A Nerd Girls Life

Chapter 22

Apologies for not updating as soon as I would like to, but school has kept me busy with decorating tennis balls, tests, and roleplaying as angry middle eastern dictators. And writers block but here we go!

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I was so small, merely a tiny speck in the giant universe around me. The howling wind whipped around my miniature body, threatening to rip me from my unbalanced stance. I was standing on the edge of a steep precipice, overlooking a never ending chasm below me. Another blast of wind knocked me over on to my hands and knees causing pain from the impact. I pressed my body close to the rocky ground beneath me trying to avoid the treacherous gusts. I couldn't avoid its power and was pushed closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. The howling only grew louder and louder...

I was jolted awake by the sound of my phone ringing. I let out a quick breath already recovering from my nightmare and reached to answer the call.

"Hello..?" I asked groggily, the sleep not yet gone from my voice.

"Beatrice!" a loud female voice screamed into my ear. I flinched and groaned quietly.

"Who's this?" I asked not yet awake enough to comprehend much of anything.

"It's Danny," she said in a duh- tone. "I'm calling to tell you I should be back sometime next week."

"And you're telling me this because...?" I asked. Danny's comings and goings were usually unannounced. Why did she have to tell me now at this ungodly hour in the morning?

"Gosh, Beatrice, quit acting like I ran over your grandmother and stole her cats. I'm telling you because something big happened while I was away," she says her enthusiasm picking up as she talked.

I was tempted just to hang up. I wanted to sleep not hear about how she probably found out they invented bacon flavored coffee creamer or something. I sighed, "What is it?"

Danny immediately rocketed into her story. "Well, at the campus I was looking at, there was this coffee shop, so of course I went in...," she began as I groaned. Here we go. She still ignored me and continued on. "Anyways, I was just drinking my coffee when I saw this middle-aged couple staring at me. The man whispered something to the woman, and I thought I had something on my face, but they started walking to me. They apologized for staring and told me I looked like someone. Of course, I was a little confused, but then they asked me my name. When I told them, they exchanged a look and asked who my parents were. I told them...," Danny sort of trailed off.

"That they were dead?" I asked. I guess that sounded blunt, but it was true. Before Danny was assigned to be my roommate, I managed to get a hold of her files to make sure she wasn't some psychopath. I found out her parents died in a car crash when she was three, and no other relatives could take her in.

There was a silence on the other line for awhile until Danny spoke again. "You stole my files, didn't you," she said. It wasn't much of a question. "There's no other way you would know."

I began to give her my excuse, but she cut me off. "Don't, Beatrice. I don't care. The point of my story was apparently the couple were like best friends with my parents. They recognized me at the coffee shop. Turns out, they actually were going to take me in when I was little, but were too late. They sat and talked to me about my parents. They told me they wanted to get to know me better, and they're filthy rich," Danny finished.

I was shocked at where this story went. "Wow... Danny, that's... that's great," I said trying to sound enthusiastic. I didn't know what to say, but thought I should try to be nice. She seemed pretty upset about me going through her files. I was happy for her, really, but this whole thing was really random.