Leslie’s Admission
By
Benita Bing
Copyright © 2015 by Benita Bing – All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to any person, place, or event is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without the written permission of the author
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Next Book
Chapter 1
Leslie Ford felt the adrenaline that had forced itself into the moment, perhaps a different tinge of excitement surrounding this event than she had envisioned. The gasping last days of a hot, humid summer were getting in their last stings as the heat pressed heavily in the afternoon lull.
She had finally made it – her very first day of college. Not sure how her contemporaries felt about it, but she found the day delightful. And she knew that her first day at Millard Valley State would be forever etched into her memory.
Of course, it was most likely that her peers didn’t view this glorious moment in the same way that she did. This had always been the case. All her life, she felt different and stood apart. She felt as if her thoughts and feelings had been unique, and no one else felt or saw things the way she did.
She had been one of the top students in almost every school and class she had ever attended. While this fact earned her a full college scholarship, it proved to be a disadvantage socially. And the fact she had worn glasses for so many years certainly didn’t help separate her from that stereotype.
On the other hand, as she was often told, her spectacles hid a pretty face that boasted an olive complexion with beautiful brown eyes. That was complimented by a slender figure on a 5’8” frame along with long dark brown hair. There was no doubt that Mother Nature had been kind to her.
Getting dates initially was not a problem for Leslie, but going out on them had been. She was one of those girls who didn’t really like dating around, she preferred something more meaningful. In her mind, dating carelessly could lead to places that you might regret later. It was her belief that you really shouldn’t go out with someone unless it had the potential to get serious. And if it happened to get serious, then you needed to be with the right person in the first place.
Needless to say, this belief resulted in too many times where Leslie politely declined guys who were asking her out. And over time, a reputation grew. And then finally, the invitations stopped.
All this left the mental scar of believing that love wasn’t in the cards for her. In spite of her wonderful qualities, the absence of ever having a sustainable relationship in her life left a feeling of brokenness.
Leslie could only surmise that there was some sort of defect in her psyche. And this flaw prevented love from ever smiling upon her. This belief was her deepest and most private thought – she never admitted this to anyone, and she knew deep down that she never would.
“Hey Leslie!” she heard a voice from afar.
She saw the familiar girl from her Chemistry class. This girl was pretty easy to pick out of a crowd, not because she was tall – she was actually shorter than Leslie – but because of her long curly red hair which was quite stunning.
“Hey Holly.” smiled Leslie.
“How did your English Comp class go?”
“Not too bad. Lots of stuff I’d seen before though.”
Holly Roberts was a local girl. Unlike Leslie, who’d moved up from Hollister, a small town that was located about 300 miles south of their campus. They had met during orientation where they discovered two cool things. The first was finding out that each of them were pre-med students and secondly, that they had several of their classes together.
“This morning, you mentioned something about Glowing Wood Apartments that are close by?” asked Leslie.
“Yes, they’re about 2 blocks away from the East Side of campus. From there, you could easily walk or ride a bike to class.”
“I like the sound of that.” Replied Leslie.
“I assumed most of you out of towners stayed in the dorms.”
“Oh no. I’m much too private for that. I’d rather have my own place. Of course, I’m banking on finding some work nearby as well. It’d be nice if I could keep everything close and not have to rely on buses or outside transportation.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Said Holly. “I may be able to get you a job where I work.”
“Where is that?”
“Samson’s Diner. It’s a greasy spoon not far from here. The food is really good actually and it’s close to the apartments too.”
“What do you do there?”
“Oh, I wait tables. The tips are really good – most of the time anyway.”
“I’m definitely interested in talking to them.” Said Leslie.
Their conversation was interrupted by a disturbance that broke out across one of the beautiful lawns that were a trademark of the Millard Valley State campus. Virtually all passersby stopped and turned to see a group of guys engaging in a very loud round of horseplay.
Most viewers chose to ignore the ruckus and continued along their way. But not Leslie – she found herself unable to turn away. For some reason, the site of the tall athletic guy who was bear-hugging his friend and laughing hysterically just wouldn’t let her turn away. She was taken in by his tall athletic physique. She watched intently as he joked with his buddies.
“Who is that?” She could barely get the words out of her mouth.
“Oh, that’s Bobby Black,” replied Holly. “Not sure if you want to go there.”
“What do you mean? I was just curious …”
“Uh-huh.” Said Holly, grinning to herself.
“Do you know him?”
“Kinda. We’ve talked a little. He’s a local guy, but went to a different high school than I did. The thing is most every girl on campus has ‘noticed’ him too and he’s all too aware of that fact.”
“Does he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure that he’s really boyfriend material either.”
Leslie kept staring and remained silent – smiling just a little to herself.
