Thristy for us

The first thing I see when I wake up is the boxes in my room and hear my sister yelling for me from downstairs that we have no time to waste. I grab my bag and watch Dad come upstairs to drag the boxes downstairs.

“Are you ready for your first day?” He asks with a smile on his face.

I nodded and didn’t know if this was a dream I ended up in because I didn’t remember anything from the days before. All I remember is that my acceptance letter for college arrived. I am so excited to be able to start something new.

In the car, my sister and dad are sitting in the front together singing and laughing, which they have never done before. I must be dreaming.

“We’re almost there, Avery. Aren’t you excited?” Diana asks me as she looks at the back seat of the car where I’m sitting.

“Yeah, sure,” I say with a fake smile at my sister. Who just ignored my reaction.

“Diana do not worry, she is just scared to be alone so far from home,” Dad tells her. However, that wasn’t the point of my behavior at all. I always wanted to leave this town behind, but something didn’t feel right about it.

On campus, the three of us get out of the car. We all take a box and walk to the room where I will be staying for the next few years. Another girl is sitting at her desk, a girl with glasses and a blonde ponytail, smiling at me. She introduced herself as Miranda or something, I didn’t care, I thought she was some nerd and rolled my eyes.

“Stop with this behavior, Avery, be nice. You don’t have to be a pain in the ass to everyone.” That was the last thing my sister said after she hugged me and left with Dad. Dad took me in his arms and hugged me. Like he never did before. They both walked out of the room and for the first time, I really felt alone.

Once they are gone, I start unpacking while Miranda is still gossiping about these people on campus. She starts telling me all kinds of stories, which after a while I don’t listen to anymore. Why is she so annoyingly nice to me?

Not much later, I put my cell phone earphones in my ear and shut her out of my ears, because she’s really starting to get on my nerves now. She notices that I am not in for a conversation and suddenly leaves. Relieved, I drop my earbuds from my ears and take some books from the box, starting to flip through a bit. Until it’s time for bed and I start getting ready in our shared bathroom.

In the mirror, I look at my black dull hair which looks quite dry and exhausted, just like me. It has been so long, exactly if I had had any sleep, and you can see it clearly in my eyes.

After brushing my teeth, I walk back into the bedroom and crawl under the sheets, only to fall asleep immediately. Only to be abruptly awakened not much later by the noise coming from the other side of the room.

“Wyat stop,” giggles the voice I recognize as Miranda’s, still irritating. I turn around and see a boy standing there, a silhouette of a boy because it’s too dark in the room to make out any shape.

“She’s asleep anyway, come on.” I hear a pleading boy’s voice now clearly, which makes me feel uncomfortable in the bed over theirs. Are they really going to have sex here, with me there? This is just too dirty and that with that terribly annoying Miranda with her high-pitched voice, seriously?

“She’s not sleeping, but feel free to go ahead I’ll sleep somewhere else,” I reply annoyed and so bluntly that I hear Miranda swallow. The room is suddenly quiet, so quiet I could hear a pin drop. “Avery, you’re just new, where could you go?” Asks Miranda, clearly interested and not put off by my sudden voice between theirs. “As long as it’s somewhere other than here between the two of you, with your sticky stuff,” I mumble almost inaudibly, but through his exasperated sigh.

I know they did hear me. Miranda pushed the boy out of the room who was clearly not happy with me, though I didn’t care at all. I’m here to study, not to party or have sex with boys. This goes to show that I misjudged Miranda, she is apparently not as prudish as I had thought after all.

The next morning I hear the alarm go off and beat it with my right hand hanging limply out of bed. Over me, I see Miranda still deeply asleep as I take my clothes out of the closet and walk to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, I put on the jeans I just took out of my closet, and then I put on my bra and blue blouse. In the mirror, I look at the clothes that I can barely imagine as my own, but let go of the feeling for now as I walk back into the room. Miranda is awake and looking at me sitting up in her bed.

“Sorry about yesterday, Avery. We both had too much, and I just couldn’t get him to go to his room.” She laughs with an innocent smile on her face. I nod, not even interested in why or what they were up to. I just want to study, and having a nerd as a roommate would have worked out better for me.

The first day at the University went better than expected as I found and attended all the classes I needed to do. As I walk back through campus to get back to my room, I feel two eyes on me. I turn around and stare directly into two yellow eyes with a tint of blue in them, and it is as if I have seen those eyes before. As if those eyes recognize me, even though I barely recognize them. Only my subconscious screams at me to keep staring.