New or old friends

September 2003



After work I drove straight to school for my economics class. I was running a few minutes late so I breathed a sigh of relief when  I walked in to see the professor wasn't there yet either. I grabbed my usual seat in the third row. The old wooden desk creaked when I landed roughly in it. I pulled the pocket desk over and cursed the fact it was a right handed desk. It's my weekly ritual since the first day of class when I discovered how annoying these desks were for the left handed.

I greeted Sam as she sat down to my right. She grunted something that vaguely resembled a hello and slouched down in her chair. I just shook my head and smiled, Sam was in a bad mood about 80% of the time yet she managed to win people over with her charasmatic personality during her 20% happy self. I think we got along because she was very blunt and I tend to shy from blurting out whatever is on my mind, I liked that about her, it's like she said what I wanted to.

"Good evening,  I'm professor Smith but you can call me Henry."

I looked up surprised to see our usual professor, Johnson was absent. Instead, standing in front of us was a gorgeous specimen..I mean man. His dark hair was buzzed and complimented his strong facial features. He wore a black v-neck that looked about a size or two too small leaving you with little to imagine of the muscles underneath.  He looked less like a teacher and more like he was a uniform away from yelling drills at boot camp.

"If he teaches all semester I would never miss a class!" Sam whispered loudly as she sat up in her seat and removed her hoodie. I laughed at her as she tried to fix her hair quickly.

Professor Smith or rather Henry began lecturing the class on micro economy.  As he spoke I tried to concentrate, he was just too pretty. I felt my cheeks burn when he pointed right at me to answer some silly open ended question about supply and demand on product A. Luckily I had just read about this subject in our ridiculously over priced textbook and answered without blubbering like the pathetic star struck teen I felt inside.

"Very good answer.." he paused and nodded his head forward with his hand stretched out toward me.

"Juliette, it's Juliette." My voice shook a little and I thanked God I usually don't turn the shade I felt in my cheeks. Henry quickly moved on and before I knew it class was over.

"I call dibs!" Sam all but yelled at me when we grabbed our stuff to leave.

"What! He's our professor, besides I'm good. He's gorgeous but I'm good." I laughed her comment off and walked to the door. We were about half way to the parking lot when Sam mentioned she forgot her folder back in the classroom.

"Want me to come with you?" I asked, it was late now and dark.

"No..no I'm OK, I'll see you Thursday." She waved me off. I smiled to myself knowing full well she didn't leave anything.

On the ride home I called Alicia, she couldn't talk long but promised a girls night this week to catch up.  After hanging up I called Jacob, he seemed distracted as I made small talk. After awhile he had to go because he had a basketball game he was in starting. I felt a little embarrassed picturing him at the gym on the phone while his friends waited.

Deciding to embrace the alone time on the drive home I turned on the radio and sang along to Crazy In Love by Beyoncé.

It was my birthday later this month and I thought about last year's birthday. I rolled my eyes thinking about being with Cal, and letting Shelly crash on our couch. I don't know what the plans were for this year's birthday but I was thankful to not have them there. Maybe I'll throw a party, but then who'd I invite? In the year I've been here, I've only made a handful of friends, and that included Shelly. Great now I was depressed about my lack of a social life.

I pulled up to apartment hoping Alicia was home, someone to talk to. Instead I was surprised to see Amanda sitting on my doorstep.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked as I turned the key opening the door.

"Hey, it's been awhile. I just figured I'd come check on my good friend Juliette." She smiled, the smile never reaching her eyes. I considered us friends but not really the type to drop in on each other. I gave her a look as I fell onto the couch.

"Alright truthfully,  I did want to see you its been awhile, but I was also hoping I could maybe crash here for a few days." She said shyly.

"What about your apartment?" I scrunched my brows in confusion.

"Well back when I was with Miles, he was paying for almost half my rent. When that ended I struggled to make rent and had to move. I've basically been sleeping on different couches since. The last place was at a coworkers but her husband got home from deployment and he wasn't really interested in someone living on their couch." She put her hands together and gave me a pleading look. I know I was just complaining about needing more friends but did I really want another person crashing on our couch?

"What the hell, I mean at least until you find a more permanent place right?"

"Yeah of course, three or four weeks tops."  She said grinning wide.  Sounds a lot like a few days. This should be interesting I thought as I left the room in search of something to eat.


Note: had hoped to have something up earlier this week but my son and I caught a stomach bug. So far my oldest son and husband haven't caught it and I pray they don't!  Feeling better now and got to hear the baby's heartbeat yesterday, so did my three year old. He says it's "our baby"  :)