Candy Hearts | Watty's 2015

| 17 | Thursday, August 20

|  1 7  | Thursday, August 20

Ben ends up coming to New York with her. She likes to think that she is relatively independent, but doesn’t even try to deny the fact that she is so grateful to have her dad there, because God knows that she wouldn’t even be able to catch a taxi from the airport.

            It’s an incredibly hot day, when she moves in. Getting all her boxes and suitcases into the hall is difficult enough, and the other students with their families aren’t really helping either. It’s quite the process moving everything into her dorm, which she finds empty when she arrives.

            Grunting, Ben tosses the last box down on her bed, sitting down after it. “Thanks, Dad,” smiles Arizona, falling into the desk chair. He only grunts again, in response. The room is small, room for only two naked beds, two wooden desks, and two dressers. In the back, doors open to reveal two closets.

            “Better than I had,” says Ben, and laughing, Arizona leans down to get her bedspread out of a brown box labeled Bed (and probably other stuff). “Well,” he gets up, smacking the bed post. “I’ll be in that hotel near the campus, just call if you need anything. I’m leaving tomorrow night. Let’s have lunch, yeah?”

            “Sure. Thanks.” Arizona gives him a hug before he leaves. “Bye, Dad.”

            “Bye, Arizona.”

The door creaks shut, and then Arizona is alone, once again. She sighs and unzips her suitcase, starting to hang up the clothes.

            Everyone except for Gem, who had left for college last week, is still back home. Romy is staying in-state to go to the community college, Briana is going to Vermont in a day, and Crosley is driving down to California on the twenty-fifth, because he had gotten into Berkeley. It isn’t Columbia—which Arizona is a little bumbed about, because if it had been, then they’d be able to visit each other—but Crosley had still been incredibly excited.

            The door opens again, behind Arizona, and when she turns, there’s a girl in the threshold, tapping something on her phone with furrowed eyebrows, before looking up to meet Arizona’s eyes. An instant smile spreads on her red lips, and she walks forward with an outstretched hand.

            “You must be Arizona.”

            “And you’re Priya?” Arizona shakes her ring-covered hand.

            “Yes, I am,” she grins, running a hand through her straight, black hair.

From what Arizona had found, looking through her roommate’s Facebook profile, Priya is a sophomore, she is single, and she doesn’t go to many parties, which is very important to Arizona, because she’d rather be sleeping, than—anything else, really.

            “I was thinking we could loft the beds and put the desks under,” says Priya, looking around their room, “it’ll give us more space.”

            “Definitely.”

The rest of the morning is spent fixing up the room, and Priya offers to take Arizona around campus, to the plaza, where the Club Rush is. She keeps the door unlocked behind her as she follows Arizona down the hall. When Arizona stops abruptly, Priya makes a noise of surprise, stumbling back. Because Arizona didn’t think that her luck could get any worse, but apparently it could, since Jacob is right in front of them, turning the handle of a door to his left, box resting in his other arm.

            Are you kidding me?

            Jacob doesn’t see them, and he disappears inside the room, and Arizona stealthily slides against the wall, trying to sneak past the gaping door, but alas, she has never been the sneaky type, as she finds out in the next second.