Borderline

Chapter 15

The next day went terribly.

I scored fine on the exam. Apparently I'm perfectly healthy.

However, they also found out I was a girl.

That's how I ended up outside of a stranger's door with my duffel bag, wearing a fucking skirt.

I picked at the foreign clothing with a disgusted look on my face, waiting for whoever was on the other side to open the door.

Eventually they did, and I was standing face to face with my new roommate. She had curly brown hair that went down to her shoulders. She smiled at me.

"Hey!" She stuck out her hand, and I shook it. "You must be Ryder. I'm Jessica Flynn, but nobody calls me that." She stepped aside to let me in.

I took a cautious step forward into the new room and looked around. It looked almost identical to the one I had shared with Joshua and Eli, except Jessica had added her own personal touches.

"What do people call you, then?" I asked.

"Well, instead of Jessica, my friends call me 'Jess' or 'Jessie'. But most people call me variations of 'bitch', 'slut', and 'freak'." She smiled widely at me, despite her depressing line.

I raised my eyebrows. "And you just accept that?" I had only said two things to this girl, but she seemed alright. Definitely not as much of a freak as I was.

Jessica shrugged. "It doesn't really bother me anymore." She pushed her purple-framed glasses further up her nose.

"So," she said, clapping her hands together. "Make yourself at home. Sorry for the mess. I haven't had a roommate for about a year now." She walked into her kitchen and grabbed a Pop-Tart.

I threw my duffel bag onto my new bed and sat down next to it.

"Do you need help getting the rest of your stuff?" She asked, trying to be helpful.

"I don't have anything else. Just that." I gestures to my bag.

"Really?" Jessica took another bite of Pop-Tart. "Huh. That's kind of weird."

I shook my head. "Not really. I live on-" I stopped myself. Where the hell is my filter? "Uh, never mind."

Jessica gave me a strange look, then shrugged it off. "Whatever. You want a Pop-Tart?" She asked, mouth full.

I smiled a little, then nodded. "Sure. I haven't had one in...yeah, it's been a while." She laughed and threw me a shiny silver package.

"So," she started, sitting down on the bed across from mine. "Why'd you get a room transfer?"

I took a bite of my Pop-Tart and shrugged. "Cause before this I was in a room with two boys."

"How?"

Another bite. "They assumed I was a boy, and I didn't bother to correct them."

"Oh."

I finished my first pastry in record time, then started on the second one.

"When was the last time you ate?"

I stopped chewing, trying to remember my last meal. I shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't eat lunch yesterday, so..Saturday, maybe?" I shoved more Pop-Tart in my mouth.

"Saturday?! That was 3 days ago!"

I shrugged again. "Okay."

I crumpled up my wrapper and held it in my fist. "Trash can?"

Jessica pointed toward the kitchen, and I got up. "Thanks."

I decided to go to sleep, and Jessica thought that was a good idea, too.

"Do you need pajamas, or..."

I shook my head. "No, I'll just sleep in this."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

My forehead creased. "Why not?" I asked carefully.

"They don't like wrinkly uniforms."

Oh. "Okay..." I started taking off said uniform. "So I'll just sleep in my underwear."

Jessica laughed at that. "Whatever. You're kind of weird, did you know that?"

"I'm just not used to this stuff. To me, all of you guys are weird."

I hung my clothes at the end of my bed and crawled under the blankets.

"Night, Ryder," Jessica said, turning off the lights.

"Night, Jess." I smiled.

Cool. I made a friend.