Rosie

Chapter 1 - Rosie

I'm nervously walking into the building where my new apartment is. I just got back from the holiday I spend at home. The plane ride was annoying. A lot of kids and grumpy people. I've never once in my life been able to sleep on planes so at some point I was also getting tired. Which didn't help with my irritation level.

I am starting my second year of college in a few days. I'm walking up the stairs to the second floor dragging my things behind me. With difficulty, I push open the heavy corridor door. Why on earth did I think that separating my stuff in three different bags was a good idea? I have a dark blue backpack, a dark green shoulder bag and I'm dragging a pastel purple suitcase. From far away I look like a moving rainbow. The closer I get to the door the more I slow down my pace.

I feel nervous, anxious, restless even. I'm not sure where the feeling is coming from. I know this place. I've been here for a year; I have my best friend with me and a clear plan of what I'm going to do this year. I am going to focus on my schoolwork and enjoy the time I can spend with my friends. This heavy feeling in my stomach is probably from leaving home, and the aching in my heart from missing my family. When I was little people always said to me that the more you say goodbye the easier it gets. Let me tell you something, they were wrong.

I push the feeling away and make my way to apartment number 208. When I arrive at the door I realize that there isn't a doorbell. What kind of person doesn't put a doorbell on the front door? I put all my stuff down to search for my keys in my oversized shoulder bag. I went to the agency on my way here to get them. My car was still at the airport so that was convenient.

The door flies open before I have a chance to even find my keys "I thought I heard you". Grey, my best friend, throws her arms around me. Ripping my headphones out in the process. I quickly hug her back. "Rosie, I missed you so much over summer break" she whispers in my ear.

I let go and look at her "I missed you too!".

Grey Harrington has been my best friend since the day I can remember. We grew up together in Blue River. A small township in North Carolina. Physically we are the total opposites she has blond slightly wavy hair with grey blueish eyes. I, on the other hand, have brown straight hair cut in a bob, brown greenish eyes. How we became friends is a pretty basic story. Our moms were friends in high school. They started a family in the same town they grew up in. They stayed close friends and because of that Grey and I were together a lot when we were growing up. Every adventure I have had in my childhood Grey was somehow a part of it.

I was ten years old when my parents decided to move to France. We had a second home there for the holidays and they liked it so much that at some point they decided to stay. Grey and I kept in touch through letters the first few years then later with our phones. Our parents stayed good friends, so we often visited each other during the holidays.

Last year we both graduated. Knowing it was now or never we decided to go to the same college. I moved back to the United States and that is how we ended up at Pennsylvania university. During our first year, we were in a collective room with two other girls. This year we got an apartment just for the two of us. Last year Grey and I both got a job after school hours, and this summer we made sure to have a summer job. With the money we saved and with a little bit of help from our parents, we can afford our new, small but comfortable, home.

Grey arrived Wednesday, which is two days ago. She told me it was amazing and that having our own apartment comes with a lot of benefits. Like or own bathroom that we don't have to share with fifty other girls.

"So ready to see our palace," she asks gleefully positioning herself in front of the door with her arms wide open so I can't look inside. I haven't seen it yet. Grey and her parents took care of checking out our options and almost all the paperwork. She sent me a few pictures, mostly of my room, to make sure I agreed but seeing it in real life is going to be very different.