Chasing Jenna (3 page)

A small tear surprised me and escaped down my cheek. I brushed it away, trying to turn away from her but she wouldn’t allow it. She gathered me into her arms and hugged me ridiculously tight.

“I’ll be your sister.” And just like that, she claimed me as her own. No one had ever made an effort to be part of my life. My body involuntarily stiffened and I clumsily patted her back. I didn’t know how to care about someone in this way … with a level of concern about their well-being. It certainly didn’t come naturally to me, but I couldn’t deny I liked the way it sounded in theory. Still, the thought of sharing my messed up world with her was inconceivable.

When it became clear she wasn’t letting go, I relaxed into her arms slightly and into my first real hug.

She whispered, “You can tell me everything or nothing. It doesn’t matter to me. But I promise to never leave you.”

Hope sprung inside of me; maybe good people really did exist. I knew I couldn’t believe her completely, although part of me wanted to. I clenched my lips together, trying to keep the sobs at bay while tears slid down my cheeks.

Although her words had given me hope, they had cemented something else in my mind as well. She would never be privy to the darkness I endured … I would make sure of it. Her fairytale would stay intact.

~~~

Katie popped her head up over the side of my bed at eight o’clock. “Good morning, Sunshine. Time to get up!”

“Are you kidding me?” I growled, pushing her head back down. “This might be the first Saturday in my entire life I don’t have anything to do and you want me to get up early?”

“That’s right. We have things to get done today. Get that tiny ass out of bed so we can go exploring!”

I rubbed my eyes, propping myself up on my elbows. “We need rules about sleep time. The rule is, I need more sleep than you.” I fell back onto the mattress, using the pillow to drown out the sunlight and the sound of my roommate’s chipper voice. When that didn’t work, I rolled onto my stomach and pulled the pillow tighter over my head.

“We can’t look like newbies, Jenna. Don’t you want to know where things are?”

“I thought you said you cased the whole campus while you were waiting for me.” I stuck one hand out and twirled it in a dramatic circle around my head while I talked. “And isn’t that what maps are for?” I yelled into my mattress and tucked my arm back under my pillow, securing my decision to stay in bed.

A sharp sting bit into my right butt cheek. I jolted to a sitting position. Katie ran out of the room laughing but stopped in the doorway, grimacing and shaking the hand she had slapped me with.

Good, it hurt her too.

“Did you seriously just …”

She interrupted in a singing voice, “See you in the shower, beautiful!”

She danced her way out of our room but left the door wide open. I fell back onto my mattress, stared at the ceiling and said, out loud, to no one, “Oh my God, I live with sing-along, cheerleading Barbie.”

~~~

Katie wiggled her way toward the front of the mail desk line. I stayed at the back of the line, where we had waited entirely too long for her liking. She gave a little wave to one of the male workers and held up two fingers. He reached over the people who were lined up in front of her and handed her two maps. She gave him a sweet smile, turning back to me.

“Impressive,” I teased. “Do you even know that guy?”

“Yes, that’s Carter. He lives in the boys’ tower, he’s a sophomore. He likes Mocha lattes.”

“How do you know that?”

“I hung out at The College Cafe yesterday. He works there.” She laced her arm with mine, turning us toward the doors.

“I don’t know where that is,” I admitted.

“It’s the coffee shop in the Student Union.” She smiled at me thinking she’d proven her point.

“See, this is exactly why we need to be exploring today.” I guess she had.

The Student Union was as big as the rest of the buildings, but looked more modern. Black lampposts lined the walk leading to the front doors. A sign with solid black lettering read, ‘
The Student Union’,
and was lit by spotlights. Even in the day, this building appeared to be a big deal. Judging from the amount of people outside in the sitting area, it was the place to be.

Katie and I wound our way through the crowd to the doors. This is what I pictured college life to be. The excitement began to bubble up inside of me. I had no idea what to expect when I walked into the Student Union. If it was anything like what I had already experienced from college, it would be awesome – and I hadn’t even started classes yet.

