As soon as I stepped out of class I cursed myself for not bringing an umbrella. California weather had proven to be impossible to predict, and the jeans and light button-up boy shirt that I wore on the sunny walk to class were about to leave me frozen and drenched on the walk back. Last thing I needed was to get sick on my first week of college.
"Not exactly dressed for the weather are you?" I heard a voice from behind me. It was Eva, the strangely tall Japanese girl who sat in front of me in German Lit. I remembered being a little pissed off that such a tall girl would be sitting in the front row, but now, seeing the childish smirk with which she was staring at me, I admit I felt strangely exhilarated. She wore tall rain boots, and held a huge blue umbrella covered with rain clouds.
"You must be a local," I said.
"Born and raised." Her eyes gleamed with a childish excitement. You would think she hadn't just spent a day at school, but had instead skipped and gone white-water-rafting or something equally exciting and obscure. But no, there she was today in both classes that I had with her, sitting obnoxiously tall in the front row each time.
"My name is Hannah," I said politely.
"Eva."
"I know."
"How did you know?"
"You're so damn tall it's hard not to notice you in class." This made her giggle.
"Nice to meet you Hannah," was all she said. "I'd like to walk you home"
"Oh, no. It's all right." I couldn't tell why she was making me so nervous. "The rain will teach me a lesson."
"What sort of lesson?"
"To bring an umbrella."
"But I have an umbrella here. I read once that if you want something intensely enough, it'll happen for you. Well, you wanted the umbrella intensely enough for me to show up here. So now I'm here and it looks like I'm obligated to walk you home." I wanted to say something stupid like "you're pretty smart, huh?" but resisted.
"Well if you have to, you have to" are the words that came out.
She walked up close to me, so that her umbrella would cover me, and looked down at my face. I had known her for a couple of days but still hadn't stood right next to her. If she hadn't been so childish, her height would have been intimidating.
"Well," she said, "lets go." It was comforting to walk next to her. For a while I forgot to even try to make conversation.
"Must be strange seeing all these new people move into town every year," I started.
"Tell me about it," she said. "It's interesting to see who sticks around though."
"What kind of people stick around?" I asked. She thought for a while.
"The ones who have no idea what they want out of life. Or the ones who know exactly what they want."
"Which kind are you?" I asked her.
"Well, it was never my choice to stick around, but I usually know what I want," she smiled.
"That's good. I never know what I want."
"You always know what you want." Eva's eyes became intensely serious for a second. "You just get too scared to tell anyone about it.
"Oh." I said.
"Yep." She said lightly and went seamlessly back to her energetic, childish smile. She stepped happily into every puddle on the road. "You really need to get some rain boots," she added.
"I know," I said. We walked quietly the rest of the way. I led her down the alley towards the back entrance of my apartment.
"This is it," I told her. She just laughed. "What is it?" I asked.
"See that house right there?" She pointed down the alley and across the street. "That one's me. We're neighbors"
"Oh wow!" I said. "Do you live by yourself?"
"Nah. With a couple other girls who never managed to leave town. Drop by sometime, I've got something I think you'll like." With that, she did a theatrical bow, turned, and strided back down the alley towards her place. Without me by her side, her pace almost doubled, her long legs looked like stilts navigating through the puddles on the ground. Filled with curiosity, I watched her walk away. Who was this girl? Why did she talk so strangely? Why did I feel so awkward next to her? I walked into my place and suddenly everything inside seemed so dreary, lifeless. My heart was racing and all I could think about was Eva. Her confident stride as she walked next to me, her bright eyes.
Fuck. Did I have a crush on this girl? I had felt this way a few times before in high school about a few of my girlfriends, but when I told my mom that I had feelings for them, she told me I was being silly, and that they were just good friends. But now I felt those feelings coming back. Maybe I did just want to be friends with Eva, hear more of her strange philosophies, walk with her to school, but also... I felt myself wondering what that tall, slender body looked like naked.
"Shit," I said to myself. Without bothering to put anything else on, I went out my door, and headed straight down the alley towards Eva's place. My heart was racing as I walked up the steps to her porch and knocked on the door. I started feeling cold again as I waited for her to answer. When the door opened it wasn't Eva behind it, but a stoned looking redhead girl wearing a big hoodie with seemingly nothing under it, listening to headphones. She was brushing her teeth, and looked like had just gotten out of bed. She lifted up one of the headphones and asked me who I was.
"I'm looking for Eva," I said. She pointed up the stairs and walked back into the house, continuing to brush her teeth and sway with the music in her headphones. The house seemed old, lived in by generation after generation of college kids. It was cluttered like a bachelor pad, but it didn't feel dirty somehow, more like cozy. I slipped off my shoes and walked up the stairs.
"Eva!" I called. No response. The stairs led to a hallway with three doors on one side, one of them was ajar. I walked down, not knowing what to do. "Eva!" I called again.
"Boo!" She scared the shit out of me. It took me a moment to realize that her voice had come from directly above. Her smiling face was peeking out at me from the attic door in the ceiling, and her long black hair hung straight down over it making her look like something out of those Japanese horror movies.
"You gave me a heart attack" I tried to laugh it off.
"Sorry babe. I knew you'd come," she was still smiling. "Watch out," she said, and hanging on the edge of the attic entrance, lowered herself down and jumped next to me. She was like a gymnast. If I tried to pull a move like that I'd break my neck.
"Want some tea?" She asked me "You look cold as hell."
"Please."
"Ok, wait here," she told me, and sprinted down the stairs. I stood in the hallway and looked up at the entrance to the attic. No stairs. She must have had to do a pull-up to get up there. This didn't help to alleviate my girl-crush. I pictured her arm muscles tensing, her abs getting rigid as she pulled herself up, giggling the whole time at the scare she was going to give me. How did she know I was going to come back?
