The Place To Be ✔️

chapter 2

SEPTEMBER 5TH 2016

ALEX'S POV:

I was in the taxi for a little under 2 hours, mostly spending my time twiddling my thumbs, a nervous habit that I have.
I spent the rest of my time messaging my best friend, Aaron Burr. He was also a really clever student, but he opted for a different university. Of course, I would miss him, but we can always Face Time each other, and we've planned to meet again in the holidays. It shouldn't be too bad once everyone has settled in and I've made some new friends.

We arrive outside the university and I thank and pay the taxi driver. He helps me get my heavy suitcase from the trunk and probably sees how nervous I am.
"First day?" He asks me, with kind eyes.
"Is it really that obvious that I'm nervous?" I respond, twiddling my thumbs again. He laughs in response, saying
"Good luck, I'm sure you'll have a great time."
"Thanks" I say, waving goodbye as he pulls out and drives off.

I walk up to reception and collect my room key, also grabbing a map of the campus. When I look at it, I am realizing how big this place is. I look at the site map and try to find Miranda Block. I notice that they have a coffee shop on campus and I smile, knowing that I will become a very regular visitor there. Finally, I find the block with a large plaque above the door, labelling it Miranda, and head where the map tells me.
"43, 44, 45'," I say to myself, as I walk along the corridor, past other rooms. As I walk a little further, I deeply inhale"46." I take out my key and with a shaky hand, slot it into the door and turn it, waiting for the click.
After turning my key for what feels like decades, I nervously open the door and look around at my new room, seeing if this 'John' guy had arrived yet. I was a bit disappointed to see that there was no suitcase around, and no covers on either of the beds. I sat down on the sofa and got out my laptop to connect to the Wi-Fi here and see if I've missed any e-mails. Nope, all just spam from random websites that I don't remember signing up to. Great.

I decide to kill time by creating new folders for all of my topics and clearing out some space for all of the work that I'll be doing. This laptop is almost 4 years old now, I remember saving up my money from my job that probably started my coffee addiction, being a barista at Starbucks. By now, this laptop is really worn out, but I can't afford to get a new one at the moment.

Three hours into clearing out space, I completely forgot that I was even waiting for John to arrive, and was only reminded when I heard a key go into the lock. It scared the death out of me, but I quickly got over that and stood up to meet my new roommate.

19th June 2017