Life Sentence

Today will be the day I always remember. Tia and I met on a misty, gloomy day in the same college tour group. Everyone was clad in spirited, green and white because they were eager, prospective Bulls.

I was there in a tight-ish black t-shirt, faded denim jeans and a worn out pair of J's. All of their excess enthusiasm was brought down because I wore a face of apathy instead of a branded cinch bag. Being a part of a group didn't matter, neither did college, and my tour group saw it.

When the overly chipper campus leader leads us past vivid tree coverage and distinguished buildings, I decided to fall back as to not catch their enthusiasm virus. I'm only here for the job. If I meet people not crazy about something Bulls related, it would be like finding the fantasy spawn of the Lochness Monster and a unicorn.

She approached out of nowhere. She had curly, dark hair that brushed past her shoulders. There was a permanent smirk plastered on her olive-tinged skin, which was painted over with light makeup. She asked me if I wanted to attend this university.

This girl was ballsy. She could have ignored the uncaring, twiggy, young man sharing her campus tour, like the rest of the group, but she was different. I saw her cinch bag draped over her black, leather jacket covering a short, white sundress. Who was this girl? I would have noticed her, but she must have been running late and caught up with the group at our last stop.

I looked at her and shrugged as we shuffled forward. We walked the length of a football field in complete silence until she broke it by asking what my punishment was for me to end up on this campus, in this group. I said it was a self-fulfilling prophecy to become the one Bull that would forever be the pride of this university. I was keeping it low key. It must have been funny because she laughed and gave me a light shove as she called me a smart ass.

We walked through the tour talking about random subjects. I told her about my love of Tarantino films and she talked about the time she failed to follow this band we both liked on tour because she got lost after the third stop. We traded jokes and insults, but I didn't think anything of it because we would probably never see each other again.

But the next year we did see each other at a campus coffee shop. I wore the same thing and she asked me when the death sentence was handed down to send me back here in the exact same outfit. She was still ballsy and still wearing that leather jacket.

Even though I didn't give a shit about school, I did well and made some connections. I did care about Tia. I had a friend in a jazz ensemble who I convinced to play a song by our favorite band. One time, I surprised her by getting tickets to a show in the city she got lost trying to get to while trying to follow them on tour. We're going to go back to where she asked me why I wanted to go to this university, where the band will play, and I will ask her to spend the rest of our lives together.