[ 𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓇 ] ~ 𝐿𝑒𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑜𝓃 𝑀𝓊𝓇𝓇𝒶𝓎 𝓍 𝒪𝒞

II - Fears

Star sat behind the couch that Whitney, Bela and Kimberly found themselves on at the dorm meeting. She was sitting on a windowsill with her legs crossed and a pen pushing between her fingers. The door to the meeting room opened and in walked the beautiful blonde from before.

"Welcome. Take a comfy seat." The Swede at the front of the room told her.

"Does this mean you are our roommate?" Whitney asked with a grin.

"Oh, no, no." Leighton sat down right next to Star and she shifted over slightly to give the blonde more room. "But there's been a clerical error that I need to address tomorrow, so I'll need to stay for one night." She crossed her left leg over her right.

"Well, we already picked rooms, so you're with Star and Bela."

"Even though it's one night, we should probably sidebar about a system in case any of us bring a dude home." Bela started with a whisper, talking to Leighton. Leighton gave a tight, uncomfortable smile, and Star practically choked on her own spit, shaking her head.

"Okay, everyone, my name is Frude Rasmunssen, and I will be your Freshman Advisor and friend, aka, your FAF. Welcome to Essex!" He clapped, the rest of the room slowly following. "We'll start with some icebreakers. Let's go around and share a time when we felt scared. I'll start. Avalanche during a family reunion. I lost several relatives and was, myself, entombed for many days. Next?"

"I'm scared of my stalker." A pretty girl in a wheelchair raised a finger. Frude motioned for her to continue. "I'm kind of a big deal on Tiktok. Malia Obama follows me." People started pulling their phones out to search her up.

"Holy shit! She has two hundred thousand followers." Bela gaped.

"Oh, my god, you do song parodies?" Kimberly asked excitedly.

"Ooh!"

"Woah!"

"Don't go chasing extra smalls~" She sang. "That was for a body positivity campaign for Kind Bars, which are delicious."

"So cool!"

"Who else?" Frude asked, spreading his arms invitingly.

"One time my parents left me at the gare- Or. . .uh, train platform. They didn't realize and didn't come get me for three days." Star tilted her head with her words, still spinning the pen between her fingers.

"Three days?"

"They didn't notice?"

"That's- Good, good." Frude nodded, glad to get the sharing out. "Next?"

"Uh, I am a little nervous about my work-study interview tomorrow." Kimberly admitted.

"Wait, you have a job?" Bela asked, shocked.

"Well, I applied for one."

"Yes, great, Kimberly. And don't worry, many students at Essex have student jobs. Who else has one?"

Nobody but Star raised their hands. "I guess perhaps it is just you two here. What is it you do for your job, Star?"

"I work at the library." They said gently, looking up at the Freshman Advisor.

"Cool." Kimberly smiled.

"Cool indeed!"

"Look, Frude, I'm sure you're good at this, but sharing our fears isn't gonna make-" Just as Leighton's interruption was coming to a point, she was cut off by the gay looking guy that Star had bumped into earlier.

"I'm scared because I'm gay!" He stood up. "I was in the closet all through high school, and I don't want to do that again, so I promised myself I would tell everyone the minute I got here. Guys, I'm gay."