What a Girl Wants

Chapter Two

Whatever she'd been expecting, it wasn't this. Mandy pulled onto the campus she'd only seen in pamphlets and in books. The sun was shining and everything looked so clean and new. Nervous was a lightweight word to describe how she was feeling. Her hands shook. She followed the signs that pointed toward the freshmen dorms and stopped in a roundabout. "This is it," she said mostly to herself.

"It is," someone replied coming up to her half-open window. A gorgeous, brown-skinned woman with long box braids wrapped into a bun on top of her head. She was wearing a blue polo with black khaki pants. "You can park here while you register, find your room and unpack. Then follow the signs to Lot 6."

"I'm Miranda." She got out of the car and the two of them shook hands. "You can call me Mandy."

"Mandy. That's cute," they said. "I'm Gabrielle. Or Gabby."

"Hi." Mandy grabbed her purse and locked her car door. "Bye."

"See you later." Gabrielle started to walk off. "If you need help unpacking you can find me or another blue shirt and we'll give you a hand." The freshmen could only smile which Gabby mimicked. "Bye, frosh."

Mandy waved. Some of her nervousness had dissipated, but she was still jittery. She didn't know who her roommate was and when she opened her room door for the first time, she was surprised to see that it was empty. Going back to the desk, she inquired about her roommate. Not that she particularly wanted one, but hoping that there would be someone she could take this journey with. Maybe they could have been great friends. At the front desk, Mandy was told that her roommate had backed out and that she'd be all alone for at least the first semester. "Okay, thank you," she said going back to her car. Getting her bags, she pulled them out.

"Need help?"

She turned to see Gabby behind her. "Please."

"No problem. It's my job," she laughed.

Mandy screwed up her face. "Well, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Relax, frosh, it was a joke."

"Hmm."

They carried her stuff up to the third floor into her room. "Where's your roomie?"

Mandy dropped a bag on the extra bed. "I don't have one."

"Ah, so you're one of the lucky ones. Nearly everyone else in this building has a roommate except you." Gabby smiled at her and Mandy's heart flipped. She pushed some hair behind her ear.

"Thank you for the, uh, help."

Gabby pointed to the cooler. "You got a drink in there?"

"I think so." Mandy watched her rummage through the cooler. "So, what year are you?"

"Sophomore," Gabby said eating some chicken. "Who made this?"

"My mom." They left the dorm and walked down the stairs. "Oh, shoot!" Rushing to the nearest payphone, she called her parents.

Her mother answered. "Cutting it close," Elena said. Miranda smiled. "Are you good? Safe? Did the food hold up? Have you met anyone? How's your roommate?"

Mandy looked at Gabby who was still standing by her. She took in the other woman, an inch or two taller and only a year above, but her confidence was through the roof. And she was so pretty. Taking a breath, she answered her mother's questions while pulling off her glasses, cleaning them. "And it's good. How's daddy?"

"Sleeping. We thought we were going to have to take a drive to Massachusetts." The two Bailey women laughed.

"Hey, hey, hey! Tell your mom that this chicken is good," Gabby interrupted.

"Who's that?" Elena asked.

Mandy fidgeted. "Gabby, she's a, uh, sophomore who helped me move into my room." Gabby smiled at her. "She's really nice and she said the chicken is good."

"Well, tell her I said thank you and when we come to visit, I'll bring more." Mandy relayed the message and the two of them talked some more. "Call us tomorrow, okay?"

"Mama..."

"Tomorrow."

"Okay. I love you." Elena echoed the sentiment. When she hung up the phone, Mandy expected that Gabby would be gone, but she was standing there polishing off the drink and food. There were a few crumbs on the front of her shirt that Mandy wanted to push away, but she didn't.

Tossing the trash, Gabby asked if she had anything else in the car. Mandy said she didn't know. At her car, Mandy got the last bag. "Whoa! What are these?" Gabby asked holding up the box of condoms.

Mandy's face turned red. "Put those down!" She shouted, mixing it with a laugh. "My mom gave them to me."

"Mama knows best."

"Hey, Gabby! We need a hand over here."

Gabby rolled her eyes. "I have to go." Mandy nodded. "Bye, frosh."