The Boyfriend

She was wearing a long-sleeved cropped top with her super mini skirt, her tanned legs shimmered from the body oil she smeared all over it, she smelled like coconut vanilla. Kelsey was looking at herself in the body mirror in the corner of their dorm room, trying to decide whether to tie her hair in a ponytail or just leave them hanging over her shoulders.

She didn’t really need to do anything with herself, Kelsey would’ve looked gorgeous in pajamas. She was one of those girls who looked perfect in their Instagram posts “woke up like this”, yes they do exist.

Julie was satisfied with her babydoll dress, covered with her oversized sweater. It took her a few seconds to look in the mirror when she tied her hair in a messy bun in her half of the room where she stick her walls with posters of Rock Stars from the 70’s and 80’s. “Ready?” she asked Kelsey who was still undecided. “Just leave it as it is, Kells, you look fine,” she continued.

They walked to the campus building to start a new semester. It was going to be a short one for Julie as she had already taken a few classes in advance.

“You know something crazy? That guy I hooked up with in Bhorma was actually from here! When I told him where I go to school he said his family owned a house here in Gastonburry, he used to go to West End Uni when he took his bachelor’s in Business Management, can you believe that?” Kelsey said on their way to campus.

“So he’s here? He lives here in Gastonburry?” Julie asked. “Well technically, he owns a house here, but he moved around lately because he’s starting this restaurant business I told you about … he graduated a few years back, and then he went to St. James to study culinary … or something like that, I can’t remember every detail he told me, well to make a long story short, he’s here! And he’s meeting us after today’s classes,” Kelsey was smiling, but Julie knew her too well to sense there was something she wasn’t saying.

“Wow … this is a first, huh?” Julie commented on a seemingly serious relationship Kelsey was having with the new guy.

Kelsey grimaced, “That’s the thing … I don’t think I want it right now, I mean … to be committed to one guy feels so intimidating, you know? I want to have fun … I was having fun with him, and to have him here every day like we’re committed wouldn’t be fun anymore,” and there it was, the thing that bothered her.

“Well he sounds like a great guy to be in a relationship with, great sex, a good cook, he’s rich … that’s for sure, not everybody can afford to have a house here in Gastonburry,” Julie was encouraging her wild bestie to consider something more stable.

“I know, right? But it gets boring when it comes to being steady, sometimes it’s better not to know someone too much, the mystery is more exciting … but when you start to know how they snore in the morning or how they like their omelet, it just kills it for me.”

Sometimes Julie wonders if marriage was ever in Kelsey’s path, she was a female predator, she loved sex more than she was interested in a relationship. Julie had seen how her best friend operate when she was prowling for a hot date, which she never missed. And every time the guy came close, she turns them down or simply ran away like he was a plague. She avoided intimacy, never wanted to get close to her date’s friends and God forbid, family.

But who was Julie to judge, she was infatuated with Preston the first time she laid eyes on him. The Rockstar of UOG. She had always had a soft spot for singers, especially from a rock band. She never met a real one before until she met Preston. She was a total romantic, she had always dreamed of a good romantic relationship with a guy of her dream. Something that she gradually learned only existed in fairy tales. Especially after the last guy she dated in high school cheated on her.

Kelsey sometimes made fun of her for being so timid with boys because she wanted them to approach her like in the books she read a lot. But they were all the same, shallow, uninspired, empty, boys with lame games that she was unmoved by. As she developed a very close friendship with Preston, she learned that he was actually a guy version of Kelsey.

She used to have high hopes in love and everything that comes with it, but after what happened with Preston, she just shut herself completely and buried herself in books. All she wanted now was to graduate as early as possible, leave Gastonburry behind her and what happened there, for good.