A Saint for Life (2 page)

{2}

Christian

I ran through the parking lot next to the baseball field, weaving in and out of snow-covered cars and then sprinted up the hill next to the science building. I was close enough now where I could see the doors and the window to my classroom. Living on the opposite side of campus was a challenge when I had early classes.

I checked the time, I guessed that I had approximately three minutes to make it all the way there before my professor finished taking attendance.

Nope, I have to run. I took a deep breath and continued.

The bottoms of my sweatpants were getting wetter as my feet submerged into the puddles of melting snow. Just then, my chances of getting to class before being late dropped significantly. Her cup fell to the ground, spilling coffee everywhere, and her phone dropped onto the wet ground in front of us. It barely missed a puddle.

“I am so sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I'm out of it. I'm sorry.” Somehow I found myself apologizing even though I wasn't the only one at fault. I stopped myself from talking after noticing that she hadn't said a word. I was rambling on now, which was appearing to make the situation worse.

I reached my arm out to give her phone back to her. She grabbed it from my hands aggressively, and when she looked me in the eye everything around us seemed to pause. In that moment I felt an immediate sense of familiarity. The innocence of her gentle smile and the glassiness of her eyes made me long to feel again. Her mouth slightly opened, but before she could say anything, she turned around and walked away. She didn't look back. Her speed increased progressively, and she disappeared into the building, leaving the doors behind her swinging against the bricks.

I tried to process what had just happened but I couldn't move. She didn't even say a word. When she looked me in the eye, it didn't seem to faze her.

“Hi, Chris!” A girl I didn't recognize walked by and smiled.

“Hi,” I subtly replied and started to slowly walk to class. It was normal for me that random people were always saying hello or striking up a conversation. I've never had a girl blatantly ignore me. This was a first.

After slowly making it up the stairs to the second floor, my eyes caught sight of her again. I peeked into the classroom as I walked by. She was slipping her jacket off of her back, but as she turned around the professor shut the door before I could see her face again. She looked so familiar, but I couldn't figure out where I knew her from. Maybe I hooked up with her before? Maybe I didn't even know her? Maybe she doesn't know who I am? Although, I am—

“Christian Michaels, what took you so long?” My professor interrupted my thoughts.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again.” I closed the door behind me.

“Please see me after class. “

I nodded.

I sat down next to my roommate, the huge grin plastered across his face was hard to miss.

“Why were you so late this morning?” Matthew laughed.

“Yeah, thanks for waking game up!” This wasn't the first time he's failed to wake me up if I've fallen back to sleep. He thought it was funny, mostly because he knew no teacher would actually punish me, but this professor seemed to be stricter than most.

“Sorry, I just thought you decided to skip because you didn’t finish the paper.” He snickered.

“Paper? What paper?” Sheer panic resided inside me now.

“The paper that was on the syllabus. He mentioned it at the end of the last class.” Matt pointed to the page where it was listed.

Truth is I didn’t even look at the syllabus yet. Sure enough, there it was. Assignment number 3. “Number 3? What were the first two assignments? The semester just started.”

Our professor shot us a look to stop talking. I read over the syllabus while he was teaching. How could I already be three assignments behind? Hopefully I’ll be able to hand them in late. I can’t afford three zero’s.

“Dude, you alright? What happened to you when you went home for Christmas? Do you need a drink?” Matt whispered to me. He thought a drink was the answer to everything, but in his defense, in the past I’ve tried to cover up my grief with alcohol or girls instead of facing it. I don’t want to hide my grief anymore.

“No, that won’t help. It’s about my brother. That’s all.”

That ended the conversation. As good of a friend as Matt was, he never wanted to talk about James. I don’t blame him. Nobody wants to start their day off talking to someone about their dead brother. But that’s just it. Nobody here wants to talk about it.

I finally opened up my notebook and put my pen to the paper, but the next thing I knew, class was over. Looking down, I had written nothing. It was hard for me to pay attention when all I could think about was that I’m already failing in my promise to James—my promise to do well and succeed in everything I do. Everything he never got a chance to do.

I lingered until almost everyone was on their way to other classes and made my way to the front of the classroom.

“Mr. Michaels, at the beginning of the semester I usually give students one pass. I’m not sure I can give three.”

“Please. I’ll get them to you by the next class, I promise,” I said. I’m not sure if it was because I had despair in my voice or because our basketball team would be in trouble if I didn’t have a good GPA, but he gave me a second chance.

I took mental notes of everything I needed to get done tonight on my way to practice. I walked the longer route to kill some time.

Walking past Ryan Hall, a particular window with a flag hanging on the wall inside stuck out to me. That room was my brother’s dorm room for a few short days. James was killed in a tragic accident his first week here. It was my decision to honor his memory and go to school here. I wanted to make my brother proud. I don’t think he would be too happy if he knew I was slacking off in my last semester.

As I entered into the locker room, the silence of being early let me be alone with my thoughts. I took out my practice gear and sat down on the bench.

Placing my muddy sneakers at the bottom of my locker, my mind drifted to my run in this morning with the girl with the red cup. Someone as stunningly angelic as her was hard to forget. I couldn't shake the feeling inside of me that's telling me that we ran into each other for a reason, that it was meant to happen. She made me want to feel again and to fill the void in my life that I even didn’t realize I had. Thinking about this mystery girl was the only thing that made me forget about how much I missed having an older brother.

Who was she? 

{3}

Zoe

“So did I hear you correctly, or am I delusional? Christian Michaels ran straight into you.
The
Christian Michaels.”

