“They sound like a lot of fun. My life was pretty quiet, until my father remarried three years ago. It’s better now.”
“Do you go to see your mom in L.A. a lot?” he asked, curious, and she paused for an instant, and then answered.
“I haven’t seen her since I was seven.”
He didn’t look shocked, just matter of fact. “That’s a long time. Do you talk to her?” She shook her head. “Sounds like a bad divorce.”
“Pretty much. She’s French. They met in Paris, and got married pretty quickly. Not such a great idea. She left to go to Hollywood to make movies.”
“Has she been in anything I’ve seen?” He was a movie buff too, like Antonia.
“Not that I know of.”
He nodded, and changed the subject. “And no boyfriend? That’s hard to believe.”
“Not really. I was working on my grades so I could come here, and I was never one of the cool girls.”
“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” She smiled at the question. “Pretty impressive. You don’t need cool with looks like that. I went out with the same girl for three years in high school. She’s at USC now, at film school.”
“I wanted to go there. My father wouldn’t let me.”
“It’s better here. New York is a blast. I love it.”
“I’ve lived here all my life. I thought L.A. would be cooler, and I thought maybe I’d run into my mom somewhere.” She had never admitted that to anyone else, but he was easy to talk to.
“It’s a big place. My ex and I are still friends, and she has a new boyfriend. We kind of ran out of gas senior year, and once we knew I was coming here, we decided to hang it up and stay friends before we screwed it up long distance. That’s a tough one to pull off. We didn’t want to do that.” It sounded sensible to her too.
They walked back to the dorm after dinner, looking at the people on the street, the noise, the shops, the street vendors, and the crowds jostling one another on the street. They’d had a nice time together.
“I haven’t been uptown yet,” he said.
“That’s where I live. It’s a lot quieter than this. This is more fun.” He left her at the dorm, and said he was going to meet a friend at another dorm, and he thanked her again for coming to the play.
“You were fabulous,” she said again, and went upstairs to do homework. It was Saturday night, and everyone was out, including her roommate, but she had work to do, and wanted to get a good grade. She had enjoyed her evening with Jake. He seemed like he’d make a good friend, and she didn’t think he was pushing for more either. It was just nice having a new friend in an environment as unfamiliar as this. She was sure she’d see him again soon. And with that, she pulled her reading assignment toward her, grabbed her highlighter, and got to work.
* * *
—
As Jake had predicted, she got invited out on a date by a boy in one of her classes, and she turned him down. She said she had too much studying to do, but she wasn’t interested in him anyway. Her excuse had been true.
Lara came downtown to have lunch with her after she’d been there for four weeks. The time had flown, and she had gotten A’s on two of her papers, and was excited about it. She hadn’t heard from her father, but didn’t expect to. Lara wanted to be sure she was coming home for Thanksgiving, and Antonia promised she would. She was having too much fun and was too busy at school to go home before then, which Lara understood. After years in isolation with her father, Antonia was loving the college experience. She had joined a study group and liked the people in it. The students were a diverse group from all over the country and all over the world, and it was a whole different experience from being an outcast in high school with no friends. It didn’t matter anymore. She loved NYU. It was the right school for her.
Jake was loving it too. He was going back to San Francisco for Thanksgiving, and told her she had to come with him sometime. Their friendship was well established, and there was an unspoken agreement between them that it wasn’t a romance. They liked being friends, and a romance might be short-lived.
* * *
—
She felt like she was traveling to another country when she went home for Thanksgiving, and was surprised to discover that her father had turned her bedroom into an office for when he worked at home on weekends. Lara had been uneasy about it, and afraid that Antonia would be upset. She said she wasn’t, but Lara sensed immediately that she felt displaced. Her bed and her furniture were still there, but he had moved everything around so it worked better for him. It made her feel like she didn’t belong there anymore and it was someone else’s room. Lara thought they should move it all back for the Thanksgiving weekend, but Brandon didn’t want to. It made Antonia feel invisible again. The waters had closed over her quickly as soon as she left. Not so much with Lara, but with him. This was what he had waited for, for years.