Hardin parks in the lot closest to the coffee house as he can manage so that we can limit the exposure to the weather but the campus is crowded since everyone has returned from Christmas break. He curses the entire time he circles each parking lot and I try not to laugh at his annoyance. It is quite adorable.

"Give me your bag." Hardin says when I get out of the car.

I hand it to him with a smile and thank him for the thoughtful gesture, it is heavy, manageable but heavy. It feels strange being back on campus, so much has changed and happened since I have last been here. The cold wind whips against my skin and Hardin pulls a beanie over his head before zipping his jacket up all the way while we rush through the parking lot and down the street. I should have brought a thicker jacket, and gloves, and even a hat for myself. Hardin was right when he said I shouldn't wear the dress but there is no way I am admitting that.

Hardin looks adorable with his hair hidden under the beanie and his cheeks and nose are red from the cold. Only Hardin would look even more attractive in this harsh weather.

"There he is." He points to Landon as we walk inside.

The familiarity of the small coffee shop calms my nerves and I smile as soon as I see my closest friend sitting at a small table waiting for me.

"Good morning." Landon smiles when his eyes rest on Hardin and I.

"Morning." I chirp back.

"I'll get in line." Hardin mumbles and heads to the counter.

I didn't expect him to stay or get my coffee but I am glad he is. We don't have any classes together this semester and I will miss seeing him since I have gotten used to seeing him all day, every day during the second half of Christmas break at least.

"Ready for the new semester?" Landon asks when I take a seat across from him.

The chair squeaks across the tile floor, drawing attention to us and I smile apologetically before taking a good look at Landon.

He has tried a new hairstyle, pushing his hair up off of his forehead and it looks very good on him. As I look around the coffee shop, I begin to realize I probably should have just worn jeans and I sweatshirt, I am the only one dressed this way, except Landon in his light blue button down shirt and khakis.

"Yes, and no." I tell him and he agrees.

"Same. How are things.. you know between you two?" He leans across the table to whisper.

Hardin's has his back to us and the barista's face is in a deep scowl. She rolls her eyes as he hands her his debit card and I wonder what he did to her to irritate her so much this early in the day.

"They are good actually. How are things with Dakota? It feels much longer than a week since we have seen each other."

"Good, she is preparing for New York."

"That is so amazing, I would love to go to New York." I can't imagine how the city is.

"Me too." He smiles and I want to tell him not to go but I know that I can't.

"I haven't made my mind up yet." He answers my thoughts.

"I want to go and be close to her, we have lived so far for so long but I love WSU and I don't know if I want to be away from my mum and Ken to go to a huge city where I know absolutely no one, except her of course.

"You would do amazing there, you could go to NYU and the two of you could get an apartment." I say.

"Yeah, I just don't know yet."

"Know what?" Hardin interrupts.

He sits my coffee in front of me but doesn't sit down.

"I've got to go, my first class begins in five minutes on the opposite side of campus." Hardin says and I cringe at the thought of running late on the first day of new classes.

"Okay, I will see you after yoga. It's my last class." I tell him and he surprises me by leaning down and planting a kiss on my lips then my forehead.

"I love you, be careful." He says and I get the feeling that if his cheeks weren't red from the cold they would be now, his eyes shift to the floor when he remembers Landon is sitting across from us.

Public displays of affection are definitely not Hardin's thing.

"I will. I love you." I tell him and he gives Landon an uncomfortable head nod before walking towards the door.

"That was.. weird." Landon lifts his eyebrows and takes a drink of his coffee.

"Yeah it was." I laugh and rest my chin on my hand and sigh happily.

"We should get going to religion." Landon says and I grab my bag from the floor beside me before following Landon outside.

Luckily we don't have a long walk to our first class. I am excited for world religion, it will be very interesting and thought provoking, and an added bonus is having Landon in class with me. When we enter the room, we aren't the first students to arrive but the front row is completely empty.

