Chapter 1: Introduction
The rain slapped and bit at Elizabeth's face as she walked briskly away from campus, her black, woolen coat tucking in tight around her chin, protecting her from the worst of it. Water droplets obscured her glasses, forcing her to frequently wipe them on the sleeve of her jacket, but even without the watery barrier she would still be scowling.
The last thing she wanted was to be caught in the rain, but she had been so engrossed in her research that she had barely noticed the time. She was simply too obsessed with getting the details of her upcoming article in order to even bother looking at the time on her phone.
Every little citation, every meticulous fact-check, every sentence had to be precisely polished until it reflected her brilliant intellect the way a sleek, black car reflects the midday sun.
But now, her article put safely away in her bag, she was left with only the rain to accompany her on her walk back to the dorm room. It pattered its fingers against her black, somewhat unkempt hair, and each droplet felt like a small, icy pinprick as it landed on her skin. With a sigh, she trudged onward.
The street lamps lined the pathway, illuminating the wet sidewalk in a weak, ghostly glow, signaling that she was nearing her dorm.
She entered the dorm building and took the lift to the third floor, her footsteps echoing hollowly in the empty corridors.
The silence was a small comfort as she rested her head against the elevator wall, feeling the exhaustion sink into her bones. She couldn't wait to flop into her bed and lose herself in a deep, dreamless sleep.
As she neared the door to her room, however, she quickly realized that she wouldn't be getting her sleep as soon as she had hoped. You see, the silence of the dormitory was quickly being replaced by a series of moans and rhythmic slapping sounds that could be heard from the other side of the door. Elizabeth immediately slumped to the ground across from the door to her room, head in her hands. "Jesus christ Sammi, can't you go one fucking day without bringing some random frat boy home to fuck you?" She sighed to herself.
"What else is new?" she muttered, half to herself, half to the damp hallway.
It wasn't that she had anything against Sammi's sexual exploits, per se. As far as Ezliabeth was concerned, though she would have still judged her for it, if Sammi wanted to throw her legs open for any guy with a six-pack and a smarmy smile, then that was her business. The issue was that she do it in their shared dorm room, where Elizabeth would have to listen to her moans and groans as she tried to sleep or would be locked out of the room entirely.
It was times like these when she wished that she'd been lucky enough to have gotten a single.
But, no, she'd been assigned Sammi as a roommate, who'd proceeded to take every available inch of space in the tiny room as her own – leaving no room for Elizabeth to store any of her work or personal items. And that was fine; she had learned to cope with having a cluttered room. It was the constant interruptions to the peace and quiet that she couldn't stand, the fact that she couldn't even be IN her room half the time unless she wanted to be a spectator to Sammi's sexual escapades.
Elizabeth looked up at the ceiling as she cursed the fact that she, a serious academic, the valedictorian of her high school, a destined future Professor, had gotten a girl like Sammi as her roommate, a bimbo, through and through. She shook her head as the noises coming from the other side of the door became more frenzied.
It was the quiet moments, when she heard the gentle rustle of a Cosmopolitan magazine being flipped through, or the distinct sound of a hair straightener being used, that made her feel like an outsider in her own space. The room, or at least the section of it she could claim as her territory, was filled with books, papers, and academic paraphernalia. The walls adorned with maps, charts, and diagrams.