he was living a nightmare.
“Can you stay for me?” Ralph paused for a moment. “For us?”
“There hasn’t been an ‘us’ for a long time. I think you know that.”
“We can fix this. We can talk to somebody.” Ralph’s voice was desperate.
“No, we can’t.”
Then there was silence. Cole rushed off to his room and slammed the door. He sat on the floor, leaning against his bed, fighting the tears. His family had been torn apart.
And he never saw his mother again.
Cole wondered if he would ever see or talk to her someday. A part of him knew he probably wouldn’t, that she was gone forever, but the small child in him had to hold onto the idea that she’d come back someday and hold him in her arms once more. How could she have cared so little? The scars of her leaving were ones he would carry with him forever. He wasn’t sure he could ever truly trust anyone again.
Well, obviously he trusted Sutton, but that was different. She had the purest heart of anyone he’d ever known. She would never leave him like that. She wasn’t cold, as his mother had been.
Cole wanted to let go of the anger. He wanted to forget his mother had ever existed at all. He had his dad and he had Sutton.
And that was all he needed.
SUTTON PULLED INTO a loading zone in front of her dorm hall at around 6:30pm. As expected, she and Cole had indeed stayed up virtually all night at the hotel the night before, so she was exhausted. The moment she exited the car, she was accosted by an all-too-energetic guy in a bright yellow shirt that read Welcome to the First Day of the Rest of your Life .
“Hi there, newbie! How was the drive? Where did you come from? I’m Johnny, by the way. I’m your new Resident Advisor.”
He was far too loud and was speaking far too quickly for Sutton to compute right away, in her tired state. After a moment, she was able to piece it together. “Um … the drive was long. I was coming from California, San Francisco specifically. And my name is Sutton. Sutton Meyers.”
“Wow! That is far! Let me help you unload this car and move into your new room. Do you know which one you’re in?”
Sutton reached into her car and removed a crumpled piece of paper from the center console. She searched for the room number. “I’m in 304.”
“Ooh, third floor. We don’t have any elevators, but at least you don’t have any furniture.”
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too bad. I mean, I have a lot of clothes. And probably far too many toiletries,” Sutton said, slightly embarrassed.
“In other words, you’re a girl,” Johnny replied. They both laughed as he opened the back of the car, then begin to pile boxes on top of each other.
They small-talked as they made a few trips from the car to the room and back. Finally, they had put the last of it in the room.
“Oh, your roommate is at the welcoming mixer by the way,” Johnny said. “You showed up a little late for that, but there are many more events to come.”
“Cool,” Sutton said, with a nervous smile. She hoped she would get along with her roommate, but there wasn’t really anyone Sutton didn’t get along with, aside from her parents of course.
“Well, last thing is to move your car to the student lot. Then you can begin to settle in. I’ll show you where it is.”
“Johnny?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for your help.”
“No problem, Sutton. That’s what I’m here for.” And, with a very genuine smile, he directed her to the student lot and wished her good luck.
I’m going to need it, Sutton thought.
Once she returned to her new home, she sat down on the edge of the bare bed and looked around at her many boxes and suitcases, mildly overwhelmed at the concept of unpacking. Maybe she should have listened to her father and packed lighter, but she wasn’t a huge fan of ever listening to her father. She’d probably packed even more stuff just to defy him. She smiled a bit at the thought of not having to