“That sounds like a solid plan,” Penn says, stretching out. “Pizza?”
“Yes,” Connor groans as he rubs his eyes. “I need a hit of cheesy carbs.”
“Weren’t you supposed to be going to a frat party?” I ask her, and she shrugs.
“I was, but I needed to study, and pizza sounds better to me right now.”
I mull it over and decide that hanging with them doesn’t sound so bad. Especially if it comes with pizza. And maybe then, Penn might feel a little less threatened when she works out that I’m really not interested in her guy.
A roommate who doesn’t loathe my existence would definitely be a tick in the hell yes column.
“Let's do it. Take it back to our room and put something to binge on the TV?” I offer, and Connor grins wide.
“Yes, the perfect way to end this day. Come on, Penn, you know you’ve been wanting to binge that new zombie show.”
She grumbles her agreement, and as much as zombies don’t do it for me, I’m not about to rock the boat. I finish packing up my stuff, handing Connor his notes. “You’re good, I’ve got extra copies.”
“Oh, right. Thanks.” I smile at him before stuffing them in my notebook and putting that in my bag too.
I follow them out of the library and across campus to a little pizza place called Rosa’s, which they swear is the best one near Saints U, before we head back to our dorm.
“Did you guys leave your door unlocked?” Connor asks cautiously as we reach our dorm. I frown. I know I locked it earlier.
Penn moves in front of us and charges into the room, but stops in the doorway. I peer over her shoulder and my stomach drops.
“Holy shit,” Connor utters from behind me as I take in the sight before me.
Penn’s side of the room is fine. Pristine, except for some debris.
But mine…
Mine looks like a tornado ripped through it and destroyed everything.
Including my fucking bed and mattress.
The few clothes I have here are shredded, strewn across the room. Even my shoes have been torn up. The bed is in pieces and the mattress is soaking fucking wet with tears all through it, my few trinkets are smashed to dust, and my brand new books are completely destroyed too. The doors of my closet are open and it’s entirely empty. Even my underwear is in pieces around my half of the room.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Fuck this shit, man. All I want to do is graduate. Though maybe it’s not worth all this. It’s not like I ever thought I’d even get to come to college anyway.
“Who the fuck would do this?” Connor asks as he pushes into the room, putting the pizza down on Penn’s bed. “We need to report it.”
“Reporting it won’t change a damn thing.” I sigh as Penn moves aside and we enter the room. I close the door behind me, wondering what the fuck to do from here. “This was either on Travis’s say so or his little sorority bitches took their own initiative to do it, thinking he’d appreciate them torturing me.”
“I’m sorry, Briar,” Penn says, a look of disbelief still on her face as she takes in the complete destruction. “Let's get this cleaned up and then tomorrow we can go shopping, see what we can replace.”
Awesome. My shopping trip just grew into replacing literally fucking everything I owned on top of all the shit I need for school.
“Thank you,” I respond, trying not to take the rage that's burning inside of me out on her or Connor.
No, this I’m saving for Travis and his bunch of vapid little followers.
I start picking up the remnants of my life and they both help. We put everything into trash bags and Connor manages to recruit another guy from the hall to help carry my destroyed bed and mattress outside.
Once everything is in the trash, I slide down the wall on my now very empty side of the dorm.
Penn sits on her bed, watching me while we wait for Connor to return.