The Story Begins by Modou Fye

was doing and the people with whom he was doing it with; though he did spend the entire day with Melanie, there were times when their team’s path would cross with that of another and they’d chat a while. And now, as the sun was setting, bringing the day to an end, he actually wished they could stay a while longer.
    While awaiting the van, Melanie asked, “Did you have fun?”
    “Yes, I did. More than I thought I would. Actually, I don’t know if you could tell but at the onset of the day I really didn’t think that I’d have any fun, let alone as much as I ended up having. Did you?”
    “I had a wonderful time,” she said, smiling affectionately.
    Was she flirting? He wasn’t sure. “I’m glad you did. Was this your first trip out here?” he asked.
    “Out here, yes. But I do volunteer work whenever I can. I’m really happy that I had time to volunteer this time.”
    Jaden suspected that she had said that because of him. “Sounds like you very much enjoy volunteer work,” he said as he looked around, wondering where the van was. Standing in one place, he was starting to feel the cold again.
    “Yep, do it whenever I can.”
    The van pulled up just in time; no longer actively engaged, they’d all begun to feel the cold. After an early start and a hard day’s work, within minutes into the trip back, they all dozed off except the poor driver and his front seat passenger. They were the only two designated drivers for the outing. At the end of an exhausting day, that was a task everyone else was glad they didn’t have.
    At the start of the journey back, Jim, the driver, had offered to drop everyone off at their respective dorms rather than the central location from which they had all been picked up that morning. As they came into the campus grounds, Melanie’s was the first stop. Approaching her drop off, Jim called out to her. Sitting right behind Jim, asleep on Jaden’s shoulder, Melanie awoke.
    “We’re almost there, Melanie,” Jim said.
    Melanie was temporarily staying at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel on campus, commonly referred to as Hojo’s. It was where students for whom dormitory rooms weren’t yet available were accommodated.
    As the van neared Hojo’s, Melanie asked Jaden, who had also awakened, “So, do you have a girlfriend?”
    That caught him utterly off guard, especially seeing as how they had just both woken up and that was the first thing that she said and definitely the last thing on his mind, if anywhere there at all. He suspected that he knew where this was heading and preferred that it not happen. She was a wonderful, genuine, caring and sweet girl, and he’d rather she remained that way. He couldn’t have been any more certain that his conflicted soul – the unfortunate product of a once–turbulent household and his extreme sensitivity to a troubled world – would object to any attempt at anything meaningful with regards to a relationship that transcended the boundaries of friendship. He did not want the scars of his discontented heart to become her burden.
    Strangely enough, however, though earnestly he tried to craft an evasive response that would have given her the impression that he did, without him lying outright by saying yes, his wits failed him and he simply blurted out, “No!”
    Jaden had never cared to pursue a relationship but was aware that Boston University abounded with more than its fair share of vanity-stricken girls who, it wouldn’t have surprised him, probably believed that even God was not a good enough match for them; any such character he wouldn’t have had any qualms being candid with, even being rude or obnoxious towards. Melanie, though, as pretty as she was, was very, very sweet and down to earth. He tried hard to devise a means by which he could end this without hurting her.
    “Why do you ask?” he inquired, wondering why he could not bring the line of conversation to an end. He wished some of the other students would wake up and start a