You and me, we come from different worlds
You like to laugh at me when I look at other girls
Sometimes you’re crazy and you wonder why
I’m such a baby cause the Dolphins make me cry
But there’s nothing I can do
I’ve been looking for a girl like you
“Mmm, I don’t want to go back to school tomorrow,” I groaned into Hunter’s neck as he hugged me goodbye in the driveway of my dad’s condo.
“Oh come on. Aren’t you excited to see your roommates?” he asked.
“No, I hate them both,” I lied.
“No you don’t,” he grinned, leaning in to kiss me, “You should be excited. You have your own room in the apartment this year. And plus, no more quickies before your dad gets home.”
“I thought you liked our quickies,” I smiled. He just laughed and gave my hand a squeeze.
“Get that U-Haul packed. Tomorrow’s moving day,” he said, “I’ll be over tomorrow night to see the progress. Or lack thereof.”
“You’d better be. I want that room christened tomorrow night,” I said. He rolled his eyes and started to back towards his car.
“I’m not just a piece of meat, you know.”
“You’re not?” I smiled, “Bye. See you tomorrow!”
“Bye, Cammy,” he said before getting into his car and driving away. I waited there in the scorching Iowa heat until his car was out of sight. Gingerly, I hopped back across the driveway on the hot pavement until I had reached the safety of the front door.
“Did Hunter take off?” Dad called out to me from his office.
“Yeah. I’m going to go finish packing up the last box. The truck will be ready in a few minutes, right?” I asked as I leaned myself against the door frame.
“I’m getting ready to go pick it up. Then we’ll get it all packed, and then we can go out to dinner,” he smiled at me before standing.
“Sounds good! I’ll be ready when you get back,” and with that I took off up the stairs.
I’d never had any patience for girls who wanted to spend every waking second with their boyfriends. Until I started dating Hunter, I didn’t even understand how it was possible to want to spend that much time with another person. We’d been good that last month or so of school, balancing friend time, school time, and together time. But over the summer, when he lived only about thirty minutes away and worked as a lifeguard on Monday through Thursday only, we’d had plenty of long weekends spent together when Dad went away on his series of summer golf trips and vacations with his new girlfriend, Sandy. We had spent a particularly wonderful weekend at Lake Okoboji, where I had used the better part of a memory card taking pictures of him shirtless, mostly only to annoy him, but also because they weren’t a bad thing to have around.
All summer, I’d hardly even thought the name Taylor. We’d barely spoken, only a few random phone calls from him. Brooklynn was from the same town as them and Hunter, and I was sure he was spending all of his time with her, probably contracting a series of communicable diseases.
Hunter made me happy, something I wasn’t used to experiencing. When I was with him I wasn’t worried about winning him over. He’d come to me. He’d been the one to do the winning, and I was thrilled with the change of pace.
We’d spent the summer getting closer emotionally as we’d gotten plenty of practice at getting closer physically while still at school. He was the first guy I’d ever dated who I’d let in on my life, most especially about my mom. That was something I’d kept snugly inside ever since it had happened and with him it had just come out willingly. He was nice to me and made me feel good about myself. So naturally, I had to come back to planet Earth eventually with the contents of that last box.
It housed my most precious possessions—my journal, my external hard drive filled with music, and most importantly, the pictures that made up my photo collage. The whole time I packed it I was bombarded with the image of Taylor’s face and that coupled the knowledge that I’d likely be seeing him in less than twenty-four hours made my stomach twist into knots. I threw the rest of the pictures on top of the rest of the box’s contents before taping it shut.
With a groan, I hefted it into my arms and carried it down to the garage where the rest of my life was packed away in boxes and big Rubbermaid tubs. Sophie’s brother had recently gotten married and had therefore passed down all of his old furniture to us, so all I really had to bring was the stuff for my own bedroom. Dad had bought me a decent full-sized bed for my room along with a new desk and dresser, although I had protested and said that I could always just sleep on the futon from last year and use my bed as my desk. I always felt bad when he spent a lot of money on me, even though I knew we could afford it. That sort of attention made me uncomfortable because it wasn’t how we’d always lived.
