Turning around, I noticed the large wall mirror in front of the sink, confronting me with my rather angular body. Deeply I envied these girls with the beautiful curves, the peach butt, and the existing boobs. To be more precise, I envied Larissa. She had often worn tight dark clothes that made her look incredibly sexy so that the boys from high school had just stuck to her. Not to forget all her stalkers or those guys from Sacramento’s shadiest gangs.
And then there was me: Too skinny, barely an A-cup. And one hundred percent nothing would grow there either.
My eyes fell on all the makeup stuff under the mirror.
Right, I had roommates – seven of them. Thankfully, we were split between two rooms. I wouldn’t be able to stand it otherwise.
I made my way back to the hallway.
I would unpack the wash bag later because the remaining stuff in my arms was already threatening to fall down.
In the hallway, just like at my house, the doors faced each other. Straight ahead, the wall was glazed and served as a light source for daytime.
Undecided, I looked back and forth between the two doors and decided without further delay that it wouldn’t really matter where I slept. I knew no one here, and no one knew me.
I went to the left door and knocked carefully before pushing down the handle. But the very next moment, I regretted it.
“Oh. My. God, Vi...”
A black-haired girl, who had been painted her nails until just now, looked at me with widened eyes. I immediately recognized who it was: The dark-haired brat from the grocery store.
“What is it, Amber?” came an annoyed voice from the other corner of the room.
Another girl with loose, long hair was sitting with her back to me, just putting on her makeup in front of a lighted mirror. Our eyes met in the reflection. She snapped around.
“That’s the weird one from the parking lot,” the black-haired girl gawked, turning back to her nails. Her name had to be Amber.
Her friend, Vi, the driver back then, was up now and slowly walking toward me.
My heart slipped into my pants.
She looked damn good with a figure that could put her well over the limits of a catwalk and was definitely a good twenty inches taller than me too.
“So, you’re here, too?” she said pointedly, directed at me as if I was definitely in the wrong place.
Her ice-blue eyes sparkled at me brashly. I didn’t know what to answer, since it was obvious that I was here. She eyed me with a condescending look before she put on that feigned smile again, which I already knew from the parking lot.
“And you want to sleep here?” she asked me this time as if I were a little kid who had gotten lost. Well, maybe I was lost here, because one thing was clear: I wouldn’t be able to sleep here at any price.
“Oh no, please no,” that weird Amber nagged annoyed, turning back to her mirror.
“I was just leaving...” was all I said, and quickly turned away to leave the room.
Jackpot, Bayla. You managed to get into student housing with the most arrogant goats in town.
“Nice to see you again, too!” the blonde beauty called after me, and I heard a squeaky laugh behind her.
After pulling the door into the lock behind me as quickly as I could, I walked straight past the stairs to the other door.
Nothing worse could come now.
And I was right.
The room I entered was just as spacious as the other and had four beds. Opposite the door was a completely glassed wall, in front of which was a very long desk with four chairs. On the wall next to the door were two large closets. The floor was made of dark wood laminate.
I liked it here in itself because you had a great view out to the other houses, the pond on which we were with a wooden walkway, and the nearby forest. This house was in the very back in the middle, and from here, I saw for the first time how beautiful the pond was. Otherwise, there were only the trees around us and a few students who had just arrived and dragged their suitcases, just as awkward as me, along the path.
Satisfied, my eyes wandered around the room when suddenly the door opened and my jaw dropped.
Standing before me was none other than my best friend. Larissa Champson.
Chapter 13
Larissa
“Surprise!” I shouted and dropped my suitcase, which I had laboriously dragged up the stairs, to the floor with a crash. My arms ached from the dragging, but when I saw my lost best friend standing five feet away, I forgot all about the arrival crap.
When I had seen that fierce lodge a few minutes ago, I had looked exactly like Bay was doing right now.
A big grin spread around the corners of my mouth, and I couldn’t help but fall around my best friend’s neck. It had only been ten days, but I had missed the hell out of her, and the network in this backwoods town was a disaster.
“Larissa, what... What are you doing here?”
I quickly broke free from the embrace.
What I was doing here? Couldn’t she tell by looking at my suitcase?
“Do you think I’m going to let my absolute best friend languish here in the middle of nowhere all alone?” At that, I made an all-encompassing gesture and then pointed toward the hallway. “And living in a house with people like that.... What was the administration thinking, man?”
Apparently, girls of a special kind lived next door. Anyway, they thought they were something better.
First, they wanted me to stay with them, and when had I said that I was looking for my best friend, they had looked at me really stupid and pointed outside.
Bay, still looking at me stunned, closed the bedroom door. Then she looked at the suitcase for two seconds and then back at me.
“And then you just decided to study here?”
“What would I do at some highly prestigious university without you? Babe, I’d die of boredom,” I exaggerated, continuing to grin.
I had been serious. Life was half the fun without Bay.
“Sometimes you just have to do crazy things,” I replied, smiling.
It took a moment for her speechlessness to fade. Then, finally, she returned my smile.
It was good to be with her again. Especially when you had no one else in your life. I found it damn hard to have to keep looking for new people, and yet inside, there was still this feeling of loneliness.
I tried to focus on Bay.
