roots and wings

three paths, one dorm

Stifled tears and sniffling filled the dim, stale dorm room. Lizzy was curled up in her fuzzy blanket on her newly made bed, wishing she could go back in time. Only three months ago, Lizzy was as happy as ever: she had the best boyfriend, an amazing group of friends, and a perfect GPA. As soon as graduation passed, however, it didn't take long for it all to fall apart.

With Lizzy's entire friend group leaving for the University of Georgia that fall, and Lizzy being the only one not, she began to feel the distance early (specifically when she realized they had a separate groupchat without her). Also, the realization that her high school GPA no longer mattered, as it all starts fresh in college, shattered her well-earned pride. Then came Lizzy's final straw: Hayden dumping her just a month shy of her leaving for college.

Another wave of sobs came over her, and she shivered as she realized how alone she really was. But this feeling was quickly replaced with nerves as she heard the door open. Lizzy lived in a four-person room in the freshmen dorms: Lakeside. This meant there were three rooms: the kitchen area that has the doors to the two bedrooms which each would be home to two girls. The door that had opened was luckily the main door, the door from the hallway to the kitchen area. Lizzy quickly got up to wipe her face in the mirror, ruffling out her short dirty-blonde hair, before turning to meet her new roommate.

"Hi!" Lizzy put on a fake smile, praying it reached her chocolate brown eyes, as she greeted the blonde girl in front of her, "I'm Lizzy!"

"I'm Jessie!" Jessie's bangs covered her blue eyes which she shook out of her face as they shook hands. "I think I'm in here with you!"

"Awesome!" Lizzy replied.

"Hi, I'm Jessie's dad, Will." Lizzy shook the man's hand and smiled, now looking at the woman standing next to him,

"I'm Jessie's mom, Karen." Lizzy moved to shake her hand, "It's nice to meet you, Lizzy."

"You as well," Lizzy smiled, again, then looked around, "Oh! Let me help!" She quickly leaned down to pick up some boxes at the couple's feet to bring into the dorm room.

Time passed as Lizzy conversed with the family while helping Jessie unpack until the main door opened again. Making excited eye contact with Lizzy, Jessie hurried over to the door to greet whoever was coming in with Lizzy on her tail.

They reach the door in time to help a girl with waist-length, dark brown hair with her boxes as they move them into the empty bedroom on the left. After putting the boxes down, Jessie eagerly turned around with her hand already up to shake, "I'm Jessie!"

The girl looked startled, looking up and down from Jessie's smiling face to her extended hand. After an awkward second, Sofia laughed and met Jessie's hand with a smile, "I'm Sofia!" Then turned to Lizzy,

"I'm Lizzy!" And the two shook hands with bright smiles on all of their faces.

The trio then split up as Jessie returned to her room with her parents to finish unpacking and Lizzy followed Sofia to help her retrieve more boxes from her car. On their second trip to their room, Jessie and Lizzy met Sofia's parents and learned from their Resident Assistant (RA) that their fourth roommate will not be joining them this year and it will only be the three of them in their room. This made Sofia jump for joy as she learned that she would have her own room for the year.

A few hours later Lizzy witnessed two tearful goodbyes, as Sofia's and Jessie's parents wished them the best and hugged each girl goodbye. To Lizzy's surprise though, as soon as the door closed behind the last parent, Jessie turned to them with a grin. With confusion, Sofia's and Lizzy's eyes followed Jessie as she stepped toward the fridge and opened a pack of Smirnoffs. All three girls exchanged a sneaky look in their eyes followed by outrageous laughter.

It didn't take long until the twelve-pack was empty and three drunk girls were on the floor, still laughing.