One Night Plus a Lifetime

The City

the flight was 8 hours long ..Aria arrived in a new city , as the taxi driver drove her through the town she couldn't keep her eyes off the window marveling in the infrastructure she saw ...many different kinds of buildings, the high way and everything along the way ..her life would be different here.

No one knew who she was , it was not going to be like high school were she was totally average when it came to her social life and a complete nerd when it came to studies, here things could be anything she wanted them to be no one knew of her past here.

the taxi dropped her in the school campus. she held her suitcase and stared at the building ahead of her ..the school was larger in person , she had seen pictures online but now standing on the large grounds ...it was completely huge.

walking down the large corridor she headed for the adminstration and reported.

a room was assigned to her. The administrator called someone to take her there. She showed Aria around the campus before taking her to one of the houses female students lived in . It was a 4story building with a long stair way and her room was on the third floor.

she knocked on the door twice before a girl opened the door, she was greeted by a pair of blue eyes and blonde long hair . The girl looked like she belonged in a magazine she was beautiful ..she reminded Aria of the blazing sun. The girl looked at her raising her eyebrows indicating Aria to speak.

"hello ..my name is Aria..i was assigned to this room"

she spoke while pointing her finger at the door.

"oh come in ...."

she moved aside as Aria entered .

"my name is Meredith ...you must be our new roommate...let me help you with that "

Meredith grabbed her suitcase from her and led her inside .

"thank you ..." she said looking around through the big living area ..this was like a small apartment ..it had a living room, a kitchen and a hallway with one bedroom.

she did not expect to be staying at such a nice hostel .

"wow ...this place is bigger than i expected "

she exclaimed!

"yeah its meant for three students ...the other one has gone out running ..you will meet her later"

Meredith showed Aria her bed and helped her settle in ..

"were are you from??.." Meredith asked .

"from seventy state ...in a small town called Venusberg...and you?..

"i am from this state ...in Stonehigh that's were my family lives..here to study mass communications"

"am here for a course in Nursing and midwifery".

this was Aria's course it was not her dream job to become a Nurse ..her dream was to become a dancer ..the odds however of making it in dancing were low she needed to pick a career that would help the family at home and to start working sooner.

"I like your curly hair ..."Meredith said .

Aria touched her hair and smiled at her compliments , not a lot of people ever complimented her on it."Thank you" Meredith was kind to her she did not expect her to but she was,..deep down she hoped that everyone was nice like this , maybe college was different after all .

"I like your golden blonde hair...its like the sun"

she added .

" thanks ....I am headed out..wanna come?" Meredith said.

"thank you ...but maybe next time.."

she wanted to rest after a long flight and unpack her things ..it was Sunday so she needed to be active for the first day of class tomorrow. After Meredith left Aria took a shower and lay in her bed . it was almost twilight . She realised ..she forgot to inform her dad that she arrived safely so she dialed his line and called him.

"Hey Dad"

"are you in school ?, did you get there safely , how was your flight?

the man flooded her with question the minute he picked up , he was always worrying for no reason.

"yes Dad i got here safely ..i checked in and now i am in my room...i got here safe and sound"

"that's good ...you should rest now for your first day tomorrow"

"i will..i love you dad"

"i love you too kiddo"

He replied before the call was disconnected

she lay down and starred at the ceiling lights above . She remembered her best friend and decided to facetime her. after a few seconds Jamie picked up.

Her face appeared on the screen , but the rest of her background was dark.

"Hey!!!" She said while rubbing her eyes

"Were are you" Aria couldn't help ask .

"Its midnight here ....where do you think I am"

"oh s**t time difference .."

Aria did not know that it was already midnight on that side of the world , when she called her dad he did not let her know about that , she realised that he must have stayed up waiting for her call and that made her heart ache a little .

"Screw you...how is the school. Is it nice?"

Jamie asked lazily through the phone , she had waited for Aria to call till she fell asleep. She was eager to know about what the Campus was like.

"its nice and big ..and the hostels are pretty neat too"

Aria walked around and showed the room to her friend , and Jamie wowed at its sight .

those long hours of studying paid off with a good scholarship in the end .

"it's so cool ....i wish i was there with you" Jamie said , she missed Aria already .But she was also leaving for school in another state on Tuesday.

"Did you meet any nice guy hhhmh" she asked .

"just got here fool , i haven't seen any one and besides am not going to focus on boys , i have had enough drama when it comes to boys"

"oh come on...if a cute guys asks you out are you going to say no or are you going "

Aria couldn't help but face palm herself this friend of hers was ridiculous sometimes she always said the most absurd things .

