Just Breathe Again - Mia Villano Page 0,2

She saw him the first time at the sorority party her roommates made her attend. She hated parties and preferred to stay home and study. That night they wanted her to get out. She agreed to go and right away she noticed him. He stood with another girl, but kept looking at her while he talked to everyone else. She noticed he couldn’t pry his eyes off of her. She began to fear that maybe he was a weirdo, a stalker, or worse yet, some type of pervert. He didn’t come up to Jeannie until the end of the night.

When Jeannie began to leave, he chased after her not knowing her name, yelling “Hey” to get her attention. Reluctantly, she stopped and turned around to look at the most beautiful dark eyes she had ever seen. He took her breath away when she turned around and looked at him up close.

He asked for her number and she had nothing to write on so she dug in her purse for a pen. He grabbed the pen and wrote her number on his hand. She didn’t expect him to call. He called that night and every night after until she agreed to go out with him.

After the first date, they were inseparable, and in love. With Jeannie’s good looks she always had her pick of boys. None of them interested her like Vince Franklin or made her laugh so much.

Vince had a girlfriend when they met, but broke up with her as soon as he began dating Jeannie. Katherine Foster was the president of her sorority, top of her class, and former beauty queen. Jeannie met her at different functions, but never talked to her. Katherine came from a well-to-do family and expected to continue her well-to-do lifestyle once out of school and married. To Katherine, status and money meant everything. She dated Vince because he was gorgeous, in a fraternity, and determined to succeed in life. Keeping her pleased exhausted him, and drained his bank account. He had two jobs while going to school, one for his tuition, and one to keep her happy. She didn’t take the news too well when Vince told her they needed to end their relationship a week after he met Jeannie. When she heard who he was seeing, she called Jeannie a few times harassing her and threatening to have her kicked out of the sorority. Jeannie didn’t take the threat seriously, and didn’t mention it to anyone. For whatever reason, Katherine didn’t bother her again. Then after summer break, Katherine Foster disappeared. In fact Jeannie didn’t see her again on campus or at the sorority functions again. There were rumors from she ran away, she was killed, she got pregnant, or she moved to Europe, but they were just rumors. No one knew what happened to her or at least no one said. Vince had no clue and didn’t care to find out. The only other time she saw Katherine Foster, happened when she and Vince were married and went out to dinner. They decided to try a new restaurant an hour away from the house. Once they were waiting for a table, Vince pointed out Katherine was there with a man. The man caught Jeannie’s eye and she remembered how blue his eyes were. A gorgeous man, shorter than Vince, with dark hair peppered with grey and those beautiful eyes. She couldn’t get over how blue his eyes were. Katherine spoke to them briefly and introduced the man as her husband and a congressman.

Katherine seemed to be living the life she hoped for and looked happy, beautiful, and content. She and Vince talked for the first time in years, and Jeannie and Katherine’s husband stood there and made small talk about the weather and the food at the restaurant. Though uncomfortable, Jeannie was glad the meeting happened.

~~~~~~

Vince and Jeannie ran away and got married one Saturday afternoon without telling anyone. They moved into a one bedroom apartment, adopted a cat, and started their life. It didn’t matter that they had no money. The only thing that mattered was they were together.

A young couple just out on their own, they knew with hard work and their love, they would make their marriage work. At the time, money didn’t matter. They were young and in love and what they had was much more important. Their bedroom became their entertainment on the weekends and they were perfectly happy with spending their free time in bed.

Vince’s parents