It was my first year of College, and I was half way across the country, thousands of miles from home. I could've taken some courses at the College in my hometown, in Georgia, but I'd decided I wanted to have an adventure as well as get my Bachelor Degree in Clinical Psychology, which is what I'd been interested in since I was fourteen. So there I was, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, attending Crown College, living on campus. It was the first time I'd been away from my mother in all of my nineteen years, and as an only child, it had been hard on my mother as well. And, truth be told, I was terrified for the first month or two. I'd called home every day and talked to my mother for hours. She always told me that everything was going to be okay, and I knew she was right.

It was nearing the end of my second semester, of my first year. I was studying for exams like crazy, but so were my two roommates, Tina and Meghan. The three of us hardly left our dorm room, except to go to class. We lived a unisex dorm; both dorms on campus were unisex. I had made a ton of friends since I'd moved to Minneapolis, including Tina O'Neil and Meghan Mallow, as well as Jay Caruso and Mitch Underwood, two guys that lived across the hall from us. It was usually the five of us that hung out together, but sometimes without Tina, whose boyfriend lived in the city, so she spent a lot of time with him. It'd been eight months since I'd moved from Georgia, and, although I missed my mother and friends a great deal, I loved it. It felt amazing to be independent and to be able to do whatever I wanted.

It was March; we only had three weeks left of the semester and then final exams. After which, we'd be done for the year, until August when our courses started up again. I had two classes a day, four days a week. It was a lot of classes and a lot of work, but I knew it would be worth it in the end.

Monday morning, nine a.m. My first class started at ten and I had already showered and was reviewing notes from the previous class. Tina didn't have class on Mondays, so she practically always spent Sunday nights in the city at her boyfriend's apartment. Meghan, on the other hand, had class at 8:30am on Mondays, and she was long gone already. I was alone, sitting in silence on the sofa in our main room. My binders and textbooks were sprawled out in front of me, as I quickly tried to go through everything.

Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock

I suddenly jumped, startled by the sound of someone banging on the door. I pushed my binders over and stood up, walking quickly to the door to answer it. As I swung the door open, I smiled at the sight of Jay and Mitch. They were goofballs, and sometimes I'm sure that they could have been mistaken for being fifteen years old. They liked to prank people, and just have a good time. They were best friends and had been since they were young. I'd grown close to them in the past six months or so, quite close. I considered them best friends. I had spent a lot of time with them, whether we were just hanging out together, having dinner or watching a movie.

"Hey boys, what are you two up to?" I asked them right away, knowing they always had something up their sleeves.

"Nothing," Mitch answered innocently, running a hand through his messy, wavy brown hair.

"Sure.." I replied, laughing.

"What are you doing?" Jay wanted to know, barging into our dorm room.

"What does it look like?" I asked back, letting out another laugh.

"You're studying? You're studying! Oh my..someone needs to get this girl a beer or something. Relax, Norah, it's just College." Mitch yelled to me, rummaging through my refrigerator without asking permission.

"It's not just College to me, guys." I laughed back, but realized the point they were trying to make.

"Well, you're coming to a party with us tonight." Jay told me, as if I wasn't allowed to say no.

"What? No, I can't. I can't go to a party on a Monday night, I have class tomorrow morning." I replied without thinking twice.

"C'mon, Norah! You're no fun anymore! What happened to that spunky little girl we first met seven months ago?" Mitch asked me, and I shrugged.

"I'm just worrying about my final exams; I'll be back to normal in a month." I reassured them.

"A month! You're joking, right? Come on, Norah!" Jay continued to bug me, and I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Maybe you two should spend more time with a textbook in your hand rather than a beer?" I questioned them back, and they both shook their heads.

"Not necessary. We're doing quite well, thank you." Mitch said matter-of- factly, and I burst out laughing again.

"You guys are nuts!" I replied, "Is that why you came over here, to yell at me about how much I study?"

"Actually," Jay began, grinning, "We were telling you that you're coming to a party with us tonight. It's over at the other dorm, a guy that's in our physics class always throws huge parties, and he told us to come and bring friends."

"Well, bring some other friends, because I have to study." I told them, trying to be serious. But, honestly, it was impossible to be serious around those two.

"Norah!" Mitch whined, giving me his infamous 'puppy dog eyes', which almost always made me give in to him.

"Yeah, please Norah? Just come, we promise you'll have fun." Jay continued with the whining.

