Chapter 2, Part 1

To understand why I was surprised to see Darin, first you need to understand who he is, or rather was, in my life. When I was in high school, Darin was the first boy I ever really loved. I know it was high school love, but either way, that’s the basic connection. We broke up on bad terms, you could say. We had gone to the spring concert the year before and what began as a lovely time turned into something scarier than anything I have ever known.

*************

One year earlier:

“Darin, what is going to happen when I graduate?” I asked him as we were laying on the couch watching a random sitcom at my parents’ house. We were killing time until we had to leave for the spring concert.

“Don’t worry about a thing babe. I graduated almost a year ago and we’re still together, aren’t we?” he replied with an absolutely gorgeous smile complete with dimples on each cheek. Darin looked so handsome with his longish, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. He worked out all the time and I always secretly thought that he had the physique of a Greek athlete. Oh, he was absolutely gorgeous standing at a modest 5’10” and I was always shocked at how I managed to hold on to him even after he had graduated.

“Well, yes, we’re still together, but what if I want to go and do something somewhere else? What if I decide I want to go to college in another city or another state?”

“We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. You’re just stressed because of the concert. We’ll talk about this later” and that was that, at least for the time being. After about half an hour, we realized it was time to leave and so we went to the auditorium where the concert was being held.

“I’ll be watching you from the audience” he told me with a kiss on the cheek. “Good luck, I’m sure you’ll be great.” There was that smile again.

We parted and I went backstage to go and warm up with everyone else. The orchestra that I was in was next to perform. After I was done, I was free to go either watch the rest of the concert or just leave if I so desired. Quite obviously, after we were done with our performance, Darin was right outside the backstage door grinning from ear to ear.

“You were wonderful and your solo sounded perfect.” He was practically gushing, but I took him at his word because he had been a fabulous violinist. Two guesses on how we met and the first one doesn’t count. “What do you want to do now?”

“Let’s go for a walk” I suggested. It was still early evening and the sun was just beginning to set. After being in the stuff auditorium, all I wanted to do was get some fresh air so outside we went. In front of the auditorium was a small garden maze with beautiful flowers blooming at the time. Everything looked so lush and vibrant from the greens of the foliage to the bright pinks, reds, and oranges of the hibiscus and roses. The scent of flowers was in the air and it smelled heavenly. We walked a little ways through the maze and eventually came to a small garden bench. He sat down and beckoned me to sit down next to him.

“So, Kimmi, where are you thinking of going for college?” he asked me with a hint of a smile. He leaned back on the bench looking very relaxed.

“I’m really not sure. There are a few places I would love to go. The school at the top of my list right now is Trinity in San Antonio. I don’t know that I’ll end up there because as it stands, I haven’t gotten an acceptance letter or anything like that. On the other hand, I might just end up at UT in San Antonio. That’s my second choice. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason, I was just curious because you had mentioned it earlier.”

“Oh.” I sat back and leaned against Darin, closing my eyes as I did so. I could feel his breath on my neck, very warm and very inviting. His lips started making their way down the side of my neck in a deliciously sensual manner. Darin turned me around and found his way over to my lips. He was beginning to breathe heavily and was pressing himself more and more against me. He filled me with desire, but considering my age, eighteen, I was really squeamish and asked him to stop.

“You know you like it when I kiss you like that” he breathed into my ear. He was right of course, but that didn’t change the fact that I wanted him to stop. I kept asking him but he seemed to think that I was playing hard to get and so he continued.

“Stop,” I said forcefully so I thought. He grabbed me and turned me around pushing me down on the bench so I was lying beneath him.

“You know you want me,” he said in such a way that it was between a snarl and a smile. He held my shoulders down and would not let me up. I was pinned to the bench and very scared of this guy that was supposed to be my boyfriend.

“Darin, let me up!” The bastard ignored me and seemed to go into his own world. He began to push my skirt up and undo his belt all at the same time saying that he just KNEW that I wanted him to do this and to stop fighting the inevitable. Not two seconds later, I heard someone calling for me. It was a friend of mine.

“Kimmi, where are you?” my friend Amy called from a distance. Darin looked at me with this savage look.

“If you call back to her, you will regret it.” I didn’t care. Calling back to Amy was my only chance now before he…

“Amy, I’m over here!” I yelled as loudly as I could. Darin scrambled off of me and tried to get himself zipped up.

“If you say anything to anyone, well you’ll see,” and he put on his winning smile as if nothing had just happened.

“Hi Amy. What’s up?” he asked as if he had not just tried to rape me.

*************

Chapter 1 - There is Always a Beginning

            My name is Kimmi Morrison Galvan. I was eighteen and stupid. Some people might call it naive, but I think it’s stupidity.  I was a freshman in college and thought that the world was my oyster. I know, but give me a break...I was eighteen.  A full ten years later, boy has my outlook changed, but I suppose I should start at the beginning.

*****************

            It was the first morning of class and OMG, what was I thinking? Scheduling a class at 8:30am? EESH. I think it was a remnant of what I thought I should do as far as classes went but then again, that was what I had been trained to think what with conventional schools starting so damn early. I only lasted maybe four or five classes before I withdrew from that class. Never again, I told myself. I had an eighteen credit hour course load so I had my work cut out for me.  I dreamed of being...oh, I don't know...something big and spectacular. In truth, I started college with a declared major in Psychology, but then decided that was not the field for me.  I must have gone through four different majors in the first fall semester.  Oh, and let me tell you how those "freshman fifteen" are not just a myth.  For me it was more like the "freshman thirty." I had gotten so fat, it was embarassing.  When I realized just how big I'd gotten, I started working on it and slowly, got rid of most of it.

            Honestly, I missed a lot of the stuff I used to be involved in when I was in high school. I was one of those over-achieving, smart kids that was involved in orchestra, student council, the honor society, speech/drama/debate, among other things. Everybody knew me but that certainly did not mean I was popular.  Either way, I began missing all of the involvement and so I decided to join the university orchestra as a means to an end.  After all, playing the cello was one of those things that I had always enjoyed and to be honest, I missed it quite a bit.  At the beginning of the spring semester, I was part of an orchestra once again making beautiful music, and then I met him, the man who...well, you'll get to know him as we continue.

            Beyond this mystery man who will remain nameless for now, I had unknowingly brought a lot of baggage with me.  Little did I know what lay in store for me that spring semester. A whole new world opened up to me, but not without a few remnants of my past.

*****************

            As one of the only non-music majors in the orchestra, I was in the minority, but they still treated me with such kindness. The various sections were very close to one another and welcomed me with open arms. It was a wonderful experience. I was a little rusty on my skills because I had not picked up my instrument in at least six months for anything remotely serious. Sure, every once in a while, I would play a little something for the fun of it, but I had not really practiced and I was positive that it showed. The others would tell me that I sounded fine, but I felt like I needed practice so I began spending a lot of time in the various practice rooms.  I really began to feel like myself again. I had failed to realize just how much music meant to me.

            Even in my other classes, there was significant improvement. I remember taking Pre-Calculus at the time and my grades were starting to slip during that preceding fall. There was no good reason at the time because I knew what Dr. Chong was talking about in his lectures. It was really because I just didn't have the motivation to get things done.  When I re-enrolled in the class in the spring, I did incredibly well because the orchestra had a no pass/no play rule that the orchestra director enforced. He refused to allow any of his students to play if they were not passing other classes. It might not have been a campus policy, but Dr. Weber, the head orchestra director, made sure that we knew it was his policy. All things considered, my grades picked up and I was enjoying myself again, at least until one day when I thought I saw Darin Stokes walk right past me when I was on my way to a science lecture.

*****************