The Warmest Winter

°•°Chapter 6°•°

Frankie and I had taken our seats at the café, coffee, and biscuits with us.
Frankie grinned as he bit his biscuit.
"This is nice, can't lie." He said to me. I smiled back and nodded. It was nice. I finally had something to distract me from James. Maybe Frankie could help me move on from my supposed, 'one-sided' love.

"So.. tell me more about yourself." I said, contently sipping my coffee.
"Well.. my name's Frank White, but I prefer Frankie, I'm from Canada, I'm twenty-six , and I moved here three weeks ago with my two sisters." Frankie explained while looking through his phone.
"Uh.. here, these two are my sisters."

Frankie showed me a picture of two girls, both very familiar. Then it hit me. Those two girls were the same girls that were body shaming me in the café. My eyes widened as I looked back at Frankie, seeing the resemblance.

"You alright?" He asked, turning his phone off.
"Y-Yeah.. I'm good." I gulped and he smiled again at me.

An hour or two had passed by, and the café was closing, practically forcing me and Frankie out.
"Want to come over to my dorm?" Frankie offered.
"S-Sure." I stuttered, feeling my body tingle with excitement.
"But you're gonna lead the way because I'm not sure where corridor eighteen is." Frankie laughed nervously.

Corridor eighteen was quite literally on the furtherest end of the campus, tucked into a shadowy corner. The sun never shone on corridor eighteen because of other infrastructure built around it, so walking around here always made people feel uneasy. Even during the daytime, no one liked coming near here. And to top it all off, a student committed suicide here after hearing voices during the night.

"Guess I won't be visiting you during the night." I mumbled in my head.

"My dorm is 306, I'm pretty sure." Frankie scratched his head. He pulled out his key and unlocked the door, swinging it open with a creek.
His bags were untouched and placed in the living room.

"Can I help you unpack?" I suggested, trying to distract myself from the fact that I'm on the corridor that the whole campus rumors to haunted.
"Yeah, I'd love that," Frankie smiled,
"But wait, just curious, which corridor are you on?" He asked.
"Corridor 6. Right by the entrance." I replied, walking over to his bags.

It was around 9 pm when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out to see a message from Leila.

Leila : where u? It's late

Collie : at Frankie's

Leila : ugh, pls come back to the dorm and stop hanging out w that weirdo

Collie : alr alr no need to be mean

Leila : whatever, just come now, I'm worried

Collie : cockblock 😒 jkjk ,I'll b there in 10 min

Leila : that's gross, see u

Collie : ye ye, bye 🙄❤️

And with that, I put my phone in my pocket and turned to look for Frankie. I heard the shower so deciding to not bother Frankie by interrupting his shower, I decided to leave a note on his door.

Didn't wanna bother
you in the shower..

Text me
××× ××× ××××

- Collie <3

I mustered all the courage I could get to walk across corridor eighteen and back to my dorm. When I got back, I was very tense, purely from being on high alert.

"Well, you look happy." Leila snickered at my tense body and furrowed brows. She folded her and looked me up and down.
"Well I just came back from corridor eighteen." I shot back, kicking off my shoes.
"And it just keeps getting more weird." Leila chuckled in disbelief.
"A troubled man living in a haunted corridor, ha! What a joke.." Leila sneered, making me roll my eyes.
"He's not troubled, Leila, gosh, get a grip." I replied, feeling annoyed.

Just then, James walked into the room.
"Jesus, feels like a just got hit by a bus with all this tension here." James remarked with a grin.
"James, how long do you plan on staying here? You're not even supposed to be here." I asked him, fed up by him just being there whenever me and Leila were talking.

"Awh.. want me gone so soon?" James made his eyes big and glossy.
"James, what the fuck?" Leila chuckled at his childish act.
"But actually, she's right, when are you leaving." Leila asked her brother.

"Uh.. next week maybe, I've been looking online and there's a flat down the street." James shrugged.
"Right.." I trailed off.
"I'm gonna shower, see you guys tomorrow." I said as I walked off.
"Aren't you hungry?" I heard James shout across the dorm.
"No!" I shouted back as I closed the bathroom door.

As I lay in bed, I got a message from an unknown number.

Unknown : hii 😉

Collie : hey, who's this?

Unknown : well.. take a guess.. do you usually leave your number on people's doors?🤨🤨

Collie : ohh Frankie!! 😅

Frankie : haha, what u up to?

Collie : nothing much, was getting ready to sleep and u?

Frankie : same, 1st day of college seriously killed me but I don't think I'll forget it 😉

Collie : and why's that?🫣

Frankie : well.. I met u..

Collie : 😊🤭 aww

Frankie : 😅☺️ catch u tmr

Collie : alr, see u 😙

Frankie : 😚✌️

I fell asleep that night thinking of the tattooed blonde who seemed to really enjoy my company as much as I enjoyed his.