The Boyfriend

The first time he was introduced to Julie, the most obvious thing about her was her quietness. People would assume she was shy. She doesn’t talk much unless it was something that interested her. The next obvious thing was her intellect, she can talk about anything that nourishes her brilliant mind. She knows her music, she knows her books, she knows her artists like they were her friends.

She laughs at things most people find offensive, she laughs at herself, her laugh was contagious. She knows how to be focused, she knows when to let loose. She listens like you are the most important person in the room. She’ll tell you the nicest things about yourself and the worst things without judging you. By this time, you’ll see her as your best friend. And then he sees it, the way she threw her head back when she laughs, the creases in the corners of her eyes, her smart comebacks, the way she tucked her hair behind her ears. She was pretty. Pretty amazing.

She was submitting her application form for the internship program to the admission office. The clerk was a student who did part-time jobs at the campus. She had seen him frequently during her summer classes, and he had an eye on her for months.

Out of nowhere, Preston came and buried his face in the curve of her neck. He breathed her in, “You smell nice, I’ve been looking for you since morning,” he said and gave a sharp look at the awkward clerk whose heart was abruptly broken.

“Preston! What the hell?” she nudged him. He was laughing hard. Nathan was looking at their unconventional friendship and raised an eyebrow. “God! Sometimes I think you’re the reason why I don’t ever get dates in this place,” she complained.

“Of course … everybody knows you’re my girlfriend … I told them that,” he said.

“You did not tell people that??” Julie believed that he would do something like that. Preston just laughed at it childishly.

“Are you seriously going to take that internship thing this December?” Preston asked.

“Yeah, everything is set … by the way, this is Nathan, you’ve met at the party yesterday, right?”

Preston offered him a handshake. “Hey, yeah, we met yesterday, how’s it going?” he greeted Nathan with his usual swag.

Nathan gave him a nod as he shook his hand. Their total opposite personality quickly clashed into an uncomfortable silence.

“So what are you doing after this?” Preston’s attention was back to Julie.

“I’m done for today … Kelsey’s meeting us here in a minute, my class is not until tomorrow,” she said.

“Great! So we can go, I have some new music I want you to listen to,” Preston was pulling her hand.

“Hey, guys! Gosh, I’m glad that class was over, I was about to snooze when he was handing out more papers to summarize, he has already given us a book report for the end of the week,” Kelsey arrived in her super tight jeans and a crop top. She dangled in Nathan’s arm to give him a kiss.

“Hey, babe,” Nathan swooped her in his arm.

“So are we going to lunch now?” Kelsey looked at everyone.

Nathan was looking at Julie who was torn between the options. “You wanna grab some lunch with us?” he asked Julie.

She hesitated, “No, you guys go ahead, I’m not that hungry,” she finally said.

“Are you sure?” Nathan’s question left everyone looking at her.

“We’ll just grab some lunch later, come on, we’ll leave the two lovebirds alone,” Preston called it, looping his arm around Julie’s shoulders.

Kelsey was smiling widely, “Why don’t we just go back to your place and grab some lunch later too … or you can fix me up a quicky,” she insinuated.

They parted ways in the lobby. Kelsey was all around him, she looked so hot that day and turned everyone’s head as they walked up to his car. They’ve agreed to go back to his place instead of going with their initial plan to have lunch with Julie. He was going to have sex with his super hot girlfriend, but he couldn’t fight the urge to turn around to take one last look at Julie before they leave.

“She’ll be fine,” Kelsey said, noticing his concern. “I told you, they have a weird friendship … they’re doomed to be together, I think,” she said lightly with a slight laugh. He brushed it off and left with Kelsey, but it weighed in his mind for a good part of the day.

Preston had been wanting to play his new tunes to Julie ever since he got back from his summer vacation. He had been writing songs throughout the summer, it was mostly based on his breakup from Naomi and the thing that happened between him and Julie. He took her back to his dorm room which looked more like a pigsty. There were clothes all over the floor, empty packages from a takeout, books, papers, used condoms, unused condoms.

“You can die from this mess,” Julie commented.

He closed the door and took off his shirt, took his guitar, and sat on an armchair in the corner, which was also stacked with stuff.

“Make yourself at home my lady,” he said playfully. She sat on one of the beds that were buried under piles of sheets and clothes. He strummed his guitar and started to sing. She noticed a small tattoo in the sunken of his chest, it was new, it was calligraphy of the letter “J”. She pretended not to notice.

Preston’s raspy voice was mesmerizing, he could sing the dictionary and it would’ve sounded beautiful. He could sing rock to ballad to pop to jazz and it would sound like he owned every bit of it. His hair fell over his eyes as he was focusing on his fingers on the guitar, he was lost in his music and it showed on his face. He would glance at her once in a while from behind his messy hair, he would take her into the world he was lost in.

He always made her feel like she was the only girl in the world that mattered to him whenever they were alone. They have a bond that she couldn’t explain, a push and pull that was impossible to break. She took out her phone and recorded his singing from start to finish along with his smoldering gaze at her. She relished it like she always did whenever he sang to her, she was his number one fan when it comes to his singing and she was his muse.

“What do you think?” he asked when he was finished.

“Have you sent the demo like I told you to?”

“Do you think it was good?” he was unsure of himself.

“I think it’s fantastic.” His face was beaming, her opinion mattered to him most. “But don’t take my word for it, I’m gonna upload this on your youtube and Instagram, and put on a bunch of hashtags and see how other people like it,” she was quick with her fingers on her phone.

He came over to her and looked at what she was doing on her phone. His lips grazed on her shoulder and it tickled her, he looked at her face as she was dodging his lips, he wanted her for himself.

The dorm room door opened and Reggie came in, it was his roommate. He halted when he saw them on the bed, Preston was shirtless, his lips on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you guys were here,” he thought he was walking in on them.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Hey, Reggie, he was just showing me his new songs, we should take a couple more of your new songs and upload it, and then we’ll have lunch, I’m starting to feel hungry,” Julie said to Preston.

“Okay, whatever you say, my lady,” he said and took a big bite on her shoulder.

She slapped his arm, “Preston! Stop that!” but she laughed about it.

Reggie felt clumsy, he took something from his drawer and left in a hurry, he didn’t want to interrupt them.

She pointed her camera to Preston who was ready to play another one of his songs. “Do something to the camera, Preston, give the girls a wink or something, drive them crazy,” she reeled him.

He made a V sign with his fingers and rolled out his tongue between them. “Oh God, you’re disgusting!” Julie shouted and laughed. He winked his eyes and kept doing the tongue thing and finally made a sucking noise. Julie rolled on the bed and laughed, “That was gross!! I’m not putting that up on my Instagram, you’re such a slut!!”

“You started it! Okay, I’m ready, are you ready?” he said and placed his guitar on his lap.

Julie put up her camera again and was ready to record, “Are you ready? It’s gonna go viral,” she said.

“I hope so,” Preston replied and started strumming his guitar again.