After (Zayn Malik)

Chapter 3

After an hour of my mother warning me against parties and boys, she finally makes her move to leave. With a Yesenia Young-style quick hug and kiss, she exits the dorm room, informing Noah that she will wait for him in the car.

"I will miss having you around every day." he says softly and pulls me into his arms. I inhale his cologne, the one I bought him two Christmas' in a row and sigh. I will miss this smell and his comforting hugs.

"I will miss you too but we will talk every day," I promise and tighten my arms around him. "I wish you were here this year," I say nuzzling into his neck. Noah is only a few inches taller than me, but i like that he doesn't tower over me. He kisses me goodbye as my mother impatiently honks the horn. After Noah and my mother are officially gone, I begin to unpack my bags. My clothes are neatly folded and stored in the small dress, the remainder are hung neatly in my half of the closet. I cringe at the amout of leather and animal prints covering the oppisite side.

Already feeling exhausted, I lay across the bed. Loneliness is creeping its way into me already and it doesn't help that my roomate is gone, no matter how uncomfortable her friends make me. I have a feeling she will be gone a lot, or worse, she may have company over too often. Why couldn't I get a roomate who loved to stay in and read or study? I suppose it could be a good thing because I have the small room to myself. So far college isn't what I dreamed of, nor expected but it's only been a few hours, tomorrow will be better, it has to be.

Before bed I gather my planner and textbooks, taking the time to write down my classes for the semester  and my potential meetings for the literary club I plan on joining, I'm still undecided on that but I read a few testimonials and I want to check it out. I pencil a trip off campus tomorrow to get some more things for my dorm room. I don't plan on decorating the way that Steph has, but I would like to add a few of my own things to my side of the room. The fact that I don't have a car yet will make it a little difficult, the sooner I get one, the better. I have enough money from graduation gifts and savings but I'm not sure if I want the stress of owning a car right now. The fact that I live on campus gives me full access to public transport. With thoughts of scheduals, red haired girls, and friendly blonde's covered in tattoos, I drift to sleep with my planner still in hand.

The next morning Steph is not in her bed. I would like to get to know her but I might as well mot if she is the type of person that stays out all night. Maybe one of the two boys that she was with was her boyfriend. I hope it was the blonde one for her sake.  I grab my toiletry bag and make my way to the shower room. One of my least favorite things about dorm life so far is the showers, why can't each have it's own instead of a community shower room? It's awkward  but at least it won't be co-ed. At least I had assumed it wouldn't be, until i reached the door. Sure enough there are two stick figures printed on the sign, one male and one female. Ugh. Having males in the same shower room is sure to be very uncomfortable and extremely awkward. I plan to set an alarm at least a hour earlier from now on in hopes that the co-ed room will be less crowded.

The shower takes too long to get warm and I am paranoid that someone will pull back the thin curtain separating my nake body from a room of both genders. Everyone seemed to be comfortable despite the fact that they shouldn't be. College life is strange so far. The shower stall is tiny, lined with a small rack to hang clothes on while i shower and barely enough room to stretch my arms in front of me. I find my mind drifting to Noah and my life back home. I am distracted as I turn around and my elbow knocks into the rack, my clean clothes fall to the wet floor. The water continues to fall onto them, completley soaking them.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I groan to myself, hastily cutting the water off and I wrap my towel around myself, grabbing the pile of heavy, soaked clothes and rush down the hall, instantly relaxing until I turn around to see the black haired boy sprawled across Steph's bed.