Nice residential wing in the middle of the bush. Very funny.
These weren’t housing tracts but freaking villas in the woods that looked pretty modern with their rectangular shape and wood and concrete design. Ten houses were stretching along a pond area overgrown with water lilies and connected by one wide and several narrow wooden paths. And there were forty of these residential parks located around the campus in the woods: forty residential parks, each with ten villas and eight sleeping spaces. Three thousand two hundred students and a little bit more could sleep on campus. The other two thousand eight hundred students were housed somewhere in the city...I guess?
Mum said it was a privilege that I had been given accommodation on campus.
To me, it felt like a punishment from God.
I opened the door of the last house and, amazed, entered an open first floor, which was equipped with a huge kitchen, an open living area with modern yet comfortable furniture, and even a dining area with a glass table.
The entire first floor was lit up by the panoramic windows alone, which were present as fronts in the dining area and occasionally in the living area. A large television hung above a sandstone-colored fireplace. The cream-colored living room landscape full of cushions didn’t look too shabby either.
How much did all this cost? And how much money did my mother pay for this accommodation? Was I even in the right place here?
My gaze wandered to the large real wood staircase in the corner, which, like our staircase on the wall, made a curve once and disappeared behind a smooth wooden wall to the top.
Where it went up, the wall was completely glazed, like in the adjoining dining area, and you could see outside to the other houses, the pond and the forest.
I pulled my suitcase to the stairs and eyed the steps suspiciously.
How was I supposed to get this suitcase up here without falling flat on my face at least once?
The light wooden steps, on whose surface I could see myself reflected, had to be damn dangerous for people like me, who were used to running down the stairs.
I decided to unpack the suitcase down here, just to be on the safe side.
Two stacks of books, my clothes for this and the following weeks – hopefully, there was a washing machine here – and my toiletry bag, as well as other stuff that could be used in university, stretched out in front of me. Next to it lay Eddy.
Eddy had been my first and last cuddly toy. It was a gray-white wolf with blue plastic eyes, which already looked a bit rancid after a thousand washes.
Mum had wanted to force a giraffe on me when I was only five years old. But I hadn’t wanted to part with Eddy, and besides, I didn’t like giraffes.
I reached for Eddy and picked up a few more of my books, as well as my toiletry bag. Then I balanced myself up the stairs.
At the top, I headed for an open door that opened into a large bathroom with a stone shower and bathtub by the window. The panoramic windows provided a view out into the woods.
I found the idea that I might be observed bathing here strange. Relieved, I discovered blinds.
A bit clumsy, I threw my large wash bag onto the stone tiles, narrowly missing the white rug that lay in front of the also white washing machine. I would have been surprised if this house didn’t have one.
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.
