Strength |✔️

two

Alisha

I cant stop thinking about the cute guy.

The way he looked at me. The way he helped me pick up my papers. The way his dimples show whenever he smiles.

But I can't fall in love with him. I just can't.

I smack myself mentally and focus on getting to freshman orientation. Now is not the time to be thinking about boys. I need to do well in my classes and attend work.

I reach my dorm room and see my roommate, Faith, smoking pot on the other side of the room. Her short pink hair is messy on her head and she has piercings literally like everywhere. She looks at me and smiles.

"Well, hello, Alisha," she says with a smirk. Faith is also a sophomore who sleeps with five different guys a week. Though she is pretty, I have to give her that.

Also, I met her thirty minutes ago, since I came a little early today. I was surprised she didn't know who I was when I told her my name, maybe because she came from New Jersey? I'm still relieved though.

"Hey Faith," I say, plopping myself on my bed and groaning.

She frowns. "Boys?"

"Kinda."

Faith laughs. Even though she may seem mean looking, she is a very kind hearted person. But I can't really judge her on that yet, since I just met her today. But you know if she's a real one when she listens to you rambling about how nervous you are for college and what to expect and parties and dating and all that shit.

"When's freshman orientation?" I ask her.

"Probably in five minutes." She sucks in and looks at me. "You wanna?"

"Nah I'm fine."

She smirks. "So, Miss perfect I'm guessing, what's your story?"

"What do you mean?"

She sighs. "What I mean is, who are you? If I'm going to be living with you I need to know if you're not a serial killer or something."

I laugh. "Yeah don't worry, I'm not. But um, I came from Richmond and I love dogs and the color blue, I'm a Capricorn, and uh, I love food?"

"Nice, nice," she says, "I came from Edison, NJ and I am a cat person please don't kill me!" She puts her arms up in surrender. I laugh. "And wow girl, I'm a Capricorn too."

"Wonderful," I say.

"Ok, there's one question for you," she continues on. "What about your parents? How are they doing? Together? Divorced?"

My heart literally stops when she asked that question. Ever since the incident 13 years ago, I have felt so empty without my mom. I haven't even gotten to know her that well. That son of a bitch ran away after murdering her and God knows what he's up to. I haven't forgiven him a single bit and I never will.

I lived in the orphanage for about a year. Then, a nice lady picked me up for adoption. She seemed middle aged and had nice blonde hair and blue eyes. I trusted her and lived with her.

She had a son named Aydan. He was the same age as me and we immediately became the bestest of friends. We watched movies together, laughed together, cried together.

It was legit best friend goals.

He had the same nice blonde hair and blue eyes as her. He was very adorable.

Then middle school came along and a boy teased us and always asked if we were dating because we always walked together everywhere. Aydan got tired of the insults and decided to punch the boy in the face. Unfortunately the boy punched back harder.