After

Chapter 3.

After an hour of my mother warning me against parties and boys, she finally makes her move to leave. With a Carol Young-style quick hug and kiss, she exits the dorm room, informing Noah that she will wait for him in the car.

"I will miss having you around every day," he says softly and pulls me into his arms. I inhale his cologne, the one I bought him three Christmas' in a row and sigh. I will miss his familiar scent and comforting hugs.

"I will miss you too but we will talk every day." I promise and tighten my arms around him. "I wish you were here this year," I say, nuzzling into his neck. Noah is only a few inches taller than me, but I like that he doesn't tower over me. He kisses me goodbye as my mother impatiently honks the horn.

After Noah and my mother are officially gone, I begin to unpack my bags. My clothes are neatly folded and stored in the small dresser, the remainder are hung neatly in my half of the closet. I cringe at the amount of leather and animal prints covering the opposite side. 

Feeling exhausted, I lay across the bed. Loneliness is already creeping its way into me and it doesn't help that my roommate is gone, no matter how uncomfortable her friends make me. I have a feeling she will be gone a lot, or worse, she may have company over too often. Why couldn't I get a roommate who loved to stay in and read or study? I suppose it could be a good thing because I will have the small room to myself. So far college isn't what I had dreamed of, nor expected but it's only been a few hours, tomorrow will be better, it has to be.

Before bed I gather my planner and textbooks, taking the time to write down my classes for the semester and my potential meetings for the literary club I plan on joining. I'm still undecided on that but I read a few student testimonials and I want to check it out.  I pencil in a trip off campus tomorrow to get some more things for my dorm room, I don't plan on decorating the way that Steph has, but I would like to add a few of my own things to my side of the room. The fact that I don't have a car yet will make it a little difficult, the sooner I get one, the better. I have enough money from graduation gifts and savings but I'm not sure if I want the stress of owning a car right now. The fact that I live on campus gives me full access to public transport. With thoughts of schedules, red haired girls, and friendly blonde's covered in tattoos, I drift to sleep with my planner still in hand.

The next morning Steph is not in her bed. I would like to get to know her but I might as well not if she is the type of person that stays out all night. Maybe one of the two boys that she was with was her boyfriend, I hope it was the blonde one for her sake. I grab my toiletry bag and make my way to the shower room. One of my least favorite things about dorm life so far is the showers, why can't each room have it's own instead of a community shower room? It's awkward and I'm praying they aren't co-ed. My hopes are squashed when I reach the door. Sure enough there are two stick figures printed on the sign, one male and one female. Ugh. Having males in the same shower room is sure to be very uncomfortable and  extremely awkward. I plan to set an alarm at least an hour earlier from now on in hopes that the co-ed room will be less crowded.

The shower takes too long to get warm and I am paranoid that someone will pull back the thin curtain separating my naked body from a room of both genders. Everyone seemed to be comfortable despite the fact that they shouldn't be. College life is strange so far. The shower stall is tiny, lined with a small rack to hang my clothes on while I shower and barely enough room to stretch my arms in front of me. I find my mind drifting to Noah and my life back home.  I am distracted as I turn around and my elbow knocks into the rack, my clean clothes fall to the wet floor. The water continues to fall onto the pile, completely soaking them.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I groan to myself, hastily cutting the water off and I wrap my towel around myself, grabbing my pile of heavy, soaked clothes and rush down the hall, desperately hoping no one sees me. I reach my room and shove the key in, instantly relaxing until I turn around to see the brown  haired boy sprawled across Steph's bed.