First Valentine

        “It’s the first day of school and I already have so much reading to do!”, Doreen whispered angrily to herself in the school's main library, only to be shushed by an even more stressed freshman. She didn’t really care about the homework, but it depressed her that she began the semester on her birthday. Doreen decided to take a break to visit favorite social website to post a comment: “Yes, birthdays don’t matter past the age of five, but I’m turning 20 and that’s only one year away from the big one. Universities should make 20th birthdays holidays to students…I’ll have to e-mail the dean.” Clicking through old photographs, Doreen found pictures from her last birthday party. It was the craziest birthday party ever. Everyone still talks about how Mark ended up locking himself in the closet singing “It’s my party and I can cry if I want to”, and no one released him until he promised to stop singing. There were pink balloons, a huge birthday cake with pink and white pearls, pizza form every pizzeria in the area, and even the dog was wearing a party hat. She really wanted to have he annual birthday shaving cream that leaves everyone fighting for the shower and the lawn looking like a snowy Christmas morning. But that was last year and right now there are lengthy articles to be read and five page papers to be written.
      University was unusually depressing. Doreen wondered if she should have done something else with her life. She had no clue what she would do after college. She wished she could have pursued a writing career but her parents would never let that happen, so she double majors in Chemistry and Spanish. She secretly wished she had stayed home writing poetry. The only poetry she writes now is in Spanish class. Doreen tried to stay focused but she could not stop staring at the tall blonde standing in line for the copier. “Oh well”. Doreen thought. “I guess I’ll just have to go print out one of my articles”. She just wanted to get a better view of this attractive specimens. She doesn’t see specimens unless it’s the type of that's under a microscope.
        The man turned his head to look at the clock and made eye contact with Doreen- her heart stopped. She stared into those green eyes and counted the floating, gold flecks. “Doreen??”, the heartthrob uttered. Doreen took a step back, wondering what was happening and if she left the name tag on from her meeting earlier. She looked down and nope just a plain purple tank top. “Umm Hi there, do we know each other from somewhere. You look familiar”, Doreen stuttered. She didn’t recognize him, and she would have remembered if she saw him before. “Oh I get it, now that you’re a college student you forget you first Valentine”, he explained. Doreen could not help but gasp. “I’m so sorry Damon, of course I remember you. It’s just you look so… different”. “Different” was an understatement. That little geeky boy who wore high-waisted pants and tucked in t-shirts couldn't turn into this work of art. What happened to his pale skin, chapped lips and braces? Damon started laughing; “Of course I don’t look the same. It’s been years since seventh grade. But I never forgot my first real crush.” Doreen blushed and nervously said, “It’s really great to see you again”. Damon already printed out what he needed- flyers. She looked down at the pile and he said, “Take one. My fraternity is having an event tonight. It’s not a wild party or anything but I’d love it if you could come.” Doreen read the flyer: “Senior Night: Come one, Come all, but remember this event is for the awesome”. Doreen laughed knowing that the flyers for fraternities never sounded intelligent. Damon laughed back, “I know, it isn’t Shakespeare but I did the artwork so I did my best to improve it”. Behind the awful phrasing was a sketch the statue of the founder of the university dressed up in a polo featuring the Greek letters for the fraternity. “This is amazing. I’ll see you there”, said Doreen. She thought that maybe this wasn’t going to be a bad birthday after all.
      Doreen tried to convince herself that she had enough time to take a night off to party. This year the first day of school was on a Friday, so she had the weekend to do the rest of the work. She took her time getting ready, put on a slinky black dress, covered it up with a white shrug and threw on a pair of gladiator sandals. Girls at her college always were perfectly dressed for parties, and she wanted to catch Damon’s attention. It took an hour and a half, but she was ready. Her hair was meticulously curled, her makeup was perfect and she smelled like expensive perfume. She headed to the bus stop and waited for the smelly exhaust of the trolley to reach her nose.
          After being dropped off, she walked to the address of the house and found a white house with a messy porch. It smelt like smoke and loud music played in the background. She walked through the gate and saw Damon standing in a circle talking to beautiful girls and handsome jocks. It was hard to miss him: His tuxedo was definitely out of place. He grinned when he saw her and immediately left his conversation. “Hey- I thought you said this wasn’t going to be a wild party”
Damon laughed, “If this is what you call a wild party, I’ll have to take you out one night”
“Well let’s just say my parties are usually homework parties”
“I’ll have to change that too”
         Doreen started to ask him to dance but some one screamed his name. Damon walked on stage. He started talking about the fraternity. But, she wasn’t listening to what he was saying. Her eyes skimmed his body, his lips and his hair. He was gorgeous and not a normal type of gorgeous but supermodel gorgeous. He pointed towards a table, and only just then did she realize there were eleven wrapped packages on the table. He started calling senior members of the fraternity up to stage, but only ten came up and accepted the presents. She wondered what happened to the eleventh member and why he didn’t show up to the party. She went to go get something to drink when she felt lips on her ear and heard Damon whispering, “What kind of idiot would bring someone as pretty as you and leave you by the drinks all by yourself”. Doreen shivered at the feeling of the breeze from his mouth caressing her ear. She blushed, and felt thankful that the lights were dim. She turned around and said, “You’re right- let’s dance”. They danced for thirty minutes, laughing and flirting. Doreen completely forgot about the horrible day she had and instead let the bass of the pop rock and hip hop songs run through her. She loved being this close to Damon but really felt like getting to know him better. She grabbed his hand and led him off the floor. “What’s wrong?” Damon asked. “Nothing, I just haven’t seen you in so long. I just thought it would be nice to get away for a little while.” The worry in his face disappeared. He led her into a room that was much quieter and contained a less adventurous crowd. They sat there for more than an hour, laughing, talking, and reminiscing. Damon explained that he was an art major and was the president of the fraternity. He laughed and pointed to his costume. “Oh I was wondering why you were wearing that”, Doreen laughingly responded. A look flashed across Damon’s face and he said, “I’ll be right back”. Doreen figured he needed to use the restroom and got ready to wait until he got through the long line. She was surprised when he came back carrying a silver box with a pink bow… the last present that was left on the table. He handed her the box and said, “For you”. Doreen grinned and said, “I’m confused”.
Damon laughed and said, “You don’t remember your own birthday?”
“How’d you remember?”

“Let’s just say you meant a lot to me as a kid. I hope this isn’t weird. Plus I asked Kathy, we’re friends online. I knew your birthday was sometime in September so…”
Doreen thought she would have to kill Kathy for keeping this geek to hottie transformation a secret. She opened the present and inside laid a heart necklace and a piece of paper with “To: My First Valentine”. She blushed and put on the necklace. Then, she grabbed him and kissed him, shocking the shy partiers in the room around them. They both laughed, and Doreen thought to herself, “This year won’t be so bad after all.”
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