“Did you know Kai and Taylor chose Presper, too?” I asked sadly.
Sydney scoffed. “No. I’m sorry, honey.” She sat down on the bed and crossed her arms. “Can you avoid them?”
“I can avoid them from now on,” I said. “I did talk to them in the Student Union.” I pointed at her. “It’s your job to keep me out of their crosshairs. Get me over Kai, got it?”
Sydney clapped. “Of course! I’m stoked. We’re gonna find you a hot college guy and make Kai regret passing you up.”
I nodded. “Good.”
I turned to my computer and powered it up. I had an affinity for journaling, and given the day’s activities, I had a lot to get out. I left Sydney to her arranging while I jotted down some of the excitement of the day. I spent a little too much time discussing Kai and our past and my feelings, all things I would probably delete later, but it was nice to get it out. I left Taylor out of it. She was kind of like Beetlejuice to me, and I was afraid that if I wrote her name too many times, she’d suddenly appear.
“You don’t mind if I leave this stuff here, right?” Sydney asked.
I swirled around in the chair. Sydney had a few items, some miscellaneous clothes and smaller objects, stacked on the bed.
“Uh, yeah?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t you be able to keep your stuff in your room?”
Sydney looked at me, and her eyes and mouth went agape. I’d seen that look on Sydney’s face before. It always preceded trouble.
“What?” I asked.
She threw her hands to her mouth. “Oh my god. I forgot to tell you.” She walked over and knelt on the ground in front of me and took my hands into hers. “Okay, please don’t be mad.”
“Mad about what?” I hissed.
“You remember that really cute pre-law guy that I met at preview night? Henry?”
“Yeah.”
Sydney winced. “We’ve been dating over the summer and…” she sighed. “I’m gonna room with him this semester.”
I yanked my hands out of her grip. “What!”
2
Nina
“What do you mean you’re rooming with him?” I stood up from the desk and moved to stand in the middle of the room. Sydney followed, facing me with a pleading look on her face. I’d read all of my college materials closely and carefully, including all of the bylaws for living in the Presper dorms. No electric burners, no candles or incense, and no boys and girls in the same room. “Boys and girls can’t room together. That’s, like, the first rule in the dorm handbook.”
“Sweetie, all colleges put that in the rules. It’s that whole pre-1950s, no sex before marriage nonsense. Most places don’t actually enforce it anymore. We’re adults and can do what we want.” She reached out and put her hands on my shoulders. “Look, you should meet Henry. He’s great, like really, really great. You’ll love him. Trust me. I’m head over heels for this guy. It’s only been a few months, but I can already tell, he’s the one.”
There was a sincerity in Sydney’s eyes that made me want to just let it go, but I couldn’t forgive her that easily. “I was really looking forward to rooming with you. What about me? You’d rather be with him than with me?”
“No.” Sydney poked out her bottom lip. “It’s not like I’m choosing, but you know. I love him. I’d like to be able to sleep in the same bed as him. You get that, right?” I crossed my arms and stared angrily at Sydney, letting her know she wasn’t earning any forgiveness. She pulled back her arms but stayed close. “Look. I’ll visit you all the time. We can still study together and do stuff together, and besides, you’re an introvert anyway. After a few weeks, you’ll be happy you have the room all to yourself.”
“I’d rather share a room with you than have a room to myself,” I grumbled back.
Sydney sighed. “Nina…”
A knock on the doorframe interrupted the conversation. Our door was still propped open from earlier, and when I looked back toward the doorway, a woman with short black hair in a bob cut and thin glasses balanced on her nose was standing in the middle of it.
“Hi,” she greeted. “My name is Monica, and I’m the fourth-floor resident advisor.” She stepped into the room, either not sensing the atmosphere in the room, or not caring. “It’s nice to meet you, Sydney.” She held out her hand to Sydney, and Sydney took and shook it with a forced smile. “Nina.” She turned her hand to me, which I shook lightly, as well. “Sorry. I’ve looked you guys up on social media so that I would know who’s who.”
I furrowed my brow, and Sydney made a similar face. “That’s a little weird,” Sydney said, never one to be afraid to say it like it is.
Monica let out a high-pitched, fairy-like laugh in response. “You know, you’re not the first person who has told me that. I just like to be prepared when I meet new residents.” Neither Sydney nor I responded, so she just kept going. “Anyway, all of the fourth-floor residents have officially arrived, so we’re going to be having a floor meeting. I won’t take up too much of your time. We’re just going to go over some rules and some of the campus events, and give everyone a chance to see each other’s faces. Please take a moment to pause what you’re doing currently and meet in the floor meeting room in the opposite hallway from this one.”
Sydney scoffed. “We’re kind of in the middle of—”
“See you both soon!” Monica turned and left.
Sydney looked back at me. “That was irritating. Look, I want to finish—”
“We have to go to the meeting.” I walked past Sydney, grabbed my phone and keys from the desk, and walked out of the room.
I could hear Sydney grumble and complain behind me, but she followed nonetheless, and we filtered into a group of students all moving in one direction, no doubt headed toward the floor meeting room. We funneled into the room with everyone else and found seats among the rows of chairs that had been set up. A whiteboard against the wall had some cute pictures drawn on next to a few of the rules, one of which was the international symbol for males inside of a circle with a line through it.
I side-glanced Sydney, but she had her phone out and was furiously tapping away at the screen, not paying any attention. More and more students filed into the room until there were about sixty people, and then Monica walked in shortly after. She went and stood at the front of the room where the whiteboard was located and smiled out at the group.
“Good afternoon, ladies, and welcome to Presper University. It’s been a pleasure meeting you all today. Thank you for allowing me to interrupt your unpacking and getting settled. I promise not to take up much of your time. We’re just gonna go over a few things, and then you’ll be back to your rooms.”
I looked over at Sydney to see if she was paying attention, but of course, she wasn’t. It wasn’t the first time I had to pay particularly close attention to the droning-on of some rules so that I could relay them to Sydney later, and it wouldn’t be the last. I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Monica as she walked over to the side of the whiteboard so that she could point at each of the drawings as she spoke.