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wednesday, oct. 23 detroit, mi
The leaves on the ground crunched underneath my feet as I walked back to my dorm. I was tired as hell and had a whole lot of studying to do, but after my African American Literature class, all I wanted to was take a nap. The class was interesting, don't get me wrong, but I had made the rookie mistake of putting an 8:30am, two-hour long class on my schedule, and I was deeply regretting it.
I yawned as I pulled out my student ID card, buzzing myself into my building. I flashed my card to the person at the front desk and headed towards the elevator to go up to my room. I swiped my card to access the elevator and scrolled on my phone while I waited.
"Hey, Nic," I heard as soon as the elevator doors opened.
"Oh, hey Joy," I smiled, waving at the girl who also lived on my floor.
She was cool, and very pretty. I met her through my roommate and often saw her around campus. She was a social butterfly, always making new friends and inviting everybody to come to parties and events with her. She definitely knew how to have a good time.
"You coming to the kickback tomorrow night?" She asked.
"What kickback?"
Her grin widened. "You know James, the basketball player? Tall, light skin with dreads and a neck tattoo? He throwing a little kickback tomorrow at the athletes dorms before the football game. You coming to the game, right?"
"If Lauren's going, then probably. You know she'll just drag me along with her," I laughed.
"Well, just let me know. I'll text you the details, and we can all walk over together."
I nodded my head. "Alright, sounds good. See you later, girl."
"See you, boo."
She walked off and I swiped my card again to open the elevators. The ride up to my floor was quick and I wasted no time going to my room. Lauren and I had a spacious room, and I was more than thankful about that. It came with a spacious living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The only downside was that the shower was on one end of the space near my bedroom, and the bathroom was on the other end near Lauren's bedroom. Other than that, the space was perfect. We'd decorated it beautifully and we both had windows in our bedrooms that gave us a beautiful view of the campus.
I headed into my bedroom and shut the door, putting my bag down at my desk. I didn't have another class until 5:30, so I planned to take a short nap, hit the dining hall to eat and study, then go to my last class. I closed the curtains and stripped out of my clothes before climbing into my bed, getting snug underneath the covers.
Even though I was tired, I got on my phone for a while, watching TikTok and scrolling through Twitter. I then set my alarm for an hour and tried to go to sleep. I was so tired, but for some reason, I just couldn't fall asleep. I tried all of the methods — counting sheep, lying in one position for a while, clearing my mind — none of it worked. So I did what always worked best — self soothing.
