Chapter 2 : Aelin

I packed up the last sets of my clothes in the large suitcase and zipped it up securely. I placed the suitcase with the rest of my stuff at the corner of my room and went to the bathroom to wash up. On the way I opened the curtains and let the sunlight fill the room, it was early morning and a good day. 

Today was my last day at home, I wasn't feeling remotely bad about leaving my dear big sister and drunken mother behind. They were better off without me and I would be living a good life in their absence. 

The day I got my University of Texas acceptance letter was the day I found a source of freedom, it was a key to get away from them and fast. 

Mom didn't care, like I had expected. She was rather focused on her bottle of beer than to even congratulate me for getting into a good college. Stella, my sister was a bit concerned about the food arrangements but showed little to no emotions when I made her sigh my dorm facility form. 

"You will live in a dorm? Then who will cook for us?" 

That was all she said and when I didn't reply she just signed the paper and threw it in my hand. I was fine with that as long as she didn't make a scene. 

As I brushed my teeth and stared at myself, my life flashed before my eyes. I remember the day dad left us, it wasn't a pleasant day. No, everyone of us knew this day would come but none of us thought it would be so early. 

It was a black day for us, dad had straight up taken all his stuff and left out the front door. Mom was devastated and my sister was no better, Stella was more afraid once mom started to drink to forget him. She had to take all of the responsibility and she was afraid she won't be able to do it, so the only solution she saw was to put it on me. 

A ten year old girl with no choice. 

But now I didn't have to do that anymore, I was leaving and nothing in this world could stop me from having a good life.

Tying my long brown hair into a high I changed into a pair of skinny jeans and baby blue floral shirt. My carry on bag had all my important things and after rechecking everytime I called for a cab.

One by one I got my bags downstairs and out of the house. Our house was in a better condition than its inhabited, at least it was standing tall and not withering like my family. 

"By mom, bye Stella." I whispered and stuffed all the bags into the trunk of the cab, they knew I would be leaving early morning today, they clearly didn't think it was important to say goodbye. But I did, so one last time I looked back at the house and smiled, one last time I whispered a goodbye to the memories I made in that house. 

One last time and then I turned my back on it, to never return. 

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"Here is your student ID and your dorm keys, details of your schedule will be send to you a couple days before your classes start. Have a nice day." The lady on the office front desk said and flashed me a bright smile. I politely smiled back and said a thank you then went back to the front gate where all my bags were. 

One of the other reasons to choose University of Texas, in Austin was that my boyfriend, Michael also went here. He was a year older than me and was selected to attend, it's been over a month since we last met and that's too long according to me.

In my complicated life, Michael came like a ray of hope, he made my bad days bright and made me laugh when I felt like crying over my miserable life. So naturally, I started to like him. It came to me as a big shocker when he confessed he liked me too during one of our picnics. 

Michael was initially a playboy at our school back in Arizona but he changed after we started dating, I could feel his goodness when we were together, he was a loyal and loving boyfriend and I couldn't wait to surprise him. 

He would be here a day before classes start so I will have plenty of time to settle in before I surprise him, but first I had to find my dorm. 

Thankfully I wasn't the only student who had arrived early, in fact there were many others wandering around with their suitcases trailing behind them and clearly lost. 

The lady had handed me a map of the campus that looked more like a maze than a map to me. 

I found an empty bench on the grounds and set my bags on it, then I opened the map and started looking for the dorm building. Surprisingly, they only allowed two people per room rather than stuffing four students in bunk beds. 

"Excuse me." Someone said next to me and I jumped in surprise, I looked behind me to see a girl staring down at me with a small embarrassed smile and a thick book in hand. She looked like a nerd with those thick rimmed glasses and studious face, but she was beautiful. 

"Hello, I'm Irene." She introduced herself fixing her glasses and extended her hands for a shake. 

"Aelin, nice to meet you." I replied and made place for her to sit on the bench. It was only polite for me to do that, since it seemed we both needed friends. 

"Are you starting this year?" She asked taking a side glance at the heap of bags next to me. I nodded sheepishly. 

"Same, I'm an economy major." She said, I gasped and then giggled at the coincidence,"Oh really? me too!"

Together we bonded over random things like mango jam and peanut butter, we had many things in common and I found that Irene was actually a fun person to be with but she liked to keep distance from people, just like me. 

With her smartness we decoded the map and found the dorm buildings, they were at the very back of the campus and very quiet. It looked more like a housing building than a student dorm but it would have to do. 

Unfortunately Irene wasn't my roommate, a random person would be sharing a room with me and according to the front desk lady the other person hadn't collected their keys yet so I won't know who it would be. 

The structure of the dorms were simple. Boys nd girls dorms were seperate, boys belonged to building 1 and girls to building 2. Building 1 and 2 were actually the same building with just different names. 

My room was on the third floor and Irene was on the second, it sucked that I had to climb up an extra floor but it would make up for the runs that I would be missing every morning. 

Irene helped me get the bags up and stayed with me until I found my room 304. 

I don't know what I was expecting, but I clearly wasn't expecting a clean and spacious room. It was double the size of my room back home and it actually had space between the two twin size beds. 

The beds were pushed to the two opposite walls and had two desks next to them, two seperate closets and a bathroom. I never thought dorms were like this, it was too much to get in the price that I paid. But who cares? 

"Woah, are all rooms like this?" Irene whispered coming in behind me, "I hope they are." 

I nodded, still in daze and threw my bags on the already mad clean bed. I took the one next to the window and opened it to let the light seep in. 

Irene spend some more time in my room, her luggage had not arrived yet and she didn't want to go to her dorm alone so she helped me arrange my stuff in the closet and bathroom, the bathroom was big and spacious, it had a sink and a full size shower. 

Mind blown. 

Dorms were not supposed to be this good! 

An hour worth of work and my side of room was sparking with my essence. Purple butterfly stickers and light's hung from the wall and desk filled with stationary I liked, bed made again with my sheets and cover. The other side looked bare as ever but that had to be taken care of by my mysterious roommate.  

Irene left sometime later after she got a call that her luggage was waiting on the front desk, then she called me saying she had met her roommate there and was going straight to her room. 

Alone and hungry I decided to kill time by playing games and then get some sleep. Hopefully I won't be alone when I wake up.