Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I frowned as I looked around. The rooms on either side of the hall were in the low 600s. I’d specifically parked on the south side of the building because I’d thought that was where my room would be. One side of the dormitory was for females and the other for males. I must’ve gotten it confused.
That meant a long walk down a long hallway. I vowed to move my car before I brought up the next load. As the room numbers climbed, I was surprised to see several guys hauling stuff into rooms along the way. Did every woman here have a boyfriend to help her carry her things? It must be nice.
Finally, I reached 672. It was the last door on the left. I wanted to barge in and drop my stuff, but at the last moment, I realized my new roommates might be in there. I knocked twice, but no one came to the door. Maybe they were at dinner? I knew absolutely nothing about them, but I hoped they were friendly. I didn’t share a lot of common interests with women my own age, or at least I hadn’t in college. Maybe graduate school would be different?
The keycard I’d gotten in the mail worked on the first try. I entered and found the light switch. From the silence, it was clear no one else was here. To my left was a bathroom, straight ahead was a short hallway that opened into a larger room, and on the right, I found a room with two sets of bunkbeds. I frowned when I entered that room. I’d been told this was a two-bedroom suite, but there were four beds and four dressers, crammed together along the back wall.
But the sight of the bunkbeds was very welcome. I’d driven for hours with very little sleep. I staggered closer to check them out. One lower bunk was the only one without sheets on it, so I figured it was unoccupied. Dropping my things, I sat down on the edge of the mattress, testing it. It seemed firm enough, and also very springy. I dug into my duffel bag and pulled out my comforter. I didn’t know where the sheets were, but I spread the comforter out. It was for a full-size bed, so it easily covered the mattress with room to spare.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I looked around at the other bunks. One had blue sheets. Another had gray. That was a relief. I wasn’t the kind of woman who was into pastels and flowery crap, so it was good to know my new roommates weren’t either.
Fatigue hit me hard. Maybe I could rest my eyes a bit before the next trip to the car? Just a brief break to gather my strength. I found a sweatshirt in my backpack and folded it up to serve as a pillow. Then I stretched out on the bed and wrapped the rest of the comforter around me.
God, the bed felt good. Everything in this building seemed new and high-quality. It was a far cry from the tiny studio apartment I’d rented my last two years of undergrad. It felt so damn good that I was tempted to take a nap, but I had lots to do before it got dark.
Still… it wouldn’t hurt to close my eyes for a minute, would it?
Just for a minute—then I’d get up and start settling in.
2
Mason
“I didn’t know cafeteria food could actually taste good,” Jude said.
I clapped my best friend on the back. “Told you.”
Jude stopped on the landing and looked back at us. We’d taken the stairs since the elevators were full of people moving in. “You were right about this place, Mason.”
“Damn straight. What do you think, Parker?” I asked the question before I remembered. Parker was a couple steps below me, and when I turned to him, his expression was blank. “Parker?”
With effort, he focused on us. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said. I turned back to Jude and exchanged a glance. Last year, Parker had been our roommate in another dorm. Back then, he’d been a normal guy. Young, a bit idealistic, but a normal dude. Now he was just a shell of his former self.
Jude and I jogged up the stairs. “I wonder if the new guy’s here yet,” Jude said.
“I hope he’s not a prick.” That was the one bad thing about getting the best suite in the entire building. It was built for four, and that meant we’d be getting some random dude assigned to us. That sucked, but hopefully he’d be a cool guy or he’d keep to himself. Or hell, maybe he’d suffered a breakup over the summer, too, and would be as quiet as Parker.
“What’s his name again?” Jude asked.
“Kyle.” We weren’t supposed to get that information ahead of time—the university had stopped giving it out years ago because too many people had looked up their future roommates online and asked for reassignments based on their social media posts. But all it had taken was flashing a smile at a pretty student worker in the housing office, and I’d found out his name. Hadn’t been able to find him online, though. Maybe the dude was Amish or something.