A Different Telling

See Guess It's true, I'm not good at a one night stand

"Mum..." Harriet slowly pulls back from the bone crushing hug her mother is giving her, not so subtly telling her mum that after she had been there for three hours helping Harriet set up and unpack- it's time for her to go. The once vacant Manchester United dorm room was now filled, at least half of it any way. Harriet was able to acquire a new comforter, a dark blue color that is covered in white dots. The walls were now dotted with her favorite bands, such as Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones along with a poster her friend, Mel, gave her a while back for their band White Eskimo. She misses that. The desk and closet are tidy but only because her mum has been procrastinating on leaving for so long.

"You're so big now, Harriet," Harriet can sense the tears coming as Anne sits gently onto the made bed, "just yesterday you were playing in your band, running about, playing football,"

"Trying to play football" Gemma laughs, leaning against the dresser.

Can they get out.

Maybe she should be sadder, bittersweet like mum. But she's not. Of course she hates seeing my mum cry like this but all she has on my mind is being on her own. First step get the family out and then make her own and not associate this room with mum and Gem for the rest of the year... not exactly what she needs.

Harriet sends Gemma a struggled look, pleading for her help. She would hate for her roommate, Jessica, she thinks it is, to walk in on her crying and blubbering mother.

"Mum, it's time," Gemma starts guiding her gently to the door. Harriet follows them slowly and once they cross the door she pulls her mum into a hug.

"I'll come home some weekend, don't worry. Love you, tell Robin I'll miss him as well."
Anne is now sobbing, "Baby..."

Gemma pats them both sympathetically, giving Harriet a knowing look. "Mum,"

She's still crying.

"Mum," Harriet prods.

Gemma huffs impatiently. "For christ sakes mum she's not even an hour away, just come up on Saturday."

"Or y'know like I said, I'll come. she doesn't need to come out of her way. Doesn't need to come up on a Saturday " Harriet hastily interrupt.

Gemma laughs in a way that only older sisters can. "And I'm not horrendously far either, we've got her cornered. She'll be fine. Like I said, not even an hour."

Anne pulls herself together, giving Harriet a final peck on the cheek as she backs away toward the lift. "Less than an hour!" are her parting words.

"See ya Mum!" Harriet heads back into her temporarily immaculately organized room. She flop onto herbed and exhales loudly, taking a moment to relax and glance around at her new place. Her place. She feels relief and excitement that she didn't know was bottled up inside of her until now. It's not even that she wants to get out, get wasted, and go wild right this moment. She's just happy that everything fell together, that she gets to leave home and go to university like she'd planned. Step one of Harriet Is an Adult Now, done.

After playing around on her phone for nearly an hour she gets up and pokes her head out of the door. Is she the only one here? She know she heard other people shuffling around when she was getting my things sorted.

Harriet was so eager to get to Manchester and begin her new life that She hadn't planned much beyond going to classes and meeting people from there. She knows a few people here from Holmes Chapel, but there's no one she's particularly close to. Her roommate doesn't seem to have arrived yet, and, well, classes are quite a few days away. What do you do in your first days of uni?