My Freshman Year: Day 118

By Ccandygrace

Days as a Freshman: 118

Mood: Freaked out

“Got everything?”

Rebecca turned away from the movie she was watching on her computer and looked at me, a fuzzy hat pulled down over her eyes. The heat in our dorm was doing something strange—something strange and cold.

“I think so…” I ruffled through the pile of clothes in my suitcase. “I just don’t want to forget anything…”

“Homework? Books? Extra warm socks? Sexy underwear?”

“Why would I need that fourth thing?” Pulling my suitcase cover down, I attempted to close the overstuffed bag.

Rebecca watched me wrestle the zipper around the bulging suitcase with a slight smile, sitting up on her bed to get a better look. “Why would you need sexy underwear? I don’t know…just in case something happens!”

I stopped fighting the zipper and glared up at her. “I don’t know where he lives and I haven’t talked to him since that night. Nothing is going to happen.”

Rebecca’s smile faded a little. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Me either.” I pushed my suitcase over and flopped down onto my bed, holding my head. “I just hate being reminded about how much of a loser I am.”

“Grace!” The sympathetic best friend she was, Rebecca shut her laptop and hopped over to my bed. She pried my hands away from my head and began to run her fingers through my hair. “You’re not a loser. You kissed a totally hot guy! Losers don’t do that! Losers sit in their dorm room alone and watch movies by themselves on a Saturday night, like me!”

“It’s just that we haven’t talked in three days…and tomorrow is vacation…and I don’t have his number…I don’t even know his last name!” I grabbed Rebecca’s hands from my head and began to shake them; half kidding, half completely serious in my distress. “Why did I do this to myself?”

“Do what?”

Kicking off her shoes, Stacey slammed our bedroom door and jumped onto my already crowded bed. Her face and clothes were still frosty from being outside, and her fancy perfume immediately overpowered my nose. “What did you do? I want to know! About time we had some girl talk in this room!”

Rebecca stiffened instantly, scooting up towards my pillows, as far away from Stacey as she could. Nothing could make Rebecca go quiet like the loud entrance of our third roommate.

“I like a guy and I’m not gonna see him until after Christmas break,” I said, putting my face into my hands again, mostly just to get away from Stacey’s too-strong perfume smell. “By the end of the break, he’ll probably have forgotten about me.”

“Who is this guy?” Stacey pushed herself farther onto my tiny twin bed, far enough to shove my half-closed suitcase onto the ground.

Rebecca flinched. Stacey barely blinked.

“You’re not still stuck on Sasha, are you?” Stacey stretched her pink socks out in front of her. “You should hear what people—”

“It’s not Sasha.” I sat up, moving closer to Rebecca. I could tell by the way her nose was twitching that she was drowning in Stacey’s fragrance just as badly as I was. “Someone else.”

“Oooh! What’s his name? I basically know everyone on campus by now—” A vibration from across the room stopped Stacey cold. Leaping up, she jumped over my suitcase and crashed into the dresser where she had thrown her purse, rifling through it until she produced her small pink cell phone. “Hello?!” she asked breathlessly, making faces at us as she listened. “Oh, hey Justin!”

My body froze. I looked over at Rebecca. Surely not.

Surely, surely not.