Love Lives and Lies

Fall Freshman Year- 1

Chapter 4

Volleyball practices are brutal. I made it through the couple weeks of practice before everyone else moves onto campus, better known as "hell week", and I'm only just starting to get the feeling back in my legs. I can't remember the last time I sat on the toilet without having to hold the sides of the walls to help myself down.

Today is the day I'll officially meet my roommate though. I'm trying to stay out of the room so she can get everything set up without me, but it's killing me to not just go up and crash her move in party.

I'm sitting on the floor in one of my teammate's rooms hanging out with her and her roommate. I've gotten to know Clarissa pretty well over the past few weeks and we've slowly become friends. I worried I wouldn't find anyone I really connected with on the team, but I think Clarissa and I can hopefully stick together this year.

I finally give in and decide to head up to my room. I'm hoping they're mostly moved in and I won't be interrupting too much.

I walk down the hallway through all the chaos of everyone moving in before I reach my door. It's wide open and I can see that my roommate has most of her things set up already, thank God. Her parents are in there as well and I slowly enter the room to introduce myself. I'm incredibly nervous because this first impression can make or break our relationship as roommates.

Her mom sees me first and her face lights up. "You must be Mya's roommate!"

I nod in confirmation.

Mya turns around with a wary smile on her face.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's nervous about this interaction.

"Hi Mya," I say shyly.

"Hey," she replies.

There's a deafening silence between us as I internally freak out about what to do next.

"Uh, I just came up to grab something before practice," I lie. I keep all my practice stuff in my locker at the gym.

I look around the room for something I can grab and spot a pack of gum on my desk. I can feel all the eyes on me as I reach for it and give them an awkward smile before bolting out of the room.

That was incredibly awkward. I don't think Mya and I are going to be great friends. Hopefully we can get along well enough though.

I run back downstairs to tell Clarissa about my interaction with my roommate. Clarissa is lucky because her roommate is also on the volleyball team. Lizzy is a nice girl that hopefully I can be friends with going forward as well.

As we walk across campus after practice, I'm dragging my feet. Our first games are this weekend and I feel like I'm going to be sore for the rest of my life. We're still running three a day practices with some lifting in between sessions and I'm absolutely dead.

I didn't bother changing out of my spandex and just threw on a fresh tshirt. Most of the volleyball team goes to dinner looking like this after practice, so I didn't think much of it myself.

As I enter the dining hall, I realize that now the whole campus is here. I was so used to it just being the athletes that now I feel a bit exposed in my outfit.

Everyone looks at us when we enter the room. It's just a part of being on a sports team I guess. Or maybe it's the skin tight shorts...who knows?

My school is a bit smaller and everyone knows who the athletes are on campus. It gives you a certain status symbol in a way.

I head towards the food to grab whatever I can before my legs give out underneath me. I pick up a grilled cheese, some fries, an apple, a banana, and a glass of milk. I don't even care when I'm eating at this point. I'll just burn it off tomorrow anyways.

I look up to find a seat with my teammates when my eyes spot Alec across the room. It's the first time I've seen him since I was here for the scholarship weekend. We added each other on social media, but we haven't talked since.

My heart picks up a beat as I see him laughing and smiling with some friends. He has such a great smile; I can't seem to look away.

Suddenly someone bumps into me and I come back to earth from my daydream. It's Clarissa.

"Stop staring," she whispers. "Come on, let's go get a seat and you can tell me all about that guy you were hardcore checking out."

My face turns red thinking that other people might have seen my momentary brain fart while I was staring across the room. Alec didn't seem to notice though. He's having too much fun over there with his friends.

I sigh and go sit down with Clarissa and Lizzy.

"What's this I hear about a guy?" Lizzy waggles her eyebrows at me.

Lizzy is absolutely guy crazy and I know I won't be able to get out of this now that she knows.

"Just a guy I met over the summer at the scholarship weekend," I try to brush it off like it's nothing. "We stayed up late chatting and really got to know each other, I guess."

I take a bite of my grilled cheese hoping that Lizzy will drop it.

"Where is he?" she leans up trying to look around the room. I don't even bother trying to stop her because I know it's no use.

"Back corner with the newsboy cap on," I admit.

She pauses for a moment when she sees him. "Oooh he's a cutie," she squeals. "I say you go for it."

"Go for what? I have the social skills of a dead bug," I joke.

"Oh hush," she chides me. "He looks pretty nerdy if you ask me. I bet he'd be crazy if he didn't want to date one of the hotties from the volleyball team."

"He's not that kind of guy," I try to change her mind. "He's smart and sensitive. He doesn't put stake in people's looks but their heart and mind and who they are as a person. I can't just go over and talk to him. I don't even know if he remembers me." I sigh realizing he could have completely forgotten about our late night chat only a few weeks ago.

"You've got it bad," Clarissa chimes in as she smirks over her glass of water.

"Ugh, I know," I admit.

"It's okay," she reaches out to put her hand over mine. "You'll find your moment."

I hope she's right. I just have a feeling that Alec could be the guy for me.