"No way!" Sam squeals from her bed and launches herself into my arms, squeezing me very tight. "That's so awesome Eva! I'm so happy for you."
"Thank you," I chuckle through her hair that smothers half of my face and I blow some pieces out that got in my mouth.
"So how was it? Tell me everything," she demands after pulling away and we sit across from each other on her bed.
When I got back to the room, Sam was there and I told her about what has happened over the past 12 hours. She was upset at first that I didn't tell her sooner but she got so excited when I told her what happened on the date. She couldn't believe it and I told her I couldn't either. It still doesn't feel real to me. It's only been a couple hours since our date, but it already feels like a lifetime ago.
Tre and I walked back to the dorm holding hands and I think I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time. My butterflies were at an all time high, but they were soothed with the touch of warmth from Tre's hand. His hands are always so warm. I didn't know if Tre would try to kiss me or something when we got back. But when we got to the dorm, he stood in front of me and I was prepared for him to try to kiss me, but instead, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. His chest is hard and muscular, but he's warm and smells really good.
He arms tightened and my face was buried in his chest, but I smiled big again and closed my eyes, likening the way his arms feel around me. His arms are really muscular but they feel protective and soft at the same time. I felt like nothing could harm me in that moment of being embraced against him, like he was shielding me away from anything that could come towards me.
I only come up to his shoulders so he laid his chin against the top of my head and I wish we could've stayed like that all night. In a weird way, I liked being wrapped around him and I didn't want it to end.
When we did finally pull away, he leaned in and pressed his lips against my cheek. I stopped breathing for a few seconds from having his lips really close to mine. I felt a little disappointed that it was only my cheek he kissed, but I appreciated that he wasn't trying to force anything.
I walked to my room with a goofy smile on my face and I knew Tre was watching me as I went inside, which made me even more giddy.
"Did he try to kiss you?" Sam asks after I tell her everything about the date.
I shake my head. "No he didn't. I wasn't expecting him to either. I'm kind of glad he didn't yet because I think I would embarrass myself a lot since I don't really know how to kiss."
Sam chuckles. "Every first kiss is gonna be a little off, Eva. That's why it's called a first kiss."
"I don't know how to do it though." I sigh. "Like where do I put my lips at and how do I move them in synch with his? And where does my tongue go? What if I end up biting him or something?" I rant off and run my hand through my hair.
Sam puts her hands on my shoulders and looks me dead in the eyes. "Eva, stop worrying about it, okay? Kissing will come naturally to you. You won't have to think, you'll just do it. Tre knows what he's doing, he will lead you. So just follow him and do what he does."
I take a deep breathe and nod. "Okay. I'm just nervous. He makes me nervous."
She smiles and winks. "The good ones always do."
My phone vibrates from my bed and I go over and grab it. I smile when I see Tre's name and his message.
Sleep tight beautiful. See you tomorrow.
I reply back. Good night :) See you tomorrow!
"I can't believe Eva now has a man," Sam remarks and we both laugh.
"I know," I say. "I can't believe it either honestly."
"I told you Tre was a good guy." She jokingly sticks her tongue out and I laugh again, sitting on my bed.
"You were right Sam."
"When am I not?" She teases and I shake my head and chuckle.
I have never been more happier to be wrong.
~*~
"What's the point of the story then if it's not just about a woman committing adultery?" My writing seminar professor Dr. Grison asks the class and I raise my hand.
"Eva?"
"It's also about religion," I start. "Sinning and facing the repercussions of that. Hester Prynne sinned against her own community and religion and society punished her for it."
"That's the baseline of the story," Dr. Grison points out with her finger in the air and approaches the class more. "But what is the deeper meaning of it all? What is this society that Hester lives in and what is Hester really symbolizing in her story?"
"She's searching for her own identity," Samira speaks up and our professor nods, signaling to keep the discussion going.
"She's oppressed by society and its expectations of women," I add in looking over at Sam and she smiles in encouragement. "She wants to define her own identity and be strong. She could've left the community but she chose to stay and live with the letter because if she left, she would be giving society exactly what it wanted. They wanted to shame her and make her feel guilty for following her heart and thinking on her own free will, but she defied that by staying and raising her daughter to be independent."
"Giving a big fuck you to society." A male student chimes in right after me and everyone, including Dr. Grison, chuckles at his profanity.
"Some of what we find in literature can still be applied to today's world," she explains. "Especially when it comes to self-identity and society's treatment of others. We all have expectations and assumptions and can make judgements about someone, but something that Hester did that we can look to is she followed her heart and did what she believed and felt was right. And she wasn't afraid of what others thought. That's what makes her a strong character."
The Scarlet Letter was a novel I had already read in high school, but it's still one of my favorites. I like the religious undertones in it but I like the female empowerment even more in it. Talking about identity, I feel like I can identify with Hester a little bit. You know, growing up and living in a world that only seems one-sided, like there's only one way to live. Trying to be a good person and following your heart, even when you're given reasons to not to. Understanding and having the knowledge within yourself to know what's best for you and your life is a powerful thing to have, and I want to get to that point in my life where I don't have to worry about what people say.
It's been a few days since me and Tre's date and things have been going really good. I wake up to good morning texts and I see him almost everyday.
