"Hhhhuugh!"
I heaved open the wooden door held together by wrought, iron fittings with an annoyed grunt. The afternoon light poured in, washing away the amber interior lighting. I stepped into the hall and tried to pull the door closed with one hand. The bottom jammed against the threshold. I futilely tugged the knob a second and third time, desperately hoping I'd magically increase in arm strength between attempts. I did not. With a sigh, I turned and, using both hands, pulled. With a BANG, the door shut.
I rubbed my weary, dark circled eyes as they adapted to the dimmer light. Readjusting my backpack strap slung over my shoulder, I moved towards the stairs. My suite was on the fifth floor of the dorm. Due to the university's miserliness-. No, wait. Apologies. Due to the university's integrity as an Ivy League institution, it couldn't possibly install an elevator in an eight-story dormitory. No, that'd completely ruin the historic feng shui and the aura of academic superiority. I silently cursed the university as I ascended. By the time I reached my floor, I was slouching from exhaustion. My arms hung limply at my sides.
The door to my suite suddenly swung open. I sprang upright, quickly composing myself. A tall blonde beauty wearing a blue blouse and black mini-skirt sauntered out on high heels. Her braided, waist length hair swayed with her steps. Blues eyes were glued to a cell phone, but as she approached the stairs, her gaze shifted.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Good afternoon, Talya! Coming back from your classes?" Her bright smile could have warmed hearts, but in mine, there was only a flicker of irritation.
Nonetheless, I put on a fake smile and replied, "Hello, Ashley. Yeah, it's been a long week. But I'm finally done!"
"That's great!" Ashley's eyes shown with excitement. "Hey, I'm meeting up with friends and heading to the party at the Delta Epsilon frat house tonight. You should totally come with. If you want, I can help you touch up!"
I internally grimaced at Ashley's words. My appearance was comprised of a day-old t-shirt and flannel combo with a pair of non-torn jeans. Probably not the best attire for attending a frat party. I'd always had short, tomboy hair since I had no patience to properly wash long hair. The tradeoff was that my bed head was a literal bird's nest. And because of my 8 AM class, my hair remained so for the entire day.
"Ha, ha, ha," Each syllable of my forced laugh dropped onto the floor like bricks. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm absolutely exhausted. I was planning on hitting the sack early tonight."
"Aww," Ashley pouted. "Then I wish you a good evening. Laters!" She flashed a quick smile before skipping down the stairs.
I held my facade until Ashley disappeared from view. Then I groaned. It would be so, so easy to hate her if she had the personality of the stereotypical sorority girl. However, she was cheerful, kind, and even did most of the cleaning in the common area of our suite. Despite feeling slapped by her words, there wasn't a trace of animosity; only concern. As a result, I felt like an absolute ass for feeling irate at her words.
I entered the suite and took off my shoes. The building portion of the dorm enclosed a small courtyard. Our suite was the east wall, so the two windows in the common room let in the setting sun's apricot light. Our common room had a set of couches surrounding a small table. The hardwood floor was diligently cleaned by Ashley. I helped, partially out of guilt. There was also a small fridge in the corner with a microwave on top. On top of the microwave was an electric kettle. More advanced cooking would require a trip downstairs to the kitchen.
Each suite had four adjacent single rooms attach to the common. These rooms occupied the two remaining walls of the common room, with the first two being the entrance and windows. To my immediate right was Ashley's room. Her door was decorated with multi-colored ribbons and origami flowers. Her full name, Ashley Lefevre, was cut out of blue construction paper in a bubbly font.
Next to Ashley is my second suitemate, Miyu. The sole decoration on her door was her nametag from orientation. It read, "My name is... Miyu Yamamoto. I am studying... Computer Science." I rarely see Miyu in the suite. The workaholic is usually out until late into the evening. She probably spends more time in the library than anyone on campus. It's a common sight to find Miyu with her hair tied back to keep it out of her way while she's buried in a textbook.
On the far wall was my third suitemate's room, Arachne Hesperus. She was our suite's, if not the entire dorm's, biggest mystery. She skipped all of the orientation events. I've talked with the people in the suit across from us and they've never seen a fourth person leave the room. Even RA Jenny, who despite checking her in, didn't seem to remember her appearance. To add to the mystery, her door was simply decorated with a Native American dreamcatcher.
The last door was to my room. I was lucky enough to get the corner room, which boasted an extra three cubic feet (0.085 cubic meters) of space. On my door was a large whiteboard that I saved from being thrown out during my first few days. I'd written my full name, Talya Fletcher, in a red cursive script. I'd initially planned to decorate it with drawings and such, but a combination of schoolwork and laziness ruined my plans. The only thing besides my name was a yellow smiley face Ashley drew weeks ago.
