I started college, ready to move on with my life. I was fully prepared to leave my past behind me, but I brought all the pictures of Ben and me with. I even hung up the one my parents had forced us to take on graduation day. I managed to do a pretty good job of letting the past be the past though. Throughout the first semester, I made tons of awesome new friends and even sort of dated a few guys until I realized they weren�t on the same level as I was. I got really picky really quickly and then just stopped dating guys. Even though I loved all my new friends, I couldn�t wait to see Naomi over Christmas break and be able to spend three weeks with her.
We hung out nearly every day while we were at home. Towards the end of the break, Naomi told me the earth shattering news that completely changed the new life I had made for myself.
�So, I talked to Ben for the first and only time since graduation a few days before finals.� Naomi and Ben had gone to the same college, and though I didn�t expect them to be best friends, it surprised me that they had never talked.
�Oh, how�s he?� I tried to act uninterested, but it was hard. There was always days that I missed him.
�He�s fine, Rach.� She paused. �But here�s the thing.� Pause again. Deep breath. �He�s switching schools.�
�Where�s he transferring to?� I wondered why Nay was making it out to be a big deal.
�UMD.�
�My UMD? University of Minnesota in Duluth? My school? Why?�
�It has a better program for his major, Rach.�
�Has his major changed?�
�No, it�s still engineering. He�s deciding between chemical and mechanical.�
�Has he forgotten that I go there? That we had the same major and we will if he choose mechanical?�
�No. He asked me about you. Told me he planned to call you over break to talk. To let you know he was going to your school now.�
�I don�t want to talk to him. It�ll only cause me problems I don�t want or need. It�ll just send me backwards in the getting over him process and I am over him, Nay.�
�I know you are, Rach. And I know you don�t want to talk to him, but listen, there�s no getting around it now. He made a choice for his education. It was a smart choice when you think about it. So you might as well start talking to him now and get it over with. You�re going to have to see him around campus someday. You�ll probably be in upper level engineering classes together if not classes this semester.�
What Naomi said made perfect sense. I decided that if he called or talked to me, I�d talk to him, but I wasn�t going to go out of my way at all to find him or talk to him.