kissed her. We drove off as they followed.

Claire didn’t want to act like we usually do in the truck because she didn’t want him to see what dorks we are when we drive. We drove in silence for what seemed like an eternity until she looked in her rear view mirror and saw them jamming to heavy metal, Jordan was banging his head and Matt was playing the steering wheel drums and singing along , smiling when he saw her look. Right then without my awareness she turned up the music and started singing. I poked her “What the hell was that all about?” She pointed to them and I looked and smiled “Oh I see” and started singing with her. The rest of the way was short and we were there in no time.

We pulled into the San Diego campus; they parked next to us, and let us out again. “Should we tell someone we are here or can we just look around ourselves” I asked the boys. “Nah we are good just follow us” Jordan said. They led us through the main part of campus where the library, main office, and book store was. I looked at the library because I liked how the big brick building looked old but modern at the same time. That’s where I saw her; the girl in my dreams. She was sitting on the library steps reading a book.
I hit Jordan, “Who. Is. That.” I asked him staring at her noticeably, but she didn’t even look up at me.
“Oh that’s Aurora, she is the prettiest girl on campus. Everyone either wants to be her or wants to wrap their arms around her. She’s gorgeous isn’t she?” I nodded not saying a word like when a child has a first crush and sees them for the first time. “You should go introduce yourself” he said and pushed me gently toward her.
I was so nervous, but I didn’t want to chicken out. My heart was racing I wanted to talk to her. But was now the right time? Should I wait until she isn’t reading? By the time I had asked myself that question I was in front of her. She looked up from her book with the most beautiful emerald green eyes “Can I help you?” she asked with the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard before. She was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a black tee shirt with her long dark hair pulled back like mine. I probably should have made an effort this morning.
“I was.. um.. wondering if you could help me find the… uh… financial aid office?” I asked nervously realizing how dumb that was. I have a full ride what will I ask them once I get there?
“Well they closed at four thirty but I can show you where it is” She got up closing her book.
“It’s not too much trouble for you is it?” My shaky voice uttered.
“Not at all. I was just reading this astrology book on horoscopes and that kind of thing. What was your name?”
“It’s Robyn”
She walked me across campus while I tried to make light conversation. “So are you taking summer classes this semester?” I tried to say a little calmer.
“Actually I live in an apartment with my friend Cassie down the street from here I just need to pick up this book and I stayed to read it for a few hours while I had the opportunity for quiet. Cassie is kind of a party girl, as am I but I really wanted to read up on my horoscope. Does that make me sound nerdy?”
“No way! I’ve always looked at my horoscope but I don’t take them all that seriously I just find them fascinating.”
“That’s really cool, what’s your sign?” Her voice as sweet as honey.
“Sagittarius. What about you?”
“Oh I’ve read a lot about your sign and from what I can tell you fit it well. I’m a Gemini.” She thought for a moment stopped walking and flipped to a page she had already read about her sign. She closed it but saved her spot with her thumb.
“What were you looking for? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I just remember reading something earlier and I wanted to see if I was right.” She said starting to blush. I looked at her with curiosity. “I think you’re really pretty by the way.”
I smiled “Oh do you? I think you’re stunning as well.”
“So are you gay or am I hitting on a straight girl?” She asked quietly.
I laughed a little “Yes I’m gay”
We had arrived to the financial aid office when she pulled the book back out again. “I think I want to show you this but I might wait until I know you a little . Do you mind?”
“I don’t mind I’ll let you keep your little secret.” I said with a smile.” But will I see you again to find out what it says?”
“If I can get your number I will see you again, I promise.”
“Pinky promise?”
She raised her pinky and I wrapped mine around hers. I pulled a pen out of my purse still holding her pinky. I turned her hand over so I saw the top of it. She had already had little notes on the top of her hand that I hadn’t noticed before. I wrote my number on a space where she hadn’t written on. “You’ll call me right? I’m not wasting ink?”
“I will call you; see you’re still holding my pinky.” She said smiling.
“Ok good “I saw Claire walking across the way with the boys. “Well I will see you around Aurora keep that page bookmarked for me” I smiled as I walked away from her slowly still looking at her.
She smiled and said “I will” and turned and walked back towards the library.
I got halfway to Claire when I felt my phone vibrate. I answered “Hello this is Robyn”
“I told you I’d call you” her angelic voice responded.