CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: ELICIA

Off to UCLA

I have always been dreaming of going to the same college with my boyfriend and now that dream is coming true.

The next day mom drives me to school.

Treadway drives his car with Mick and Vee.

Once we got to the campus, we checked-in and helped each other to carry our bags into our dorm rooms.

"You have the same room number as mine," Treadway says.

My dorm room number was 65E and his dorm room number was 65B.

We got to my room first and knocked; a Chinese girl around my age opened the door.

"Ni hao." I greet her and she smiles.

"Knock it off I can speak English just fine." She says and I pick up an American accent and l smile at her as well.

"You must be Elicia Rae, I am Nicky. get in." she says and we all get in and leave the luggage in my dorm room.

"I will be right back, I need to help him settle in." I say to my roommate Nicky.

She winks at me and we exit the room to go to Treadway's room.

Apparently Treadway had no roommate, it was a single's room, so we put all his bags in and went outside to the parking lot.

"I can't believe my baby is already in college." My mom says wiping her tears.

"I will miss you a lot, at least it won't be lonely because I have Vee but I will miss you guys a lot." She continues to say as she squishes me in a tight hug.

"We will visit whenever you want us to mom so, please don't cry. You gonna make me cry as well." I say wiping tears that were already falling down my cheeks.

After crying a few times, we both finally let go of mom, Vee and Mick.

We head back to our rooms.

"Let's go to my room first," I say and Treadway nods.

We get to my room, Treadway situates himself on a random chair that was in my room.

"Nicky, this is Treadway Conerly, my boyfriend." I officially introduce my boyfriend to Nicky.

"Nice to meet you, I am Nicky Liu." Nicky extends her hand to shake his hand.

"Same." He says smiling.

After unpacking my stuff and organising them neatly Treadway bids Nicky farewells and as we are about to leave Nicky asks for my phone number and I gladly give her.

We stroll hand in hand with Treadway to his room.

Once we reach his room I help him unpack, organize his stuff and make his bed.

We order pizza and we eat as we talk to each other.

"You know what?" he asks.

"What?" I ask looking looking at him.

"I really love you El." He says as he turns from being playful to serious.

"And I love you." I say and kiss him square on his lips, he smiles into the kiss.

"I am so happy that I am here with you, I get to spent all the time in the world with you." He says.

"Me too."

We finish up our pizza just smiling at each other like fools.

"It's getting late. I should go back." I say as I stand up.

He walks me up to the door and for a second I see doubt, uncertainty in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I ask him as I cup his cheeks in my small hands.

"Stay the night." He says unsure of himself.

I was taken aback because it's usually me who initiates everything most times, not that l am complaining.

He likes it when l am in control but l am glad he asked me to stay.

"Here I was thinking I am the naughty one." I chuckle agreeing to stay.

After my reply his lips connect with mine and I smile into the kiss.

We move back to his bed, he sits on the bed and I climb on top of him straddling him.

I waste no time removing his jacket and dress shirt without breaking the kiss, I could feel the heat radiating from his body and his citrus-woody scent fills my nostrils and I feel this closeness to him like I have never felt before.

He moves his hands to remove my blouse and I let him; a chill runs down my spine as his hands unclasp my bra and tosses it to the floor.

We kiss for what seems like eternity before my phone buzzes on the bed, we break from the kiss as I answer the phone.

I was still a panting mess, my whole body was ablaze from all the oxytocin, dopamine that was being released as we were kissing and my thoughts were everywhere; scattered.

"Hey Nicky." I manage to say something.

"Oh my god, thank heavens you finally picked up. It's late, are you still coming back?" she asks over the phone and I remove the phone from my ear to check if she had called me before and to my surprise there were four missed calls.

How come I didn't hear them, I wonder.

She couldn't have called any other time, my mind screams.

"I am sleeping at Treadway's, will see you tomorrow, sorry for worrying you." I say apologetically and she waves it off with an it's fine and have fun.

