22 | Goodbye Christina
Thursday, December 21, 2017
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Insanity:
The entirety of Fall semester.
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One of the things I had been dreading about the end of the semester was saying goodbye to Christina.
Continuing in her status as the apartment angel, she was leaving to go on a mission trip for the next few semesters, and thus was moving out before winter break. Thursday was her last day in the apartment, and we were all feeling sentimental about it.
"You're sure you have to go on a mission trip?" Ashley asked as the three of us stood in Christina's almost-empty bedroom that morning, "You can't just stay here with us for another semester?"
Christina laughed.
"You guys will be totally fine without me, I promise. The girl who's moving in, Bella, she's already dropped off a plate of cookies and seems way sweet. You guys will forget I even existed."
"Hard to do that when the three of us are gonna be roommates in Winter 2020." I reminded her. It seemed so far away, but between Christina leaving for her mission trip now and Ashley leaving for hers after Winter semester ended, the three of us wouldn't be together again for another two years. (1)
"You're right." Christina grinned, "We'll be the best of roommates, you know...without some of the others."
We all laughed for a second before becoming quiet again, trying not to think about the fact that Christina was going to walk out of the door tonight and not step back inside.
"Do you think we're gonna get along with the new girl?" Ashley asked as we walked out of Christina's room later to let her finish packing, "Like...she could just be another Madison."
I shrugged.
"I hope she's decent. She doesn't need to be our new best friend, but hopefully she's not...the complete opposite." I sat down on the foot of Ashley's bed and thought for a moment. "Hey, after break do you want to try and see if Madison would switch bedrooms with you? I'm really sick of everything going on with her."
"Did something else happen?" Ashley asked, "I mean, I would totally love to switch rooms and not have to deal with Samantha's mess anymore, but I mean...do you think that she would go for it?"
"I mean, only one other thing has happened recently, and it's not a huge deal...just a little creepy."
Ashley's eyes got wide.
"Ooh, tell me."
I nodded, remembering two nights before and shivering at the memory.
I had a bad tendency of waking up in the middle of the night. I usually woke up at least three times per night at the minimum, and Tuesday night had been no exception. Whenever I woke up in the middle of the night, I would usually not even bother opening my eyes and would just roll over and fall back asleep within seconds.
There were a few times a week that I would wake up and not be able to fall back asleep right away, which resulted in me staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, coaxing my brain into getting tired again. Tuesday night, I woke up and looked at my phone for a second to see that it was almost 3 AM. I flipped over in bed so that I wasn't facing the wall anymore and almost screamed.
Across from me was Madison, wide awake, laying on her side and staring straight at me, unblinking.
I shut my eyes immediately and flipped back over to face the wall, feeling my heartrate start to return to normal. Was she okay? It was nearly 3:00 in the morning, and instead of sleeping, she was...staring at me.
I remembered my mother's words to me upon leaving Utah back in October.
"Watch out for Madison. I think she might kill you."
I truly hated that my mother was always right. (2)
I finished telling Ashley the story and rolled my eyes as she started laughing.
"Why are we rooming with complete psychopaths?" She asked between bursts of laughter, "I mean...honestly. How is this your life?"
I shook my head.
"Don't ask me. I just hope that we can switch bedrooms when we get back from break."
That probably would have solved a wide array of ensuing problems.
***
Heyy so my cleaning check is in like 10 minutes but if you wanted to come over and chill/watch Netflix for an hour or two around 8:00 I'd be down 😊
Michael and I had discussed getting together one more time before I flew home for winter break on Friday morning. I had a final end-of-semester cleaning check to make sure the apartment was in order before we all left, and I would be good to go.
Christina had left about an hour earlier, and the tears had been real. I'm not trying to go into too much detail, but it was going to be a rough time without her in our apartment.
I would really like that 😊 I'll head over around 8. If you need me to be a bit later just lemme know!
I waited until Rebecca had come and gone for the cleaning check before replying.
8 still works, my RA just left. And FYI I look like crap bc all my good clothes are packed and I'm not wearing makeup so prepare yourself.
I always thought it wise to warn people before they saw me without makeup for the first time.
About fifteen minutes later, a knock sounded on the door and I went to answer it, feeling a warmth in my chest when I saw Michael's face.
"Hey! Sorry for being so last-minute about this, come on in."
He grinned and walked into the apartment.
"You're totally fine. Are you excited to go home?"
I nodded.
"I can't even describe how excited I am. My mom and sister came to visit me in October, but I haven't seen my dad or my two other siblings since August."
"That's insane." Michael shook his head as we sat down on the couch and he slung his arm around my shoulders, "I can't imagine being so far away from home."
We decided against Pretty Little Liars that night and instead opted for The Office, watching it and laughing until our sides hurt...and then not exactly watching it for a little bit.
As I shut the door behind Michael that night and climbed into bed, I couldn't help but think about how different the following semester was going to be. Fall had been a complete whirlwind of things I had hardly expected, and there was something in my chest that told me Winter would be no different.
If only I knew what could come.
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Theory (Fact):
Next semester was going to be a whole lot worse.
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(1) We're halfway there right now and I talk about how much I miss them
(2) Just about the 'watch out for Madison' part. Clearly, I am still alive enough to write this story.
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