Bittersweet Hello. (H.S)

Three

I groan a little when I wake up to hear knocks on my dorm door, the annoying bangs in an annoying pattern that I thought was only in my dream.

I look up to my clock stuck to the wall above my plain bedside table to find the small hand pointing at the bold four. 4am. I groan again, loud this time as I roll myself out of my bed to walk to the door.

I tiredly place my hand on the knob ready to turn it but pause and wait for a second as I hear a males voice mumbling instead of an Elizabeth who I originally thought was outside the door having forgotten her keys again.

I gently place my ear against the door to listen more only to jump back in a fright when another round of knocks begin. I clutch my chest as my heart thumps inside it.

I look around annoyed when my eyes connect to my iron ruler on the study desk. I quickly grab it and walk back to the door, slowly opening it, only allowing one half of my body to be seen while the other with the ruler in my hand hid safely behind the door.

I look at the guy who I haven't ever seen in my life stand there looking at me. His eyebrows pull together in confusion, looking between myself and the number on the door.

"You're not Elizabeth," he says in a matter of fact as if to register the obvious thought back into his brain dopily. He looks down the hall at the other doors. Probably double checking if he has the right one, "I must be in the wrong block." he says, unsure.

I frown at him, quite mad that he came here at 4am, banging on the door like a mad man. He probably is one.

I can smell alcohol wafting off of him too and it unsettles me. "Who are you?" I ask in a clipped tone. I don't want to reveal to him that Elizabeth does stay here and he's at the right dorm because like I said, who knows who he might be. He could be some creep who stalks her or something. Who knows. there isn't a shortage of sick people in this world.

"I was looking for Elizabeth Laney... She told me to meet her here." he says confused, he's head is like a wobbly bowling on top of his head as he tries to slightly balance himself, "Do you know her?"

"Look, maybe you should go and get some sleep." He looks right at me when I say this, squinting when he takes a stop forward, making me clutch the iron ruler in my hand tighter, ready to whack him with it if need be.

"So you do know Elli?"

"Yeah I know her but she isn't here," He moves closer as if he were about to come in, "-only my boyfriend is here. Who is pissed by the way. Who the heck knocks at someone's door at 4am in the morning? Honestly, you're lucky he didn't answer." He stops and hesitates, probably deciding on whether or not to continue to barge in.

I'm ready to pull the ruler out and hit him with it but he nods and steps back rolling his eyes.

"Just tell Elli that Louis came around." I watch as he turns and walks away down the hall. I make sure he turns the corner before closing my door, locking it.

Bloody Elizabeth. Making random scary tatted dudes show up at freaking 4am. Stupid girl.

I lay back on my bed with a shaky breath not even bothering to go back to sleep. I stare at the streaks of light that come through the gaps of the curtain from the street below. I hear keys jiggle outside, making my eyes snap to the door.

It opens and in comes Elli stumbling a little as she tries to get the key out of the hole. She succeeds and shuts it, turning on her phone light to guide her way through the room.

She shines it on me, jumping a bit probably not expecting me to be awake,

"Oh." she says in surprise, "Did someone come here?" Her words are heavily slurred and I glare at her through the dark.

"Yes. Louis or something" I say to her, making sure that she knows I'm pissed at her, "came here banging on the door like King Kong."

"Well why didn't you let him in?" She exclaims, turning on her lamp, limo mating the room with a dull glow.

"Uh because I didn't know him." I say incredulously, is she really this dumb. If she had given me a heads up and texted me, I would've told him to sit and wait outside.

"He had the weed!" She says in a tone.

What in the- did she just say weed? Does she smoke weed? I can't picture her smoking weed.

"Why do you need weed? Do you even smoke it?" I've had nothing but bad experiences with drugs in general and I wasn't even the one using it.

"No, but he was cute and I wanted to get some." Ah, now it makes sense.

"Well he's gone. I told him to go."

"Geez, you're such a buzzkill." She says dramatically, "I swear you try to ruin every good thing. Should've stayed at whatever shit hole you came from."

"Whatever," I say back calmly, because no matter how badly I want to possibly fight her for saying that, arguing with a drunk is never a good thing to do. "I didn't know him. He was banging on the door at this time in the morning. I thought he was a creep. What was I supposed to do."

"You were supposed to let him in!"

I look back over to her, deciding not to, again, argue with a drunk despite the incredibly strong pull to as she sways and stumbles toward the small bathroom, clean clothes in hand.

I turn over facing the wall to try and go back to sleep, seeing the first streams of sunlight flow into the room.

It's Saturday. I'm sleeping in.