According to my daydreams, this would be the place where the extremely hot guys hung out. One of them waited inside to sweep me off my feet with a heated glance or an undeniable attraction. The S.U. was where the good stuff went down – I was sure of it!

Katie gave me a quick wink over her shoulder as she pulled open the door. I followed her, expecting the true college experience to start as soon as we got inside.

A sarcastic sound escaped my lips and echoed around the cavernous space. The few people, who sat at the round tables scattered all over, looked in our direction. I giggled into my hand. This place was a glorified mall food court. The only thing missing was an escalator. I bit my bottom lip as I looked around the empty area. I wouldn’t be having any mind-blowing, romantic encounters here today.

The walls were lined with several types of shops, making it look even more 'mall-ish': The College Book Store, The College Café and The College Outlet store, even a few fast food restaurants. The second floor held study rooms, a computer lab, and faculty offices. Boring … and more boring.

A help wanted sign hanging in the window of The College Café caught my eye.

“I’m going to run in and get an application.”

Katie smiled and motioned toward one of the many open tables. “I’ll be over there.”

“Meet you there in a bit,” I said as I walked into the Café. This might be the only place people came to study. Most of the high-top tables were full.

“I’ll have a Vanilla Latte please, and an application.”

The guy taking orders gave me a second look, reached under the counter and handed me the two-sided piece of paper. “The manager is usually here in the mornings during the week, if you bring it back then, he will interview you on the spot.”

“Thanks,” I glanced at his name tag, “Bryan.”

While I waited for my latte, I watched people come and go from Katie’s table. Some, introducing themselves for the first time, others seemed to know her and stopped to chat.

Katie was the perfect roommate for me – at least the part of me that didn’t want to be invisible. She sucked for the other part. People radiated to her. She said it was because she was tall, people could see her in a crowd, but I knew her personality drew them in. Her laugh was infectious and the way she tossed her long dark hair from shoulder to shoulder made her endearing. She was the girl every girl wanted to be friends with and every boy wanted to date. And her roommate wanted to be the invisible girl most of the time … how ironic was that.

Katie spotted me staring and motioned for me to join her.

“This is my roommate Jenna,” she said, pulling me out of her shadow, thrusting me into the spotlight, as I walked up to the table.

“Isn’t she gorgeous
?” Oh my God, did she just say that?

I slid into a chair next to her.

“This is Chelsea, Marie and Dana. They are from Alpha Delta Sigma, one of the sororities I talked with when I registered for my classes.”

The three girls smiled their hellos at me, I gave a small wave. Their attention returned to Katie quickly. Dana flipped her brown hair over one shoulder and handed Katie a piece of paper. It was obvious they were over me. Dana looked like one of the beautiful people from yesterday. Chelsea and Marie were the perfect blonde book ends to compliment her.

“Call me. We would like to meet with you. I think you would be a perfect fit for the Delts.”

“Thanks, Dana. Jenna and I will look for your table at the Information Fair tonight.”

Katie flashed her award-winning smile. Dana glanced at me; I sat motionless with a mouthful of latte, afraid of what she might do if I moved. She was beautiful but damn if she didn’t have a seriously scary edge to her also. I’m sure she wouldn’t think twice about lashing out at me with her perfectly manicured nails.

“We look forward to it.” She smiled at Katie then turned on a dime with Ding and Dong right on her heels. I swallowed my latte, stood and looked at Katie, my eyes bulging out of my head.

“
That
is who you want to live with?” I asked, pointing toward the trio as they walked away.

“God no,” she laughed.

“Whoa, I was worried. That Dana girl seems like a real piece of work.”

“Really? I think she seems sweet.” I glared at my roommate – she threw her arm over my shoulder. Taking the latte out of my hand, she helped herself to a drink and said, “I don’t want to live with anyone but you, girly.”

>CHAPTER FOUR<

Our room turned into the
pre-
Information Fair place to be. People mingled in and out, laughing and dancing in the hallway to the loud music that came from somewhere down the hall.

