Chapter 41 Genevieve
Genevieve
Well, I don’t know how Lana did it, but she managed to get me to class today.
She deserves some sort of award for that.
This morning she made sure I was here on time from the airport and was still going to class.
She even had my purse all packed and ready for me with my supplies, then walked with me to class because our classes happened to be in the same building.
I went this whole semester without knowing that.
I felt like such an idiot.
I went to my first two classes this morning, which is a new record for me and then ate lunch with Lana in the union. We ate Chick-fil-A salads, with the avocado lime ranch dressing of course, and I told her about my morning and she told me about hers.
Afterwards, we parted ways again where she went to her third class and I went to the library killing time, waiting for my last class of the day.
I'm here for about an hour and a half catching up on work. Thankfully I did a lot while I was away. Turns out Aspen is really good at math.
Aspen.
Forgiving my dad didn’t just open a door to the past, it made space for the future. For second chances, maybe even for Aspen. Now that I’ve forgiven my dad I think I can hear him out. I just need to give myself time to focus on school and figure out what I would even say to him.
When I open my laptop I didn’t know where to start at first, but I just did the most I could. Lucky for me I never failed a test I took so my grades are bad just because of the work I haven’t turned in, but as I turn each assignment in I see my grade rise up a few percentages.
Each submission feels like reclaiming a little piece of myself. Like I was rewriting my own comeback story, one late assignment at a time.
I’m taking baby steps, but maybe this is manageable. As much as I hate it.
I close the lid to my laptop and stuff it in my bag.
I refuse to wear a backpack and ruin my outfit so I just have a big tote purse I use as my school bag.
I exit the library and walk over to class.
The weather is getting colder by the day so I zip up my leather jacket and thank myself for wearing pants today.
My five minute walk to Burnette Hall was cold, but bearable.
I take a seat at the middle front of the class and wait for Professor O’Gwen to begin class.
I just stare at her as she picks at something green in her teeth with a bobby pin.
What a delightful sight to see. I’m just glad I’m not that bobby pin.
Once she gets her leftover food unstuck from her teeth, she stands up to begin class.
She starts with writing a problem on the chalkboard, I swear she’s one of the only professors left at this school who still uses a chalk board, and waits for us all to copy down the equation and try to solve it for ourselves.
I look around the room and everyone except two people seem to be just as confused as I am.
Looks like I haven’t missed much.
After she’s given us a minute she asks if anyone knows the answer. A few people raise their hands, most of them don’t. Of course I’m one of them who doesn’t and am trying to avoid being called on, but of course professor O’Gwen has it out for me and decides to make me her next victim.
“Ms. Brown, how lovely of you to join us again. That’s twice this month! Can you tell us the answer to this equation?” She asks.
I decide to have some fun with her.
“Oh it’s my pleasure to be in your class, for the second time this month professor. But unfortunately I don’t know the answer, maybe if you taught a little slower, me and the rest of the students who didn’t raise their hand might understand,” I tell her.
She looks pissed. Good, she should be after trying to embarrass me.
“Very well,” then she turns around facing the board and attempts to explain the solution. Still, no one understands, just as I suspected. She’s not the best teacher even though I haven’t been here long.
We’re midway through the lesson when the door to the lecture hall opens and I think I’m about to have a heart attack.
Tall.
Devastatingly handsome.
Blue eyes.
It’s him.
Aspen.
“Hi excuse me, miss I’m looking f…” He gets cut off. That voice. I missed that voice.
“Excuse you, yes, no one is allowed in my class room unless you are signed up which you sir are not,” Professor O’Gwen states.
What is he doing here? How did he get here? How did he even know I was here, in this exact classroom?
Lana.
That’s the only explanation.
“Right, I’m looking for Genevieve Brown,” he says, looking in the audience until his eyes meet mine. Once they do, they’re locked in.
God I missed those eyes, I missed everything about him.
I don’t break eye contact with him, but I’m guessing the professor just rolled her eyes because she already felt like I made her class all about me, but now she’s probably certain of it.
“And who is asking for her?” Professor O’Gwen asks.
“Her boyfriend,” Aspen says in front of everyone. “That is, if she will take me back,” He adds. The whole class erupts into oohs it sounds like I got called into the principal’s office.
The whole time he doesn’t look at anyone else, but me. He is speaking directly to me.
“Now this is not appropriate…” Now it’s Professor O’Gwen’s turn to get cut off.
“Genevieve please, I’m sorry, I screwed up. Please give me another chance. A chance to explain, a chance to love you, forever,” he says.
Then he pulls out a crinkled slip of paper from his jeans, unfolds it and begins to read it in front of the entire class.
“Where art thou my Genevieve?
She has left me with no air to breathe,
I need her back so I can sleep,
Because life with her feels like a dream.”
“Please Genevieve, just one more chance,” he pleads.