We stopped working on our project for the time being and decided to spend our time getting to know each other better. There's so much about him I don't know and I want to get to know all of him. Every piece of him I want to know inside and out.
As I'm walking out of class I receive a text from him.
Hey beautiful
I smile down at my phone. Every day so far, he has made sure he calls me beautiful at least once. I'm trying to get used to hearing the compliment, but I think it's a really sweet effort of him. Just in the few days we've been together, I can see that while he still is closed off, Tre's really trying like he said he would. I can see the effort that's always there and that makes me feel better in that I can let him in more too. It feels a little weird when I think about me being in a relationship with someone. It's a lot different than I thought it would be, but with Tre, I know as don't have any worries.
"Eva!"
I look behind me and see Reina walking towards me.
"Hey girl." She waves and joins next to me as we walk outside the English building. "How was class?"
"It was really good. How was yours?"
"Ugh," she groans and throws her head back, her fiery hair flowing behind her. "My seminar professor is the worst! We just had a quiz and it was the hardest thing I've ever taken. I really hope I didn't fail but I feel like I did."
"What was the quiz on?"
"Business ethics," She grimaces and I grimace too.
"Sounds gross." I scrunch up my mouth in distaste.
"Oh it is. Don't ever have Dr. Weston for a professor."
"Noted," I nod and we walk back to the dorm.
"I'm ready for a nap," Reina says when we get in the stairwell.
"A nap sounds so nice."
I never was a nap taker in high school, but since I've been in college, I have found out how much naps are needed. There'll be people sleeping on the benches and couches in the academic buildings in between their classes and everyone always talks about how much they want to take a nap after class. College students rely on naps as while I don't take one every day like a lot of people, I'll lay down in bed and try to relax my mind. When Sam takes her naps, sometimes I'll read or listen to music and then close my eyes for a little bit, but I don't fall asleep for very long.
"See you later Reina," I say as we both open our doors.
"See ya!"
I shut my door and Sam isn't in the room. She still has class until 3:30. I do my normal get back from class routine, which is setting my stuff on my desk that I need until tomorrow and doing homework if I have any. Thankfully today, I don't have any because I've caught up on next week's homework already.
I change out of my sweater dress and into some navy leggings and my maroon sweatshirt. My hair is still in a low bun and I tuck a few loose hairs back in. My phone buzzes on my bed and Tre responded back from my text that I might take a nap.
You want to come over here and nap with me?
Nap with Tre?
This is the first time he has invited me over to his place. He always came here to the dorm when he wanted to see me and never mentioned us going to his. I didn't think much of it since I was fine with us being here, but now that he mentioned it, I am curious to see where he lives. I know he lives in the towers apartments and Trell is his roommate, but that's it. Sam's always over there so I don't know why Tre hasn't asked me there until now.
Yeah I'll come over. I text back.
Okay cool. I can come pick you up in 10 minutes. He replies.
Sounds good.
I grab my purse and stick my charger and water bottle in it. I decide to go wait downstairs for him so I lock my door and head downstairs to the front lounge area.
I'm only sitting there for a few minutes when Tre texts me that he's outside.
I walk out and see him in a dark grey car Honda that looks like it's pretty new. This is the first time Tre has picked me up so I didn't know that he had a car either.
"Nice car," I say to him as I get in and buckle my seatbelt.
"Thanks," he chuckles and smiles. "I got it last year."
"It's nice," I say and look around at the super clean car that smells like Tre's cologne.
"How was your day?" He asks as he pulls away from the lot.
"It was pretty good. I worked early this morning and I don't have any homework for tomorrow."
"Cause you're already a week ahead in everything," he jokes and I giggle.
"Yeah, it'd be unusual for me if that wasn't the case."
It's only a three minute drive to Tre's apartment building. When he parks, he quickly get outs and goes to my side of the car and opens the door.
"Thank you." I smile at him as a I stand up and when he shuts the door he hugs me.
"Hi," I giggle into his chest and he lightly squeezes me.
"Hi," he says and kisses the top of my head.
"You ready?" He asks when we pull away.
"Yeah," I smile.
His finger interlace with mine as we walk into the building. The last time I was walking in here it was to the basement with Sam and Reina during first week. It's weird to hear it being really quiet in here as opposed to the loud thumping of music on the weekends. I could hear that music all the way from outside when I went and it's silent in here besides the clinking of the elevator going through the floors. It's a lot quieter than the dorms.
Tre lives on the sixth floor and our hands stay locked together the whole ride up to his floor.
"Have you just lived here for this year?" I ask.
He nods. "Yeah, you can only live here if you're 20 or up."
"It's a lot nicer than the dorms," I say when we walk out of the elevator and onto his floor.
"It's alright," he shrugs and leads me down the long hallway. We stop over half way down and he turns to the door that has 613 on it. He lets go of my hand to get his keys out, but grabs my hand again once he unlocks and opens the door.
He steps in first and then gently pulls on my hand to lead me inside. I feel like he's just opened a door more into his life. Like I'm walking through to the side that he's been on and getting a small glimpse into who Tre really is. I've heard that you can tell a lot about a person from the way that their home looks. I'm ready to see Tre. I'm ready to see whatever he is willing to show me.