Andrew Shaw - Campus Tramp

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“We won’t make the same mistakes again.”

“No,” she said, “we won’t.”

She looked at him, loving him, needing him. But she loved him and needed him in a different way now. She wasn’t afraid of him or afraid of losing him, not now. She felt safe and sure of herself and sure of him. For a moment she felt terrible about all the other boys she had been with since that first time with him, but then she told herself that they didn’t matter, that they never really existed. They were a child’s substitute for the real thing. Now she had the real thing, and at the same time she was no longer a child, no longer the girl who had first come to Clifton.

He reached for her and drew her close to him. His finger touched her cheek and ran down her face to her chin. He kissed her lightly on the lips, then kissed her closed eyes and the tip of her nose.

He took a deep breath and held it. “I want you,” he said. “Christ, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything. But we’re going to wait for a while, anyhow.”

“Okay.”

He smiled. “Besides,” he added, “with a woman in your condition—”

He laughed when she started to blush. “You better go now,” he said. “You’ve got to lick that exam tomorrow and I’ve got one of my own to worry about. We’ll have plenty of time later.”

She stood up. “Plenty of time,” she said.

He kissed her once more. Then she left.

The walk back to her dorm was easy. She started studying immediately, sure of herself, sure that the exam would be no problem at all for her. There would be problems coming up, plenty of problems, but now she knew that she could handle anything that came her way.

She was a big girl now.

She wondered idly what it would all be like. NYU, CCNY, New York City, the whole thing.

She wondered what it would be like to be Mrs. Donald Gibbs.

Well, she would find out. She would learn all the answers and find out all that had to be found out.

There was plenty of time now, she thought.

Time for everything.