"yeah sure ill go if he is superman but in this case ..the odds of that happening are Zero ...so no"

Jamie could not help but laugh at her friends words , "alright alright...just don't forget to have a little fun ...don't burry your face in those books and try falling in love okay? " she said .

falling in love ?? that was something Aria was scared of , she had been in love with a guy in high school before, he was those kind of guys that she thought were unattainable to her, he was popular while she was not , when suddenly he started talking to her and hanging out with her.

Aria never thought that a guy like him would ever fall for her but instead he asked her to be his girlfriend, she agreed and the two would always be around each other . He asked if they would get intimate in their relationship since they both loved each other so much and Aria was naive back then , On their prom night she decided to give herself to him, she wanted to lose her virginity to him alone because she loved him so deeply ,

but after she did he humiliated her by calling his friends to the room , they took pictures of her half naked body and posted them online sending them for the whole world to see . She felt embarrassed and betrayed by him. Her entire being was broken ,...it was her friend Jamie who came to help her .

later she discovered that it was all a bet he made with his friends that on the night of their prom his would take her innocence , he wanted to prove to them that he could get any girl to sleep with him,she learnt that he never loved her or cared about her at all .

Aria spent the following months depressed because of that she would stay locked up in her room and never came out she barely ate and ended up losing weight , it was a traumatic experience for her and one she would never forget .

The topic of love always brought bad memories to her brain so she completely shut her mind from it , it was not something she ever wanted .

Jamie noticed her friends silence , she knew what Aria was thinking watching her friend go through such an experience was heartbreaking to her too.

"Don't let that asshole ruin any chance of happiness you ever have , ....you deserve everything good in life Ari"

Jamie reassured her friend sometimes all you need is a little validation from your close ones .

"you and i deserve everything good in life ...everything in this world and beyond the stars" Aria added that was the truth and even though she was not ready for love yet she was ready to move on from the past.

the two girls talked for a while before falling asleep , she was tired and immediately her mind drifted to the realm of dreams , happy or scary ones ..they consumed her whole.

A strange noise woke her up in the morning , it was different from the sound of the kettle ,plates and cups , it was the sound of a girl singing , she opened her eyes and looked at the time , it was already 8:25 am , Aria slept in and forgot about the first day of class ...she jumped out of bed and headed for the bathroom but it was occupied ..Aria panicked .

"Hello "

she turned around and saw a girl standing behind her she was startled by her voice ..her brain was enveloped in the thought of being late.

"hi good morning .."

Aria cleared her throat to speak clearly ...

She noticed that the girl was a brunette and had long straight hair , she was beautiful but her features where different from Meredith , Aria thought if Meredith was the blazing sun then this girl belonged to the dark night and the moon. The girl smiled at Aria showing off her perfect white teeth and her pretty smile.

"You are awake ...i came in late last night so we did not meet...my name is Callie ."

"nice to meet you Callie ...my name is Aria"

the two girls shook hands , Aria turned her head to the bathroom door she still needed to get ready. Callie noticed her anxiousness and spoke

"Meredith is in there she usually takes long to get ready" that only made Aria even more nervous .

"i need to get to class ...i slept in "

she said nervously .

"Which class are you attending today? "

"my first class is sociology...i am studying nursing"

Aria explained.

"Oh me too!! ....i am here for nursing as well ,.

Callie was happy to know that they would be attending the same classes. "but classes will begin on Wednesday , they were postponed"

Aria felt like a huge rock had been lifted off her head , she did not want to be late on her first day of class in college that was not something she could ever live with.

"since we have a free day why don't we hang around and see the city am not from here .."

The minute Callie finished talking Meredith walked out of the bathroom with a towel on her head and another one wrapped on her body , she was exited when she heard about exploring the city and since she grew up here , she wanted to show the girls around.

"i know a perfect place for us to visit "

she said.

the three girls got ready and left to explore the city ...

Meredith had a car, she came from a wealthy respected family, they drove through the city and visited all the cool places ...it was Callie's idea to visit the museum..

the museum was filled with all sorts of ancient artifacts and paintings. They spent a lot of time in there and after that ...Aria wanted to see the beach , she had never been to the beach before ,...it was almost sunset but they went anyway .. the waters at night were beyond anything she had ever seen everything about the beach felt good

she was happy to see it in person , the waters the sand was all beautiful to her ..this was everything she dreamed of , not only did she have two new friends but all her dreams were slowly coming true .

they ran and played in the sand , they took pictures on her film camera till dawn.