52 Stories

story by kpbstevens

Love in a Christian College

It was a decision that they made at dinner, under the high florescent lights and almost comically earnest Christian music that played from the speakers in the ceiling.  Outside the Ohio sky was gray and slack.  Occasional gusts of rain splattered against the windows.  Tucker and Bee sat smiling at each other and holding hands.  Neither of them had showered recently, and each could smell the dense, private odor of each other’s skin.  It was something that set them apart, their uncleanliness, the way they chose it when the other students were so determinedly clean.

“It’s a nice house,” Tucker said.  “They don’t mind us using it.”

Bee had a smudge of charcoal above her left eyebrow.  It made it look as if she were arching her eyebrow.  They got up and went and put their trays on the conveyor belt that led into the dish room.  They brushed hands.  A carrot shaving clung to the skin of Bee’s thumb.  Tucker had a sick moment of wanting to eat it, and then to go on eating all of the leavings on the trays that made their slow way down the conveyor belt.  He flicked the carrot shaving off of her thumb.  ‘I wonder if it’s always like this,’ he thought.  ‘A mixture of things that seem beautiful and disgusting.’

They stepped outside of the cafeteria and the wind gusted droplets of rain against them.  Bee turned towards him and pushed her body against him.  He was conscious of people watching them from inside the cafeteria, so he ignored the intent trembling of her body and kissed her on the top of the head.  “Let’s go,” he murmured, and took her hand.  “Let’s go, let’s go.”

When they came to the car she stood beside him as he fumbled the key into the door.  She reached her hand into his pocket and kept it there.  He could feel the cold of her fingers through the pocket’s thin cloth.  Once they were inside the car he turned to her, half expecting her to throw herself at him across the narrow space of the arm rest, but she was silent and looking at the window.  Big, solitary drops of rain clung to the outside of the glass.  She lifted a finger and touched the glass, as if expecting to break the surface tension of the raindrops.  Tucker couldn’t keep from smiling.  He put the car in reverse and dropped a hand to her leg, and felt the warmth of her skin through her jeans.  After a moment she bent forward and tucked her head and started sucking on his fingers.

Calgary College was guarded by a little booth and a striped wooden bar that was lowered across the drive.  “We’re getting near the exit,” Tucker murmured.  He could see the shape of the security guard inside the little booth.  Bee sat up just as they came even with the booth, and Tucker turned his head to look at the guard.  The rain on the car window and the booth’s glass distorted the guard’s shape, and he couldn’t quite make out his face.  The wooden bar rose slowly.

His grandparents’ house was three miles away, on the other side of town.  They drove along gray streets.  Bee held Tucker’s hand and gazed out the window at the town, and Tucker felt the cold from the car windows, but also a strange warmth.  It was as if he knew that, in later years, he would be able to think back to this moment and take comfort from it.  What he was doing, right now, would always have the heat of nostalgia.  He was aware of everything.  The way that Bee’s brown hair dangled slack over her small forehead.  The yield sign that had come loose from one of its bolts and flapped on its post.  The slight burnt smell from the car’s radiators and the yapping of a dog when they stopped at an intersection.

It was when they parked in front of his grandparent’s house that he realized that he didn’t have the key.  He looked at Bee and said, “I can’t believe it.  I’m such an idiot.  We’ll have to go back.”

She turned and looked at the house.  “Maybe there’s an open window or something.”

Tucker frowned.  “When they’re here, they always leave it open.  They don’t like to lock it, even at night.  Do you think they could have just gone away and left it open?”

“Who does that anymore?”

“No one.  Well, maybe they do.  I mean, they trust people.  And they always think that everything will be for the best.”

“How long have they been gone?”

“Three weeks.”

“I don’t think they’d leave their house open for three weeks.”

“But I’m supposed to be looking after it.”

“Have you been by to check on it?”

“Once.  I can’t remember if it was unlocked or not.  Even if it was, maybe I left a door open.  I’m used to it being open.”

“Go see.”

He nodded and got out of the car.  The wind blew hard against his face, and he could feel an ache begin along the bridge of his nose.  He took a few steps up the walk and heard Bee slam her car door behind him.  He glanced back and saw her coming towards him, small and arch looking, with the smudge above her eyebrow and her thick brown hair blown back from her face.  She came up to him and put her arm around his waist and said, putting her mouth next to his ear, “Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Tags: /love /sex /romance /Christian college /nostalgia