The Angel On My Shoulder

Chapter Two: R222

Damion walked slowly. He wasn't in the biggest hurry to find his dorm and unpack. The typical College excitement most freshman had, wasn't present for Damion whatsoever. He fingered the note from Steph inside his pocket. The moment he got it, he added it to the other small assortment of objects that he actually cared about. All of which he kept inside his satchel.

He hardly glanced up at the beautiful campus, his gaze was lasered to the map which he blindly followed to the westside of campus.

The dorm building itself looked like the front of a high school, with big double doors, a courtyard where other guys and girls were talking and unloading cars. Damion was careful not to make eye contact with any of them. He leaned against the door, pushing it open, and entered a brightly lit hallway. A stairway at the end led to the upstairs.

Damion pulled out the dorm key he'd been sent. It was a magnetic key card, like the ones they used in hotels. It also held his student information, and dorm room. R222, it read. The two hundreds' were the second floor up, so Damion made his way over to the stairs. Most of the dorm doors were open, and people milled around meeting each other. Damion walked through the crowd swiftly, trying to make it obvious he didn't want to stop and talk. No one stopped him.

Some glanced his way, but upon seeing his appearance and the look on his face, they turned away again. He looked even more like a hobo compared to College kids. All the guys had nice jackets, with sport stripes or denim. The only thing he had in common was the fact that he wore a plaid undershirt, even then his looked like a dirty gray rag compared to their new red plaid or green or blue ones. The girls wore skinny jeans, short tops, nice jackets. In any sense, they all looked like rich kids.

Damion made his way up the stairs, and down the second-floor hallway, past a houseplant, and finally to R222. He held his card up to the door handle and heard a soft buzz noise as the door unlocked. He pushed it open gently and gazed inside.

The room was bigger than the one with the Asher's. There was a bunk-bed taking up the right side of the room, and a little more sectioned off to the left was a smallish kitchen. Well, part of a kitchen, you could hardly call it that. It was just a small white fridge, on it's a right a sink, and above the sink a microwave. On the back wall was a spot for a couch, also a bit to the left, and opposite the couch space a small TV area, but the room was bare.

He assumed most kids had desks to bring, or lamps or couches. He only had his suitcase and satchel bag. He threw his satchel onto the top bunk, kicked his suitcase into a corner, and swiftly climbed the ladder to the top bunk. He sat cross-legged on the bed and turned his satchel upside down, releasing its strange contents.

There was a cellphone that was nearly always dead. There was an assortment of pens and pencils, a small leather-bound journal covered in black soot and dirt, there was a second feathered earring matching the one on his ear already, they had belonged to his mother. There was a three-inch-long switch blade, which he knew he wasn't allowed to have. The knife used to be Steph's, he'd promise to never lose sight of it so here it was anyways. There was a singular silver bullet, which he's stolen from his father, a broken pair of sunglasses and a tape dispenser. He pulled out Steph's letter and smoothed it out, placing it on the bed next to his other possessions.

Damion taped the note to the window, placed the sunglasses, cellphone, the earing, the bullet and each of his pencils and pens on the windowsill. He shoved the knife under his pillow, and the journal back in his bag. He threw a glance at the suitcase, which the Asher's no doubt filled with clothing and toilet trees for him. He decided that could wait.

Just then, the door opened again. The buzz and click of the door gave Damion a small start, and he pulled himself further back on the bed. He watched someone enter the room and walk towards the left side of the room. They didn't notice Damion had moved in.