Beecon University

Chapter 3

Yang had finally collapsed onto her bed to think about the day's events and wonder about what was to come. She was interrupted mid-thought of theories about her mysterious roommate when she heard the jingling of keys, followed by the click of the doorknob.

She leapt off the bed in one movement, much to the surprise of Blake, who was standing in the doorway, stunned at the sight of her roommate.

"Hi! I'm Yang! It's really great to finally get to meet you!"

Blake blinked twice. She really hadn't been expecting Yang to still be here. She figured she'd be with the rest of the floor, doing whatever silly activities that the university had lined up for the day. She shuffled awkwardly into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Uh... hi."

"You are Blake, right?" Yang asked with a goofy smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm Blake. Sorry, I was just... caught off guard a little."

"It's really nice to meet you, Blake! I tried to email you a couple times over the summer, but I guess they never went through..."

"Oh, uh, yeah. I didn't really check my school email until today, honestly. Sorry about that."

"No problem, Blake! It happens!"

Blake nodded, praying silently that the conversation would end there. She dropped her backpack on her bed, and reached to pull her laptop out of it.

"I assume you weren't with the rest of the floor all day, huh?" Yang asked with a smile.

"No, I'm not much of an icebreakers person."

"Is anyone, really?"

"I guess not."

"I didn't go either. The RA seemed really... cold, and I've been too tired to do any weird bonding activities in the August heat."

Blake hummed in response. She hopped onto her bed, flipping open her laptop as she sat propped up against her headboard.

"So, what's your major?" Yang asked, hoping to pull any sort of information out of her roommate.

Blake looked up and blinked at Yang. "English."

"Oh, cool! What concentration?"

"Creative writing," she replied blankly, looking back down at her laptop.

"I should have guessed, based on all those books!"

Blake hummed again, causing Yang to frown for a moment, unseen by Blake. She put her smile back on though as she hopped into her own bed.

"Well, I'm a criminal justice major, so we're studying pretty different things, but a lot of our gen eds are similar!" Yang said excitedly.

Blake's eyes glanced up from her computer screen at Yang, an eyebrow raising along with them. "Criminal justice?"

Yang nodded with a large smile. "Both my dad and uncle are cops. So was my mom."

"Ah." Blake's eyes lowered back to her computer screen. "Never been a fan of cops."

"Oh." Yang's shoulders fell. "Why's that?"

"It's a long story, and a bit too personal for me to feel comfortable sharing it."

"Oh. Sorry."

Another hum.

Yang pulled out her phone, staring at the home screen, her cheeks growing pink in embarrassment. She couldn't believe this was going so badly! It was a completely one-sided conversation, and Blake had just said that she didn't like cops, but wouldn't say why. A million possibilities were running through Yang's head. How could this be going so poorly?