Letters of Love (Lessons in Love) (16 page)

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“Have you been there all morning?” Alex asked, suddenly sounding concerned.

“Yes, Alex, I’ve been standing there for the past three hours since you’re the only thing that matters in my life,” Oscar replied sarcastically. “I’ve been to class
, and it was only in the building across from yours, so I thought I’d wait for you like a nice, thoughtful boyfriend.”

“You went to class?” Alex asked, surprised.

“I’m trying this new thing where I’m actually attending college to learn,” Oscar answered mockingly.

“What made you want to go?”

“You did,” Oscar declared fondly. “You got over all the stuff with your dad. I can’t let what happened to Olivia hold me back; she wouldn’t have wanted that.” His face tensed when he mentioned his sister, but Alex knew it was a positive enough step that he was talking about her at all and accepting what had happened.

“Exactly, she’d want you to do well.”

“My folks are thrilled, too, that I’m finally sorting myself out. They want to meet you.”

“Your parents want to meet me?” Alex had to stop walking as she suddenly felt unbalanced.

“Yeah, is that okay?” Oscar looked at her questioningly.

“Yeah, of course
, it’s just…” She shuffled uneasily in her ballet pumps. “I’ve never met anyone’s parents before. It’s kind of a big deal.”

“Aren’t we a big deal?”

“The biggest,” Alex quipped.

“Seriously
, though, I’m crazy about you, Alex, and I know I messed up majorly, but I want to show you how committed I am to this, to us.”

“So we’re serious about each other?” Alex teased.

“Of course we are.” Oscar smiled. “And I want to meet your family too, unless you’re ashamed of me.”

“Of course I’m not.”

“I don’t see this as just some college romance that burns out when we leave here. We’ve already been through so much together, Alex. I love you, and I’m thinking long-term for us,” Oscar told her sincerely.

“I’m glad to hear it
.” Alex smiled. “Because I’m thinking forever.”

****

Alex looked at her final results for the year and smiled. She finally had results that she could be proud of.

“Let me see
.” From beside her in bed Oscar raised a hand, pulling the sheet of crisp, white paper closer to him. He squinted at the grades typed in neat, black ink.

“I knew it must be good when you started smiling,” he remarked, smiling himself.

“I’m pleased. It’s certainly an improvement on last year.” Alex continued to look down at the paper, still in disbelief at having passed her third year.

“You should be pleased
. You’ve done well.” Oscar kissed the hand that was holding the paper and then lay back down.

“Yeah
.” Alex released the paper and lay down too, moving to thread her legs between his, their bodies intertwining until it was difficult to tell where one of them began and the other ended.

“So it’s almost summer,” Oscar said wistfully. “And without the penance of summer school
, you’re free to spend your summer however you want.”

“Uh huh.”

The prospect of the long summer vacation had been on Alex’s mind for some time, though she’d not raised it with Oscar. Since their reconciliation, they’d been inseparable, parting only to go to their classes or to spend time with friends. Not a day had gone by when she hadn’t seen him, and suddenly there was a stretch of three long months when they could be apart. Alex didn’t want to go that long without seeing him again but didn’t know how to tell him that. Perhaps Oscar would welcome the break and feel smothered by her desire not to part.

“Do you have any plans for the summer?” Alex tried to sound like she didn’t care what his answer might be.

Oscar shrugged, his shoulder grazing her own as he did so.

“Oh.” Alex was struggling to hide her disappointment.

“I did have a thought,” Oscar said suddenly, his tone brightening. He turned so that he was lying face to face with Alex, his dark eyes boring into hers, making her blush.

“It all depends on you
, really,” he continued.

“On me?” Alex was surprised.

“Yeah, well, I was kinda hoping you’d come spend the summer with me back in Boston, meet my folks and some of my high school buddies, but you might want to go back home yourself. Like I say, it depends on you, but honestly, I’m not sure I could last the whole summer not seeing you every day.”

“I’d love to come to Boston!” Alex squealed with glee, sealing the deal with a passionate kiss on Oscar’s lips.

“Really?” It was Oscar’s turn to be surprised as he ran a hand up and down her bare back. “I thought that since you didn’t get to go home last summer, you’d want to go back this year.”

A sudden pang of guilt pinched at the nape of Alex’s neck, but she brushed it away.

“It’s okay. My mom will understand.”

“Great, I’ll let my folks know that you’ll be coming up. They are going to be so stoked to meet you!” Oscar spr
ang up from the bed and went off in search of his cell phone among the pile of clothes on his dorm room floor that served as a closet.

Alex lay on the bed, quietly contemplating her impending summer in Boston and wondering why she was so reluctant to return to Woodsdale. She almost felt relieved to have another excuse not to have to go back there. She wondered if perhaps she still felt shame over living in a trailer, but everyone at Princeton knew the truth about her home life and didn’t judge her
, so she doubted it was that. The trailer was no longer the social taboo it had once been. Searching her feelings, Alex was determined to get to the root of her reluctance, but as the reason surfaced, she immediately wanted to suppress it once more.

She didn’t want to go back to Woodsdale because she was avoiding Mark. Leaving him had been so difficult. The only way she’d been able to cope was to push him out of her mind completely. If she went back home
, she’d be flooded with reminders of him, and doubtless he’d moved on with his life, she’d barely heard from him in months. And she’d certainly moved on with hers.

Watching Oscar rummag
ing for his cell phone made Alex feel terrible about the fact that her mind was currently consumed with thoughts of another man. It was stupid to think about Mark, she berated herself. Things would never have worked out for them. It was better that they just each lived out their individual lives. Then why couldn’t she even face him? Why avoid him?