Hunter and Zac had somehow gotten permission from Residential Life to live together even though Zac was only a freshman, so they were living in Carver, the dorms we had all lived in last year. Sophie, Grace and I were sharing a three-bedroom apartment close to campus, and only a few blocks from the building Taylor, Chris, and Jackson were living in. It wasn’t one flight of stairs away, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be considering how sprawling the University of Iowa’s campus is.
I set the box down on the top of one of the smaller stacks before heading to the front porch to wait for Dad. My cell phone vibrated in my back pocket and I pulled it out while wiping the sweat from my forehead with my free hand.
“What’s up, slut?” Sophie asked cheerfully into the phone.
“Just waiting for Dad to get back with the moving truck so we can load it up and I can sweat off twenty pounds. It is hotter than hell out here,” I stated.
“Tell me about it. I hate Iowa in the summer. If I sweat, I like it to be for a purpose,” she said.
“Like raunchy sex?” I asked.
“Or exercise, whatever,” she laughed, “So, what time do you think you’ll get to the apartment tomorrow?”
“Probably around ten. We’ll be all packed tonight and so we’ll just get up, get ready, eat, and then head out. I think Dad’s more excited than I am.”
“Yeah, because now he’s going to get all that alone time with Sandy,” she laughed.
“Shove it, Sophie. That’s disgusting,” I muttered, kicking absently at some stray rocks on the sidewalk. A blaring honk practically made me jump out of my skin, “Jesus Christ! My dad is such a freak.”
“Ready to pack?” he asked from the rolled-down window as he pulled into the driveway.
“Oh yeah. I’m ecstatic,” I said sarcastically before saying goodbye to Sophie.
“This shouldn’t take too long,” he said as he jumped out and headed for the open garage, “Not if we both work hard and stop making crabby faces.”
“I’m not crabby, I’m hot,” I whined, already fanning out my wifebeater.
“Well get over it, Cameron. We need to get this done,” he said, looking at me sternly. I sighed and slumped my shoulders before heading to follow him.
Dad and I were in bed asleep by nine that night, both of us exhausted from hauling boxes and furniture in the near 100 degree heat and with bellies full of food from my favorite restaurant. I almost accidentally smacked my Dad in the face when he came in to wake me at seven in the morning.
“No, it’s too early,” I groaned before turning back over.
“It’s only early to someone who’s been waking up after ten every morning all summer. Better to get used to it now than later,” he said, yanking the covers off me before heading for the door, “Now get up and get showered. Breakfast will be ready soon.”
“You’re mean,” I whined, still not moving.
“And don’t you ever forget it,” he said with a smile before heading back downstairs.
“Mother fucker,” I said under my breath before heaving myself into a sitting position. The only thing that made me actually get up was the smell of pancakes coming from downstairs. Dad really was mean. He knew that the only food in the world I was powerless to resist was pancakes.
I took a shower and got ready on autopilot, not caring too much about my appearance since I knew I’d be getting unbelievably sweaty later on anyway. We ate breakfast quickly and got everything cleaned up before hooking my car up to the back of the moving truck and heading for school. Our house was about an hour and a half away, so the drive wasn’t terrible, but the knowledge that soon we’d be making countless trips up a flight of stairs with furniture and boxes made our destination loom ominously in the distance.
“Have you made plans for your birthday yet?” Dad asked. I shrugged and continued to stare out the window.
“Well, since it’s on a Friday, we’ll probably all just go out downtown. Go places where Hunter can get in. It’ll be fun.”
“And you’ll get someone to drive you, right?” he asked.
“Of course, Dad. Hunter won’t be drinking, he’s not 21.”
“Yeah, right. I’m sure that neither of you have ever had a drop of alcohol before,” Dad laughed, “I went to college, too, remember? And as long as you keep your grades up, I don’t care if you like to have a good time. Just as long as you’re always careful.”
“Always, Dad. And even if everyone was drinking, there are cabs everywhere downtown. We’d find a safe way home even if someone wasn’t the DD.”
