77
And that was how I found myself driving through my old college campus with the man I’d fallen in love with four years ago.
It felt like old times, with a few twists. For one, Derek was at the wheel. Back in the day, I had always been the one who drove since Derek hadn’t had a car.
For another, we had upgraded considerably from my old, beaten-up Honda to Ryan’s BMW. The plan was for us to go do our thing, then I would drop Derek off at his house and drive the car back.
But otherwise it felt remarkably like the time we had driven home from Ryan’s parents’ and dropped Derek off at his rundown house in Crack Central. All we needed was Shanna in the backseat talking smack to make it complete.
“I thought we’d start at the very beginning,” Derek said as he parked on the street outside my old dorm.
We got out and he led me to an out-of-the-way entrance on the side of the building.
“Stand right there and catch the door when somebody comes out,” he said as he went over and skulked behind some nearby bushes.
“Why are you hiding?” I asked.
“I’m not quite as inconspicuous as I used to be when I snuck in four years ago.”
Yeah, I guess that’s true.
“How long are we going to have to wait?” I asked.
“As long as it takes. I used to stand out here ten or fifteen minutes sometimes.”
I was touched. I don’t know why, exactly. It’s not like waiting fifteen minutes to sneak into a dorm was an enormous burden or anything. But it
did
cast me back to more innocent times, when a boy I had been in love with had arranged a surprise picnic on the floor of my dorm room.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“No big deal. Get ready, somebody’s coming.”
There were muffled, echoing voices inside the stairwell, and then the door clanged open. Two girls walked past, barely giving me a look as they chatted with each other.
I grabbed the door and stepped inside. After the women were far enough away, Derek stepped out of the bushes and joined me in the stairwell.
“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Derek asked.
It did, actually. The slightly musty smell in the air was as good as a time machine for taking me back. My room had been right next to the stairwell, so I must have walked up and down these steps at least a half-dozen times every day.
We started climbing the stairs. I remembered so much with every step:
Me and Shanna walking out into the hallway and seeing Kevin…
Me and Derek leaving with Shanna to go to Ryan’s house…
Taking things down to Shanna’s car the day she moved out…
We exited at the third floor. It was exactly the way I had remembered it: light blue paint on the walls, chipped and uneven. Darker blue doors and doorframes. The threadbare grey carpet. Nobody was in sight, though doors were open further down the hall and I could faintly hear music playing and people talking.
The door to my old room was closed so we couldn’t peer inside, but just seeing the door was enough to bring back a flood of memories. I stood there, overwhelmed.
Derek stood next to me and pointed at the carpet. “Remember that night we first met? We came out here and drank Cokes and ate Little Debbies and talked about Chaucer?”
“‘The Wife Of Bath’s Tale,’” I murmured, remembering it like something out of a dream. The story where the knight gave the woman power over what he should choose.
“At first you didn’t think I was smart enough to have read it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s not true.”
Then I paused.
“Okay, it’s a little true,” I admitted with a laugh.
“Always underestimating me,” he grinned.
“I didn’t underestimate you.”
“So you thought I was going to follow through and actually become a huge rock star?”
I laughed again. “Okay… you got me.”
He shook his head in mock sadness. “
Always
underestimating me.”
“What’s the point of coming back here, anyway?”
“Just to remember the past. Remember the picnic?”
“Of course.”
“Remember
after
the picnic?”
Do I remember you lying naked beside me in my bed, using your fingers to bring me to orgasm? And then me putting my hand around your cock, and stroking you until you came?