Author's Note: This is the fictional tale of two people, both of legal age, finding love at a fictional college. It's sappy and dialog heavy and it takes awhile to get to the sex(the good sex anyway) so it may not be for everyone. But if it is for anyone, I hope they enjoy
September 3rd, 2006:
It was an annual tradition on the campus of Burling College. At the end of summer, just as the leaves started turning brown, thousands of young freshman students would move into one of the campus' 11 dorms. Some came with their mothers and fathers and there were teary goodbyes, some came by themselves but all of them settled in to their first real step on the road to adulthood. It was in one of the almost impossibly cramped rooms of Thurberg Hall that Olivia Thornton was now standing having her own unique goodbye with her own parents.
"I can't believe how small this room is." said Constance Thornton disapprovingly as she surveyed her surroundings. It was indeed a tiny room. Barely enough room for the two single beds, small desks and single shared dresser. "Whatever happened to that dormitory we saw on our tour? With all the space and the shared living areas?"
"That was another building, dear." Her father, Ian, reminded his wife in his dry, English tones as carried the last of Olivia's things in from the hallway. "Goodness me, it is a bit small, isn't it?"
"That's what I was saying, Ian." Her mother's voice was pure educated WASP "Why aren't you living in that building, Olivia?"
"I put in for it." Olivia answered, her mind drifting elsewhere "But everyone does. Housing assignments are random."
"Your grades didn't matter?" Constance seemed impossibly irritated by her Daughter's room. Far more than her Daughter was. "Or your extra-curriculars?"
"A school like this, mother? Everyone has my grades or better."
"It's not so bad, eh?." Her father said as he put the bags in the small, shared closet and gave his daughter what was meant to be a reassuring pat on the arm "Before you lot, I'd lived in a number of flats half the size and with twice the people.
"Well, we should be off I suppose, Let you settle in." Constance said with only the briefest hint of emotion. Olivia realized the significance of the moment. She was near the desk, her parents near the door. There was a stack of boxes, literally between them. Olivia noted for a second as she looked at her parents and then, at her own reflection in the mirror hanging on the door behind them, how clearly she was a product of the two of them. Like her father, she was tall, standing 5'10 to his 6'4 and had inherited his eyes, bothin their deep blue colour and the astigmatism that had them both wearing glasses. Like her mother, she was pale, with a complexion that looked as smooth and creamy as ivory. She also had her mother's high cheekbones, impeccable posture and dark chocolate hair, only slightly more invitingly displayed in Olivia's ponytail than it was in her mother's tight bun. Olivia opened her mouth to say her own goodbye but, before she'd had the chance, a very different voice entered the room.
And though she was firmly committed to the same career path her parent's had each taken, pre-med and then med-school and then surgery, and though she was not only the kind of girl who'd been on that path and even devoted time to thinking about her area of specialty since she was 12, she had none of the emotional distance of her father or her mother's coldness. She was kind-hearted and cheery.
"Oh my stars."
The three Thornton's turned to the doorway to see another girl, struggling with two impossibly large suitcases. She was clearly out of breath as she pulled one a few more inches and then the other.
"Allow me to help you with that, my dear." Ian came to the girl's rescue, taking both of the bags in his hands and lifting them into the room, still grunting at the weight of them. The girl kept still in the doorway, hands on her knees and hunched over, breathing hard from the exertion.
"Finally, a gentleman." The tones of her voice were clearly southern but the accent was soft and understated. "You would not believe how many folks simply watched me breaking my back with those things."
"Dreadful, isn't it, the state of chivalry these days," Olivia's father added dryly as he put the suitcases to the side of the other bed, allowing the girl to finally enter the room. There couldn't have been a bigger contrast between the assembled family and the new girl. She was blonde, with tanned skin and the smallest and lightest dusting of freckles. Unlike the very conservative dress of the Thorntons, the parents both in suits and even Olivia in a dress shirt and skirt, she wore a football jersey that was seemingly 3 sizes too small, pulled tight over two very large breasts and not covering her flat stomach and pierced navel. Distressed, low riding jeans and ratty blue sneakers completed the ensemble. She took a second catching her breath, her hands resting on curved hips before brightening into a thousand watt smile as she looked at the three of them.
"Well y'all must be the Thorntons." She guessed correctly "I hope I'm not intruding on a goodbye?"
"No, not at all dear." Ian assured her "We'd said ours and were just on our way."
