Out of Character

“My friends drove me to the bar.” She said after a while.

“They’re probably already gone. I’ll take you home in the morning.” I really didn’t want to get up. I didn’t even care if she slept in my bed at this point.

“Actually…can you drop me off at school? I have a class tomorrow and my friends can take me home after.”

Shit, first day of class is tomorrow, isn’t it? I think my first class is at 9, but I’ll need to double check. “Yeah, what time and where?”

“Seattle School of the Culinary Arts at 8:45, it’s just around the corner.”

“Hey, that’s where I’m going. Baking and Pastries.” It was one of the few schools with a bachelors in Baking and Pastries, which is what I really wanted.

“Me too.” She looked over at me with a shocked face. “What class do you have first.”

“I think it’s Cake Decorating with—”

“Mr. Miller.” She finished, her eyes wide.

“I guess that means I can take you.” I didn’t want to let on that this was the worst news I’d had in quite a while.

“This isn’t good.” She groaned and sat up. She held her face in her hands and I had no clue what to do. Was I supposed to say something or touch her; I’d never been in this situation before.

I sat up too and awkwardly placed a hand on her back. “It’s fine, we’ll just forget this ever happened, or ignore it or whatever. It’s just a one night stand, it’s not a big deal or anything.”

“My friends.” She said into her hands.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ll have to deal with them eventually.”

“But it would have stopped after a week or two, now it will go on forever… Every time they see you they’re going to say something. It will never end.”

I laughed again, “Sorry that you regret this night already.”

She flopped back on the bed, “I wouldn’t say regret this, I just regret my friends.”

“I’ll take you in the morning, alright? I’m going to go to sleep soon, you can sleep in the bed with me if you want or on the couch if you’re not comfortable here.”

“I don’t mind.” She said, looking up at the ceiling.

I woke up in the morning with something warm pressed against me. I cracked an eye open and saw those loose curls and smooth skin. My arms were wrapped around this woman in front of me and I couldn’t help but breathe in deeply, inhaling the sweet smell of her.

“Hello.” I mumbled while I untangled myself from her. She yawned and rolled over, those green eyes with flecks of gold looking up at me sleepily. “Sara, right?” It was strange I remembered her name. Normally I forgot it as soon as they said it, I didn’t want it to take up space in my mind if it was only a night.

“Yeah. And you’re Dev

“Yeah. Come on, we should get going soon. Shower is over there.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed and rubbed my face before I pointed to the door across from me.

“Thanks.” She stood up, picked up her clothes from the floor and disappeared into the bathroom.

I stood up and walked over to the closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a plaid button up. I lay back down on the bed and waited until she came back into the room before I stood up again. She had pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail and was wearing the same clothes from last night. It was this sort of silky green tank top and dark blue jeans. It really looked great on her.

I took a shower and gelled my hair up into a faux hawk and when I came back out Sara was in the living room watching the news. “Ready to get out of here?”

“Yeah.” She shut the TV and stood up.

We were running late, class was going to start in about 10 minutes, so I don’t really know why I was surprised when we walked into class. There was one table left. Each table had two people standing behind it and there was a larger desk up front with a slightly chubby man standing behind it.

“You two can share the table in the back.” He said when we stood in the doorway awkwardly for longer than we probably should have. I saw her friends, and everyone else, turn around to look at us. Her friends all had these knowing smiles and a few laughed quietly.

When we reached out table I said, “You’re right, you’ll never live it down.”

“Shut up.” She growled.

It was the first day, he tossed us our chef uniforms that were to be used for all of our classes that happened in the kitchen, and told us about the course. Orientation day for everyone that missed it like I did.

I didn’t spend much time listening though; I was having a hard time tearing my gaze away from Sara. She was beautiful. Brown hair that was curly but not really curly and a great body, but it was more than that. It was how she blushed when she was nervous and how she could lose herself in a moment. I liked how she was always doing something, playing with the bottle at the bar, twirling a pencil in her hand now. I thought it was cute.

