Jerrie Short Stories

Symphony

This is inspired by the Symphony music video

Walking down the accommodation halls was surreal. I felt like a fancy adult, not an eighteen year old kid starting her new life. There were so many people that I felt my hands clam up, like they always did when I was anxious. That made my job a lot harder. My old music teacher had made me do certain breathing exercises to try and calm my nerves before a performance and I found myself doing them again as I walked down the corridor. It probably looked like I was trying to give birth, but it was helping - just about.

There it was. Room 22. This would be my new home, the place where I would hopefully make so many unbelievable, wonderful memories, as long as my roommate was nice. I really hoped that she was nice. I twisted my new key into the lock and silently prayed that the next three years of my life would be fun.

I didn't have a chance to push the door open though, as a slightly shorter than me woman opened the door from the inside and smiled at me widely. She was very cute, from her zany Disney t-shirt to her dorky smile, highlighted by her enviously tan complexion that really put my freckled, pasty face to shame. But this new roommate of mine didn't seem to mind my lack of beauty, as she opened the door wide for me and took my suitcase into our room.

"I hope you don't mind that I already took the left side. You can have it if you want." she said looking me up and down, and I felt uncomfortable under her gaze. It felt like more than an observation of my person and I noticed her eyes lingering on my covered chest. "It's fine, I don't mind. I'm Perrie by the way. What's your name?" I asked her and she chuckled, realising that she had missed out the most important part of a greeting, the actual greeting. "Hello, I'm Jade." she said, and she held out her hand to me.

I really wanted to shake her hand and make (not just peace but) a real friendship with this new figure in my life, but I was very self aware and couldn't ignore the slick feeling of my palms. I rubbed them against my jeans quickly to try and dry them off and she smiled at me. "Don't worry about that. It happens to me too." she chuckled, and I smiled down at her gratefully because she wasn't judging me for my awkwardness. Most people did, and that had left me with nothing but my records - from which stemmed my passion for music - but it felt nice to have real human interaction.

I shook her hand and she led me over to her bed to sit on her black bedding with stars on the cover. "So Perrie, what are you studying?" she asked me, and I felt myself blush a little as I heard her soft, silky voice pronounce my name for the very first time, my heart beating faster and faster as she enunciated each syllable, dragging them out across her tongue. I almost forgot that she had asked me a question.

"I'm studying music." I said, and she nodded.

"That sounds awesome." Jade said and she genuinely seemed to mean it.

"What are you studying?" I asked her in return, a bit robotically, and she smiled at my awkwardness.

"Art." she stated simply, as she stood up and grabbed a pile of papers from near the door.

"That sounds very interesting. I love art." I said, getting excited and also intrigued by what she was holding in her hand. She pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket, which had a severely cracked screen, and a photo of two older people (presumably her parents), and a boy that looked a lot like her on its case. Siblings? That was cute.

"What do you fancy Pez? Indian, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, or Thai?" she asked me and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Jade tossed the multicoloured papers onto her bed and I saw that they were different menus, all with local addresses. "I walked around the area and got the menu for every restaurant and take out with a three and a half star or higher rating." she explained.