Opportunities

Hello, I hope you enjoy this story of mine. I wrote this because I feel that people need to be able to read something practical every now and then. I have looked and read stories that people write, and to me, most of them seem hard for me to swallow as 'something that could actually happen.' So, here's a very personal story, that is fiction, but seems to me, practical and possible. This is a story. So don't expect anything big in the first chapter. If you have any ideas or questions, you can message me at my secondary email. Thank you. - Shawn

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Chapter One - Ramen Noodles

Ramen Noodles. Again. I sighed as I looked down at the bowl and my stomach almost knotted from exasperation. Living on my own at the age of 20 was a difficult task, and it was especially hard on my wallet, who like me, seemed always to be starving. But it was food, and the cost was low, so I could afford to buy 6 packages for a dollar. But still, the taste was getting old.

I took the bowl and headed to the living room, sat down on the futon, and then ate; staring at the wall where I had planned to put a tv, when and if I could afford one. But until then, I was left with my thoughts. I thought first about rent that was due next week, I thought about when I would be able to get back into college again, and I thought about what I should do for the rest of the day. And from that, leapt out a much larger thought.

I had been spending so much time lately thinking about work and bills, that I had completely thrown out the idea of a personal life. Here I was, on a Saturday night, alone, with nowhere to go. I was new to the town, so I had no friends close to me, and I did not know how to go about meeting new friends. In high school, it had been easy to meet people, but now I was 20 years old, and in a new place. How did people my age meet new people?

I laid the bowl on the floor, sat back against the futon, and thought. Clubs? No, there were a few in the city next to me, but I wasn't old enough to drink, and I've always been clumsy with my feet. Besides drinking and dancing, I had no idea what people did at clubs. I had never been to one. I was from a small town of Lometa in Texas with a small population of around three-hundred. Now, I was in a much larger town, and the population was around three-thousand, but it still seemed like there weren't many places for a person to meet people.

I became slightly frustrated that I wasn't able to think of any different places to meet people, so I stood up, left my car keys on the hook, and simply walked. I didn't know where I was going, but I kept walking until I reached the highway, and then I started walking down the highway. Several minutes passed, but my irritation and boredom had not. Why did I feel the need to walk somewhere? Did I expect a girl my age to just pop out of the bushes and ask if I was single? The idea seemed ridiculous, but as I passed a row of high bushes by the sidewalk, I felt as if I expected just that. But then I passed the bushes and I still walked alone.

I stopped in front of the library, and headed inside. The lady at the front desk greeted me, and then went back to staring at a blank computer screen. I passed the books, and the dvds, and the audio books, until I reached a stretch of tables that lined the walls that held computers. With all of the computers available, it was easy to find a computer in decent condition.

I turned on the screen, swiped my card, and the desktop revealed itself. At the top of the screen, was a timer, telling me that I had 45 minutes to use the computer. I started looking up things to do and ways to meet people. I was a little relieved to see that I was not the only person in their twenties who had the same problem as me. There were hundreds of forums of people with the same predicament. People suggested going to clubs, bars, or parks; but all of these seemed silly to me. I did not drink, so that got rid of the idea of going to a club or bar, and I couldn't fathom a woman going to a park to meet men. And then, I read the craziest of them all:

"I would suggest you do something in a public setting like a museum or maybe a library."

I silently laughed at the idea, but was cut off my a girl who sat at the computer next to me. She looked at me, smiled, and then turned on her screen. I was suddenly curious, then happy, and then dumb-stricken.

The idea of saying, "Hey, I see you're on a computer...me too." seemed idiotic, but I couldn't think of anything else.

I turned my head away from the screen.

"Hey." I said, biting my tongue so that I wouldn't mention to her the fact that I was on a computer.

She looked at me and smiled and whispered the same back in return, and her eyes remained on mine, not returning to her screen.

I quickly searched for something to say and to my avail, I said, "Whatsup?"

She looked down, as if she wanted to see my shoes, and then she looked back up at me, with her mouth slightly open. She closed it, and then said, "Well, I came here to look at some recipes. What about you?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I just got bored, so I came here."

"Well, what do you do for fun?"

The question took me by surprise, so I told her about how I was new to town and I didn't know what to do with myself. Then, I asked her the same question.

She looked at her screen, which was now on some recipe for honey prawns, and then looked back at me. Her face was a little flustered, but she smiled, and said, "Same, actually. I'm new here. I just came here to look up random stuff." She looked at her screen, and then back at me. "Do you cook?"

I laughed. "Ramen noodles, lately, and it seems like I will be eating them for a while longer until I hear back from the food stamp office."

Her face grimaced and she looked appalled. "Would you keep eating them if I told you how much sodium were in those?"

I shrugged, and said, "Yeah, I would," and then I laughed before saying, "but only because I don't know what sodium is nutritionally speaking."

She gave me a matter-of-fact look, and said, "Salt."

This confused me. Why was salt bad for you? I put salt in most of my food anyway. Was I doing something unhealthy? Heck, why did I care? I wasn't unhealthy. I had an athletic body and I weighed one-hundred-twenty pounds. I wanted to ask her, but to avoid looking unknowledgeable, which I was, I decided to change the subject.

We talked for a while longer and then somewhere in the midst of the conversation, I started looking at her differently. She was slightly shorter than me, and she was roughly the same size. Her brown hair seemed to frame her face in an almost artistic way. In the center of the frame, were large brown eyes that looked back at me. Below those, were a pair of almost pink lips. She suddenly seemed so pretty and alluring. She seemed so...kissable.

Then I thought about the situation at hand. There were many other seats available, but she sat next to me. Was this... a sign? Was she attracted to me. My head went back to the screen, and I read the words, "Be confident and don't miss an opportunity." I let my hand drift and touch her arm. The touch seemed unexpected to her, but she allowed it, and put her hand on mine. Don't miss an opportunity, I thought.

I looked at her and leaned in closely. I became suddenly, so hypersensitive, that I could feel her warm breath on my face as she moved closer. I brushed her hair back with my hand, and swept it behind her ear, and then moved it to the back of her neck. Then, I kissed her.

Her lips were warm as they lightly touched mine and I could feel her tongue press against her bottom lip. I opened my mouth with hers and kissed her bottom lip, grabbing it with lips before pulling her closer. We then embraced into something so passionate that it was almost carnal. I pressed my entire body against her and ran my fingers through the length of her hair. I felt her inhale with each kiss, as if she were trying to steal my air. And then, she stopped when my computers time went off.

"Don't miss an opportunity" was all I read before the screen powered off. But I had. I had imagined it all. I looked over at her and said goodbye. She smiled and said, "Maybe I'll see you again."

"Yeah, hopefully." I replied, and then I turned away. Should I give her my number? What do I say? Do I just give it to her? Surely not. I turned my eyes back and saw her looking at me. I nodded and waved one last time. No. I don't think she was interested in me. I left the library and returned home alone.