Diary Of An Introvert

Chapter 15 | Project without him

Knock knock.

"Come in!" Joanne yelled at the door.

In came her Mom. Emily gently clicked the lock and sat on the bed. "You have your toothbrush?"

Joanne rolled her eyes. "Yup."

"Do you have your towel?"

"What do you want?" Joanne made funny faces at the mirror. She folded her forehead to form wrinkles and pouted like a hungry dog.

Emily simply laughed. "Nothing. Just came to see if you had everything. Clearly, you have everything under control."

"Okay... So?" Joanne stopped making faces at the mirror. "What do you really want?"

"I already told you." Emily had a stand off with Joanne. Joanne was the first to look away.

Chloe knocked at the door. "Joanne, open up. I know you hate me but at least talk to me. I haven't seen you since the dinner date and now you're leaving without talki-" Joanne pulled the door open. She stared at her adorable but stupid sister.

"I wasn't ignoring you." Joanne breathed in and looked at Emily. "I was busy."

"Is it Cory?"

Joanne glared at her sister and surprisingly Chloe flinched. "No it's not Cory. It's me resuming back to my nightmare. Okay can we just ease up on this Cory thing? It's not like we're planning on getting engaged." Joanne thought about a suitable way to tell them she and Cory had 'broken up', but she couldn't.

"What do you mean?"

"I think what she means," Emily looked pointedly at Chloe. "is that they are still in their early phase and taking things slow. Ain't that right honey?"

"Yeah sure, call it whatever you want to." Joanne stood portrait mode in front of the blue silvery mirror. It reflected her black bouncy curls and kinky hair. Her cream oversized sweatshirt highlighted her pale skin. Joggers and Crocs were in position too.

Okay, to be honest Joanne wasn't the happiest person there was especially now that their school was resuming. Amanda, Patricia, Cory - she wanted to avoid all those people and get through the semester. Avoiding them was her main goal.

Right, there was still the project.

"Alright bye." Emily smiled. She waved at Joanne as she got into the Uber.

"Bye." Joanne replied curtly. Chloe jumped onto her and looked up, beads of tears conjuring at the corner of each eye. "What are you doing?"

"The holiday was fun. Greet Cory for me. I want you to keep being happy." Chloe then disappeared into the house.

Joanne stood dumbfounded. Keep being happy? Of course it had something to do with Cory somehow. Joanne started to hate the way her life seemed to revolve around him. Almost like without him she wouldn't exist. Well that wasn't true.

Joanne arrived at the University an hour later. She unloaded her bags and carried them all the way to the last floor where her room was. Surprisingly enough, Patricia was already in the room lying on her bed.

"Hey."

"Hi. Wassup." Patricia waved at Joanne. She leaned over to plug her phone and watched Joanne struggle with her bag. "Need some help?"

"No, it's all good." Joanne grudgingly zipped the bag up and down and ended up snapping it in two. "Great."

Patricia giggled. She removed the rubber band holding her hair up and inserted it into the undetached part of the zip. She tugged at it and pulled it around the brown leather box. The bag sprang open.