Landon and I sit down in the front center and take our books out. It feels good to be back in my element, academics have always been my thing and I love that Landon feels the same.

"There is our professor, the one I told you about." Landon points across the lecture room.

The young man walking toward us looks very familiar, his black hair and tan skin register in my mind.

"I think I know..oh! He was at Connor's!" I whisper too loud to Landon.

"Conner's?"

"The store by our house. He was there." I explain.

"Oh, that is random." Landon says.

"Yeah it is. He is so young." I add and Landon nods in agreement.

What a coincidence that the guy on the motorcycle at Conner's ended up being my religion professor. He barely looks old enough to be one and I wouldn't connect motorcycle riding to teaching world religion, that is what I get for judging him by his rugged appearance.

Landon and I wait patiently as the room fills with students, most of them are obnoxiously loud, it doesn't help that this classroom seems smaller than most and there are only about thirty chairs.

"Good morning everyone, as most of you know by now my name is Professor Soto. This is World Religion, you may get bored a few times and I can promise you that you will learn a heap of facts that you will never actually use in the real world but hey, what is college for?" He smiles and everyone laughs.

This is different.

"So let's get started, there is no syllabus for this course. We will not be following a strict outline, that isn't my style.. but we will learn all that you need to know by the end date. You will have one large project but I won't be telling you what it consists of until halfway through the course. Seventy-five percent of your grade will come from a journal that you will be required to keep. I know you are thinking what does a journal have to do with religion? It doesn't per say but in a way it does. In order to study and really understand any form of spirituality you have to be open to the idea of anything and everything. Keeping a journal will help with that and some of the things I will have you write about will involve topics that people are not comfortable with, topics that are very controversial and uncomfortable for some but I have high hopes that everyone will leave this class with an open mind and maybe a little knowledge." He beams and unbuttons his jacket.

Landon and I both turn to look at one another at the same time.

"No syllabus?" Landon mouths.

"A journal?" I reply silently.

Professor Soto takes a seat at the large desk in the front of the room and pulls a bottle of water from his bag.

"You can talk amongst yourselves until the end of class, or you can go ahead and go for today and we will begin the real work tomorrow. Just sign the roster so I can see how many flakes we had that didn't show for the first day." He announces with a playful grin.

The class howls and cheers before departing quickly, Landon shrugs at me and we both stand up after the room is empty. We are the last to sign the attendance roster.

"Well I guess this is cool, I can call Dakota for a little while between classes." He says and packs his things.

"I am going to talk to the professor for a minute so you can go ahead." I tell him and he nods before leaving me alone.

As I approach Professor Soto's desk I notice that he now has headphones in his ears and his fingers are tapping against his desk.

He doesn't seem to notice me standing in front of him as he hums along to the music in his ears.

"Uhm..Could I talk to you for a second?" I ask but he doesn't acknowledge me.

I awkwardly wave my hand towards him which catches his attention and his head snaps up as he pulls the ear buds from his ears.

"Sorry! I didn't see you there, I figured everyone was gone." He smiles and stand up in front of me.

"It's okay.. I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions?" I shift my bag to my other shoulder and mentally curse at myself for wearing this stupid outfit.

"Yeah sure.. wait.. you are the woman from Conner's aren't you?" He asks and pulls his jacket from his shoulders and down his arms to lay it across the back of his chair.

"Yeah, that's me." I tell him with a smile.

"Thought so, you owe me for that. That Gloria is a tough woman, I had to take her to dinner for that." He says and I try not to laugh.

"Do you work there? You had a name tag on." I blurt.

"No, I was coming from a gig before that. I did work there while I was finishing college though. You really pay attention to detail." He smiles.

"Yeah, I guess." I respond, embarrassed by my lack of boundaries.

"So what did you need, Miss...Young is it?" He sits back down in his chair after running his fingers over what appears to be the roster that was signed by each student.

