Three Months Later

Summer has officially ended, and I never got to finish my challenge. I was only successful in going to one place, yet there I meet a cute guy, and a few hours later he's dead. That is not how I wanted to spend my summer.

Today was my last day at home before it was off to college for year two. I hadn't seen Juliet since the flight, and I had just gotten back a month ago from the trial. I was in no way, shape, or form prepared for my first day.

'I'm cooking your favorite meal!' my step mom overly rejoiced. Did I like her? Eh. She was nothing compared to my actual mom, but she made my father happy and that's all that mattered. She was the complete opposite of my real mother. She had extremely short blond hair, dark blue eyes, a tattoo on the side of her left arm that read 'Sage', which she said was the name of her still born daughter from a previous marriage.

'Alfredo with chicken?' I ask, raising an eyebrow.

She puts her apron on and crosses toward the stove in the kitchen. 'You got it!'

I entered the living room where my father is sitting on the couch working on something which was on his laptop. He was wearing a purple collar shirt and khakis, which was what he had worn to work that day.

'What do you need, sweet pea?' he asks as he shuts his laptop.

I sit down on the couch next to him and make myself comfortable. 'I just haven't been the same ever since Paris. I'm bummed I never got to go Bejing, London, Mexico City, or Toronto, but I'm worried if I try again next summer I might have another problem.'

My father scoots closer to me and hugs me tightly. 'You are okay, Rachel. You are brave, I don't think I could deal with what you went through. I barely coped with your mother's death.'

'I know dad.'

'And if you always need someone to talk to you I'm always here unless I'm at work.' my father replies as I move from the couch into the kitchen since my step mom had asked me to grab the butter as she was boiling the noodles.

That night, I never slept. I may have gotten twenty minutes tops, but I was so nervous for moving day I never could focus on getting some shut eye. That and Amy moved to Colorado so I was getting a new roommate.

'You up?' my brother asked as he knocked. 

I sat up in my bed and turned on my phone to check the time. 'I guess. I didn't get much sleep.'

He walked over to the side of my bed and kissed me on the lips, but I pushed him away. 'What's wrong, Rachel? You wanted it at the end of mom's funeral.'

'You promised that would be our only time. Besides, I was drinking to forget about what was happening. We both were.'

He tried to kiss me again, and I slapped him on the cheek, leaving a red mark. 'Rachel, you know you enjoy it!'

I was out of bed at this point. Yes, we went to his friend's house after the funeral to get drunk and forget about everything. I was younger then, a sophomore, I didn't know better. HE sort of made me do it, even though we were both intoxicated.

'Rachel, there's always tonight. You can come home and we can-'

'What did I say, Robert?' I interrupted, 'It was a one time that shouldn't have happened in the first place.' I left my room and went into the kitchen where my boxes were. I began packing my car and my step mom and dad later woke up to chip in. 

'Your's and my car are full, and we still have six boxes to pack!' I sighed as I shut the trunk of my red convertible. 

'Robert could help,' my father suggested.

'I think he's busy.' I stated.

Robert came into the garage thinking we were leaving. 'What's going on?' he asked, messing with his green shirt a little bit. 

My father pointed to the boxes in the garage. 'Your sister still needs that stuff packed. You think you could help bring it over?'

Robert nodded. 'I should have enough room.'

The ride to my dorm was longer than I expected. I wasn't sure I was ready for college for another year, at least not until the events of my summer. One by one, we took the boxes up three flights of stairs and into my dorm where I was greeted by Gia, my new roommate. She had extremely long brown hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a brown blouse with black jeans. I pretty cute outfit if you ask me.

'Hi, I'm Gia! You must be Rachel,' Gia said in her bubbly attitude, 'What a cute top you're wearing!'

I set a box down. 'Thanks, I was going to say the same thing about yours. Where did you get it?' 

She played with her blouse to fix it and turned off a lamp she had on her desk. 'Target, actually. That's where I get most of my cute tops.'

I was beginning to feel like I would like Gia. Gia handed me a slip of paper, and I raised an eyebrow. 'What's this?'

'It's the form to sign-up for the theatre club! I'm the president and I wanted to invite you to come!'

I handed the slip back to her. 'I'm sorry, I don't act.' Wow, that came out bitchy. 

"Oh, that's fine. Not everyone likes to get on stage and perform. It's just such a passion for me. That's my major. What are you learning?' 

I begin to unpack my box of close and put it in the bins under my bed. 'I'm majoring in education for grades K-8!' 

She smiled. 'Well, I can't wait to see where college takes us!'

Three days after I moved in, I had my first day of class. Calculus to be exact. My goal was to wake up at 7:45 A.M and leave my dorm at 8:30 A.M so I could get a decent seat in my class. That plan was scratched when I woke up twenty minutes after my alarm, and I left thirty minutes later than I wanted to. I made it to class with six minutes to spare. 

I sit down in the third row, grab my binder and pencil, and get on my phone to check who had sent me a Snapchat. I never even had paid attention to who had sit by me until I set my phone down when they had asked a question.

'Have you had Professor Taylor before?' the young woman asked.

I turned to her, and when I saw who it was I couldn't believe it. 

'What?' she asked. 'Do you not remember me?' 

It was Juliet.

***

Author's Note:

Sorry that this chapter is boring. It's more of a filler. The upcoming chapters will be drama packed and will include some more flashback snippets of Rachel's past. Also, I will be updating chapters on Thursdays and Saturday's definitely, and if I feel like it I'll post extra.  Please vote for every chapter and recommend to a friend! Thanks for reading!

QOTD: What had your favorite part been so far?

AOTD: Mine is from this chapter when after three month's of not seeing Juliet, she is now in one of her classes in College.

Feel free to answer the question as well! :)