Catch Me If You Can

<Chapter 3>

As we got back to our dorm, a message popped up on my phone from Feshuna. I clicked on it and unlocked my phone so it would open to the text.

My rommate apparently had a flight delay which was why she wasn't here earlier, she's really nice so far

That's good, I'm guessing she just got here, then? I shot back as I moved over to my bed.

Yeah, oh, and my mum wanted me to tell you that she's sorry she missed you earlier since they had to leave

Aww, tell her I said I miss her too and that it's ok, I know it was crazy earlier

Alrighty, when classes start tomorrow, which one do you have first and when?

I have government at 11:00am, why?

I was wondering if you'd wanna meet up for breakfast before classes start, mine starts at 11:00 too

Yeah, we can do that, when would you want to meet up?

9:00? I want time to eat but not be late for class

That works for me, I'll see you then

Okie dokie

I turned my phone off and dumped it onto my bed, turning my attention to the last few boxes that I had left. Sucking up the desire to just leave them, I stepped toward them and began opening and taking out the things packed in them. I tried to organize it as I went, setting school supplies on the desk and my art supplies in the last empty drawer of the dresser. It didn’t take long to finish unpacking; only an hour and a half to empty four mostly full boxes.

I broke the boxes down and stuffed them under my bed to store until the end of the semester. I didn’t feel like finding or buying new boxes to pack up again. I shot a glance at Ripley, finding her draped across her bed with her earbuds back in. I had no doubt she most likely wouldn’t hear me so I didn’t bother to try to gain her attention.

Snatching my phone up from the bed, I dropped onto its spot. I stared up at the ceiling for a moment before sighing and deciding to open up Pinterest. I mindlessly scrolled through the feed, saving a few sketches and paintings from other accounts I follow. There were a few that piqued my interest and caused ideas to pop up in my head to make my version later.

Closing out Pinterest, I opened up Instagram and tapped on my high school friends' stories. I tapped through them quickly since most were the same. Everyone was posting pictures showing off their college and talking about how excited they were. I liked a couple from friends that I was closer to but overall skipped over the repetitiveness. I'd already started thinking about how many people I would stop talking to once I moved off to college.

I knew most of the people I talked to would forget about me in at least a year. There may be a few times where'd we'd possibly run into each other but it would be any more than dry greetings. I knew I'd stay friends with Feshuna. She befriended me in sixth grade. But everyone else? It was fifty-fifty that we'd have a genuine conversation after high school.

It probably didn't help that I really didn't go out often with friends or go to public events. Unfortunately it wasn't something I could control because of my family circumstances but it really didn't help with those friendships either.

As I continued to scroll through the most recent posts, an incoming call popped up on the top of my screen. Only having to glance at the screen, I smiled and pressed the answer button, holding it to my ear.

"Harley-Davidson!" My smile widened at the silly nicknme from when I was a kid.

I heard him laughing on the other end. "I just wanted to check up on you since I wasn't able to help you move in. How's the campus so far? You meet anyone yet?"

"Uh, it's good. The campus is great from what I've seen. A lot of the upperclassmen helped us move in. The only person I've gotten to meet so far is my roommate. I'll probably meet more people in my classes tomorrow."

"That's good. We're you able to find Feshuna? The crowds are always bad at any campus the first couple of days."

"Yeah, I found her and we went out for lunch for a little while before heading back to our dorms. Then I had an early dinner with my roommate."

"Is she nice?" I smiled at his worried tone.

"No..." I trailed off sarcastically, "she beat me to a pulp the moment I said hi. Of course she's nice."

I could imagine him rolling his eyes as he sighed heavily. "That's great to hear. Well, I need to grade these papers from today's classes so I'll talk to you later. Hopefully I'll get a day off so I can visit you with the girls. You haven't even been gone a full day and they're asking when you're going to visit."

I laughed, replying, "Tell them I'll visit this weekend. Too bad it can't be every weekend though. I miss them already, too."

"Yeah, yeah. Bye, mom," he taunted.

"Bye, dad," I taunted back in the same drawl he used.

I pulled the phone away from my ear just as he hung up. Rolling onto my back, I dropped my phone onto my stomach and splayed my arms out to either side.

"So I beat you to a pulp on the first day? Damn, I'm mean," Ripley's teasing voice floated over to me.

My head popped up in surprise to see her sitting up on her bed, legs crossed and her lips turned up in a smirk. She rested her chin on her fist, which was propped on her knee.

"Crap, I'm sorry. Harley called and he got that worried big brother tone so I wanted to tease him," I explained.

She snorted, shaking her head at me. "I know the drill. Two older sisters, remember? It's all good."

"Ok, it's still kinda embarrassing that you heard me say that. I thought you were listening to music."

"I was but my earbuds died so they needed to charge. I just happened to hear that part of the conversation where you were messing with him."

"Oh, ok. Oh, what time is your first class tomorrow?"

"Ten am. My professor has to be special and start an hour earlier than most other classes." She rolled her eyes, annoyed.

"Yeah, mine's supposed to start at eleven but I'm meeting up with my friend at nine before then to get coffee. I'll probably be up at seven thirty so I just want to check if my alarms going to bother you or not."

"Nah, if it wakes me up, I'll just fall back asleep. I have a specifically annoying sound that I know is my alarm so you won't bother me. All I ask is that you don't make a ton of noise getting ready. I still enjoy my beauty sleep."

I smiled. "Not a problem. What is your alarm sound?"

"Do you know the submarine awooga alarm? That's it. Since I'm gonna keep my phone on my desk, that sound is going to annoy me out of bed."

"That's actually really smart. Maybe I should do that, too, to motivate me to get out of bed."

"Maybe. It annoys me to hell and back but it works. Especially since I have a habit of just going back to bed after I turn my alarms off.

"Oh, I heard about this party that one of the fraternities is holding in a couple days. I think it's to recruit more guys but anyone is invited. We should go just to see what it's about."

I shrugged, "Sure."