Their rapport was,
again, immediate and strong. It was as if only moments had passed since that
night at orientation. As before, Noah was able to keep her laughing throughout
the conversation. At several points during the meal, he noted the frank,
searching way she was staring at him from the other side of the table. When it
hit him that what he was seeing in her expression was intense sexual desire, he
temporarily reverted to a tongue-tied mode of conversation.
After their lunch date,
Lisa took Noah to her off-campus apartment, where they had sex for the first
time. Her roommate, an attractive blonde named Melanie, was there when they
arrived, but she departed after a whispered word from Lisa. Noah guessed they
had an understanding when it came to things like this. It was a small place.
He supposed having the roommate present when sexual activity was on the agenda
could be awkward.
That first fast and
frenzied coupling set the tone for much of what was to come. The entirety of
their short-lived relationship was just as intense. They became obsessed with
each other and spent as much time together as possible. In those first weeks,
they carved out time for being together between class and work schedules. The
slipping began before September was half over, the mutual obsession becoming
nearly all-consuming. Classes were skipped for the first time, assignments
ignored. At first it was just a class here and there, an occasional missed bit
of homework. By the time October rolled around, they had ceased showing up for
any of their classes.
They craved one another
in a way that wasn’t unlike drug addiction, an observation Lisa’s roommate made
toward the end of September. It wasn’t long before Melanie, together with
several of Lisa’s other friends, started trying to intervene. They sought to
protect her from what they saw as a highly negative influence. Lisa had gone from
being a tireless, motivated student and worker to something resembling the
exact opposite of that in a very short span of time. Conversely, Noah, having
spent the vast majority of his time since arriving at the university in Lisa’s
company, had almost no other friendly acquaintances and thus had no one to
stand up and defend him. The obsession went both ways, but Lisa’s friends saw
him as the bad guy in the equation.
In truth, Noah had also
become deeply concerned about the state of things by October. His first
semester at college was slipping away from him. He still had time to recover at
that point, but he’d be on the verge of failing all his classes if he didn’t
turn things around soon. He tried broaching the subject with Lisa, suggesting
maybe they should start focusing on their coursework before it was too late.
It should be no big deal, because they could still spend all their free time
together. But Lisa was in even deeper than he was, it seemed, and refused to
listen. They were having a once in a lifetime love affair, she told him, the
kind most people never get to have. She thought it was important to live
passionately and embrace what they had together with no thought to the future,
which would take care of itself anyway.
She was very adamant,
but Noah did persist just a bit more, repeating the things he’d already said, his
tone becoming increasingly desperate each time. He might even have swayed her
eventually if not for the drinking. Lisa had already learned she could easily
distract Noah with alcohol. In October she began doing so on a much more
regular basis.
Until that time, there
had been no hint of real darkness in their mutual obsession. The way Noah saw
it, even then, the obsession was a thing that would ease up in time, and they
would soon resume something resembling normal life.
But Noah was wrong
about that.
again, immediate and strong. It was as if only moments had passed since that
night at orientation. As before, Noah was able to keep her laughing throughout
the conversation. At several points during the meal, he noted the frank,
searching way she was staring at him from the other side of the table. When it
hit him that what he was seeing in her expression was intense sexual desire, he
temporarily reverted to a tongue-tied mode of conversation.
After their lunch date,
Lisa took Noah to her off-campus apartment, where they had sex for the first
time. Her roommate, an attractive blonde named Melanie, was there when they
arrived, but she departed after a whispered word from Lisa. Noah guessed they
had an understanding when it came to things like this. It was a small place.
He supposed having the roommate present when sexual activity was on the agenda
could be awkward.
That first fast and
frenzied coupling set the tone for much of what was to come. The entirety of
their short-lived relationship was just as intense. They became obsessed with
each other and spent as much time together as possible. In those first weeks,
they carved out time for being together between class and work schedules. The
slipping began before September was half over, the mutual obsession becoming
nearly all-consuming. Classes were skipped for the first time, assignments
ignored. At first it was just a class here and there, an occasional missed bit
of homework. By the time October rolled around, they had ceased showing up for
any of their classes.
They craved one another
in a way that wasn’t unlike drug addiction, an observation Lisa’s roommate made
toward the end of September. It wasn’t long before Melanie, together with
several of Lisa’s other friends, started trying to intervene. They sought to
protect her from what they saw as a highly negative influence. Lisa had gone from
being a tireless, motivated student and worker to something resembling the
exact opposite of that in a very short span of time. Conversely, Noah, having
spent the vast majority of his time since arriving at the university in Lisa’s
company, had almost no other friendly acquaintances and thus had no one to
stand up and defend him. The obsession went both ways, but Lisa’s friends saw
him as the bad guy in the equation.
In truth, Noah had also
become deeply concerned about the state of things by October. His first
semester at college was slipping away from him. He still had time to recover at
that point, but he’d be on the verge of failing all his classes if he didn’t
turn things around soon. He tried broaching the subject with Lisa, suggesting
maybe they should start focusing on their coursework before it was too late.
It should be no big deal, because they could still spend all their free time
together. But Lisa was in even deeper than he was, it seemed, and refused to
listen. They were having a once in a lifetime love affair, she told him, the
kind most people never get to have. She thought it was important to live
passionately and embrace what they had together with no thought to the future,
which would take care of itself anyway.
She was very adamant,
but Noah did persist just a bit more, repeating the things he’d already said, his
tone becoming increasingly desperate each time. He might even have swayed her
eventually if not for the drinking. Lisa had already learned she could easily
distract Noah with alcohol. In October she began doing so on a much more
regular basis.
Until that time, there
had been no hint of real darkness in their mutual obsession. The way Noah saw
it, even then, the obsession was a thing that would ease up in time, and they
would soon resume something resembling normal life.
But Noah was wrong
about that.
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