On hearing that term, Mariah's smile dropped unnoticeably. She thought back to the nightmare she had, it was a memory that kept replaying over in her head. When she had that fight with her mother and Tara, her father and her other sister were not there, but they shared the same idea that her mother had.
"Do you have siblings?" Henry asked.
"I do. I have two older sisters" Mariah replied.
"Wow, what are they like?"
Mariah thought about it. Tara was the middle child, she was the beacon of annoyance. April was the first, she showed apathy to the affairs of the family, she only cared about herself, she had moved out of the house even before she graduated from college. She had a boyfriend she had been seeing for years but he has shown no sign of tying the knots with her.
Tara was the family's favourite. Their parents worshipped her and April was on good terms with her. They were best friends. Tara got a job during her internship program in college and ever since then her parents' love for her became unsurmountable.
Ever since growing up, Mariah had been in the shadows of her sisters. April was a sight to behold with good curves and unparalleled industriousness. Tara was way prettier than April and April was very beautiful which meant Tara was a fucking goddess. She was able to hold anyone's attention wherever she found herself and there was this luck that existed around her.
It wasn't so for Mariah, her siblings all had blonde hair but she was born with brown hair that she decided to dye red. She had basic features and round eyes, her lips were slightly full and were heart shaped. Tara always mocked her for not having round lips.
Tara mocked her for almost everything, her body, her hair, her skin, her sense of style. Everything.
Thinking about all these, Mariah still could not deliver an answer she surely did not want to say the truth that she hated her siblings so she could only tell a white lie "They're just like your normal sisters"
"I understand that. I have an older sister and a younger one. They fight over anything and always throw me in the middle. I love them to bits though but they can be really annoying"
The way he talked about his siblings marveled Mariah. She knew there would never come a day when her eyes would lit up at the mention of her siblings.
"I remember you said you had no friends" Henry said "why? What about your friends from high school?"
Mariah scrunched her nose "we fell out"
He must've noticed her reluctance to engage in the conversation so he dropped it without probing further.
They talked about other things excluding family and friends and along the way, Adonis joined them and they all went back to their respective apartments.
Later, before 10am, Mariah was already dressed and ready for class. She wore a short button down dress that was tight around the torso but free from the waist down. It was a black short dress with white flowers printed on it. She paired the dress with a pair of pastel pink slip ons. She let her long red hair drop down her shoulders before grabbing her black hobo bag that contained her books and textbooks and the last item she collected was her phone.
She opened her phone and saw she got a text from 'Leslie'.
This sudden text message from Leslie caught Mariah by surprise. She suddenly stopped in her tracks to the door, she took some time before she read the text but she eventually did.
From Leslie:
"Hey, can we go to school together, I'll be waiting at the cafeteria along the school's entrance."
The text itself was even more surprising.
Leslie wanted to go to school together with her.
She replied with a simple "okay" before walking out of her apartment. There was no one around, the hallway was empty like there existed not a soul except her in the whole building.
It was not as if she was hoping to see anybody though, especially Henry. She surely did not want to see Henry.
Mariah ignored the weird feeling in her chest as she walked to the elevator.
Following the directions of the map on her phone, Mariah located the college building. The only part she found hard was locating the cafe that Leslie was waiting at so she did not bother climbing down from her car.
She picked up her phone to call Leslie but before she could, her phone was already ringing: Leslie was calling her.
"I have spotted you, I'm coming over" Leslie said the second Mariah answered the call, giving her no way to say a word.
Mariah climbed out of her car and stood beside it waiting, she looked around the place. There were quite a number of people walking in and out of the building. The parking lot was filled with different cars Mariah began to wonder just how Leslie could've seen her drive in.
She contemplated on calling Leslie again as she had been waiting for over two minutes after Leslie had supposedly seen her.
However, before she could, she saw Leslie walking up to her from her left hand side. Leslie was wearing a pair of jeans and a chiffon shirt, her brown hair fluttering in the wind as she took hurried steps to meet Mariah.
"Hey" Mariah greeted when Leslie stopped in front of her.
Leslie was all smiles "oh my God! Mariah, I can't believe we're in college, I can't believe this" she jumped around cheerfully.
Mariah was confused, she and Leslie ended highschool in a weird place. Though she apologized to Leslie but they never spoke another word until today. So Mariah had no clue on how to act around Leslie who was obviously so happy especially to see her.
Mariah wondered if Leslie lost her memory.
"Yea, it's pretty amazing" Mariah said obviously not as excited as Leslie was.
Leslie brought out her phone, "we should take a picture, you look good, I look good and we're in college" she squealed.
Mariah simply nodded her head as Leslie pulled her in. Mariah was a bit taller than Leslie so she had to bend down a little to reach Leslie's height as she smiled at the camera.
Leslie took three pictures before deciding she had had her fill. Then they both walked into the building to find their classes.
With Leslie's help, Mariah found her class, a class she shared with Leslie. She shared all her classes with Leslie as they were majoring in the same course.
Unlike Mariah, Leslie had attended the orientation program and was sure to come over even after to get acquainted with the building before she officially resumed classes. It was the move of almost all excited freshmen.
Mariah was not excited about college, she was not even excited about life so what made college so great?
They had a total of three classes that day and by afternoon when the sun was at its hottest, they were already done for the day.
"Where to next?" Leslie asked as they were packing their books the second the lecturer walked out of the room.
"I have to head over to the studio, to do the necessary" Mariah said, stacking her books into her bag, purposely avoiding eye contact with Leslie.
"I see, I thought you'd be free, I was gonna invite you over to my place," Leslie said, sounding a little disappointed.
"There's always a next time" Mariah forced out a smile.
"Well, we'll talk later" Leslie left first.
All through their interaction, Mariah only managed to say a few words not because Leslie was talkative but because she had no idea what to say. She only had something to say when Leslie presented a question.
Leslie was taking things so casually with Mariah which made her confused about what to do. She was expecting that the air between them would be stiff and tense but Leslie was not giving it the opportunity to.
Mariah stayed rooted in that spot until everybody walked out of the class. She sat back down on the chair and fetched out her phone. She went through her Instagram and saw that Leslie posted the selfies they took that morning, with the caption :"OMG!!! COLLEGE''
This time, she double tapped on the post and even dropped a comment.
She went through her Instagram feed for a long time before she decided to move her butt. She grabbed her things and walked out of the room towards her parked car.
She looked around before entering her car and driving back home.
The elevator dinged and opened up, she walked out of the elevator and saw Tanya standing by a door talking to Luis. The proximity of their bodies was weird to Mariah.
Tanya was leaning against the wall and Luis was standing in front of her, a hand resting on the wall and a smirk playing on his lips.
It was none of Mariah's business so she ignored the two of them before opening her door and waking through it.
Mariah did not bother to cook or do anything else, she walked to her bed and slumped on it.
And on that spot, she fell asleep.