* * * * * * *
Leslie and Holly made the rounds that afternoon. Things could not have been more productive for Leslie. Holly took her to Samson’s and introduced her to Holly’s boss, April, who offered her a job right on the spot.
“Leave your class schedule with me and I’ll work you in,” April told her. “Can you start tomorrow, or would you rather start day after tomorrow?”
“Day after tomorrow,” replied Leslie. “I don’t have a place to live yet.”
She and Holly then went to Glowing Wood Apartments. She was disappointed to learn that there were no single bedroom units available.
“Two and three bedroom units are all we have available right now.” The property manager told her.
Holly looked at the property manager, “Can you give us a minute?”
“Absolutely.”
The two girls stepped out of the office on to the sidewalk outside.
“Leslie, what do you think about having a roommate?” Asked Holly.
“But I don’t know anyone here.”
“I’m talking about me, silly.”
“Why would you need an apartment? Your family lives here.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about moving out anyway. I have two brothers and a sister, so I could use some privacy too.” Holly smiled.
“Well, I think that’s a great idea actually,” said Leslie. “Would we get too tired of each other? I mean, having so many classes together, living together, and working at the same place too …”
“We won’t be working that much together. April will probably spread out our two work schedules. And you have to admit, we’ll be doing a lot of studying in our spare time.”
“Well, okay. Let’s do it then!”
* * * * * * *
The next day after classes, Holly borrowed her Dad’s pick-up truck and drove to the hotel where Leslie had been staying. They began loading up Leslie’s belongings. The biggest thing Leslie had was a small computer desk which had been neatly disassembled for travel. Aside from that, she had mostly boxes.
They began loading the truck which took a little more than 20 minutes. Leslie then gave the room one last scan before checking out. They noticed one lone box in the corner that had been overlooked.
“Go ahead and check out, Leslie.” Holly said. “I’ll get that last box.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Holly grabbed the box and carried it to the truck. As she slid the box into the back of the truck, an adjacent box refusing to slide chose instead to topple over – spilling out its contents.
“Shit!” Said Holly. Not really wanting to jump up into the truck to pick up the mess.
She got into the back of the truck and hovered over the scattered items. Her eyes focused on a file folder labeled “Legal Stuff” that had several documents sticking out. As she looked closer, she couldn’t help but notice the words “Final Court Judgment” appeared at the top of one of those documents. Underneath the title was the name of Leslie Anne Ford who was labeled as the “accused”. When she opened the folder, those big red words, “GUILTY” was stamped across the body of the document.
“Oh my God!” Holly said to herself.
Before she could investigate any further, the office door opened and Leslie came out. Holly quickly gathered the contents of the box, stuffed them back inside, and placed the box back in the upright position – hoping that Leslie hadn’t noticed.
“What are you doing back there?” asked Leslie as she approached the truck.
“Clumsy me … I knocked over one of your boxes.” Holly admitted.
“Don’t sweat it. Nothing back there is breakable anyway. Let’s go to our new place!”
* * * * * * *
Over the next few weeks, Leslie and Holly settled into their new life. At first, Holly wondered about the court document she had discovered. She had even thought about asking Leslie about it, but then she would have to admit to peeking into Leslie’s personal file.
Holly didn’t want to lose Leslie’s trust, so she figured that the court document wasn’t any of her business in the first place. Besides, they were getting along very well together. But Holly would be lying if she said she wasn’t just a little curious about it.
There are very few times in life when two people would meet randomly as they had done, and then become good friends as quickly as they had done. That just never happened. She actually felt closer to Leslie than she did many of her friends she’d known since grade school. It was a great feeling to share that kind of connection with someone. She felt a feeling of trust with Leslie that seemed to have always been there.
In spite of their closeness, Holly actually didn’t know very much about Leslie’s background. It was like pulling teeth to get Leslie to talk about herself, her family, or anything about her past. She assumed that Leslie would be open up more as time went on.
* * * * * * *
Leslie kept checking her watch. She wondered if it were possible to sit through another lecture as boring as the one she was attending.
Good grief, what was I thinking when I chose Philosophy as one of my humanities electives? She wondered.
Philosophy was actually a fun class in high school. Her instructor Mr. Lindsay would basically toss up a topic to the whole class by asking a thought provoking question. He would then let his students take over and toss ideas around to see where the discussion led. She loved that format. More than one time she had skillfully beat down an opponent in a healthy debate about life’s complexities. She smiled to herself while recalling those times.
Of course, that high school class only had about a dozen students. This class has over a hundred students! Open class debating probably wouldn’t be very practical with so many points of view and opinions to digest and navigate.
As she focused her thoughts back on the class, she was delighted to hear those magic words, “See you next time.”
