Different

9.

We arrive on campus after a short fifteen minutes, and I feel my heart sink slightly. 

"Thank you for the ride" I tell him, opening the car door.

"I had a good time" is all Jace tells me, with his usual smirk.

"Me too" I smile back at him. 

I want to ask when I'm going see him again, but I decide not to. I don't want to sound too clingy.  

We say our goodbyes, and I'm off to my dorm room. I open the door only to find it empty. Bree must still be at this guy's place. I wonder how she met him and I'm excited for when she tells me later.

For now, I change out of the clothes from yesterday and get back into my cozy yoga pants, as well as a big sweater. After, I pull out my iPad that I got for college and open my notes app. I create a folder for each of my seminars and prepare for them by reading the introduction texts.

I'm excited to study media and communication, since I'm really interested in journalism. I love the idea of doing Marketing and PR work, but lately I took a huge liking to writing. I enrolled in a class specifically for that, even though it doesn't have too much to do with my field of study.

I'm honestly just excited to see what's in store for me, and after a few hours of preparation, I feel ready for tomorrow. Despite all the excitement I feel about my college experience starting, I'm also starting to get really anxious. 

I'm not really good with having to sit in one space for a while. Of course I could always leave the room when I don't feel good, but I could never bear the stares of the others if I just left early. I hope I'm going to make some more friends, so I'm not all by myself so much.

I try to distract myself from all of those thoughts with a little Netflix, but my anxiety is still getting the better of me. Often I can't concentrate and need more than one thing to do, like today. I grab my phone and scroll through Instagram at the same time, to see what the people back home are doing.

When I graduated high school, I didn't really make an effort to stay in touch with the people of my school. All they cared about was partying and doing things just to post them on Instagram. Let's just say I'm happy to finally start a new chapter.

At about five in the evening, Bree returns back to our room. She stumbles in wearing her clothes from last night. 

"Hey you!" she says in her usual perky voice.

I immediately turn off Netflix and turn to her.

"Tell me everything" I say eagerly, pushing my laptop aside.

"Well..." she plops down onto her bed. "His name's Austin, I met him yesterday at the party. He's amazing. He was super sweet and kind. I think I had a little too much to drink, so I just crashed at his place instead of finding a ride home. He's been drinking too, so he couldn't drive. Don't worry nothing happened or anything, but I can't say I didn't want it to" she rambles. 

You can tell she's still daydreaming about him. 

"What about you? Tell me" she demands me, while taking off her shoes.

I feel like I can tell her what happened, but maybe not every little detail. 

"Actually, something similar happened to me" I say and Bree lets out a loud screech. 

"I drank a lot of wine and ended up just staying at Jace's place. We talked a lot, had nice conversations" I say, daydreaming just like her.

"Look at us!" she says enthusiastic. "What about the rumors, are they true?" she wants to know.

"Yeah. He confirmed them" I look down to my feet. "But..." I start "he said something about me being different than the others" I smile awkwardly. 

I look back up, keeping the part of him wanting to protect me to myself. Saying it out loud would usually sound cringy, but the things he made me feel when he said that definitely weren't.

"Oh my god Mila, that is SO cute!" Bree screeches again and comes over to hug me. "We'll talk more later okay? For now I'm going to take a shower and then Austin's picking me back up. What are you up to?" she asks, grabbing all the things she needs.

"No plans, but I'm just going to watch a little Netflix, that's fine with me" I lie. I know my anxiety will come right back once she's out that door.

"Alright, I'll see you in just a sec" she says and is off to shower.

I start another episode of Queer Eye and finally start to relax a little. I love this show.  There are so many good vibes and so much positivity. It's the one show that can calm and distract me. After just a few minutes of the episode, I feel the buzzing of my phone. I check it, expecting a message from my mom. 

An unknown number. That's weird. I open the message skeptically. 

You still busy?  the text reads.

Frowning, I wonder who the message is from. Did I miss something?

Who's this? I type right back.

I send the text, assuming someone simply put down the wrong number in their phone. 

The scary, mysterious stranger. Coming over in 30 minutes.

My heart skips a beat. It's Jace, of course. I just saw him this morning and now he wants to come over? Why would Jace Evans be bored on a Sunday anyway, doesn't he have a lot of friends to see? 

How did you get my number?  I ask him over the phone. 

He replies with I have my ways. See you soon and I decide not to answer.

He has his ways? How on earth did he get my number? Did he look through my phone while I was sleeping? I guess I'll never know. 

Saving his number in my phone, I decide not to give it a second thought. He's coming over, once again not really giving me a chance to say no. And somehow, I love that.

In that exact moment Bree arrives back from showering. 

"So..." I tell her. "Jace is coming over in about twenty minutes" I tell her.

Bree screeches for the third time today. "Oh my god, really? Good thing I'm out of here, so you guys can have some alone time" she winks at me.

"It's not like that, you should know that by now" I answer her, chuckling.

"I know I know, but you never know what happens" she says laughing. Bree takes about ten more minutes to get ready, and then she's off to see Austin.

"See you later, or tomorrow. I'm probably going to spend the night, so don't wait up" she winks at me.

"Alright, have fun" I send her off, returning her cheeky smile.

Jace send me the text twenty minutes ago, which means he'll be here in about ten. I debate if I should change into something nicer or not. After all, we're probably just going to stay in. I decide to leave my yoga pants on. I go for a nicer, cropped t-shirt instead of my big oversized sweater and then I'm done. I add a little decent make up and brush through my hair. That has to be enough, because sooner than expected there's a knock on the door.

______________________

Jace is here.

What's your go to Netflix show if you're feeling down? :)