"Well, then I'm glad I caught you in time to say hello." the Blonde approached them with an outstretched hand "I'm Lacey Miller and I suppose I am going to be your daughter's roommate."
"Hello Lacey." Constance shook her hand first, looking at Lacey as though she were a member of a different species. Not disapprovingly or judgmentally, simply as though she'd been assigned to study her. Ian extended his hand as well to her but Lacey shook her head in the negative.
"No sir, my hero gets a hug." Lacey said as she embraced him.
"Oh yes, alright." Ian chuckled as he accepted the gesture warmly, even though it was with some surprise.
"And you must be Olivia." Lacey said, expertly navigating the boxes on the floor to also surprise the taller girl with a quick embrace. "Oh I am so happy to meet you. I don't know if you're like me but I've thought about meeting my college roommate for years now and how we'd just be as close as two girls can be and I just know, I mean seeing you confirms it but I knew ever since I saw your name on that housing assignment thing they sent out, that we are just going to get along famously."
The words came in a blur, an excited, happy blur. Olivia couldn't help but laugh and return the hug.
"And just look at you." Lacey continued, without drawing a breath "You are just as pretty as a thing can be, like a hand-carved doll of a princess. We are going to have to have a bouncer at the door to keep the boys away, aren't we?"
Olivia's parents gave her a slightly disapproving look at that last part and she returned it with a frosty one.
"Actually, Lacey, I'm...."
"Will your parents be along, Lacey?" Constance asked quickly, eager to change the subject. Lacey sat down on the small chair at her desk and set her laptop bag down in front of her.
"Oh no, no. They're back in Abilene. I flew out from Dallas at the airport. I swear, you should have seen my Daddy, crying so hard you'd have thought the Cowboys were leaving Dallas for Timbuktu." Lacey laughed at the memory. Constance gave that a weak smile while Ian, not getting the reference, at least seemed to empathize with the feeling. "How about you? Where you from?"
,
"Well, I'm originally from Montpelier and Ian is from...."
Olivia drifted out of the conversation as she sat down at her own desk. She missed Abby so much. She hated that she was here and that Abby was still back home. She pulled from her phone and began typing out a text message: "Just got here, miss you baby so much, love you" and sent it to the entry on her phone saved for her girlfriend. Her wonderful, beautiful, delightful girlfriend who's only flaw was being born late in the year so that, despite having turned 18 only a few months after Olivia had, she was only now starting her senior year in Prep. It was barely a minute before she got her reply. She felt her heart skip and then ache as she read "Love U too, baby, have fun, kisses". Olivia couldn't wait for the year to end. Abby would join her here in Burling at the end of the year, they'd move off campus together and it'd be just like she always dreamed. Her fond day dreams were interrupted by her realization that the conversation between her roommate and her parents was still going on.
"...well, Daddy's Chief of the Fire Department back home and Mom's a homemaker I suppose although she's started up this internet company where she's selling her pies on-line. Not just pies but cookies and such as well and, let me tell you, they are absolutely worth it although I've never completely understood how she ships them and how they'd taste after being in the mail. So I'm not sure what you'd call her. Baker or Entrepreneur or something along those lines. I should email you the link to her site because, I tell you, I've been gone less than 6 hours and I already miss her cooking so you don't even know what you're missing..."
September 4th, 2006
"Do you think your parents liked me?" Lacey asked, completely out of the blue, as she stretched up to put her textbooks on the highest of the bookshelves.
"Of course, why wouldn't they?" Olivia laughed a little as she effortlessly did the same with her own books.
"Ugh, when I get all excited and nervous, I know I go overboard on the whole good ol' girl thing. I'm all 'goodness, gracious me, today is as hot as my daddy's texas chili' and so on." Lacey's voice was indeed even softer, with a little less of her accent, today. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Texas-born and Texas-bred and all that but I hate thinking I came off as dumb or flighty or anything."
"Don't worry about it. My parents are....hard people to get a read on but, trust me, I'm sure you delighted them." Olivia wasn't all that sure of what she was saying, her parents did tend towards the judgmental and snobby, but she definitely thought it was better to reassure Lacey.
"Because I won the state spelling bee at 8, you know." Lacey said defensively
"You mentioned." Olivia nodded with a smile
"Got the highest SAT score in my whole high school's history."
"Uh huh." Olivia was skimming through the first few pages of her biology textbook now."
"I'm on a full ride here. And they don't give too many of those for academics."