He doesn't act or look like any professor that I have had before.

"I just have a few questions about the course. You said there is no syllabus.."

'Yeah?"

"So how will we know when do have the assignments finished by?"

"I will tell you." He shrugs.

"Okay.. but how will we know what the assignments are?" I ask.

"I will tell you." He repeats.

"But what if we want to do the assignments early?"

"You can't."

"But what.."

"No early assignments. No syllabus. That's just the way it is." He interrupts with a smile.

"But I.." I begin.

"Don't overthink it, I am sure you will do that enough in your other courses." He laughs.

"I.. okay." I don't know what else to say.

This class is going to be hell for me, I know it.

"Well if that is all you wanted to know, I am going to get going." The young professor stands and grabs his things.

"Okay.." I say quietly and walk toward the door.

"Oh and Miss Young?" He calls after me.

"Don't forget to buy a journal." He says when I turn back around.

...

The rest of the day goes by quickly and I am eager to see Hardin. I have sent him a few text messages but he has yet to respond. My feet are killing me as I make my way to the athletic building, I had not realized how far of a walk it would be. The smell of sweat invades my nostrils as soon as I open the door and I hurry to the locker room labeled with a stick figure in a dress. The walls are lined with thin red lockers, the metal showing threw the chipped paint job.

"How do we know which locker to use?" I ask a short brunette wearing a bathing suit.

"You can just pick one as long as you brought your own lock." She informs me.

"Oh." Of course, I didn't think to bring a lock.

"I have an extra." She smiles and digs in her bag before handing me a small lock.

"The combination is on the back, I haven't removed the sticker." She says and I thank her as she walks out of the room.

After I am changed into a new pair of black yoga pants and a white t-shirt, I head out of the locker room. The pants look and feel more like leggings since they are tight on my ankles but I am sure everyone else will be wearing the same so I won't be so uncomfortable.

When I walk down the hall to the yoga room a group of lacrosse players pass by, each of them making a vulgar remark that I choose to ignore. All of them except one keeps moving.

"You trying out for cheer next year?" The boy asks. His eyes are a deep brown, almost black.

"Me? No, I am just on my way to yoga class." I stammer. We are the only people in this hall.

"Oh, that is too bad, You would look phenomenal in a skirt."

"I have a boyfriend." I announce and try to move around him, he blocks me.

"I have a girlfriend.. what does that matter? I would easily drop her for you." He smiles and takes a step, corning me.

He doesn't appear intimidating at all but something about his cocky smile makes my skin crawl.

"I need to get to class." I say.

"I can walk you.. or you can skip, I could show you around." He puts his arm up on the wall next to my head and I step backwards with no where to go.

"Get the fuck away from her or I will fucking kill you." Hardin's voice booms from behind me and the creep turns his head to look at Hardin.

He looks more intimidating than ever in long basketball shorts and a black t-shirt with the sleeves cut off to reveal his tattooed arms.

"I'm..sorry man, I didn't know she had a boyfriend." He lies.

"Did you not hear me? I said get the fuck away from her." Hardin walks toward us and the lacrosse player backs away quickly but Hardin grabs ahold of his shirt and slams him against the wall. I don't stop him.

"Come near her again and I will crack your skull against this wall. Do you understand me?" He growls.

"Ye..yess.." The guy stutters and rushes down the hall.

"Thank god." I say and wrap my arm around his neck.

"Who was that?" He asks, removing my arm and taking a step away from him.

"I don't know, he just walked by me."

"You sure?" He is beyond angry, I can tell.

"Yeah, I don't know him. I am so glad you came.. why are you here? I thought you didn't need anymore P.E classes?" I ask.

"I decided to take one, good thing I did." He sighs and takes my hand into his.

"Which one?" I ask, I can not imagine Hardin being athletic at all.

"Yours."

"You didn't." I gasp.

"Oh, yes I did." His anger seems to be dissolved as he smiles at my horrified expression.