I looked at Mitch and then at Jay, and then back to Mitch. They were both good looking guys, but totally opposites. Even though it was just passed nine in the morning, Jay wore black dress pants, and a dark blue, button- up, long sleeved shirt, which was open with a white t-shirt underneath. His short blonde hair was perfectly spiked and loaded with gel. Jay was very attractive, to me anyways, and to the million other girls in our dorm. He had girls asking him out left and right, constantly, he could barely keep up with them. Mitch, on the other hand, looked as if he'd just rolled out of bed. He wore baggy, black sweatpants and a loose fitting blue t-shirt, with rips and holes throughout it. His dark hair was messy and fell loosely in his eyes. Both guys were gorgeous in their own ways.

"Ok, fine, but we can't stay out late." I reasoned with them, and they started cheering with excitement.

"Do you think Meghan and Tina will come?" Jay asked me a few minutes later.

"I don't know about Tina, but I'm sure Meg will come if I ask her." I replied, suddenly feeling anxious. It'd been probably two months since I'd been to a campus party. I had been spending most of my time reading and studying, which, until now, didn't bother me at all.

"Cool, cool. So you have class at ten?" Mitch asked again. He knew what times my classes were each day, he just liked to pretend he didn't know.

"Yeah, I should be back here by 1pm and then I have my second class at 2pm." I reminded them.

"Come hang out with me for that hour, ok?" Mitch continued, knowing that Jay had a four hour class starting at noon.

Mitch only had classes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but they were almost full days of classes. Jay and Mitch shared only one class, which was Physics, on Wednesday morning. I knew both Jay and Mitch's schedules like the back of my hand, and I knew that they knew mine.

"Yeah, I will." I answered Mitch, who grinned as he took a sip of the orange juice he'd poured himself, again, without asking.

I just laughed, and Jay spoke up, "Okay, girly, I guess we'll leave you alone to get ready for class."

"Thanks, Jay. I'll see you tonight, "I replied and then turned to Mitch, "And I'll see you around 1pm."

Mitch just nodded and gave me a hug before he and Jay left my dorm room, leaving me in silence once again. It was just half an hour later when I put on my shoes and coat and packed up my bag. It took five minutes to get across campus to the building, so I left around ten to 10am.

My three hours classes always seemed to go by quickly. It was 1pm before I knew it and I was on my way back to our dorm. I dropped my bag and books off at my room, noticing that neither Tina nor Meghan had been home at all, and went across and down the hall to the guys' room. I knocked and a second later, Mitch let me in. He was wearing the same clothes, his pajamas, but it looked like he might have run a brush through his hair. He plopped himself back down on the couch and patted the cushion beside him, motioning for me to sit down with him. After taking off my shoes, I sat down and cuddled up to him. It didn't mean anything in any sort of sexual way, it was just that both Mitch and I were very touchy-feeling kind of people, and we loved affection and being close to another person, physically. We just let out our feelings on each other, both knowing it didn't mean anything. It was hard to explain; only he and I knew how it worked. Jay had no idea what was going on half the time. One day he thought we were dating and the next he knew we weren't. I didn't bother him, though, as long as everything was cool.

Mitch's strong arms were wrapped around me, holding me close to him. He made me feel safe, secure. I loved being with Mitch, especially being alone with him. It was different when other people were around. Jay basically just didn't allow it to happen, not on purpose of course; but he always sat in between us and told gross jokes and stories, although Mitch and I both loved Jay and his sense of humor. And Tina and Meghan practically had to ask me every day whether Mitch and I were "an item" or not. We weren't, and we both knew that. It wasn't like we kissed each other or anything, just once in a while on the cheek, but nothing more than that. We just enjoyed each other's company and enjoyed being close.

The movie that Mitch had on had ended, but he just let the credits roll, not bothering to get up to switch the channel.

"Do you want me to get the remote?" I asked him, after nearly ten minutes of movie credits.

"I guess," he began, "I just never got up because I didn't want to waste precious time being close to you."

The way his words came out, he sounded as if he were a guy talking to his girlfriend. But I just nodded and laid my head down on his shoulder, closing my eyes. I could hear his heart beating in his chest just inches from where I laid my head. He squeezed me tight and kissed the top of my head before closing his eyes as well. That was a perfect situation, for the both of us. We didn't have to talk, we could just sit there, holding each other, hearing and feeling each other breathe.

Before I knew it, it was quarter to two and I had to get back across campus for my second class.

