Smoked Success

11.

I do the same, give him eye contact. The car's air conditioner is off, and I can hear the noise of airplanes landing and taking off. I cannot really decrypt what's in his eyes, but I hope he's sad about this as much as I am. I do not want to be the one keeping this relationship going. Needless to speak, he gets closer, making the smell of his peppermint scented cologne stronger. Our lips meet, Christian's lips were soft, thanks to his chapstick. His hands are cupping my cheeks, while mine are doing the same to his head.

The kiss is intense, making it look as if kissing was the only way to survive. Chris is now caressing my back, reaching till the low of it. It keeps on going like this for a few minutes, till we both run out of breath, making this stop.

"I'll miss you." Christian states, holding my hand. "I love you."

"I love you." I tell him, I didn't want to say too, since I'm not replying to him, and this isn't a competition between us to say more.

"I hope you have a safe trip." He says, looking at the digital clock in his car. "Guess we'll have to take it off from here."

I open the door and get out, so does he. He gets me my bag, and hands it to me. He smiles weakly and gets closer for a hug. The hug's tight, both of us not wanting to let go. We stay like this for a while, until I realize I'm sort of late for the whole boarding process. I blow him out a kiss, take my bag, and walk to the gate. It is painful to do this, but this will pass.

I'm finally in Los Angeles, 6 hours later. I'm glad this is a domestic flight, making all the processes I have to do ten times easier. I pass by Security twice, and go to pick up my bag. I am tired, since this was even longer than my trip to New York. I walk out, since I've not seen anyone inside calling my name or anything. Los Angeles' weather is very hot, it makes me regret wearing pants.

"Sorry I'm late." A woman shows up next to me. "Guess you're Jessica?"

She has chestnut short hair, perfectly arched eyebrows, ocean blue eyes, thin nose, lips covered with red lipstick and amazing cheekbones. Her figure was perfect, with slight curves. She's not so short nor not so tall. Her skin tone's light, very light beige. She's wearing a striped t-shirt with a pair of shorts and a white pair of Converse.

"Y-yes I am," I hesitate, hoping I'm the one she means, "and you are?"

"Your roommate, Carmel." She smiles at me.

"Oh," my eyes sort of widen, "nice to meet you."

"Same goes to you." She gets in the car, sliding her shades off her hair.

The loft is little, but enough for me. Carmel has warmly welcomed me here, which is great. She's a secretary at a company, which she hated to death. She said it was the only job she could get, since she wasn't a brilliant student in university, in Massachusetts. Most of her days when her boss is absent were off, and he's in Canada or something. I was still organizing my wardrobe, when someone knocks on the door. I open the door and Carmel appears,

"I'm going out for a while, don't hesitate to call me if you need anything." She says, seeming in a hurry. "Sasha is supposed to be back in a while, she's usually in a shit mood when she's back from work so do not throw a pop quiz over her."

I give her a weak smile, "sure."

I've been sitting alone in my room, trying to organize everything but failing by procrastinating, I've thought about plenty of stuff. I had thought of preparing the juniors' syllabus, but no, I'm definitely not doing that, not today. Christian, Hannah and Tyler have all called me to check if I'm still alive. I keep on thinking about my first day, where I'll meet all my classes, oh god.

Today has been nice, knowing my roommates, well one of them so far, is very nice, distressing me and removing all my worries. My room seems to be where I'll be mostly spending, I would've loved to go out, but I don't really think I should do that when work is so close. I'm sick of staying wherever I am, having nothing to do. It is nice sometimes, but I want to work, I missed working. I can hear the door getting opened, and slammed. What the fuck? I get out to see what's wrong.

It must've been a mistake, because all I can see is, apparently my other roommate, making out with her boyfriend. It does seem intense, so I just try to avoid eye contact with everyone and pretend I do not exist and go back to my little safe spot. Yeah, great. I walk back to my room, turn on my laptop, and check my emails since I'm that lifeless.

UCLA has sent me my schedule, 30 hours a week, great. It's a lot, but at least it's around students who are sort of independent and who know the daily struggles one faces, maybe not. I hope I won't be the only teacher under thirty, cause that alone is making me feel uncomfortable. Being young is great, but not when around wiser persons who probably know more than you.

I'm only one week and a half away from teaching, which is reassuring, but also means I should get some sleep now because I think I won't be sleeping later, since I'll have plenty of stuff to correct. I do not believe in 11:11 wishes, but Angelina has always done. She liked them so much, she'd sleep and set an alarm, make a wish, then sleep. It was so cute, she'd always refuse to tell me what she wished, and I told her that I'd wish for world peace.

It was true, but I do wish that all the time. It wasn't a special 11:11 thing, I do it whenever I had time. Of course, Angelina has no clue what world peace means, but she'd just nod whenever I'd tell her. The world has been recently going through multiple dangerous phases, example the current refugee crisis, but I hope all of this will pass soon.

Someone knocks on my door, I get up to open it, it's like a scenario repeating or something.

"You're Jessica, my new roommate, right?" Sasha, I hope it is, says, laughing.

She's afro-american, but still very beautiful. She has brown eyes, black long curly hair, sort of tall and sort of curvy. I don't know what's so funny, so I'll keep my serious face.

"Yes I am," I start, sighing, "you're Sasha, I guess?"

"Oh yeah, that's me," she smiles, showing her dimples, "that's my boyfriend, Jase." She points at him and he simply waves at me, which is mutual from my side. "We weren't annoying you, were we?" She continues, giving me an apologetic look.

"Not at all." I reassure her, looking at my phone to check if there are any notifications.

This is the first time anyone has ever asked me if they annoyed me or not. It's usually me who asks if I'm annoying to people I don't even talk to.

"Come sit with us, what's making you sit alone?" She raises her eyebrows, "you seem nice."

"Sure." I shrug.

My alarm clock rings at six AM, I need to be ready on time for the students' first day. Yesterday, I went to the teachers' first day, and apparently I'm the youngest teacher, as expected. There are some teachers who are still below thirty, but still the youngest. The teachers are welcoming and all, but you still feel that sort of experience gap, I'm glad they accepted me. Unlike yesterday, I'll wear high heels, to give the students a little impression of a taller me.

I wear a turquoise knee-length short sleeved dress, with matching high heels, pretty simple but good enough. As for makeup, I try to put the least possible, meaning foundation, lipstick and mascara. I put a nude one since I needed the "au naturel" look. My hair's down, but I have ties in case I got sick of it. I go to the kitchen and make myself some coffee in a portable cup.

Nobody's awake, since no one starts work before I do in this loft, so I basically go down after having to check that I have my keys several times. Oh my god, I hope they like me.