Broken Strings

Chapter 5

I immediately went back to my dorm to find my roommate and best friend, Alyssa, sitting on her bed. She has her headphones in but takes them off when she sees me enter the room. "Where have you been? I thought we were going to go to dinner tonight??" she said grumpily and crossed her arms.

I bite my lip and mutter an insincere apology, "I'm sorry, Lys." I didn't plan on saying anything about my maybe-date with Michael but I can't help myself; better she find out from me than someone else. "Guess what I was doing?" I plop down on my bed and give her a huge smile.

She smirks and chuckles before responding, "What were you doing?"

"I went on an impromptu date with a guy in some of my classes," I reply lightly. My date with Michael was the first I've been on in a month so I expected her to be proud.

She answers like she's my mother, "With who? What does he look like? Do I know him?" Her questions keep coming and I laugh in order to cut her off.

I look down and answer her many questions, "His name is Michael and you probably don't know him. His hair is white with a black stripe in the middle and is kind of everywhere but..." I look up to see her gawking at me. "What?" I reply simply but I already know what she's thinking.

Lys responds curtly, "So basically you're out of his league and he's a punk kid?? Flora, what are you thinking?" I huff. She softens and asks out of curiosity, "So, how was the date? Every detail."

I smile and recap the date for her, "After our last class, we decided to go to the record store and then he bought some. We got some fast food and went back to his dorm and listened to them until his roommate came back." I can feel myself blushing and smiling. I remove my hair from the ponytail and start to run my fingers through it. I can feel Alyssa giving me a devilish grin.

"You dirty dog!" she throws a pillow at me and I laugh.

"I never said anything bad!" I feel my face blushing even more heavily. I feel my cheeks and they're burning hot.

"I know you, Flora. You totally hooked up with him!" she accuses.

"I so didn't!" I try to defend myself. I exit myself from the awkward conversation by burying my face into Lys' pillow.

She eventually left me alone, thank God, and I took the opportunity to check all of my text messages. Out of 19, 7 were from Alyssa asking me if I were dead and 2 were from my parents. I reply to my parents before bothering to look at the other 10. I knew what these other messages would say, "Hey, how are you?" even though they could care less how I feel. I decide not respond and instead choose to watch a movie on my laptop. Maybe that'll help me calm down.