"You can skip it, today." Mitch said to me, but I knew he was joking.

"Yeah, sure, Mitch, I'll just stay here and lay with you all day long." I replied, smiling.

"I wish you could." he told me plainly, but seriously.

"I wish I could too, bud," I replied, twirling a piece of his hair around my index finger, "but I have to go."

"Ok, I'll see you after your class. Are you going to come and hang out with us?" Mitch wanted to know.

"Jay gets back here around four, right?" I asked, and Mitch nodded, "Yeah, I should be back around five or quarter after. I'll come straight over, and I'll probably bring Meghan."

"Ok, cool. See you then, hun." Mitch said to me, giving me his gorgeous smile.

"Bye, Mitchy." I replied, hugging him again and then made my way back to my room to get my things for my next class.

As I walked back across campus to the school building once again, I felt anxious to go to that party that night, and hoped that my class would go by as quickly as my first one had. I wasn't quite as lucky this time around, as my professor was late to class and then he made up that time after the class would have been over, for about an extra half an hour. I was relieved when I glanced at my watch, which read 5:30pm and my professor was finally finishing up. Half the class had already left, but I felt it was important to stay.

On my way back to the dorm, again, I past a few friends and stopped to talk for a few minutes. Just as I entered the dorm, Tina was pulling into the parking lot. I stopped and waited for her. When she made her way over to me, she looked surprised to see me there.

"What are you doing just getting back at quarter to six? Isn't your class over at five?" she wanted to know, and I nodded.

"Long story, not important," I laughed and the two of us went into the dorm together.

When we got to our room, up on the third floor, and went inside, we found Meghan already there, watching television, pretending to be studying. Meghan was taking nursing and it was difficult, from what she'd told me.

"Hey guys!" Meghan shouted, obviously happy to see us.

"Hey Meg, are you studying?" I asked her, laughing.

"Not really," she replied honestly.

"I'm going to have a shower; I'll be back in, like, half an hour." Tina told us, but it sort of sounded like a question. She looked from Meghan to me, and we both nodded.

"Oh, I forgot, Jay and Mitch want us to go to a party with them tonight, over at the other dorm." I spoke up, before Tina left.

"Shit, I'd love to go," Tina replied, and I knew she was lying, "but Dean is coming to pick me up in, like, an hour."

"Haven't you been with Dean all day?" Meghan asked her with a laugh.

"Pretty much," Tina laughed back, and continued, "He said he wants to take me out for dinner tonight, so, how I could say no?"

"That's cool," I replied, and watched Tina leave the room a moment later. I turned to Meghan and asked, "You want to go?"

"You actually agreed to this? A party on a Monday night, that's not something you'd usually do." Meghan continued to laugh.

"I know, they practically begged me to go. And I think I probably need to relax a bit, I've been stressing so much lately." I answered.

"Well, good, then we'll go." Meghan smiled, and before I could say anything else, my cell phone began to ring.

I reached into my purse and pulled it out, pressing "talk" a moment later, "Hello?"

"Hey Nor, where are you?" the voice asked me, it was Jay.

"Hey Jay, I'm at home." I replied, thinking nothing of it.

"Oh, Mitch told me that you said you'd be here at like, five, so I was just wondering if you ditched us or something." Jay laughed, and I knew he was joking.

"Nah, I just got back from my class a few minutes ago. Meghan and I will be over there in a few minutes." I answered, smiling over at Meghan.

"Ok, see you in a bit." Jay finished and hung up. I closed my cell phone and sat down next to Meghan on the sofa.

"We're going over to their room?" Meghan asked, since I'd already made plans for the both of us.

"Yeah, I told Mitch earlier that we'd hang out after my second class; and then head to that party later on." I replied.

"When were you with Mitch earlier?" she questioned, being nosey. She was convinced that he and I were secretly dating.

"He and Jay came by at like nine this morning, but I was getting ready for class, so Mitch asked me to hang out with him after my first class and before my second." I replied.

"You've been spending a lot of time with him," Meghan noted, not saying anything else.

"I always spend a lot of time with him, him and Jay." I defended myself.

"Ok, Norah, if you say so." Meghan laughed and got up, heading toward her bedroom.

"It's not like that, Meg, you don't understand." I called to her.

"I believe you, Norah," she yelled back, but I knew she didn't. "I'm just going to get changed and then we'll go."

I waited for her and then I went to the washroom to fix my make-up and hair, and then we headed down the hall to Jay and Mitch's room.