Chapter Text
Emily sighed with frustration as she stared up at the last flight of stairs she had to conquer on what seemed like the longest, sweatiest day of her life. She took a deep breath and hefted her final box onto her hip and trudged onward. No one told her that moving into college was so much manual labor! She had always imagined some strapping young fraternity men gracefully bringing in all her items and then she and her parents would happily unpack, easy peasey lemon squeezy! But nooooo. Here she was, having just sent her parentals on their merry way back to the hotel and she was covered in a thin layer of grime and sweat with one last box to go. With her back, Emily pushed open the door to the stairwell and instead of being met with an open hallway she crashed into something solid, flailing and dropping her items in the process.
“Oh shit! Are you ok?”
Emily looked up and saw a small freckled hand reaching out to help her up. Grateful for the assistance, she was pulled to her feet and saw that the hand was attached to a feisty looking brunette in cut offs and an underarmour tank. A lightning bolt of energy went down her spine as she locked eyes with the stranger. Her eyes were unexplainable, both green and brown and somehow golden all at the same time. All of sudden she realized she was still holding this girl’s hand and she began to feel the blush rising to her cheeks.
“Oh, um, yeah no biggie, I’m totally fine, I mean you should see me walking around normally, I coulda fallen all by myself” Emily stammered. Ugh smooth move dingus, she thought to herself, now this girl totally thinks you’re a hot mess!
Those eyes sparkled back as their owner smirked at Emily. “Well, good to know! I’ll have to make sure I’m around to catch you a lot this semester then! My name’s Kelley by the way.”
Emily stared for a second, but finally replied. “I’m Emily Sonnett.” She started to gather her box back into her arms as she spoke.
“Let me get that for you! Lead the way to your room and I’ll make sure you get there in one piece.”
There was that glimmer in her eye again! Why was this girl teasing her so much when she didn’t even know her? “Uh ok, I’m just down the hall. Do you live here too?”
Emily unlocked her door and stepped into her new digs for the next year as Kelley answered. “Well I live on the floor above you. I’m a sophomore, so I have a single. It’s pretty rad.” Kelley set the box down and made herself comfortable on Emily’s bed as she breezily stated “I hope you don’t mind that I’m like all up in your space already, I’ve been told I can be like a tornado upon first meeting me and that I lack personal boundaries.”
This statement seemed to finally shake Emily out of her zombie state and she let out a hearty, perhaps overly so, laugh. “Wellllll I did fall flat on my ass at my first meeting with you, so maybe the tornado thing isn’t too far off the truth” Emily winked and began to unpack her last box.
“Ha, touché!” Chuckled Kelley. Emily pulled a pair of well-loved cleats from the top of her box and placed them in her closet. When she turned around she was met with the largest grin she’d ever seen.
“No way, do you play soccer?! We have a club team here and it’s the best time ever. We travel to other schools and have massive parties and movie nights and it’s like a little soccer family. You’re coming to try outs tomorrow? I can give you some hints on how to play with some of the girls… Why are you laughing at me?” Kelley looked at Emily incredulously.
Emily laughed and gasped for air, “You’re spiraling out of control and all I did was put some cleats in my closet! I can’t even imagine what will happen if I ever score a goal! Yes, I do play soccer and yes I’ll be at tryouts tomorrow.”
Kelley leaped up from the bed. “Sweet! I’ll come get you at 2 and drive us to the pitch together! You’ll already be ahead of the game if you show up with me. Here give me your phone so I can put in my number.” Kelley had her hand in Emily’s back pocket sliding her phone out before Emily could think to stop her. She typed furiously then grabbed Emily by the shoulder and pulled her in for a selfie.
“There! Officially friends, no take backs. You can’t undo a friendship once you have a photo of them in your contacts.” Sliding Emily’s phone back into her pants pocket Kelley made intentional eye contact with Emily as her hand grazed Emily’s back. The now familiar blush rose to Emily’s face and she couldn’t help but avert her gaze.
All of sudden the door to the tiny dorm room popped open and a gangly brunette walked through the door with some rather large suitcases. Emily jumped at the sound of the door opening and almost fell all over again tripping over her boxes. Kelley grabbed her by the wrist to steady her. “Easy there slugger, you weren’t kidding when you said you could fall all by yourself! You must be Emily’s roommate! I’m Kelley and I’m gonna get out of your hair since this room is about the size of a matchbox. See you at 2 tomorrow Em!” Kelley bounded out of the room and Emily and her new roommate were left awkwardly staring in silence.
“What the hell just happened?” mused the brunette.
“Apparently that walking whirlwind of a human is my new friend Kelley who lives in this building too. She's a bit of a handful, but enough about her. You must be Morgan though! I’m super pumped that we’re gonna be rooming together this year.”
“Wow, people sure are friendly in this building. I was trapped in the hallway with a short brown haired girl named Ashlyn for like 10 minutes before I could get up to our room! Haha yeah I am Morgan, but everyone calls me Moe. It’s nice to finally meet you in person Emily, should I set up my side of the room?”
The two roommates kept unpacking in lulls of quiet and conversation, slowly getting to know one another. Emily learned that Moe wanted to become a physical therapist when she graduated, she loved spongebob and wasn’t ashamed to show it, and she also played soccer! Emily quickly invited her to tag along in the car with her and Kelley to tryouts tomorrow. Moe tried to refuse the offer politely, but Emily insisted.
“Phew! I’m beat” Emily flopped on her bed dramatically.
“You wanna see if our meal plans work?” asked Moe?
“It’s like you read my mind! I think we’re gonna get along just fine.” smiled Emily.