2010

I headed home quickly, driving along the waterfront of Georgian Bay. My house sat on a slight hill, with the lawn rolling down to the water where there was a dock for swimming and boating. I've definitely held some stellar parties here. Without my parents' knowledge of course.

I wasn't sure how my parents were going to react to having someone over who wasn't in my normal circle of friends. I ended up deciding to drop it on them during dinner time. It went something like this;

"A boy from class named Colin is coming over during the week so I can help him with a social media project."

"That's nice dear." This from my mom.

"Just don't stay up too late." This from my dad.

And that basically summed up the whole conversation. If my older sister Erica had been there, she probably would have been a bit more inquisitive but thankfully she hadn't come home yet from university. My parents were really good at leaving us to our own devices.

After helping clean up dinner, I ran up to my room to get ready for Colin who agreed to come over around six. After making sure my room looked reasonably tidied, I sat down at my desk, booted up my laptop and started pulling up documents and programs.

Just as I began perusing through the assignment, I heard a light knock on my door. Colin stood in my open doorway, looking obviously uncomfortable in my pink frilly room. Although by rule I would never associate with his "kind", I found I actually had no issues with Colin as a person. And to be honest, I felt huge gratitude towards him. He had no reason to say yes to this. If I had been in his position, I would have turned myself down, no question about it.

I tried to give him a comforting smile to help him feel more at ease. "Thanks for coming, Colin." I motioned to the chair beside me, inviting him to sit. "I got the assignment pulled up and I believe all the programs."

He gingerly took the seat beside me, his hands clasped in his lap like he was afraid to touch anything. He read over my shoulder then gave a small nod. "Looks pretty straightforward. Basically, we just have to create an interactive website using JavaScript. You do have some understanding of JavaScript right?"

I bit my lower lip.

Colin gave me a look then heaved a sigh. "Alright then, I guess we better get started."

To say Colin was patient with me, was an understatement. I never felt so humbled then I did on that first day. I held back the snarky comments and eye rolls for I knew that if I lost Colin I would be in serious trouble.

The second day went a little bit easier as I started to understand the prompts better. I even felt like I was having some fun designing a website based on fashion designs where you got to dress your own avatar. It earned me a few eye rolls from Colin, but other than that he never complained. He really did let me take the lead on the project.

By the third day, I noticed that Colin looked a bit more relaxed sitting in my room. He even interjected little jokes about my avatars and I was surprised to find that he was actually quite funny. But what surprised me more was how comfortable I felt around Colin. Being in his presence was as easy as breathing. I had no pretenses around Colin. No charade I had to keep up. And I found it strangely refreshing.

"What school did you get your scholarship for?" I asked him out of the blue. I don't know if it was all the time we were spending together, but I was becoming more and more curious about Colin. He was definitely an enigma to me.

"The University of Toronto."

I sighed in envy. "You're so lucky, I would give anything to go live in the city."

"What's stopping you?"

"My dad, mainly," I said with a grimace. "He wants me to follow in his footsteps and become an accountant." I made a fake gagging noise to illustrate what I thought of that idea.

"So, what are you going to do then?"

"I'll be attending Georgian College here in the fall for accounting technician."

Colin stared at me in bewilderment. "I'm confused, I thought you didn't like accounting."

I clenched my jaw together. "I didn't have much choice in the matter." It's kind of ironic really. My parents took no interest in my life until it was related to something that they wanted. Wanting to get the attention off me, I asked Colin, "What about you? Your parents must be ecstatic about your scholarship."

"Well...it's really only been me and my mom. My dad left when I was really young. But my mom has always supported me. I definitely wouldn't have gotten the scholarship if it wasn't for her."

"That's really special," I managed to say, my throat suddenly tight. I never would have believed that I would feel jealous over someone like Colin. But I did. Jealous that he had a mom who encouraged his dreams and that he now gets to live. I wasn't used to this feeling. I had grown accustomed to everyone being jealous of me.

On day four, Colin walked into my room with a small smile. "Hey," he said shyly then sat down in his usual chair. I started babbling on about the progress I had made to my website as well as some ideas I had for completing the project requirements. When he didn't answer, I looked over to see that he was leafing through a book that had been sitting on my desk. It was my Bible.

"Oh, that," I said kind of awkwardly. "You can just throw it over on my bed." I turned back to my computer.

"Do you ever read it?" He asked so quietly I almost didn't hear him.

For the first time I felt uneasiness around Colin. Then I silently chastised myself. Why should I feel guilty over a book that probably no one in high school ever read? I never saw my parents reading their Bibles. I mean sure, we attended church every Sunday but I only went out of obligation, not because I wanted to. "No," I finally said, not looking away from my laptop. He seemed to drop it after that.

When we had finished for the night I walked him down to the front door. Instead of exiting however, he turned to face me with a look that said he wanted to say something but wasn't quite sure how.

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in it?" he blurted out, "In God I mean."

I was taken aback. It seemed to me like the most random question. "Umm, yeah, I guess so." It was true that I believed in God, but if I had to be honest with myself, I never thought about it beyond that.

Colin only nodded then turned around and left.

I was definitely bewildered by the turn of our conversation. Why did Colin care if I believed in God or not? Was he a Christian?

I shook my head, wondering why I was even bothering with these questions. Tomorrow I would finish my assignment and I would never see Colin again. A sudden pang of sadness zipped through me at the thought. And then I felt even more miserable when I realized I didn't even know his last name.