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The Common Shift
The Common Shift
It was Monday morning and Jake was not feeling very well. All he wanted to do was stay in his room and not go to his 9 am English class. It was late April and all his boarding school friends were excited about the summer and college. Jake was excited as well but he sort of felt anxious about having to leave all of his friends and his girlfriend. Jake went to the dining hall and hung out with his 5 best friends: John, Ryan, Lucas, Nigel, and Weiman. Jake got accepted to Fordham and Muhlenberg but was not sure which one he would commit to. That weekend was Prom. Jake asked his then girlfriend Ophelia to Prom in a very unusual way. He collected a bunch of tennis balls from the tennis courts and spelled PROM with the tennis balls attached to the tennis court fence. Jake asked Ophelia’s friend Alex to help him out. So Alex blindfolded Ophelia and took her to the tennis court where Jake was standing with a rose in his mouth, looking at the fence. It all worked out pretty well and Ophelia said yes. Jake had wanted to ask Ophelia out since the beginning of sophomore year and now they were both in senior year and his wish finally came true.
It was the big day now. Prom day. Jake did not have great dancing moves but he made Ophelia laugh with his peculiar dancing persona and that is all Jake thought was important. The night ended and all the seniors went to the after prom. Jake got in a car with his friend Ryan and Ophelia went with Alex. They met up in the some girl’s house around 20 minutes from school. They all got really drunk and Jake ended up sleeping over Ryan’s. Overall, Jake had a great night. He was with his friends and with Ophelia. He could not have asked for a better evening.
Graduation happened and Jake and his friends were really excited about was going to come next. Jake said goodbye to his friends. He stayed in New York for a couple of weeks before going back to Florida where he was from. Summer came and he kept talking to Ophelia once a while. Summer ended and his connections with Ophelia dwindle as they were about to enter a new chapter of their life. The first semester was rough for Jake. Muhlenberg College was just not the place for him. He made a few friends but he really missed his old ones. He also missed Ophelia and would consider texting her if he did not think it was wrong. Long distance relationships never worked as far as he thought. On winter break however, he decided to go to New York and surprised her. When he got to New York, he texted her with a simple “Hello.” Ophelia did not see this text coming at all due to the fact that they stopped talking for about 3 months. They agreed it would be better for them to just move on and meet new people. That way they would both be happy.
Ophelia said, “Hello, how are you?” Jake asked her to go out and catch up. Ophelia agreed “Sure.” Jake still had some feeling towards Ophelia and the fact that she agreed, made Jake very happy. Nonetheless, Ophelia sent a text to Jake that said “Just to put it out there, I have a boyfriend.” It was dead silent. Jake did not know how to react. All the memories he had with Ophelia came to his mind and suddenly faded away as the thought of her with someone else took room in his mind. He went out with her anyway. It was pretty uncomfortable at first but bearable. He said goodbye to her and hugged her for the last time. She left and Jake rang up his friend Ryan. They went to a bar and got very drunk. Jake felt very disappointed and sick of himself. Ryan told him “It’s fine man. Everything will be all right. That’s just life. It may hurt you when you least expect it but that’s the beauty of it. It’s unpredictable. And the best of all, it goes on.” And it did. As the bartender poured another whiskey, Jake thought of Wendy, the cute brunette from his economics class who would smile at him.
This story was written by Jacinto Lemarroy
