Again 2

Chapter 53.

Eleanor Sanchez stepped out into the Californian evening for a walk in skintight blue leggings which she teamed up with an orange crop top, a long denim jacket and black low ankle boots. She let lose her silky black tresses that cascaded beautifully down her shoulders. She cut a lone yet confident figure on the streets.

One year was a long period but time was quick to fly for Eleanor since she had kept herself occupied with something or the other. She had successfully completed her freshmen year at college with excellent credit scores which also recently landed her a marketing internship at a soft drink company. The pay was pretty good too.

All in all, she had had a quiet, peaceful year away from troubles and unexpected nasty shocks (unlike her chaotic high school days) because she mostly kept to herself, never spoke to people more than what was necessary and stayed away from all kinds of things that secretly went around in the college dorms. For a change, she got lucky enough to get a good and co-operative roommate who was a now sophomore too just like her.

During weekends, when practically everyone was away at parties, Eleanor Sanchez stayed back in the empty dorms and did her laundry, her reading assignments and groomed herself to be strong and independent so that she didn't have to rely on anybody.

But still, whenever she saw a gang of friends hanging out at a café chatting and guffawing a few tables away from where she sat alone having coffee, or whenever she came across a happy family on the streets while on errands, or whenever she spotted a happy couple holding hands and sitting on a bench at the park, it still affected her.

But she had learnt to shrug it all off.

Eleanor felt her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket and pulled it out to see it was a call from her roommate, Heather.

"My bladders are bursting! I need to pee very badly..." came the oppressed female voice from the other end.

"So go to the bathroom and pee. Simple," Eleanor responded matter-of-factly.

"I'd have but then there are two cockroaches in there and they seem like a couple to me...." muttered Heather, trembling slightly.

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "Don't pee in your pants, dude. I've got back at the campus. Will be up in a minute."

Eleanor hung up and rushed to the dorms.

*

"You're my knight in shining armor, Eleanor. I'm so relieved now," exclaimed Heather walking out of the bathroom in a yellow summer dress. "Feeling as though I'd been on terrible labor and finally have given birth to triplets," she added sheepishly, tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

Before Eleanor could raise a brow at her light brown eyed roommate, the girls had a guest.

"Looks like someone's got a little bit pregnant here?" a girl with a pixie cut chestnut brown hair poked her head in.

"Briona!" Heather exclaimed in delight seeing her friend who was wearing blue ripped jeans, grey tunic top and a black scarf draped around her neck. "Wassup, bro?!"

Briona plopped down on the bed next to Heather while Eleanor was seated at the desk nearby.

"Can't believe we are shifting to a luxurious villa in less than a week. Is it even for real?" exclaimed Briona.

"I know right!" said Heather gleefully. "That villa is literally heaven on earth. It's so damn spacious! Can't wait to actually live in it."

The two girls worked part time as personal shoppers at a well known boutique in San Jose. Since they had rich clients coming in, they were pretty well paid. Thus it was from one such customer the girls got to know about how he was looking for a bunch of college students to rent out his villa. Heather immediately fell in love with the place when she went through the brochure. Eleanor too was left impressed with the swanky abode but wasn't really keen on living in it like the other two.

"But I still think we shouldn't have signed on the lease," she told them.

"Come on, dude," said Briona. "Didn't you say you wanted an off campus accommodation because you were tired living in an atmosphere of frat parties and the usual dorm scenes?"

"I did alright but I'd prefer living in a modest apartment with you guys rather than sharing that villa with four other strangers," responded Eleanor. Besides, she thought it best to save money rather than splurge so much of it into paying the villa rent.

"See if you're worried about privacy, I think you'd have plenty, " said Briona. "The villa is more like a mini mansion. We'd be seven of us and there are seven big rooms altogether."

"Bri is right," Heather added. "Eleanor, I meant it when I said that I would back out too if you do. I know you ain't into the friendship thing but I really want us to be friends..."

Heather looked at her anxiously.

"Fine. I'm very happy to move in there," said Eleanor inspite of still being quite apprehensive about the whole thing.

That brought the wide smile back on her face. "You're the best, dude!" She hugged Eleanor from the side.

Eleanor smiled a bit. There was no point talking about it anyway since she'd already signed the lease agreement 'cause she didn't see any better option. She didn't want to go apartment hunting and risk having a difficult roommate. Better the villa with these two girls.

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Will be updating once more sometime today. Stay tuned! Very excited for the next chapter ;) Will be uploading a teaser for the same on my Instagram id: rashmita_b Be sure to follow!