Crowded Room

1. The Big Apple

Six months later

Camila’s eyes have a hard time assimilating everything she’s seeing, so many buildings and so many people. As she looks through her window, she can see how much life is around her right now. People and cars crowding the sidewalks and streets as her grandparents drive her to her destination. She has never seen that many people in a place, not even when she was in front of an audience back home. She almost feels insignificant seeing the city for the first time. This is it, she thinks to herself. New York City. The Big Apple.

 “ How much longer?” She asks her grandfather impatiently.

 “ I don’t even know how to answer that.” He says. “ We were supposed to be there already, but have you seen this traffic?”

 “ It’s a good thing I don’t drive then, I guess.” She says, thinking it would be a hard task even if she wanted to.

 It takes them almost half an hour to finally get to the building where her dorm room is located and both her grandparents help her move her suitcases and other stuff she brought with her. She didn’t need to furniture anything since it was already equipped with a bed, a dresser, a closet, and a desk with a chair. They even provided blankets and towels. She wouldn’t be by herself, though. The traditional dorm she would be staying in consisted of four girls per suite, so she would be sharing one of the two bedrooms with someone else and the bathroom would be shared amongst all four of them. There’s also a small living area with a couch and an even smaller microwave-refrigerator unit to be shared by them as well.

 “ Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Her grandma asks for the hundredth time.

 “ Yes, I’m sure.” Camila laughs before kissing her cheek. “ I’ll be okay, grandma.”

 “ Okay.” Her grandma seems like she’s trying to convince herself. “ But don’t forget to call us everyday.”

 “ I won’t.” She smiles, trying not to show that she’s actually quite nervous about being on her own for the first time in her life.

 “ We’ll miss you so much.” Her grandpa whispers, hugging her and she can already see her grandma holding her tears.

 “ I know. I’ll miss you too.”

 After many rounds of hugs and goodbyes, Camila is finally left alone in the bedroom she’ll be sharing with someone she doesn’t know anything about. There’s already another girl in the other bedroom, so after making sure she’s not going to burst into tears, she makes her way to the open door and knocks lightly.

 “ Hi.” She says when a red-haired girl looks up and smiles at her. “ I’m Camila.”

 “ Mia.” She says, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

 She doesn’t say anything else and Camila is not sure if she doesn’t want to talk or if she’s just shy, but before she can decide, the door to their suite opens and two more girls enter with their suitcases. One has brown skin and very curly dark hair, while the other has long straight brown hair, both a lot taller than her. They introduce themselves and Jessica, the one with curly hair, is sharing a bedroom with Mia, while Camila will share hers with Hailee.

 Organizing her things in such a small space is a challenge, but she manages to do so without getting any space that doesn’t belong to her. Hailee is really nice and a lot more open to talk to her, unlike Mia, and Camila feels relieved that they seem to get along so well.

 “ So you’re a theater major too?” Hailee asks when she sees Camila hanging a small Wicked poster over her bed. She knows it’s kind of cheesy, but it belonged to her mother, so it’s actually really special to her.

 “ Yes, I am.” Camila smiles proudly and they start a long conversation about their favorite musicals while they finish organizing their clothes into their closets. It felt surreal being able to have a conversation with people that actually share the same interests she had. She was excited about classes, but even more about the people.

•☆•☆•☆•

 Shawn groaned as he heard his phone ringing, the lights coming from the window blinding him momentarily as he tried to reach for the object on his nightstand. He didn’t find it though and when it kept ringing, he pushed himself out of bed to look for it. Anyone else would have given up calling him after so many tries, so that meant it could only be one person: his father.

 “ What do you want?” He asks, answering the call after getting his phone from the back pocket of the black jeans he had worn the night before and were now on the floor.

 “ Good morning to you too, son.” He hears his father’s voice from the other side of the line, condescending as always.

 “ Cut the crap.” Shawn says angrily, knowing his day would already be ruined by having to talk to his father so early in the morning. “ What do you want?”

 “ I’m sorry if I wanted to check on my son.”

 “ You haven’t called me in almost two months.” Shawn reminds him. “ Just tell me already.”

 “ There’s a record label dinner tonight. I need you there.” Shawn can tell by his voice that he’s not asking, but demanding.

 “ So you can show me off for your colleagues and complain how I chose the wrong side of the music industry to work on? No, thanks.”

 “ You’re going.” His father tells him. “ I’ll send a car to pick you up at seven.”

 “ Great.” Shawn sighs, ending the call without saying goodbye.

 He walks into the kitchen to start the coffee machine, only to realize someone else already did it.

 “ Morning, Shawnie.” A blonde is behind his kitchen counter with a smile, like she’s expecting him to kiss her or something.

 “ Don’t call me that.” He says to this girl he had completely forgotten sleeping with the night before. “ Chloe, right?”

 “ Laura.” She looks at him angrily. “ Come on, it's not that hard to remember!”

 “ Sorry.” He says as she walks past him to take her purse from his bedroom, and a minute later she’s already out of his apartment. 

 He knows he should feel guilty and even though he wouldn’t want anything else with her, he would feel bad about it in any other day. But after his father’s call, he just couldn’t force himself to care. He always made the rules clear to whoever random girl he had sex with: he didn’t do relationships, but from time to time he would end up with a girl who would try to change that. It never worked though. He knew what he wanted and a relationship was not on his list of priorities. The dinner he had to go to was though, and he was already dreading the hours he would have to spend with a bunch of people who only cared about kissing his father’s ass.