A single tear rolls down my cheek and I just nod my head in a yes motion like a freaking swoony idiot. Turns out I don’t need much convincing to hear Aspen out. Plus a poem? Dedicated to me? What more could a girl want?
Was it dramatic? Yes. Was it cheesy? A little. Did it work? One hundred percent. I was already in love with him before he rhymed my name with ‘breathe’.
I pack up my notebook, stuff it in my bag and run down the few steps leading to Aspen to close the space between us while he runs towards me. Except I trip over the last step and fall right into Aspen’s arms.
Aspen catches me, saving me from embarrassment and pain and we are now in the same position we were in the day I met him and he ran into me.
Now I ran into him, I love when things come in full circle.
The entire class is applauding, whistling and cheering for us.
I feel like I’m in a movie. Aspen makes me always feel like I’m in a movie.
“Is this real?” I whisper to him.
“As real as you want it to be baby,” Aspen whispers back.
He goes in for a kiss and the class cheers more until Professor O’Gwen clears her throat in an attempt to interrupt us.
“As much as I love your frequent interruptions Ms. Brown, the rest of the class does plan on passing the finals in two weeks,” she says.
I smile at her and turn towards my class. “Good luck everyone!” I shout. Then I take Aspen's hand and head out the door. We run down the hall out the doors, into the cold rain. The air shocks our exposed skin, but nothing runs chills down my spine the way Aspen’s touch does.
He moves a hair out of my face, I grab his arm for stability, then I touch his face to feel that this is real. That this is really happening. Him, in Nebraska, at my school.
“You are real,” I tell him, still touching his face.
“Yes and so are you, so are we, and I can’t let us go.
Please forgive me Genevieve. I’m so sorry I hurt you, but I will never do it again.
Yes I was a drug user, but after hearing you tell me about your dad, I quit that night.
The vile you found was the last one I had left, and I kept it in my pocket as a reminder that I was stronger than the drug.
I’m so sorry I didn’t throw it away, it was stupid of me.
I admit, I never thought you’d find it. And I guess I thought I’d have more time to tell you.
It was stupid of me,” he shouts over the pouring rain.
I feel like all the breath has left my lungs. I should have stayed back, let him explain. But instead, I jumped to conclusions and left before giving him a chance. I can’t believe this is happening. Now it’s my turn to apologize.
“Aspen, I’m so sorry I never gave you a chance to explain yourself.
I just left and jumped to conclusions when I should have stayed and waited to hear you out.
When I found the vile I just felt like I was reliving what’s happened with my dad before.
But you’re not him. You’re better. You’re willing to change, right? ” I ask him.
“Right, I promise I won’t let you down,” he says. Then seals his promise with a kiss.
It’s just us two, standing in the middle of the rain, letting our hearts reconnect.
I feel like this is my movie scene, where the guy chases the girl and they live happily ever after.
He pulls his lips away. “Move in with me,” he tells me.
My breath quickens. “What?” I ask.
“Move in with me,” he repeats.
“Like in Colorado?” I ask.
“Well, yeah, that’s where I live,” he jokes.
“What about Derek?” I ask.
“He moved out, family stuff,” he says.
“Oh,” I say.
“So is that a yes?” He asks.
“Yes,” I nod. “It’s a yes.” I giggle through tears.
He kisses me again, this time I know it won’t be our last.
He pulls me in for a warm hug, I’m not sure what the future holds, but right now I feel like I'm exactly where I'm meant to be.
Next to Lana and my brothers, Aspen is the only real hug I’ve ever truly felt safe. It doesn’t matter where we are, he feels like home.
I didn’t need the perfect apology, I needed the truth, and Aspen gave me both.
“C’mon, it’s cold. Let’s go to my place,” I tell him.
So we do, we run across campus, back to mine and Lana’s dorm.
I don’t text her Aspen’s here because I'm pretty sure she already knows that and told him where my class was. I gotta thank her for that later. When we arrive at my dorm, I open the door and say our famous line, “Honey, I’m ho– AHH” Lana, and Derek, naked, fucking. Again!
“MY EYES!” I hear Aspen shout.
I shut the door so fast, interrupting myself. That is now the second time Aspen and I walk in on them fucking.
Both Aspen and I start laughing. “I thought Derek left for home already,” he says.
“Apparently he needed to say goodbye to Lana first,” I tell him.
“The least they could have done was put a sock on the door,” He says.
I laugh. “Yeah about that, we actually tried avoiding that by saying “Honey, I’m home.” This way other people on our floor wouldn’t know we were fucking, but that’s on them for doing it on the couch,” I tell him.
“God, they’re like rabbits,” Aspen says.
I laugh, hopefully they’ve dressed by now. Aspen does the classic secret knock on the door and then we enter, staring at our half dressed best friends wondering how lucky we are to have ended up here.