I nodded my head, and we said our goodbyes before going our separate ways down different hallways, my mind still deep in thought as to what might’ve happened had my boys not come to the rescue.
I’d almost forgotten she existed since I hadn’t heard from her in a while and hadn’t so much as seen her shadow on campus. So why had she decided to come out of the woodwork now?
Maybe I should find out a little bit more about her in order to protect myself. I’d held off on doing so in the past because I never expected things to go this far.
I really don’t have the time for this shit, though, with everything else that’s going on in my life. All my energy here of late has been spent worrying about dad and keeping up my GPA.
But the fact that I’m convinced she drugged me has changed the game. Do I have to look behind my back everywhere I go now? She’d broken into my room that first year and found herself in my bed because of a faulty lock on the door.
Now I’m in a different dorm with better security and no way for her to get to me there unless I invite her in. But does her reappearance mean she’s back to cause me more headaches? And if she’d done that shit right out the gate, what the hell else does she have up her sleeve?
I made my way to my first class, still freaked out about what could’ve happened to me, and made up my mind then and there to get my shit together. That was too close for comfort.
LISA
I dropped my bags on the little twin-sized bed in my new dorm room and looked around. I was still feeling a little weak from the illness that had kept me away from my first few weeks of college, but all in all, I was excited to be here.
It was my first time away from my family, and though my mom was freaked about her little girl going so far away from home, I had been looking forward to this since my last year of high school or much longer, if I’m honest.
I’ve been sheltered my whole life by a mother who was afraid of every living thing and was more than ready to spread my wings and fly. Nothing too crazy, of course; I still have to keep up my decorum.
But it was going to be fun getting to choose my own meals, at least for the first time ever. It sounds extreme, but mom has this thing where she has to micromanage every aspect of my life. I think she learned it from her own mother, who was very much the same.
I sometimes wonder how my parents ever met, let alone fell in love and got married. They’re so completely different. Dad is handsome, smart, and very easygoing. He’s not afraid of much and has always been a bastion of protection and support for mom and I. He’s the only one who can deal with mom and all her mess.
Mom, on the other hand, as I’ve mentioned, is timid, introverted, and very much wary of anyone and anything she doesn’t know. As a child, I didn’t know that things could be different because I wasn’t allowed around the other kids outside of school, so I never got to see their interactions with what I would now deem their ‘normal’ parents.
She’d taught me how to be afraid, too, until about the age of sixteen when I met Jessica. Jessica is my bestie who had just gravitated towards me for who knows what reason when she transferred to my high school.
Tall, blonde, and absolutely gorgeous, we’re not the perfect fit unless you get to know us. We’re not only opposites in looks but also in personality. I always tease that I’m the ugly duckling to her beautiful swan.
Jessica taught me how to stand up for myself where before I’d shy away from anything, even resembling a confrontation. No one dared harass me in the hallways at school any longer once she was there.
Where I was fascinated by her looks, she seemed to be equally fascinated with mine and had taken to calling me her little China doll because of my black hair and vibrant blue eyes. There were times I believed she really thought I was a doll because she loves to dress me up.
Of course, our styles differed there, too, in the beginning, until she used her expertise to teach me how to shop for my much shorter frame and how to enhance my lacking figure. I have the body of a twelve-year-old still hoping to develop.
At least that’s how I used to see myself until Jessica taught me differently. She never focused on my shortcomings or what I used to see as deficits in myself but instead pointed them out as attributes.