the first chapter of Roommates! This is my first collaboration. let me know how you like it, feedback needed.
The afternoon was surprisingly sunny for September, the cloudy day providing some comfort as students waddled through campus with suitcases and boxes in their arms. The London air was crisp from the early mid-day hours as families and friends helped unpack dorm-rooms a few days before class.
Zoe lay on her back, watching the ceiling of her new dorm-room. Her things had been unpacked and neatly put away into her dresser and end table and the items on her desk were ready for classes the next day. She was excited for her lessons to start but equally anxious living away from home for the first time. She tilted her head and looked at the picture frames on the wall, a white four framed photo holder with all the people she loved displayed – her small group of friends from home, her family photo taken last Christmas, the picture her and her best friend Paige had taken at the beach in Spain and finally she and her little sister Marie and older brother, Drew. They provided the comfort she needed when the unease settled in her stomach and she got nervous. Zoe often got nervous, especially in front of an audience and cute boys. Her throat would close up and her hands would shake and worst of all she would sometimes even stutter. It was awful. She preferred to just stay around her close friends and keep to herself.
She had taken off her glasses and looked up at the ceiling, enjoying how the world got fuzzy and indecisive, much like how she wanted her life to be sometimes. Her waves fanned out around her as she twirled a lock of her hair and started to braid the dark brown strands. Halfway through, she heard the door click and swing open and a ruckus as a girl pushed her way through the door of room 252. She had a mess of brown wavy hair under a obey cap seemingly a size too big. Her black jumper hung on her petite frame lower than her shorts and made her look like she wasn’t wearing anything underneath until she bent over to pull her cellphone out of her bag. With a smirk she quickly responded to the message and tossed the phone onto the bed opposite the room from Zoe.
“Hey,” Zoe spoke timidly, slipping her glasses onto the bridge of her nose and sitting up.
“Oh hi,” The girl responded, a bright white smile briefly flashing over her face before she turned away and dipped back into her bag. She was a pretty girl, the kind with dimples and bright blue eyes.
“I’m Zoe, you must be Mia?”
“Yup, that’s me.” The girl was hauling her suitcase through the room to the bed, opening drawers as though to search for something. Eventually she seemed to find it and returned to her bag. Zoe only realised what Mia was doing when she pulled out an odd looking vase and placed it on the back of her dresser.
“Is that what I think it is?” Zoe’s eyes bulged behind her thick rimmed glasses.
“Shhh! You don’t have to scream it out.” Mia hushed her, her own eyes going wide as she attempted to get her new roommate to shut up. This couldn’t be happening. The dorky looking first year with the glasses sitting across the room from her was about to scream out to the world that Mia was in fact putting a bong on her dresser. She had gotten it in Turkey from a skilled glass blower and was not going to risk it getting taken away on her first day.
Mia marched over to the door and shut it so only her roommate and she could hear what she was going to say. “Yes, this is a bong. And you will not rat on me. I don’t care how goody two shoes you are but you can’t say anything, got it uhh-”
“Zoe.”
“Right, Zoe. Don’t say anything.” Mia eyes darted around the room and settled back on Zoe, making the dark haired girl’s mouth go dry – she really wasn’t good with confrontation.