“I can’t believe you’re turning twenty-one next week,” he said softly, looking at me with big sappy eyes I’d come to recognize a mile away.
“Dad, don’t,” I laughed, “Please don’t go all teary on me.”
“I can’t help it,” he smiled, “I just wish…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but instead we just smiled reassuringly at each other. He didn’t have to say the words for both of us to know that he’d wanted to say “I just wish that your mom could’ve seen you like this.”
“This is the exit, Dad,” I said, pointing in its general direction since it was different than the one we’d taken to get to my dorm last year.
“Will Sophie and Grace be there yet?” he asked.
“Yeah, Grace moved in last night and Sophie was going to try to get there around eight so we weren’t all moving in at the exact same time. I’m sure Sophie’s already completely unpacked and started decorating already. She’s insane.”
“And you’ll be living out of boxes for the next six months,” Dad laughed.
“Not this year. Hunter would kill me. He’s kind of a neat freak.”
“Good. He’ll keep you in line, then.”
“He has so far,” I said before pointing to an apartment building to our right, “There it is.”
“It looks nice from the outside,” he said, “But it’s the inside that can be chancy.”
“Grace called me last night around ten and said that it was actually in pretty good shape. When we saw it last spring it was still occupied so it was hard to tell, but she said it’s fine.”
“Okay, well, let’s get this done so you can have some fun today.”
“Sounds perfect!” I grinned, hopping out of the truck, anxious for the hard part to be done as quickly as possible.
Three hours later, we had my room completely arranged and all of my boxes placed on the floor in my bedroom. I’d hooked up my computer, an immediate necessity, and shoved my box of movies at Grace who was busying herself by putting all of our movies on the rack in the living room.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you at Thanksgiving,” Dad smiled at me as I walked him to the door.
“Thanks for hauling all this stuff up here,” I said.
“You’re just lucky it’s air-conditioned in here. Otherwise things might have gotten ugly.”
“Bye, Dad. I love you,” I said.
“I love you, too. Be good,” he smiled before hugging me tightly and leaving.
After the three of us inhaled a delivered Pizza Hut pizza, I took a quick shower and poked through my many boxes until I found the ones that held my clothes. I threw on a t-shirt and some jean shorts before calling Hunter. We’d planned to have our boyfriends over for some hanging out and food later that night after we’d all had a bit more time to unpack. I got most of my boxes unpacked, though my organizational skills were still lacking and I wound up just throwing things into drawers instead of placing them inside neatly.
“Cam! The guys are here!” Sophie yelled and I practically ran into the living room, immediately pulling Hunter into a long kiss.
“Miss me?” he laughed once I’d finally released him.
“Nope,” I grinned, “Hey guys, we’ll be back in a bit.”
“Please do not have sex right now. We’re supposed to be watching a movie!” Sophie practically pleaded.
“We’re not! I just want to show him my room. Go ahead and start without us, we’ll be right back,” I said, pulling him around the corner and down the hall behind me.
“What are you doing?” he asked as I pulled him into my room and shut the door.
“I told you I wanted this bedroom christened tonight,” I grinned, yanking the zipper of his jeans down.
“And this can’t wait until we go to bed?”
“Absolutely not. It’s much too important to leave until then,” I said with mock-seriousness before pulling him in for a kiss.
“Fine, but we need to be really quick. They’re not stupid.”
“I thought you were ready to be done with the quickies,” I said.
“When it comes to you, I’m always up for anything,” he replied.
“Yeah you are,” I smirked, sneaking a peak down at him before kissing him again, “God, I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“What do you mean by that?” he gasped as my mouth made its way down the side of his neck.
“It’s just that we’re so different. You’re nice and I’m…”
“Perfect?” he asked cutely, placing his hands on my cheeks.
“Not hardly,” I scoffed, sitting down on the bed and scooting back so he could climb over me.
“You are to me,” he stated.
“You’re so lame,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.
“But you like me anyway,” he smiled as he settled himself on top of me.
“I really do.”