I nodded.

“The one you've had a crush on since freshman year. And you didn't even say a word? Are you sick?” Emily stopped in front of the arena and felt my forehead. “This is just not normal.”

“I froze, Em. I didn't know what to do.”

“You had such a prime opportunity to talk to him, and you blew it just like that!”

I sighed. “Well, it doesn't matter. He stopped talking to me once he looked me in the eye.”

“Oh, stop.”

“What was I going to say anyway? I would have stuttered. It would have been even more embarrassing.” I hastily said back to her.

“You are you, if that makes any sense at all.”

“That says a lot.”

“It does! You are amazing!”

“I would hardly say that.”

“You've just had bad luck in the past.”

“Really, really bad luck.” I sighed again.

“Well, maybe this is fate. Maybe this is the moment I have been telling you will come for a while now! Maybe he’ll see you tonight!” Emily was all fired up about her theory, that the perfect guy for me was going to come into my life this year. Tonight we were working at the basketball game. We both worked for the athletic department for our work study.

Emily tugged at my hand. “Come on, let’s go! We're going to be late!”

“I'm just a little nervous. What if he recognizes me, the girl who spilled her coffee all over herself? I had been crying all morning, so I looked awful too!”

“It was his fault though. Not the crying, but you know what I mean. You should talk to him after the game today,” she suggested.

“And say what, exactly? I don't know, Emily. Can we just stop talking about it?”

“Okay, okay.” Emily shook her head and continued to walk.

“He’s seen me, but he’s never noticed me. He’s never looked twice. Remember I had a class with him a few semesters ago?”

“Yeah, and every time you saw him you got the feeling that you needed to talk to him, remember?”

“Whatever. It’s just a stupid crush.”

“Can I just say one thing?” Emily stopped and turned around.

“Go ahead,” I mumbled.

“You have been in love with him since the day you walked onto this campus. If the opportunity strikes again, please promise me you won't bail.”

“Why?” I asked. I always wondered why she invested so much time into my love life. We were very different people when it came to feelings and relationships.

“I just want you to see what happens. You need a good guy in your life. It doesn't hurt to try. All you have to do is say hi. One step at a time. Better you than me, anyway. You know I don’t like this kind of stuff. Having to go on dates scares me.”

“That's true, I guess. I don't know. I'll see.” At this point I was agreeing with her to get her to drop the subject.

We walked into the arena and our boss called us over. As we were walking over toward her, Christian ran out onto the court. My stomach sank, and I hurried to where he wouldn't see me.

“Our social media worker came down with the flu. Would you mind being a rock star and providing the updates on the Twitter page for the game today? Emily, I am going to have you working on the concourse.” My boss finished giving directions, and I looked over at Emily. This would be one of the first games we weren’t working side by side.

“Yeah, that’s not a problem. I can do that. The computer is set up at the tables behind the hoop, right?” I asked my boss, but the words slowly drifted out of my mouth as I watched Christian warm up on the court. Each time he ran the ball down the court, he never missed a shot. Each basket was flawless. His incredible talent overpowered everyone else out on the court, so much that even the opposing team even stopped to watch.. They stood there with anger and frightened looks upon their faces. They knew what they were up against.

“We had to change it up today because of a blown fuse. The computer’s set up at the scorer’s table. It’s right next to the Siena bench. The thing only took us a few hours to get it all straight. Thankfully I had everything else done.” Her words went in one ear and out the other. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the court.

“Okay, great. I will head over there in a minute.” I shrugged and noticed that Emily was smirking at me.

“Awesome. I knew I could count on you!” she said while rushing off.

“I was trying so hard not to LOL through that entire conversation.” Emily laughed.

“Stop. This isn’t funny.”

“Yes, it is. See? It’s meant to be. Now’s your time.”

“Bye, Em.” I quietly laughed along with her. This would be my luck. My brain finally processed what she had asked me to do.

My anxiety shot through the roof. Of all days, this was too coincidental. This means I would have to sit right next to the Siena bench. I would be front and center where Christian could see me.

Maybe he won't remember me?
 

Thoughts were running through my mind endlessly.

He definitely won't remember me. Why would he? He never has before.

I walked over to where she told me to go, trying my best to avoid eye contact with him. I moved my hair to the right side of my face to hide my eyes as I walked by. Luckily the game was about to start. The team lined up for the Star Spangled Banner.

I glanced up from my computer and looked over at him only to notice that he was staring right at me. I put my head back down. Looking back up for a brief second, we held eye contact this time.

Shit, no, look away; look away.
I kept repeating to myself over and over in my head. He smiled at me. I looked down at the computer then up and to the right. When I gazed back in his direction, he was looking straight forward and not at me anymore.

“What just happened?” I said under my breath and let out a sigh of relief. The clock ran down to the buzzer, and the crowd stood as the little girl who stood at center court started to sing the national anthem.

I couldn't help but continue glancing at him while she sang, and I began noticing all of his attractive features in a new way. Good thing he was in the same direction as the flag so it didn't look so obvious. With sandy blonde hair, from behind he reminded me of a young Lucas Scott from One Tree Hill. His upper body was very muscular. I could see his veins in his forearms as he stood with his back toward me, hands clasped behind him. Underneath the white and green uniform, I imagined the rest of his body was just as defined.

I didn't even realize the national anthem had ended until I seemed to be the last one standing in the entire arena. I was in a zone admiring Christian from afar. I kept replaying the events that had occurred when he ran into me and just now when he clearly recognized me.

He recognized me.
For a moment a brief smile appeared on my face.