Too bad I don’t screw the same person twice. Things get complicated after that. Hell, sometimes they get complicated the first time.

I don’t know what it was about this girl; maybe it was just that I saw her after I slept with her. Usually the only time I’d see the same girl again is at the bar, and then I avoid them like the plague. This was a different situation.

We didn’t have any other classes together except my last class for the day. She sat a few rows ahead of me with her friends, who would sometimes turn around and look at me before turning back around. I found myself not being able to focus on anything but her yet again. She was focused on the class and her friends were trying to talk to her, probably about me considering how often they turned around to look at me.

It was around six when I finally decided to go to the bar. I told Jan I’d go today, so I probably should. Besides, what better way to celebrate the first day than with a woman?

Jan was already at the pool table. I walked over and tapped the end of her stick just as she shot. “What the fuck man?” She turned around to see me and rolled her eyes.

“Let’s play a game.” I said with a smile.

She pulled out a twenty; it was probably the same twenty that had been passing back and forth between us since seventh grade. My father used to have a pool table in the basement and we’d always go play. It was our thing.

She got to break this time and I got us a couple of beers and paid for the ones last night at the same time. When I got back over she was leaning on the edge and looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “So, how did it go? I saw you guys leave together.”

“It was pretty fantastic. I haven’t had sex like that in a while actually.”

“Well, sex is like pizza-” She started.

I grinned and said, “Even when it’s bad, it’s still good.” How long had we been saying that? Tenth grade? When she was dating guys and I was with her, so it must’ve tenth, because she stopped dating men in eleventh.

“I’m glad you had a nice time, but without you here, I had to try and dodge that one girl again.” She mumbled.

I knew who she was. She’d come in every so often and try so hard to get Jan to take her home or something, but Jan was really not into her. Jan, who was 19 as well, had a thing for Luce, who was 25. Age is only a number and all that, but Jan thought that if Luce found out that she’d freak and they wouldn’t work out. Plus, she wouldn’t be able to go to her favorite bar.

“Sorry man, but I didn’t know if I’d see her again, so I wanted to take the opportunity.” I said.

“Of course you’ll never see her again.” She scowled, “You go out of your way not to see the people you sleep with.”

“Well, I should have tried harder I guess. She’s in two of my classes at school.” I said as I took my shot.

Jan was laughing loudly, “So you’re going to see her every other day?”

“Twice every other day.” I mumbled. “But it’s not going to matter, I don’t want to be friends and I don’t sleep with people more than once.”

Jan shook her head at me and said, “One day, you’re going to fall in love with one of these girls and you won’t be able to do a thing about it.”

“Not true, falling in love means that there has to be such thing as love.” I said and let her finally have her turn.

“Still bitter over her I see.”

“No, she just helped me realize how stupid I’d been. There is no such thing as love, Jan. Maybe certain people make other people happy for a while, but it all comes down to how long can you tolerate someone.” I watched her put another ball in a pocket.

“I can’t wait until you fall madly in love.” She said with a smile.

“I can’t tolerate anyone for very long, so I don’t think you’ll ever see me in a relationship, especially one where I’m chasing that stupid idea.” I took a drink and surveyed the room. I didn’t see anyone attractive, at all. I mean, some weren’t bad, but nobody that I really wanted. “You’re in luck, I don’t see anyone here I’m really interested in.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Nothing here tonight.”

“You’ve never said that.” Jan looked up at me with a strange look in her eyes.

“I had great sex last night; I don’t want to celebrate it with mediocre sex.” I sighed and went back to the game.

“Dev, you do realize you’re completely out of character right now, right?” Jan raised an eyebrow and I moved to get in the best place for my shot.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Jan, I just don’t see anyone I’m interested in tonight. Corner pocket.” I said and took my shot. The cue ball hit the black eight ball and I watched it fall into the pocket with a grin.