It's a Match! (4 page)

“Gladly.” Sutton didn’t feel particularly good about leaving things like this with her parents, but she also couldn’t stand another minute of their disapproval. This was her time to create her own identity, apart from her parents, apart from the pressure they were constantly smothering her with. She stormed off to the stairwell and walked out of the front door without looking back.
 

Sutton sat in the car without moving for a couple of minutes before starting the engine. She turned up her music as high as possible, bass thumping so loudly that her parents could probably hear it from the third floor. Then she backed out of the driveway and began the drive to the freeway.
 

Sutton was feeling a mixture of emotions. She felt relief, fear, excitement, sadness … though she wasn’t sure what she was sad about. High school had been okay and all, but she didn’t exactly miss it. She couldn’t feel sad about leaving her parents. She probably would later, but right now she was too angry with them. So, what was she sad about?

Knowing she was going to be apart from Cole for the next four years was a weird thought. He was only going to be a few hours away, but that seemed like worlds away to Sutton, seeing as they’d only lived about ten minutes away from each other throughout high school. It was going to be strange, but she knew they would talk constantly, and that was comforting.
 

Sutton picked up speed as she entered the freeway. She took a deep breath.
Here goes nothing….

COLE WAS PACKING
light. The way he figured it, he’d have very little room in the dorms and it wasn’t like he had a lot of clothes. This was his fresh start. The less he lugged around, the better. He was sitting on his bed eating a bowl of Cheerios when he heard a knock on the door.
 

“Come in,” Cole called out between bites.
 

Ralph opened the door slowly and looked around Cole’s small room, seemingly much emptier than before, even though Cole hadn’t packed much of his stuff up. “How’s it going, son? Are you about ready?”

Cole swallowed a huge bite and looked at the small pile of boxes at the foot of his bed. He nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Packing light, I see.”

“Yeah. I’m not really one for carrying around a bunch of stuff.”

“That’s always been my philosophy. Like father, like son.”

“I learned from the best.”

“Can I sit?” Ralph asked.

“Go for it.” Cole scooted over a bit.

Ralph sat down next to Cole and sighed. “It’s going to be lonely without you here.”

Cole felt awful about leaving his dad. He knew Ralph wouldn’t have anyone around and Cole didn’t want him to sit around alone all the time, eating Hungry Man frozen dinners by himself. Cole had contemplated going to the local community college, but Ralph had thrown a fit.

Cole’s dad wanted nothing but the best for him. He didn’t want him to make the same mistakes he had. Once upon a time, Ralph had had a dream of becoming a firefighter, but he never did anything about it. Instead, he’d followed in his father’s footsteps and gone into the family business. He’d worked in his father’s mechanic shop for the majority of his high school years. Ralph had barely even graduated high school, but it wasn’t because of a lack of smarts. He just hadn’t really tried, for a variety of reasons.

Bottom line, he didn’t want the same life for Cole. Cole had goals; Cole had drive. Ralph was going to do everything in his power to make sure Cole got everything he wanted, including the second job he had taken as a janitor at a nearby hotel. He hadn’t told Cole about it, because he knew Cole would feel guilty. But he was going to make sure his son would be successful, no matter what it took.
 

Cole hugged his father and felt tears forming in his eyes. He didn’t want to leave him. He wished more than anything that Ralph had someone else in his life. “Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

“I want you to promise me something.”

“Hit me,” Ralph replied.
 

“Promise me you’ll try to get back out there.”

“Back out where?”
 

“You know, the whole dating world. I want you to try. Can you do that for me?” Cole pleaded.
 

Ralph had a contemplative look on his face. “Yeah, I suppose I can try.”

“That’s all I ask.” Cole hugged his dad one more time.
 

Ralph pulled away from the embrace and put his hands on Cole’s shoulders. “And I want you to promise me something too.”

“Anything.” And it was true—Cole would do anything for his father.

“Promise me you’ll give this whole thing a chance. I don’t want Sutton to be a crutch. I know you guys have been incredibly close over the last four years, but you need to build your own identity, without her.”

Cole paused for a moment. “Don’t worry, dad. Sutton and I have talked about it a lot. We’ll probably visit each other every couple of months, but we’ll do our own thing. Holding on so desperately to each other will only keep us from becoming whatever it is that we’re supposed to become.”

“I’m proud of you, son. And I’m sure as hell gonna miss you.”

“You too, dad.”

“Now, you should get going. You have a long drive ahead of you.” Ralph took the now-empty bowl of cereal from Cole and stood up.

Cole stood up as well. He took another look around his room. It was going to be strange living somewhere else, in a strange state, surrounded by a whole new group of people, surrounded by a world without his best friend. He thought about the moment he first saw Sutton on that football field….

Cole walked over to the sidelines to grab a drink. Suddenly he saw a stunning girl standing next to him. She flashed him a perfect smile. Sutton Meyers was the kind of beautiful that made her virtually impossible to be around, almost like staring at the sun. Her straight, bleached blonde hair fell all the way down to her hips. She had a perfectly symmetrical, heart-shaped face to match the heart-shaped birthmark near her right ear, slightly tanned skin and big, round eyes, which where a sparkly shade of grey, placed above small clusters of freckles on both cheeks. Her teeth were the whitest shade of white and perfectly straight, with soft lips in a natural peach tone. Her slender figure was draped in a white blouse and fitted beige cargo pants.