Thank God, she thought. As the classroom began to empty out, she was thinking about the quickest way to get to her Chemistry Lab. It was on the other side of campus, and was a challenge to get there on time. Worst yet, Professor Logan was not pleasant at all with stragglers who wondered into her lab class late.
She turned left down the hallway and then made a quick right into the stairwell. Then it happened …
She felt a brain jarring collision that left her on the floor. Her books and papers had flown all over the hallway.
“What the hell?!?” a voiced shouted.
She looked up and realized she had blindly crashed into Bobby Black. Up close, he was even more adorable than she had originally observed. The combination of his thick jet black hair and sky blue eyes was stunning – to say the least.
“I am so sorry … “ Leslie said meekly. “I wasn’t paying attention ..”
“Wouldn’t it be a great idea to start paying attention?” Bobby said rudely. “Maybe you should get a refund on those geek glasses you’re wearing, because you’re blind as a damn bat.”
This drew laughter from several onlookers. Bobby smiled at them as he’d just delivered a great punch line. The guy who was accompanying Bobby was laughing especially hard. He was tall like Bobby, but had curly blonde hair and an evil smile.
“Don’t you just love these damn nerds who carry around more books than a freaking library, Bobby?” said blondie.
“I think half of these geeks are really dumb asses trying to impress everyone by carrying around lots of books.” agreed Bobby. “Is that what you are doing, sweetie?”
More giggles and snickers from the gallery.
Leslie could feel a rush of anger bubble up inside her. But what she felt even more was hurt and humiliation. Mockery and contempt oozed out from the crowd like a thick morning fog.
She wanted to respond, but for some reason, she was too upset to say anything. Embarrassment has a way of completely dominating person inside, like thousands of little needles injecting a powerful potion designed to paralyze.
Leslie finally broke through the hesitation and gathered herself. She got off the floor quickly and with purpose. A couple of guys who dared to defy the majority were kind enough to stoop down and help her gather her books.
Once she collected her stuff, she turned and glared angrily at Bobby Black and his sidekick. Bobby smiled with amusement and as she stomped off down the stairwell. She heard blondie mocking her with “boo-hoo’s” as she walked away.
Chapter 2
Leslie fumed for days over how she was treated by Bobby Black and his friend. Rather than telling Holly, she decided to keep the ugly event to herself. Not that she didn’t want to discuss it with Holly or didn’t trust her; she just didn’t want to relive the incident all over again.
While she was angry at how they treated her, she was even angrier at herself. Angry for not defending herself and letting those two knuckleheads walk all over her in front of everyone. After all, she could always go tell those guys what she thought about them, but she could never go back and defend her honor at that moment in time – and that was what really hurt.
In the end, college campuses are often just like small towns. News and tales mak
e their rounds – add some juicy drama to the mix and the speed at which those tales travel accelerate beyond all belief. Because of this, Leslie knew that it was probably just a matter of time before Holly put two and two together.
And as predicted, when Holly heard about a bespectacled new girl on campus getting intensely mocked by Bobby Black and company, and then noticed the sudden moodiness and social withdrawal of her roommate, it was pretty easy to figure out who that girl was.
She approached the matter delicately with Leslie. Once she supplied details of such an incident in a general sense, Leslie broke down like a guilty person on a witness stand in court – eager to rid their soul of the ugly secret inside.
“Holly, it was so damn embarrassing,” said Leslie. “I really wanted to forget about it and move on, but it’s hard to let it go.”
“Well now you’ve seen the real Bobby Black.”
“Yeah. And he’s quite an ass.”
“Yep.”
“I still don’t know who the other guy was –that was with him.”
“Blonde hair, evil laugh?”
“Yes.”
“Musher.”
“Who?”
“That was Bobby’s cousin, Rick Musher. Everyone calls him Musher.” Said Holly.
“He was even a bigger ass than Bobby was.”
“Yes, he is,” replied Holly. “His Dad is one of the Deans here. Word has it that his Dad pulls lots of strings for him.”
“That sucks.”
“Don’t sweat it, Leslie. Most people around here detest the both of them anyway.”
* * * * * * *
“Man, I can’t wait to feast on a big ol’ double cheeseburger.” Musher said.
“I’m more in the mood for some wings,” Bobby admitted.
They crossed Milligan Avenue and stood in front of Samson’s Diner. Bobby stopped. He turned and looked at Musher.
“Is Tina meeting us here?”
“Naw, she’s shopping with her mommy.” Musher smiled, making a face of mocking ridicule. They both laughed.
They walked into Samson’s and got themselves seated. They reviewed the menus, confirmed their selections, and waited for service. The waitress brought them beers and took their orders.