Love After Life

October

October

The scorching hot California summer temperatures disappeared and in place came the humid but still pleasant fall weather. I have perfected my daily routine, and I am proud to report that my social anxiety has gotten a little better. Carter has- as he promised- been trying to convince me to go out on a date with him.

Although I have sometimes been tempted, I still said no in the end. My continuous rejections don't seem to affect him. I have found something that we have in common: we are both stubborn, bullheaded individuals.

Most of our conversations end in quarrels. We are complete opposites and that is why we get into most of our debates. Take the other day, for example, we were sitting in my dorm room. My roommate, Danielle, had gone out with some friends to get takeout from the local diner.

Carter and I had originally planned to study for an upcoming exam in World Religions (since we were in the same class). We were both sitting on the limited floor space between the two twin beds, textbooks and papers sprawled in front of us.

Our exam had just so happened to be tomorrow and we had been studying like this for the past three days. Carter would demand for a snack break thirty minutes after we started discussing the Islamic religion. Somehow his hunger got into the topic of high school curfews. Our dispute went something like this:

"Isn't it kind of pointless to have a curfew?" Carter leaned back against the side of Danielle's bed.

"No, it provides safety and it's effective." I replied.

He grinned. "Let me guess, you were one of those people who didn't have a curfew...or never used it."

"If you must know; I did have a curfew. It was 12:00, I chose not to stay out past 9:00 anyways. I never liked parties."

"How can you not like parties? Everyone has to like at least one aspect of a party." Carter said.

"Hmmm.....did you prefer beer pong or the keg stand?" I had said back sarcastically.

"Both." He responded. Carter clapped his hands together. " Congratulations, you had enough of a life to know what both of those things are."

"Do you always do this?!"

"What?!"

"Could you try to actually be nice without having to be a total jerk?"

"I wasn't trying to be mean....."

"It's always intentional with you." I pursed my lips.

"At least I'm not a melodramatic brat!" He said at which I shook my head.

"God, you're so shallow!"

"How shallow?" He asked, his voice always seemed to have a hint of humor after we fought for a few minutes.

"As shallow as a kiddy pool!" I answered, a smirk finding a place on my face.We broke out into a chorus of laughter, his hearty and mine melodious. His laugh always brought a smile on my face, it meant that our argument was over and we were at peace...for now.