As I reached my door and was about to enter, Arachne's door suddenly creaked open several inches. A dark silhouette stood at the opening, watching. I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly terrified. I gulped and tried to calm my rapid heart rate. I put on my smile again and gave a small wave.
"H-hi, Arachne. How's your Friday going?"
Silence.
Then, a blue object flew at me. I instinctively caught it. It was a plastic cup of instant mac n' cheese. I stared at the container in confusion. I slowly lifted my gaze back to Arachne. "Thank you?"
The shadow nodded and closed the door.
*****
A few minutes later, I was seated at my desk with my laptop out. The mac n' cheese stood at on my dresser near the door, awaiting dinnertime. I put on a pair of earbuds to avoid disturbing Arachne. The soundproof was surprisingly decent for a college dorm, but I'd rather keep the volume low if possible.
As it was Friday afternoon, only insane people like Miyu would be doing schoolwork. As tired as I was, I simply couldn't go to sleep until it was at least 10 o'clock. Thus began my procrastination routine.
In the middle of my third ViewTube video, a SkyChat notification popped up. Teddy was online. I sent a voice chat invitation without hesitation.
After a few rings, a familiar voice greeted me. "Hey, Tallyboard. What's up?"
"Nothing much, Teddy Bear," I whimsically responded.
"I thought I asked you to stop calling me that."
"I thought I asked you to stop calling me Tallyboard," I retorted.
Teddy cleared his throat. "Fair enough."
Theodore Reyes was an old friend from high school. Honestly, I could hardly believe we were still good friends. If you told high school freshman me that the weird, excitable, half-Spanish kid that just randomly decided to sit down at my lunch table would one day be my closest friend, my younger self would probably have thrown a cup of water at you for spouting such nonsense. But four years later, here we are.
"So," Teddy continued, "Ms. Social, on a Friday night no less, has decided to call the second I came online. Shouldn't you be getting ready for a night out?"
"Is that what you think of me?" I asked. "Just because I was friendly and outgoing in high school does not make me the type of girl to go out every Friday night."
"You can't see it, but I'm raising a skeptical eyebrow," said Teddy. "If I recall, you had quite a few Friday adventures in the first few weeks of school."
"If by 'adventures,' you mean having a few drinks and conversing with acquaintances, then yes."
"Sure." Teddy simply responded.
I rolled my eyes. "To answer your original question... I don't honestly know. It's just that at some point, after I finished all my homework, studying, and class prep, I was just tired. And I didn't want to have to deal with other people."
I heard clapping over the voice chat. "Congratulations!" Teddy exclaimed, "Welcome to the life of an introvert!"
I groaned.
"Hahaha. It's alright, Talya," Teddy comforted. "Just because you don't want to interact with people doesn't make you an introvert. Maybe you just need some time alone to relax and recover your chakra or whatever the hipsters believe in these days."
There was a slight pause. I could hear Teddy's mind scheming. "And what better way to relax than shooting random strangers over the internet!"
"Are you shilling that Terraform game again?"
"TerraCon," Teddy corrected, "short for Terracotta Contingency. It's the world's most popular FPSMMORPG."
"You say that as if I know what that means."
"FPSMMORPG stands for First Person Shooter Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game," he explained.
"It's amazing how I can understand every single word you said, but still not comprehend any of it," I replied.
It was Teddy's turn to sigh. "You meet lots of people online and shoot guns. Sometimes with them, sometimes at them. Look, I know I've been trying to get you to play this game for so long that's become an inside joke between us. But honestly, now's not a bad time to start playing. A week ago, the TerraCon celebrated its fifth year anniversary and switched to a free-to-play model. You don't have to spend a penny to enjoy the full game. There are a bunch of new players now, so it's a pretty newbie-friendly environment. It's a great time to start playing."
Then he added in a singsongy voice, "And I hear shooting people is a great form of stress relief. There's nothing quite like it."
"You're crazy," I stalled. Internally, I seriously contemplated about trying it for the first time in the three years of Teddy's hounding. Playing an online game. That counts as social interaction, right? Especially since it's with Teddy. And if I don't, what would I be doing anyways? I'd chat with Teddy for a bit then probably watch more ViewTube videos. Either way, work wouldn't be done tonight.
Taking a deep breath, I announced. "Why the hell not. Fine, I'll give it a shot."
"Yeah, okay. I know. Gaming isn't really your thing and..." Teddy trailed into silence as he finally comprehended my words. "Wait. Really?"