Writer

Chapter 2

The walk back to the dorm felt endless, but in a good way. The scenery complimented the stupid college well, and even though I couldn't say I liked it here, I could say the environment made it better. Every few moments of silence that passed, I would look down at the scribble of numbers on my hand and cringe at the way my mind replayed everything. It wasn't okay, not yet at least. I didn't want to talk to a cute guy, not yet at least.

For a second I thought about rubbing the tips of my fingers aggressively against the spot where he wrote it, hoping to aggressively erase his presence in my mind. But I didn't. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I wanted to give him a call, I wanted to find out more about him.

When I made it back to the dorm, Lily was waiting on her bed.

Nothing was unpacked, and the room felt bare. "Where have you been? I was hoping we could check out the campus together and get to know each other more. You kind of vanished after orientation."

"Yeah. Coffee, I needed it and stuff." I sounded awkward. It was awkward.

"There's a coffee place close by?" Lily jumped up off the bed and smiled.

"Score! Looks like I won't want to pull my hair out every morning."

I laughed a bit and moved to my side of the room.

"Hey so look, I met this girl who's like, a junior now and she told me all about this frat that throws these huge parties every other night." She started to pace around the little space we had and I began to take out sheets for my bed.

"They're usually themed, and since it's the big move in day, they're having one based on colors of your high school! Lame but still cool, so, wanna go?"

I dropped the sheets and looked at her as though she had four heads and she looked back as though I had five. "Paisley, if we are going to be good friends you need to give and take."

"But-" I felt heat rush to my cheeks at the thought of seeing black eyes there.

"You may meet some hot guys! Who am I kidding? You will! Come on."

I agreed, and silently thought to myself, I already did.

...

I hated wearing green.
It made me feel small and childish in its entirety. I pulled down the extra material of the ivy long sleeve shirt and tucked it into my black jeans. The shirt was too big, too long, but I didn't say anything because it was Lily's and she wanted me to wear it. She wasn't fat. She was just tall. Really tall.

I wore a green headband, a slightly different shade than the shirt, but it worked, I guess. Lily came bouncing over to where I positioned myself in the mirror and she rubbed her red lips together. "We look like Mario and Luigi." Then we both laughed.

"Oh, great." I answered back and began to smooth down my chocolate locks. They were too long, too frizzy to manage.

"Here." Lily said, and she began to braid my hair. I moved my hand down, and realized the number was still on my wrist. Instead of washing it off, I just pulled my sleeve up. Once Lily was done, the braid was loose but contained, and I smiled.

She was trying. She really was.

I smiled deeper.