I stood in front of the mirror, amazed at what Katie could do with a straightener.

“You need more color,” she announced, coming at me with a make-up brush.

When Katie looked in the mirror she saw flawless, tanned skin, so I’m sure my ivory complexion did look transparent to her. I let her work her magic, admittedly, liking what I saw when she finished.

Holli and Kaylee lived next door and Jennifer a few doors down. We had decided earlier it would be more fun to go to the fair together. Apparently, that also gave us permission to raid each other’s closets, convinced we would find the perfect outfit in someone else’s wardrobe. Katie dug around until she found my tightest pair of jeans and insisted I put them on. She threw a peach colored shirt at me. It was big and flowing and cut in at the waist with a puckering of elastic to make it stay in place. I held it up, noticing the sheerness of the fabric.

“No way Katie! Are you kidding me? You can see right through this thing!”

“Jenna, wear it, you’ll look amazing!”

I laughed while grabbing a white and black striped, v-neck shirt from my closet and pulled on my black boots.

She turned from fixing Kaylee’s eyeliner and gasped, “Wow, don’t listen to me, you look hot in that!” She surveyed our little group, “Are we ready?”

We walked toward the elevator with an air of excitement, knowing the Information Fair was already packed with people. To be honest with myself, I needed a crowd to melt into. The attention I got walking around with Katie today had pushed me to my limit. Once we were in the court yard ... I hoped for the chance of an escape.

We followed each other into the elevator. A silence fell over the group once the doors closed. Holli held her hands in front of her, rubbing them back and forth. I wasn’t the only one having anxiety about what to expect. Katie, however, stood with a smile on her face, full of confidence. She was positive this would be a great night. A
Memory Maker,
she’d called it. I picked at my fingernails, secretly wanting this night to be over.

“Stay with me, don’t let me get lost, okay?” She whispered. I forced a smile, knowing her comment was more for my benefit than hers.

The elevator doors opened to a wall of people holding boxes … I gasped at the sudden feeling of being trapped. Relief washed over me when they parted to let us through. I couldn’t believe how many people were still moving in. I may not know what the hell was going on, but I was a step ahead of these people.

The music from the courtyard floated into the entryway, getting louder as we neared the front doors. The haze of fall did its best to block out the waning daylight. This time of year, even the sun tried to stay out as long as possible, knowing that soon, cold days and nights would take up residency.

The courtyard looked like an outdoor ballroom. White lights hung on trees along the outside perimeters, defining the area beautifully. A constructed canopy of the same type of lights was suspended across a makeshift dance floor where the D.J. was set up.

Elaborately constructed tables were scattered across the open area. The fraternities and sororities were by far the most impressive though, many of them having twinkling lights, small waterfalls and music. One showcased a replica of their house sculpted into ice.

The tables alternated between information tables, food vendors and club tables. Several of them sold university sweatshirts, bags and anything else you could ever want with the school name on it.

“I don’t even know what to look at.” I whispered to Holli. She shook her head. I guess I was doing better than her, I could speak.

Katie took the lead of our group and didn’t appear intimidated in the least bit. She shopped each table and joked with the attendants while asking intelligent questions and challenging the answers she received.

As time passed, the sun gave up its fight and night took over, cooling the breeze. I ran my hands up and down my arms, trying to warm myself.

“This is really stressful,” Katie said with little sigh as she handed me some pamphlets.

“Really? You sound like a natural,” I said, looking at a t-shirt she bought from one of the stands.

“I don’t like talking to these people. It makes me nervous.” I continued to compliment her polished style and her ability to talk about trivial things with strangers until I noticed there was no response from her.

“Hey,” I said waving a hand in front of her face. “What’s the matter with you?” I turned to follow her stare.

Marcus came from around the corner with two other guys. I looked back at Katie – who had turned so her back was to me. I walked around her, catching here terrified eyes, and teased, “Are you going to make a run for it?”

She twisted her hands together in front of her, making a pained expression. “He’s so cute. I can’t even be around him. It makes me want to pass out.”