| Jovi got off to a late start. First, her paper that was due for class decided to lose itself on the mess she called a desk. Then, her dryer ate two of her favorite shirts. Next, she forgot that today she had a study session for her other class and, well, to top it off, the heat was really doing a number on her hair. Jovi looked in the mirror for the fiftieth time and started to contemplate shaving her head. Instead, she found a scrunchie and pulled the mess out of her face. She was on her way to her college to talk to her advisor. She hopped into her car and started to mutter to herself as she drove. "I hate grad school. Why in the hell did I decide to do this?" Jovi continued to mutter to herself the entire way to school. The heat would not stop. Damn this heat, Jovi thought. "Who in the hell thought that November could be this hot?" She yelled out the window. A few people that were passing by gave her a weird look. She had the inclination to flip them off, but decided against it. She got to school and started the exhausting task of finding a place to park. Jovi was in luck today. Some stupid, obviously freshman, was pulling out of a choice parking spot. She jumped out of her car, slammed the door shut and went running to meet with her advisor. She was only 5 minutes late. Jovi went running up the stairs to her advisor's office. She flew around the corner and alas, her bag decided to give way. Her books went flying everywhere, along with various random items, including gum, paper clips, a few pens, a tattered piece of paper with a few e-mail addresses on it and a picture of Creed. "Damn." Jovi swore rather loudly and a door slammed at the end of the hallway. She reached down and started to pick up her stuff. She didn't notice someone was walking up the stairs. "Damn, damn, damn." Jovi said one damn for each scattered piece she picked up. "Can I help you?" A deep voice said behind her. Jovi's tiny little hairs stood up on the back of her neck. "It looks like you're having problems." She slowly turned around and looked up into Mark Tremonti's eyes and smile. Jovi seemed to lose the ability to speak for a moment, and then she heard herself saying "damn" one more time. He smiled at her. Jovi's mouth seemed to hit fifth gear after that. "Damn, I mean, here I am, late to see my advisor and then YOU, of all people, walk up the stairs and I am standing here with crap all over the floor," Mark seemed to be enjoying Jovi's little display of frustration, "And now I have to get to my advisor's office and well..." She started to realize that her mouth was talking but it wasn't connected to her brain. Mark handed her a notebook that was covered in Creed song lyrics, Creed quotes and Mark's name all over it. He smiled. Jovi laughed. "Hi, I'm Mark." He stuck his hand out. Jovi smiled. "My name is Jovi, err.. Jovanna. Jovi for short." She wished that her mouth would wait for her brain to think. "Nice to meet you, Jovi." he smiled again and Jovi thought that she was going to hit the floor. They smiled at each other, and Jovi broke the silence. "What in the world are you doing at my college?!?!?!?" He grinned. "I have a friend here. I am visiting since I have some free time." Jovi scooped up the rest of her odds and ends. She looked at her watch. She was now 10 minutes late. Not that she cared anymore. "Am I keeping you from something?" "no.. nonono.. NOooooooo. I was going to go turn something in then I was free. Free for the rest of the day. " She smiled really big. He grinned back. Jovi wished that she could think of something to say. "Well, I am going to get going. It was nice to meet you, Jovi." Mark stuck his hand out again. Jovi shook his hand again, and she sighed. "It was nice to meet you too." Jovi smiled, with a tinge of disappointment. She turned and went down the hallway to her advisor's office. "It was my hair. I knew it. Damn." She muttered to herself. She knocked on her adviser's door and heard a muffled "come in." .... Jovi picked up her bag carefully when her advisor was finished with things. Jovi apologized again for being late. She backed out of the office. Her head was still remembering the beautiful face that she met before. She closed the door and turned around right into Mark. Jovi screamed and dropped her bag. "Oh My God!!!" He laughed. Jovi looked at the snickering Mark. "You know, I really need to just start today over." She bent over to pick her things up again. "Bad day?" "Yeah, well, it was great when I met you, then you disappeared. Speaking of that, why are you waiting outside my advisor's office??" He smirked. "Well, I went to see my friend, and as I was walking back, I found this." He handed her a book. "I opened it and saw your name in it." He shot her a killer smile. Jovi smiled and blushed. "Thanks. You could have turned it in..." "Yeah, but that wouldn't have been as much fun as seeing you again." Jovi almost dropped her bag again. She really needed to get rid of the damn thing. "So I decided I'd try to track you down. In your book I saw there was today's date and the room number. Kinda ironic, isn't it?" "Very." Jovi said a silent prayer. "I remember you saying something about having the afternoon free..." "Yeah. I just had to meet with my advisor" "Well, my friend can't get away for awhile. I'm just going to go hang out for a while, care to join me?" Jovi almost fell over, again. "Sure." She was now wishing she had taken the time to make her hair look better, and was trying to remember when she last brushed her teeth... this morning, thank god. "What in the world is there to do around here?" Jovi had plenty of things on her mind, but she bit her tongue. "Well, there are a couple bookstores, a few coffee places, a park or four, and a nice air conditioned student center." Jovi thought air conditioning sounded great. Mark got a weird look on his place. "Too many people." Jovi got his drift. She thought for a minute. "Well there is one place that I go to hide sometimes." She smiled. He smiled back. "Sounds great." Jovi wanted to ditch her bag from hell. She went to her car and threw her bag in the backseat. Mark noticed the several Creed cd's on her front seat. Jovi saw him being nosy. "Ok, I know it is a mess. No comments." She closed her door and smiled at him. Jovi told him that she found this place when she decided to get the hell away from everything. "I was having a pretty rough time and I needed a place to I guess run to." Jovi's eyes clouded over. Mark saw that she became a little bit guarded. They walked for a little bit then Jovi turned off the sidewalk onto a small path. She told him to watch his head. Jovi didn't talk much as she led him to her place. She disappeared into some bushes. He followed her. On the other side, he saw a pretty stream that looked picture perfect. He looked all around. The place was surrounded in trees. It was a perfect place to come if you needed to think, or hide. Jovi looked back at him. |