The Galway Boy

1. If happy was my first name

He's just standing there looking at me. It's impossible to read his mind, what is he about to do? I'd do anything to be Edward Cullen right now, being able to read everyone's mind. Well, I'm sure he'd just be like Bella, the only one in the entire universe I wouldn't be able to read. It's like he has something on his mind but doesn't dare to say it. It's a feeling I've never experienced in a guy before. He's taking a step towards me. My heart is beating so fast that I'm worried he's noticing. What if he's noticing? It keeps beating faster. Slow heartbeats turn into several fast ones. He's standing so close to me that I can feel his warm breaths against my lips. Is he gonna kiss me? Is this the moment we have our first kiss? I can't help to feel all types of emotions right now, I'm scared yet so excited. But how weird it may seem I can't feel if the feeling in my stomach is a lump, the Indian food I ate an hour ago, or butterflies. He's taking his big hands slowly against my face and stroking his fingers through my dirty-blonde hair. This feels scary, yet so good. He pushes his thumbs against my jaw and lowers his gaze to my plump lips. His brown hazel eyes look into mine, intense and sensual. Our lips are only an inch from...

"A-a?"

"Aaannaaaa?"

"ANNA!"

It feels like I'm about to have a heart attack. I shiver my head. Where the hell am I? What happened? I'm looking around the room to try to localize where I am located and at the same time try to understand who was calling my name. My eyes are struggling to get used to the yellow lightning but my eyes get stuck in a very familiar face. My English lecturer, Chris.

"Huh?" I say with my eyes squinting trying to get used to these stupid lights.

Chris doesn't look impressed. 

"I'll tell you what, you've been sleeping 20 minutes of this lesson, plus you came late in to class to start with. Anna, what is really going on?" He answers with a bit of worry in his voice but also in all seriousness.

The truth is that nothing has happened. The truth is that you just woke me up from what could be the most amazing dream I've ever had in my entire life. But I can't tell that to you cause you're my lecturer and the whole class is currently staring at me and giggling in the corners of this stupid classroom.

"Ehm, sorry? I had a bad sleep last night"

I squint my eyes trying to get used to the brightness in the room. Ha-ha like that was the actual answer. Another truth is that I, completely willingly, stayed awake the whole night watching "Emily in Paris". Now that I think of it... could that be the reason for the erotic dream I just had? Man, I wish that dream was true. Imagine me, a small-town girl leaving my boring safe life in Sweden to be Emily, an adventurous woman dedicating he life to live in Paris and meeting her entirely own Gabriél... plus several other men, but that's not the point. But here I am, sleeping during class and dreaming hot dreams with the background noise from my very boring English lecturer and the half-okay and half-horrible classmates. Urgh, this was not what my time at uni was supposed to be like.

"To sum up what you missed during your... let us say... respectful nap during this seminar Anna, you are more than welcome to do a complementary assignment. You can pick it up at my office after class."

Great! Wonderful! Brilliant Chris! Just what I needed! If Edward Cullen was here he would not want to read my mind right now.

 "... but to continue with what I was saying before this. We at Lund university have just started several collaborations with different universities and colleges around the world. To mention a few we have Chiang Mai University in Thailand, California State University, National University of Ireland Galway, Paris-Sorbonne University, and so on..." he continues

Okay, Chris. You have my full attention, for once. Did he just say Paris? Am I psychic? Did my dream just come true? Maybe becoming Emily in Paris wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"... so if you're interested in an exchange year next semester you'll have to write your name on this list that I'm having in my hand right now. I'll put it by the catheter. And if you have any questions this Is your chance"

I can see Anton raising his hand. I'm not really surprised since he always tried to impress the lecturers by asking questions nobody understand just to try to sound smart. Chris nods at him.

"So if you, let us say, write your name on that list. Are you allowed to choose where to go?"

I giggled at Antons question. Anton is, how can I say this in the nicest way? He's just one of those people that's too spoiled and greedy to even think of setting foot outside of Lund. Him leaving Lund for an exchange year seems to be the most unlikely thing ever. He didn't even want to go on the class trip with us to "Hallands väderö" (an island in a county nearby) cause he, and I quote, "don't want to travel that far from the city" and "don't want to pay for it". His parents drive a Porsche and he always wears clothes from nice brands. So for me, it seems like he's been stingy ever since he moved out from his parent's house into his extremely nice flat (bought by his parents) to go to uni and finally has to pay for things on his own.

"Good question Anton!" Chris says as cheerfully as possible, almost like he wanted to hide his true feelings

Haha, that's a way to put it... Chris actually also seemed to be a bit bored by the question. His facial expression says it all. He got that smile that you can easily tell isn't genuine. Guess he's also tired of Anton's meaningless questions. He takes a deep breath and continues his answer.

"Well, there's a limited amount of places at each uni... so, I guess this will be sad news for the ones who want to go to the more popular universities. If there are more students applying than there are places, there will be a lottery to decide who gets the spot. And if you don't get picked you get the second, third, fourth, and so on, option instead"

What the... the fact that a lottery is gonna decide made my dream that just felt very close, seem very distant. This isn't fair. I've busted my ass off to get nice grades for opportunities like this to be to my advantage, and now it's the lottery? I sigh. First of all, I need to deal with my mom. I'm 21 years old, so legally I'm an adult, but my mom needs me. She's had a terrible year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Lost 2 jobs within a year, one from the pandemic and one from a terrible employer that stressed her into a breakdown. She's been on sick leave since. But she's also a single mom trying to make life work for both me and my little brother. I've been trying to work shifts at the local coffee shop to help my mom, but also do fulfill my dreams of leaving this place.

Maybe I'm being naive leaving her all alone. I should be ashamed of only thinking about it. But I can't stay here or I'll regret it for the rest of my life. No matter what, I'm gonna get this spot...

...I'm gonna go to Paris.