“You okay?” Oscar’s voice shook Alex from her thoughts.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay, you just looked kinda lost, that’s all.”

“No, I’m not lost. I’m fine.”

****

“Boston?” Ashley didn’t sound impressed as Alex’s imparted the news about her summer plans.

“Yeah, Oscar wants me to meet his family and stuff.”

“And your family won’t mind spending another summer without you?” Ashley asked, concerned.

“They’re cool about it.” In truth Alex hadn’t yet broken the news about her plans to her mother.

“Okay, but don’t you see enough of the boy? It’s like the two of you have merged into one entity. It’s nauseating!” Ashley made a fake retching sound.

“Is it really that bad?” Alex looked down at her half
-packed suitcase, a heavy sadness settling on her chest.

“No
.” Ashley sighed, her own side of the room in a complete state of disarray as she also attempted to pack for the summer.

“It’s not bad at all
. If anything it’s sweet, and I’m just still twisted and bitter about my breakup with Pierre.” Ashley momentarily stopped folding up items of clothing to sit among the chaos of her strewn belongings and ponder sadly on what could have been.

“Maybe you’ll find someone new this summer,” Alex suggested brightly.

“That’s the plan.”

“Like some hunky millionaire who will whisk you off to Milan or Rome.” Alex smiled.

“Ooh yeah, I like the sound of that.” Ashley managed to smile and got up to continue packing. “But I’d settle for love.” She sighed. “You’ve got love, and that’s enough, right?”

“Right
.” Alex nodded. She loved Oscar with all her heart. She was giving her entire summer to him, so love must surely be enough.

“And it didn’t come easy
. You guys had to work at it.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed. “My mom always used to say that anything worth having
, you have to work for.”

“Sounds like a smart woman.”

“How about next summer, after we graduate, you come with me to Woodsdale for a bit, meet my family?” Alex suddenly suggested, realizing how much her mother would love to meet Ashley and vice versa.

“Oh yeah, wow, that would be amazing!” Ashley beamed. “I’ve never been in a trailer before.”

“Trust me, you get over the novelty pretty quickly.”

“I bet it’s not so bad.”

“It’s bad enough I’d only want to spend a few nights there, tops.” Alex frowned to herself at the thought of returning to the cramped living conditions of the trailer.

“Okay, so how about after we visit Woodsdale
, we go travelling next summer, together, just us girls,” Ashley suggested excitedly.

“Sounds amazing, but where?”

“Europe.” Ashley breathed the word softly into the room in a fake foreign accent.

Alex began giggling as she put the last of her belongings into her duffel bag. “Europe would be awesome.” Alex nodded.

“
Oui, oui!
” Ashley quipped, maintaining her accent. “And just in case I don’t meet my mystery millionaire this summer, at least I can console myself with the fact that next summer I’ll be visiting Rome, Milan, Venice, the works, with my best friend!”

“It will be an adventure.”

“Our very own
Thelma and Louise
adventure, without the dying bit but hopefully with a Brad Pitt look-alike!”

“I can’t wait!”

The girls met in the middle of the room to embrace, both to seal the promise of a European adventure the following summer and also to bid farewell to one another for the end of their third year.

“Just make sure you do graduate,” Ashley said faux sternly, tears misting her eyes. “I know how that Oscar can be a distraction.”

“Don’t worry, I’m intent on graduating,” Alex promised.

“Good! Now I’ve got to finish packing
. The car will be here to pick me up soon.” Ashley snivelled, heading back to her side of the room.

After a few minutes of more packing
, a sharp knock sounded at their bedroom door.

“Come in!” Ashley ordered, not even looking up as she began to frantically throw things into bags, no longer caring to fold them, too concerned that she was running late.

“Hey.” Oscar edged nervously round the door. He looked at Alex and smiled, but when his eyes crossed the room to Ashley, they widened with shock.

“Holy crap, was there a tornado?” he joked.

“Ashley’s an organized chaos kind of person,” Alex explained fondly.

“Definitely chaos,” Oscar mused.

“If I wasn’t so busy getting my stuff together, I’d defend myself!” Ashley declared, cramming still more items of clothing into her largest Louis Vuitton suitcase.

“Alex, my
dad is here to pick us up.” Oscar smiled. “Want me to take your bags down?”

“Um, yeah, thanks
.” Alex looked back shyly at the single duffel bag on her bed. She still didn’t own enough worldly goods to have bags in the plural sense.

“I like to travel light,” she explained nervously.

“More room in the car for us, I like it.” Oscar smiled, lifting the duffel bag up and turning to leave the room.

“I’ll wait downstairs so you girls can say goodbye,” he offered and then closed the door behind him.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Oscar is actually okay.” Ashley smiled.

“Yeah, he’s a good guy.”

“Enjoy your summer with him.” Ashley was poised atop her suitcase, using her weight in an attempt to zip it closed.

“I’ll miss you.”

“No mushy stuff, we’ve got another year of misadventures yet! And when we come back, we’ll be seniors, and that means we’ll run this place!” Ashley smiled mischievously.

“Too right. Not that you’ll have much time for me, Madame President.”

Ashley had previously been voted as the next president of Kappa Pi, which didn’t surprise Alex. Ashley was so thoughtful and personable; everyone in the sorority loved her. They couldn’t have chosen a better representative.

“Yeah
, yeah, to the minions I’m Mrs. President, but to you I’m always Ashley. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t.”