Boy meets girl, girl falls in love, blah-blah-blah.
Let me be clear with you from the beginning. This is not that kind of story.
My name is Cait, and I live in the great city of New York. Okay, so maybe I've only lived here for a week and a half...
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"What did you say?"
Val stared up at me, her eyes wide as she listened to me tell her what had happened last night with Andrew. He wasn't here when she got home, and - when she realized that a guy had come over to hang out - she peppered me with questions for about fifteen minutes before she realized that I was too exhausted to cave in to her demands.
Not to mention the fact that I hadn't even started to process what he told me.
"I didn't say anything," I admitted with a helpless shrug, and Val looked like she wanted to murder me. "What?! What was I supposed to say? 'Sounds good to me?' Val, I just met him."
"That's absolutely what you're supposed to say, you moron!" She groaned, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. "A cute guy said that he wanted to start 'seeing' you, Cait. It's not rocket science! YOU SAY YES!"
I closed my eyes with a whimper, massaging my temples as she paced around our tiny apartment. I knew she'd be frustrated with my response - or lack thereof - but what else was I supposed to do? I liked Andrew, and I was coming to terms with that fact, but that did not mean I was ready to start seeing him. Seeing him meant dates and feelings and honest conversations, and those were all things that I was not equipped to handle. I couldn't open up to my roommate and best friend, so how was Andrew going to like it if I stayed closed off to him too?
Plus, I had my life planned out. I was going to work at Starbucks until school started, go to school full-time to finish my degree, then apply for grad school. NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences offered a Master's degree in Scientific Computing, and I planned on entering their program immediately after finishing my undergraduate studies. After that, my plan had always been to leave New York.
Stanford was my dream, and their Ph.D. program in the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering was insanely competitive, so I didn't really have the time or mental space for a relationship - let alone for a relationship with a celebrity. Whether or not Andrew wanted to admit it, he was Lincoln Shepherd and that made things difficult. His life was on the go, constantly in the public eye, and incredibly complicated.
Complicated doesn't help you get into Stanford.
"Cait..." Val's voice softened. "Do you like him?"
I opened my eyes to look at her. If I admitted it to her, I couldn't take the words back. I'd just started to be honest with myself, but I still clung to the knowledge that it wasn't out there in the open yet. I could take it back and pretend it never happened, but the second the words slipped through my lips I knew they would stick to me.
"I do," I admitted softly, looking far too serious to be someone admitting something like this. "I like him a lot."
A smile stretched itself across her lips, "Yeah?"
"Yeah," I nodded.
Val sunk into the sofa next to me and poked me in the side, causing me to squeal and swat at her hand. She erupted into snickers, poking me repeatedly as I scrambled to escape her attack. I grabbed a pillow, swinging it at her head, and she snatched it as I ran to the kitchen for something to drink.
