Subtle Hints

O N E

As a child I went back and forth between my favorite colors. Green, yellow, orange, green, turquoise, green again. But now it was yellow again. Yellow like the sun, sunflowers, butterflies, positive things. It was a happy Color, brought good vibes. I wore it the day I moved into my dorm. My t-shirt was a soft yellow, a little faded. An old volleyball t-shirt from my club days. I was no longer playing, I hadn't wanted the work of playing in college. My shorts were plain black and white nike shorts. There wasn't anybody to impress I assumed, I was just moving in and figured since it was sort of early, few people would be there.

But of course I was wrong.

I was also right, there were few people.

But they were people I should try to impress

They weren't my roommates. No they'd be moving in the next couple of days. They were just your typical good looking guys. There were only three of them. But it was hot outside so two of the three had their shirts off. Let's just say they were nice to look at...a little too nice. It was so distracting but God swooped in and managed to keep me from tripping as I passed them. I kept my head turned away from them most of the time, only sparing a glance once making eye contact with a pair of steely grey eyes.

Then I looked away, continuing to walk down the hallway with my mother. My father was back trying to get the heavier things to move. "Well aren't they something to look at." My mother inappropriately commented, causing me to cringe as I threw open the door.

"Mom, shut up. That's so gross." I had no intentions of talking to her about cute guys. I saved that one for my best friends and occasionally my older brother. He was bisexual (closeted to my parents) but I supported him and talked to him all the time about guys.

My mom just smiled and shook her head. "You've always been too smart for your own good Lex, don't ruin it for a guy." She set both boxes she was holding down, on the floor in the middle of the room.

Yes that's me, Lex, Lexie, Lexipedia. Whatever you want to call me. My name's Alexis Dalton, I just turned 18. I got the Lexipedia nickname from my best friend. We were and still are obsessed with Grey's Anatomy and she said Lexie Grey reminded her of me. She's not the only one who calls me Lexipedia back home in Stanley, North Carolina. The nickname kind of stuck. By the time I graduated high school, I was known in at least half of my classes as Lexipedia.

Now was my time to get away from the nickname, not that it bothered me that much. I've always been hard to offend. Mainly because I try to tune out what people say.

Your mom isn't someone you can necessarily tune out though.

Even if what she said was true, that I was too smart to waste everything on a guy, it wasn't something I wanted to hear from her. So I didn't really answer. Instead I just focused on unpacking.

In an hour we had everything in my room and about half of it unpacked. That was it. And then it was goodbye to my parents and hello to my college experience.

My mom started getting choked up as she said goodbye so she didn't say much. But my dad did give me one good piece of advice before their departure.

Leaning in for a hug, he spoke in my ear, holding me tight. "Don't do what they expect you to do. Do what you want to do. Defy their expectations Lex. Be unique, be different, be yourself, just don't be predictable."

With that he left, not knowing how badly I would twist his words. I would defy everyone's expectations, do something unpredictable, do exactly what I wanted too. But it would all be awful and completely backfire on me.

---

My roommates arrived the next two days. I had three of them. Anaya Annoche showed up the day after I moved in. Of Cherokee descent, she's honestly gorgeous. Tall and thin, with long brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, and tan skin. A couple of years ago she said she was like Bambi, completely awkward as she grew into her body. But now she's tall and confident. Apparently she has a boyfriend, who goes to college in New York so they're trying to make it work. His name's Joseph Ballard and the two of them are both from Chicago. So big city people. Anaya comes off quiet, but she's actually really funny and her laugh seems to light up a room.