Link Up ✔️

Chapter 2

Okay, let me give you all a quick rundown.

Hello, I'm Ravyn Nicole Lawrence, eighteen, a freshman at the University of Missouri-Columbia, or as it's affectionately called, Mizzou. Home of the Tigers! Big football school. The whole city goes bananas over the games, but I digress.

I am currently assigned to Dorchester Hall, a real ritzy residence hall, not a dorm, that is co-ed and full of some of the most eclectic people I have ever seen. Look, I'm from the hood, we're all pretty much the same there.

The rooms are set up in suites. There's a living room and kitchenette area, and three bedrooms, all singles. That was a good thing because if I had to share a room with a stranger I would have had a panic attack, blacked out, and choked someone out.

I always shared with my little sister growing up, well, only on weekends anyway. Though since my daddy married Angel, I had my own room at her house...I mean, their house.

Allura arrived at our suite first and took the best room, though she says they are all equal. It's the one furthest from the bathroom, closest to the kitchen and exit. And if I pulled out my measuring tape, I believe it was bigger by a few inches. I will measure it one day when she is not there.

I came second and took the middle room...which I quickly realized was the worse room. Here's why. I get the sounds from both of my roommates. Let me repeat, sounds...at night...more on that later.

So Twyla had the room adjacent to the bathroom. My assumption was that it was the worse room because there would be flushing noises and other bathroom sounds I did not want to hear. I feared nothing.

Stuck in the middle, I will try and make the best of it. Angel bought me a bunch of things to decorate my room, and it looked better than any room I ever had. At my mother-slash grandmother's home, I barely had a room of my own, once my little brother showed up and I had to share with him. My brother was a menace to society.

Back to my residence hall situation.

Our common area is the living room and kitchen, though it's not much of a kitchen with a small refrigerator, microwave, and no stove. That's right, how were we supposed to cook nutritious meals for ourselves? Well, they assume that most college-aged kids don't know how to cook and will use the meal plans we are obligated to purchase. But they don't know who my daddy is, okay! I've been cooking in the kitchen with him since I was a toddler.

Also, most small kitchen appliances are banned: toaster ovens, crockpots, hot plates, grills and griddles, and gasp, no air fryers. I'm sure some freshman Boomer long, long ago set fire to their room in a hotplate incident but we Gen Zers are better than that.

Well, mostly.

So far Allura and Twyla hung out in the living room, talking nonstop all day. I wasn't going to insert myself in, I believe in making friends naturally.

"Hey!"

Someone yelled at me across the hall from my suite as I was about to open the door. I turned to see directly across the hall from me, a tall dark skin brother dressed in all black. Twyla might be right about the whole, not an ugly guy around at all.

"Hey," I replied. This was Hottie Tottie #2 and he lived across from me. Good thing we all had separate bathrooms so I would not be caught in my pajamas walking around.

"I saw your entrance in English class, that was lit!" he said with a chuckle.

Great! Another hottie to witness my fall from grace...wait, I never had any grace here, not yet anyway.

"Glad you were amused. And so glad you rushed over to aid in my distress. Chivalry is not dead."

"Oh come on girlie, you took it like a champ, bounced up like a boomerang. Pa-dow! Cute!"