I hang up and that's when reality sips in; I was standing in front of him in a mid-thigh length skirt, only.

Instead of covering upper naked body I cover my face and he laughs.

"I am kind of surprised, the girl standing in front of me covering up her face is the same girl who was straddling me a few minutes ago." He says chuckling.

He stands up from the bed and moves towards me, he removes my hands from my face and he starts kissing me all over again.

I kiss him back and my raging hormones take over.

Wednesday 10 September became the best night of my life and I did not regret giving myself to him.

The next morning, I wake up to see him watching me sleep.

"You are beautiful," he compliments and I blush.

"Every inch of your face, your body, it's all beautiful; I love you Elicia Rae." He confesses and the butterflies in my stomach erupt in joy.

"I love you Conerly." I say and he moves towards me and places a soft kiss on my lips.

"I don't ever want to be parted from you. For the first time in my life I want to be with someone, belong to them, hold on to them and never let go." He says staring into my eyes.

"I want to be with you." I say to him and he smiles.

He takes a small pink box in the drawer near his bed and hands it to me.

"For you." He says.

I open the box to reveal a silver necklace with two initials written on it ET and a black watch engraved with my name and his initials (Elicia Rae and TC).

"Oh my gosh, this is beautiful." I say kissing him.

"Happy eighth month anniversary babe." He says smiling.

"I feel bad I didn't buy you anything." I say covering my face.

"You are enough." He says and I melt in his embrace.

The rest of the four days we go for orientation.

I never really got to see Treadway as we were in different departments and faculties, lucky for me, Nicky was also doing psychology so at least I had a familiar face.

All the psychology students got together, we were showed around our department, lecture rooms, introduced to all our lecturers and we choose our student representative whose name was Xavier Malhotra.

All the students registered for their courses for the semester and we were given timetables.

I only got to see Treadway in the evening because he was really busy during the day in their department.

The four days went in a buzz and soon we started the semester.

As someone who always wanted to be punctual Nicky and I woke up early and we both prepared for school.

We arrived at our department, there was a black and silver post written Psychology.

I felt very happy I had chosen this because I really felt like this is where I was meant to be.

We walked to our lecture theatre chit-chatting with Nicky.

My phone buzzes and I quickly retrieve it from my jean's back pocket.

A message from Tredeway.

*****'I hope you slay your first day

I love you

Mrs Conerly ;)'*****

The text reads and I blush furiously.

*****Same

I love you

Mr Cornerly :) *******

I send back.

The door was still locked so we waited for what seemed like 10 minutes before a man in his early forties graced us with his presence.

"Early birds," he acknowledges us.

"Good morning Sir." We say in unison.

Once we get in, we sit in the middle seats and wait for the lecture to start.

After a few minutes, students fill in the seat and as soon as the lecture started I hear a male voice and turn my head to face where the sound was coming from.

"Is this seat taken?" he asks.

I stare at him and I freeze.

He has big watery brown eyes that match his long wild brunette hair colour.

I am too stunned to speak, he is too handsome.

He gave me the Avan Jogia in his 20's vibes and I was totally swooning over him.

He totally made puberty his bitch.

He clears his throat and I regain my senses.

"No, it's not," I manage to speak.

He smiles, I inhale his strong musky scent as he sits beside me.

"Riven McCall." he whispers in my ear and I get goose bumps.

"Hmmmhh?" I ask and he smiles.

"My name, what's yours?" He says and I face palm myself for being weird.

"Oh, it's Elicia Rae." I managed to say as I tried to focus on the lecture but l failed miserably.

As the lecture proceeds all I can picture is Riven and as much as I try to push his stupid smiley face at the back of my mind I can't.

It was like love at first sight.

"Cute watch by the way." He says eyeing my watch and I curse myself for having any thoughts that went beyond friendship with the boy besides me because I already have a boyfriend whom I love very much.

**********I thought one only falls in love once, what is happening to me*********

THE END