Story Part V

He flew into LA late in the evening, rented a car, and drove two hours to my apartment. I had returned from school around 4 pm; the nine hours until his arrival was almost enough time to perfect my hair, my makeup and my pajamas. I had smoked about one pack of cigarettes since that afternoon, and was just sitting down to yet another on my stoop when I heard my cell phone ring. I could hear footsteps and a rolling suitcase up the street. He was here.

I wish I could say I was frantic, or even anxious; but in reality, I think I was finally numb from the two-week adrenaline ride. Standing up and looking to my right, I saw him wheeling his luggage down the sidewalk.

He was tall, dressed in jeans, a brown button-down sweater over a t-shirt, and glasses which were somehow missing in every picture he sent. His hair had grown out from the spiky, recently shaven mess which I had come to picture (and adore) every time we spoke; I could now see the cowlick on the top left side of his hairline, which he had tried in vain to tame with hair gel. And as I went to greet him with a hug, he finally smiled and bared his immensely crooked teeth. The voice now meshed with the image I saw.

You might think I was disappointed by the way in which I've just described him, but I was not; if anything, I was slighly relieved because while I still found him immensely attractive, my dream Sebastian and the one standing before me had now cleaved apart...There was a real, live, human-and-everything Sebastian standing before me. And these deviations from my ideal-type S. only made him more approachable, more real.

Though it was late, we stayed up for three hours talking before I finally unfolded my Murphy bed. It was awkward; he was climbing into bed with me and not only had we not yet kissed, we'd only just met. But ah, that internet--it has a tendency to warp the natural progression of things, and so who was I to question this new set of rules?

As we lied in bed, our knees touching, we kept opening an eye only to catch the other staring, which led to an outburst of giggles usually heard in a girls' junior high summer camp cabin. And then, I felt his hand on my knee. It was so innocent and full of so much hope, and it was...somehow the sweetest 'move' ever put on this girl. We grabbed each others' hands and entwined our legs. He kissed me and I melted into those extraordinary lips. And then, we drifted off to sleep.

That night, I learned that he snored.

Loudly.

The next day, I learned that I was being judged.

Severely.