As they made their introductions, Cole felt an instant connection. And he knew he was going to try to spend as much time with her as he could.
 

Cole smiled at the memory and threw a duffle bag over his shoulder.
Here goes nothing
, he thought, as he walked toward his car to begin loading it. It was time—time to chase the unknown.

COLE PARKED IN
front of the hotel, then walked into the old and decaying lobby. He shuddered as the stench of stale cigarette smoke and chicken that had been sitting out for a few days filled his nostrils. He walked up to the desk and was greeted by an old man wearing a monocle. Cole stifled a laugh.
 

“Hello, young man. How can I help you?” the old man asked, followed by a painful sounding cough.
 

“I was looking for a room for tonight. Preferably with two beds.”

“Let me see what we have available.” The old man searched through his ancient, dust-covered computer and nodded his head. “Yes, we have the perfect one for you. How many will be staying?”

“Just me and one other person,” Cole replied.
 

Sutton had texted to let Cole know she’d be arriving in twenty minutes, but he was glad he’d have time to get settled in before she got there.
 

“Okay, let me get you the key. And I’ll need to see your identification as well.”
   

The man disappeared into the office for a couple of minutes while Cole pulled the ID out of his wallet. The man returned with a rusty old-fashioned bronze skeleton key and handed it to Cole, then took Cole’s ID and input the information into the computer.
 

“That will be twenty-five dollars.”

Twenty-five dollars?
Cole wondered if he’d entered a wormhole and woken up in the seventies. He took his card out and the man informed him they only took cash. Cole checked his pockets and pulled out two crumpled twenty-dollar bills.
 

The man gave Cole his change and he headed up to the second floor, then gasped as he entered the room. Beneath the layers of filth, the shaggy carpet was orange. The tattered curtains were yellow and green plaid, and were covered with cigarette burns. The heavily frayed blankets on the bed were gold with purple speckles. Cole laughed to himself as he thought about how clean-freak Sutton was going to react.
 

Cole sat down on the bed and noticed the lack of TV—not that it really mattered. It was late, and they probably needed to just go to sleep anyway. It was their last night before going their separate ways. Cole wondered what it was going to be like. Of course they would talk on the phone, but it wasn’t going to be the same. He had mixed emotions, because he was also really excited for the journey he was about to embark upon. All throughout high school, he had dreamed about college; what it would be like, who he would meet….
 

Cole heard a knock on the door and opened it to see an exhausted looking Sutton. She threw her bag down and gave Cole a hug. “That was the longest drive ever.”

“Seriously.”

Sutton looked around and cringed. “This is awful.”

“I thought you’d like it,” Cole said, snickering.
 

“Oh yeah, totally my style,” Sutton replied sarcastically.

“There’s no TV.”

“I’m not worried about it. I’m so tired.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“I’m going to get ready for bed.”

“Sounds good.”

Cole watched Sutton walk to the bathroom, and sighed. He changed as she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. When she came back in a few minutes later, she had a horrified look on her face. “I thought the room was bad, but that bathroom is simply atrocious.”

Cole got up and entered the bathroom once she was done, then immediately peeked his head back out. “Wow, you weren’t joking.”
 

“I never joke,” she replied, with a smirk.
 

The tarnished mirror had a huge crack down the middle of it and the sink was virtually rotting. It smelled far worse than stale cigarettes. It was like sour milk, but the air was thick. He held his breath as he brushed his teeth as quickly as possible.
   

Cole returned to find Sutton lying on one of the beds. He lay down on the other bed.
 

“Hey C—I’m going to miss you.”

“I’m gonna miss you too, bud.”

“Remember the day we walked around Berkeley and you got a jay-walking ticket?”

Cole laughed at the memory. “Of course. Most ridiculous ticket ever. That sucker cost me three-hundred dollars.”

“Oh, you mean the three-hundred dollars I lent you that you never paid back?”

“Yes, that three-hundred dollars.”

“I’m going to collect someday.”

“Well, I’m going to be super rich when I get drafted to the 49ers. I’ll pay you back with interest. Promise,” Cole said.
 

“Don’t worry about it. It was worth it for the sheer entertainment of you arguing with the police officer. You kept repeating, ‘This is Berkeley. Don’t you have anything better to do?’”
 

“Yeah, way to stand up for me by the way. You just stood there laughing.”

“Come on, you would’ve done the same,” Sutton replied.
“When has arguing with cops and telling them how to do their job ever gotten someone out of a ticket?”

“Good point. But hey, I was sixteen. Sixteen-year-old boys aren’t exactly known for their infinite wisdom.”

“Oh, now that you’re eighteen, you’re the wisest old man around, huh?”

“Maybe the second-wisest, because that decrepit old man at the desk seemed incredibly wise,” Cole said, staring at the small opening in the curtains and outside to the dark night sky.

“Well, he’s easily two hundred years old, so he should certainly be wise by now.”