Let Me Be Your Hero

Chapter Twenty-Six : Room-mates and Ghosts

Graduation came before I knew it. I was so not ready for this chapter of my life to be over, but at the same time I was glad. I could start something new in my life. I could leave behind all the suffering I have had to go through and look up at the sky in a different place. I got my acceptance letter from the University of South Alabama, so I could move far away from this old town. Thanks to my active involvement my senior year I got several scholarships and managed to squeeze a housing grant in there too. Things were starting to move forward the way they were meant to.

I moved into an all-girls hall on campus shortly after graduation. I signed up for summer classes, so I was able to leave sooner than my parents anticipated. I had to share the room with another girl, but I was okay with that. It might do me good to make new friends. I unpacked all my things from several boxes of stuff I brought from home and decorated my side of the room in a floral pattern. I was super excited to start my classes and learn how to help others. I was halfway through putting pictures in my ribbon memo board when the door opened and a red-headed girl walked in.

"Hello! You must be Melanie Sommers?" She said shyly while lugging in a huge pink suitcase.

"Yes, ma'am." I got a bit closer to greet her.

"I'm Aubrey Greene." She shook my hand while saying. "It's nice to meet you!"

"It's nice to meet you too." I smiled. She seems like a nice girl.

"I'm going to start setting up my side of the room and stuff, but we should totally talk later so we can set our rules up and whatnot." She told me while setting her suitcase next to her bed.

"Sure." I replied, getting back to my memo board. "Sounds great."

I finished setting everything up exactly how I wanted it to be and Aubrey did the same. We weren't done until the end of the day almost, so we went out for pizza together to talk things over. I found that we both agreed on many of the same things. No boys in the room, no loud music, no more than a couple friends in the room at a time, and to respect each other's space.

"I was thinking we could grocery shop together and split the bill 50/50, ya know?" Aubrey stated, taking a bite of her cheese pizza.

"Yeah, I agree. And cleaning products as well as toilet paper should be 50/50 too." I bit into my own pepperoni pizza.

"I think we've covered everything for the time being. I think we should go over the basics about each other now. We're gonna be seeing a lot of each other, so it's best to be on amicable terms." 

"Okay." I nodded.

"Well..." She paused momentarily. "As you know, I'm Aubrey. I was born in New York, but was raised here in the South. I was top 5 in my graduating class, so I am really big on studying and emphasize education. I'm a Health Science major, but I might switch to an education field. Who knows. I like to travel and play volleyball. I'm an early riser too, so you can expect a 5AM alarm clock." I groaned at the last part internally. Greaaaaaat.

"Cool." I smiled politely. She's starting to sound more and more high-maintenance as we talk. 

"I was born here in the South too. I was just born in a different town. Can't say I was top of anything in my class. " I laughed a bit. "However, I did learn to appreciate it more by the tail-end of my time in high school. I'm an Emergency Medical Services major. I just listen to music and stuff in my spare time."

"Emergency Medical Services?" She asked a bit astounded. "Isn't that a gory field?"

"I don't really care if it is or not. I just want to help people." I said while remembering Aria.