There was a girl I knew once, her name was Julia. We went to high school together for the last three years before we graduated. During this time I got to know her and found out many things about her and her family. One thing I found out was that it was common for both the men and woman in the family to go straight into the workforce after high school, if someone went to college it was odd, and they usually became an outcast. One day during lunch, junior year, I asked her about this, “Julia, have you ever thought about going to college?” I asked as I sat beside her, eating my cafeteria food. I looked over at her, trying to catch the reaction creep across her face. She grinned a little, putting down her food as her head hung, “James, why do you want to ask that question? You know most my family doesn’t anyways.” My head hung a little with hers, and, for a moment, I could feel the depression I brought on between us. Then I thought up a more cheery subject, a question that had been plaguing me for some time, “Julia…” Her fork stopped half way to her mouth, and was put down once more. A somewhat irritated smiled came across her as she turned to face me, “Yes, James?” I took a drink of water before I continued, “Would you want to… uh… go to a movie tonight?”
After that very difficult question we dated for a year, and relationship matured with us. To say the physical portion was taking over would not have been a lie. We stopped seeing each other not long after graduation. While we dated, though, I had gotten more time to talk to her about college. I showed her how she could apply for scholarships and loans, and what kind of jobs she could get with even an associates degree. One day it happened. We were feeding some ducks in a park a few weeks after we had graduated. As we sat on the old wooden bench in the sun, tearing off bits of bred and tossing them at the ducks’ feet, she turned to me, “I’m doing it James, I’m going to college! I signed up for classes last night!” We both just sat there, grinning like idiots until I kissed her, and we went back to my place for a while. Five days after that she broke up with me, though, we still remained the best of friends, just like in high school. We hung out nearly every day during the summer, as if we had never stopped dating. We both became excited as school came closer, we would both be attending the same local campus. Three weeks before our first class me and Julia were talking late at night to the early morning over the phone, we eventually hung up and went to bed but before that we had agreed to meet at the chicken place on grapevine at exactly eight am for a morning chicken biscuit.
I grudgingly woke at seven thirty, having only gotten a few hours of sleep. I got ready and went to the chicken place. Julia wasn’t there when I arrived, but I was early. As I sat at the table, fiddling with a packet of sugar, I kept checking the time on my phone. Eight o’ clock, eight ten, eight fifteen. I waited until eight thirty before I ordered my food to go and went home. Julia had never done this before. “Probably overslept” I said, laughing. I ate my food when I got home and then went right back to bed, setting my cell’s volume on high so as not to miss Julia’s very apologetic call. I woke, but not to the ring tone I was expecting. Groggily I got up as the phone rang; I picked it up with one hand as I wiped the stuff out of my eyes with the other. “Hello?” I said, trying not to sound as if I had been sleeping all day. “Hello, James? This is Catherine... Julia’s mother.” I blinked a few times, confusion striking me as I had never talked to her much before. “Catherine... What time is it?” I looked at the clock as she said it, “Seven Thirty…” I shook my head, trying to wake from this odd dream. What could make me sleep for over twelve hours? “Catherine… uh… Where’s Julia?” She sniffed; she must have been wiping tears off her face as I waited for the most eerie silence of my life to end. “James… She… She’s dead…” I seemed to choke on air; I breathed in too much and exhaled too little during the short time she explained what happened. After I hung up I sat on my bed, trying to regain control of my breathing before I passed out. I didn’t know if I could, my vision faded in and out for I don’t know how long. It turned out her father had come home drunk not long after we had stopped talking on the phone. Julia had told him about going to college earlier that day and he had not forgotten. Though he had beaten her before, this combination was too much. She had bled to death internally before the ambulance even got there.
School started a week after her funeral. Walking to my first class, I could feel her with me. It was then that I realized… her spirit would never leave my side.
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