run of the mill.

4th

Beyonce took her last braid out of her hair and sighed, dropping her dog-tired hands at her sides. Her hair was a frizzy, smelly, curly mess atop her head as she lay back and closed her eyes momentarily. She didn't want to take them out because she hated doing her hair but she had no choice. Her hair had become ugly with unkempt new-growth and baby-hairs that prickled her forehead.

She sat up and looked around her room for her toiletries so that she could go and wash the mess she had created. Then she stripped naked and wrapped herself in a lime green towel her mother had bought from Target©. Grabbing her necessities for showering herself and washing her hair, she tucked her underwear under her arm before shuffling into the hallway towards the bathroom.

People milled about in the hallway casually and talking and heading in different directions. She approached the door at the end of the hall and pushed it open, letting the steam hit her in the face. As hot as the water made the room on the early Saturday morning, the tile on the floor still made her feet cold. She looked down the long aisle and searched for a shower that wasn't being used.

Her mother had bought her A deluxe set of Pantene© materials for her hair and a Victoria's Secret© 'Vanilla Lace' collection of lotion and body wash. Needless to say, she always smelled good when she went out. Sure she was alone... but she always smelled of vanilla and cocoa bean. Once she was finished she slipped on her blue cotton underwear set and threw her towel about her body carelessly.

There were some people that marched through the hall on their bra and panties but Beyonce wasn't comfortable enough to do that just yet. Not to mention the men that could be in the hall. There was no particular rule that stated that they couldn't venture to each other's dorm room. They could even stay the night but no one ever did. Well no one but Chris and T, Beyonce thought smirking to herself.

Her wet hair stuck to her back and neck as she approached her door. It was so long and irritating at times. But she would never cut it. She hated the idea of having short hair simply because she had convinced herself that she had an oddly shaped head underneath her hair. She didn't know if it was true but she didn't want to find out.

As she approached her door and pulled the towel up, shuffling her toiletries from one hand to the other. The towel covered her head as she pushed her door open and she moved the fabric over her wet hair, attempting to dry it and close her door with the other hand.

"Oh damn," she heard someone say. Someone that sounded nothing like T. The deep baritone voice that vibrated off the walls and through the room scared the hell out of her.

Beyonce snatched the towel from her head and screeched quietly. That was not T. "Shawn!" she slightly yelled as her legs instinctively stepped backwards into the door. Her toiletries fell to the floor and her frantic hands tried to wrap the towel back around herself as he spoke.

"Fuck I'm sorry shawty," he said and Beyonce was almost positive she could hear the smile in her voice even as she hunched over to hide her practically naked body. "T told me to wait in heer for her and Chris."

Composing herself enough to flick her wet hair from her face and try to hide her shame, she stood up straight. "O-oh ok well... I need to change," she forced as calmly as she could. "So can you step outside and wait?"

Shawn wore a pleased smirk and a surprised twinkle in his eyes at the same time. He nodded and put whatever he had been touching down. "Yeah," he said, huffing a laugh to himself. "Ok."

Beyonce could see the pleasure in his eyes as he shuffled toward her and the door. His thumb wiped his chin in a manner that screamed charm and seduction. She stepped aside and let him open the door and close it behind himself.

It was then that she realized that she was holding her breath. She sighed and put a hand to her chest. There was only one person that had seen her naked since she was old enough to pick her own clothes out. And walking into her dorm and finding that that legacy had been shattered startled her just a little.

She sat on her bed and applied the sensual body butter to her skin. After handling all the business that was maintenance of her body, she wrapped the towel around her head and stepped into the closet. She was feeling very feminine right then but as she glanced around, her closet wasn't. She sighed and looked around again, hoping something would jump out at her.

But she didn't have anything. Nothing pretty or 'girlie'. Of course, she thought momentarily scolding herself. But there was a bunch of things just like what she was looking for on the other side of her closet. She suddenly felt inferior. She wanted, for that brief moment, to be like T. She didn't know why, she had never had a feeling like that before. She looked over T's clothes in somewhat longing. Just as she turned back to hers, T came into the room.

"Beyonce? What's this I hear about you giving a taken man an eyeful!" She wasted no time getting to the point. When she opened the closet, Beyonce rolled her eyes at the smile on her face. "You sly dog!"

Beyonce's eyes nearly fell to the floor; they had popped out so far. "I did not! Why did you tell him to come in our room anyway?"

T shrugged and looked around the closet carelessly. "Chris and I needed a few seconds along, you know?"

Beyonce shook her head and looked over her clothes desperately. Something in her gut made her want to be... pretty. And she knew the reason for wanting to suddenly look stunning was standing in the girls lobby right now waiting on her. What had made any other instant she had seen Shawn any different from now? It was the fact that he saw you in your underwear, duh, she thought lamely. But whatever the case, she wanted to look like T did all the time with the beautiful outfits that seemed to always go so perfectly together. Frustrated, she ran a hand over her wet hair again and stepped out of the closet.

T sat on her bed playing with her phone. When she saw Beyonce emerge with nothing, she addressed it. "Girl we got people waiting on us. Hurry up."

Beyonce opened her top drawer and pulled out a pair of oversized basketball shorts. "I ain't going," s he mumbled like a child.

"What? Why not?" T put her phone on the bed and stood up. "I know you got something to wear."

Beyonce shrugged and pulled the black shorts on, carelessly letting them hang on her hips due to their size. She crossed to the small fish aquarium she had sitting on the dresser and glanced at the salt water fish she had acquired. "Yeah I just remembered I have a paper due and I need to get started on it." It wasn't a lie, Beyonce reminded herself after she'd said it. She did have a paper due in her Literature class in three weeks that she had yet to start on.

T looked at her for a long second. "Ok whatever." Beyonce could tell that T could see right through her and she was glad that her roommate didn't comment on it. As T grabbed her purse and put her things into it, Beyonce felt the need to say something. She had wasted valuable time.

"Look I promise I'ma chill with you the next time you ask me. And we can do whatever ok?"

T turned around and pouted extravagantly. Beyonce smiled when she saw the joking manner in her friend's attitude. "Fine but you promised."

Beyonce nodded and watched T walk out the door. She sighed and plopped down on her bed. "Idiot," she chastised once she was alone. She huffed and pulled her backpack from under her bed. "Fuck," she thought as she opened her book and started on the paper she had suddenly condemned herself to.