*BEEPBEEPBEEP... BEEPBEEPBEEP*
Kate slammed her hand onto her alarm clock, silencing the noisy contraption that had woken her from her sleep. She rose to a sitting position and stretched out, yawning as she did so. She reached for the headphone that covered her ears and carefully pulled them off.
'An investment even Buffett would be proud of.' She thought to herself, as she did every time she had to use them. She had not planned to spend most of her nights with noise-cancelling headphones on, but after the first week with her roommate, she realised they would be a necessity if she was to keep her sanity. She closed her eyes and focused on what she could hear, trying to determine if it was truly safe to remove them. With nothing but the faint bustling of other students in their rooms and the halls, she put them on her nightstand and got on with her morning.
'Coffee, food, shower, clothes.' She recited to herself. It had been her routine for as long as she had been in college, and had worked well for her. Walking to the tall mirror in the corner of her room, she checked to see if she was decent enough to go out of her room and into the small common area she shared with her roommate. Normally, her appearance would not bother her at all, but she had been in a co-ed dorm for the past 3 months and knew there was always a chance she would not be the only one outside.
Content with her appearance, she wrapped her dirty-blonde hair into a rough ponytail, reaching for her doorknob before she heard a rustling outside. She could hear another door opening, knowing for a fact it was her roommate's company last night leaving in a hurry, accompanied by mumbled talking that she could just about make out through the dorm's annoyingly thin walls.
"Thanks again for a great night. I needed that." Said a woman's voice, deep and sultry.
"Text me if you need another ride, sexy." Replied a more masculine voice, followed by a hard slapping noise that elicited giggles from the girl. The door closed and Kate could hear footsteps.
She waited before opening her door. Three seconds, that was her rule. She swung her door open and began to walk to the kitchen, just managing to catch the sight of her friend Jasmine clumsily walking out the door from the dorm to the hallway where other students were mingling, having to stop for brief moments to keep herself up. She had clearly dressed in a hurry, in a baggy t-shirt, knee-length skirt and socks, holding her shoes and what looked like a bundled pair of stockings in one hand, her black hair tied into pigtails that had clearly seen better days.
She would call it a walk of shame, but nothing about the way she moved exhibited shame. Kate walked to the small kitchenette in the lounge and began to prepare a cup of coffee, scoffing at a large pile of dishes in the sink.
"Every fucking time, man..." She said to herself, grabbing a sponge and detergent from the counter. She was halfway though the pile when she heard a door open and turned to see her roommate, Callum, in black sweatpants and a grey tank top that did nothing to cover up the obvious hickeys and bite marks on his neck and shoulders. His short, hazelnut hair was all over the place, a case of bed-head that would normally be reserved for coma patients.
"Sup, Kate?" He said, voice raspy, as if he had been coughing. He had very clearly smoked something before leaving his room.
"Yeah, morning," She responded sternly, not doing anything to hide her displeasure before pointing the foamed-up frying pan in his direction, "Look, it's one thing for you to fuck my friends, but could you at least clear the sink before you do?"
Callum rolled his eyes, "You try to clean up carbonara when a rabid Latina is tryin-"
Kate cut him off mid-sentence, "I don't need the details when the walls give me more than I want already."
Callum shrugged his shoulders, unfazed, having had this conversation plenty of times before. He moved to the couch and planted himself firmly on it, one hand behind his head and the other reaching for the remote to their TV.
"Exam season sucks," Callum said, "Everyone's wound-up, and looking for anything to blow off some steam," He clicked the on button, "And if I'm not mistaken, she got the idea from you."
"Yeah, from me complaining about the shit you get up to."
"You act like I'm the only one bringing people over."
"Yeah, but at least I'm not keeping up half the dorm floor!"
"Well maybe your guys should try harder."
Kate sighed angrily and rolled her eyes, clearly done with the conversation. What annoyed her most was that he wasn't without a point, even if it was a crude one. She had her fair share of hook-ups, and brought a few boys back to her room, but it was rare that anything memorable happened. She had one guy who could reliably make her cum, but he transferred out months ago and other guys got uncomfortable hearing Callum. Kate finished cleaning the frying pan, telling Callum to clean up the rest. He gave a thumbs up, his other hand holding a controller, as Kate went about the rest of her routine,
---------------------------------------
"And as if on cue, 15 minutes early!" Chuckled Jasmine, checking her phone, a large clock clearly displaying 8:45am.
"You're chipper." Was all that Kate could manage.
"And you look strung-the-fuck-out."
"How are you NOT stressed?"
"Because I'm getting dick!"
"Hey, I get dick!"
"Five minutes of missionary with Johnny from government history isn't dick, Kate. You need PROPER dick, okay? There's a big difference between having sex and getting fucked."
Kate had already had this conversation once today, she wasn't interested in having it another time, but she couldn't let it rest.
"There categorically isn't."
"There categorically is. One is curative, the other isn't."
Kate had always appreciated the value of a second opinion, and while she detested Callum, she trusted Jasmine, who she thought might have some better advice.
