I stood in front of the New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts, still amazed that I had won the scholarship out of the hundreds of people who applied. I took a deep breath to gather my courage and walked inside. The moment I stepped into my first class I felt at home. I was soon caught up in the whirlwind of friends and school. By the end of the first week, I had gravitated to a group of five other students - Jacklyn, Michaela, Parrish, Brendan, and Peter. In our first acting class, our teacher paired us up for scenes. He explained that we would be working on the same scene the whole month, practicing at the dorms and work shopping them in class. He then proceeded to pair off the boys. In order to choose Parrish's partner, he looked intently into everyone's eyes. When his eyes met mine, he stared for a moment then raised his hand slowly, pointing a crooked finger at me and said,
"You."
By the end of the second week, couples began to form - Jacklyn and Brendan, and Peter and Michaela - while Parrish and I remained unattached. We practiced our scene every day around dinner time. After rehearsing for twenty minutes one day alone in my dorm, we stopped to take a short reprieve. Our teachers encouraged us to speak about our characters in the first person, so while we sat on my bed, snacking on chips and salsa, we chatted about our scene.
"I don't trust you because I'm afraid that you will think I'm crazy, and someone that could be special, will turn into just another onlooker of the crazy girl with the dead dad," I stated passionately.
"I agree, but if you will only let me in, I could begin to understand why you are not insane," He rebutted.
"I am insane, not as severe as my father was, but still insane."
"That may be true, but I like you, nothing will ever change that. I've liked you since the first moment I laid eyes on you. I mean, you are beautiful, brilliant, strong-willed, and caring. What's not to love?"
"I like you too. I'm still scared though, I've never done this before"
"Neither have I. That's what makes it so special, don't you think?"
"You make a convincing argument, Parrish."
"Only the best for you."
During the course of the conversation, we had stopped talking about the scene and begun talking about ourselves. Our faces were now inches from each other. I gazed into his caramel brown eyes and was lost in their richness. There was an electrifying current running between us that caused my toes to tingle. As he leaned in to close the distance between us, we heard a key turn in the lock. We jumped apart as the door opened and Jacklyn and Brendan walked in. Jacklyn surveyed the scene before her. Her eyes widened when she saw our flushed faces. She looked pointedly at me and raised an eyebrow in question. I shoved a chip in my mouth so I wouldn't have to answer any questions. We all glanced from person to person, not saying anything. Thankfully, Brendan broke the silence,
"We brought pizza. Where are Michaela and Peter?"
"I think they're in Michaela's room," I managed to spit out after swallowing my chip.
"Do you want to text them, or do you think they're busy," Jacklyn questioned, her sharp blue eyes still riveted on me.
Parrish answered before my mouth could form a response, "I'll do it."
I stared at my pizza as conversations carried on around me. Jacklyn attempted to make eye contact with me repeatedly throughout the night, but I always avoided her gaze. Parrish and I soon returned to our normal witty banter and everything seemed normal.
A few days later, Jacklyn and I were hanging out in the boy's room. Jacklyn and Brendan were sitting next to each other on his bed. I was on Parrish's bed while he sat in a chair across from me. The four of us were chatting late into the night. At around midnight I laid down and fell asleep.
The next thing I knew Jacklyn was tapping me on the shoulder saying, "It's time to go up to our room."
I sat up groggily and immediately noticed that Parrish was no longer in the chair. We walked into the elevator and as soon as the doors closed, Jacklyn whipped around to face me, eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Parrish likes you! After you fell asleep, Parrish kept looking at you and smiling. Brendan told him to go over to you, but he said you were tired and needed sleep. He also said that you looked pretty and tranquil when you slept and he didn't want to disturb you. But he likes you, he does!"
I didn't know what to say. The information just imparted to me was still processing in my sleepy mind. We arrived at our room where I promptly fell into bed and stared at the ceiling for hours, thinking about Jacklyn's words before finally falling asleep.
* * * * *
On the evening of the last Thursday of our month-long stay in New York, we embarked on a sunset cruise to see the Statue of Liberty. The six of us claimed a few seats in a corner of the ship, set our bags down, and went out to the front deck to take pictures of the beautiful Manhattan skyline. It soon began to rain; sprinkling at first, but as we neared the Statue, it began to rain harder and everyone scrambled inside. Only Parrish and I remained. We stood, leaning against the railing, looking out into the sea.
"So do you think you want to come back here? To the Conservatory, that is." I asked.
"Maybe. Here and a college back in Colorado are my top two choices. What about you?"
"Oh yes. I love everything about this school; the atmosphere of New York, the curriculum, the teachers, and the people."
"I might come back if I had a good reason to."
"Oh? What kind of reason?"
He didn't say anything, but responded by leaning in and kissing me. My world exploded the moment his lips touched mine. It was a slow, gentle kiss at first, and then his arms wrapped around my waist and drew me into him, deepening the kiss. I lifted my arms to rest on his shoulders, my left hand pulling him even closer, and the fingers of my right hand running through his soft, ebony hair. His lips tasted both salty and sweet. When our lips finally parted, we leaned our foreheads together. We stood there, wrapped in each other's arms, breathing heavily, frozen in time with rain still falling on us.
Once we caught our breath, Parrish kissed me once more, then put his arm around my waist and walked me inside to sit with our friends. He sat down in the last available seat in our corner of the ship, slid his hand down my arm and pulled me down onto his lap. I giggled as I threw my arms around him and gave him a kiss.
Jacklyn chuckled under her breath and said, "We were just talking about next year and where we are all planning to go." She glanced over at our smiling friends and continued, "Most of us are planning to come back here. Are you, Parrish?"
"Oh, definitely, no doubt about it."