Dear Terrorists,

Chapter 14

Jennie's eyes widened to see her dark blue dorm room. It was slightly highlighted with the faint light of the yellow-orange security lamp creeping through the blind outside her window.

She looked over at Amira's bed to see if she was back yet from her night out. Despite the pillows splayed across her bed, it was empty. Amira was not in her bed. Jennie's heart panicked. She sprang up from her bed, quickly turning her head towards the alarm clock resting on her nightstand. It was ten past three o'clock in the morning.

Jennie reached for her cell phone. She had two unviewed text messages, both from Amira.

"Are you still awake?" she had asked Jennie at one o'clock in the morning.

"I hope she's okay," worried Jennie before clicking to read the next message.

"Hey, are you awake? I think I'm going to invite a friend over tonight, is that okay?" she asked at half past one.

"What?" whispered Jennie. Does she plan on coming back tonight? Where could she be at three in the morning?

Jennie began to think of reply to send back to Amira, hoping she was okay.

"You want to bring someone back here?" she nervously typed before deleting the text without sending it.

"Aha! Stop it!"

Jennie heard Amira's voice from the hallway outside the room, followed by a masculine voice rumbling too low for Jennie to distinguish the words.

"Shhh," insisted Amira from directly outside the door, accidently leaning against the door to create a loud pound against it.

Jennie sat motionless. She quickly set her phone down on her nightstand and threw herself down onto her bed. She did her best to control her heavy breathing.

Jennie heard heavy whisperings outside her door amid the sound of jiggling keys inside the lock. After several seconds of key jiggling and countless attempts to turn the doorknob, Amira's silhouette entered into the dark-blue lit room.

Jennie, pretending to be asleep, kept her eyes slightly cracked to witness who was with Amira. Jennie would not have known him anyways, but he was of medium build and was dressed neatly in jeans and a buttoned flannel shirt.

Amira and the man whispered too lightly for Jennie understand the dialogue, but they stealthily felt their way to Amira's bed. Jennie dared not to move her head towards Amira's bed in fear that they would notice she was not sleeping. Instead, Jennie closed her eyes and listened. At first, the room fell silent; then, she heard kissing sounds and more whispers, then the sound of a man's heavy belt buckle clicking against itself, then more whispers. Amira walked into Jennie's cracked-eye vision, towards the bathroom.

She's just going to leave this stranger in her bed while I sleep? Are you kidding me? thought Jennie to herself.

Amira flushed the toilet, creating a white noise that blanketed the noise from the man in Amira's bed as he kicked off his shoes and pants, his buckle loudly smacking against the tile floor, followed by Amira's loud, raspy hush.

Oh my gosh, stormed Jennie's mind in silence. I can't believe she is doing this already!

The man in Amira's bed pushed himself out of bed as Amira's bed, also heading to the restroom.

Great, sarcasted Jennie. He's going to pee all over the seat, like Joe, that slob.

The man in Amira's bed began his stealthy tiptoe back to Amira's bed.

Did he even flush? Or wash his hands? she pondered in disgust.

Jennie heard the kissing sounds once again, the only interruption being undistinguishable whispers and the low, monotone voice rumbling back.

Repulsed, Jennie grabbed a pillow next to her and covered her face to block out the interrupting sounds.

**********

Jennie returned from class at two in the afternoon to find Amira still sleeping in her bed.

"Are you serious?" she quietly mouthed as she noticed Amira's body in the fetal position.

"Hey," uttered Amira in a groggy, vocal fry. "Did you get my text last night?"

"What text?" lied Jennie.

"I asked you if I could bring someone back here, but I think you were asleep already."

"Oh yeah," said Jennie, pretending to have forgotten about the event from the previous night.

"I hope we didn't wake you up," commented Amira. "We tried to be quiet."

"Who's we?" interjected Jennie.

"A man I met in class yesterday," bragged Amira. "His name is Ryan. He's a sophomore."

"Oh," snipped Jennie, unpacking her book bag on her desk at the foot of her bed.

"You don't care, do you?" she concerned.

"I mean," began Jennie with a laugh, buying time to formulate a response. "I just don't want you to make a habit of this. I felt really uncomfortable when I woke up this morning. Your bed was empty when I went to sleep. And I wake up and this strange man is in your bed. That's weird."

"He's not a strange man," defended Amira in a friendly tone. "He's a nice man, he's going to be an economist one day."

"That's great. He'll probably sleep around when he's an economist, too," snided Jennie.

"What?" laughed Amira. "It's the first few days of class, I'm going to make new friends."

"I met a new friend yesterday. I didn't invite her back to our room last night."

"You're a lesbian?" asked Amira.

Jennie glanced at Amira with a no-nonsense look.

"Okay, sorry," apologized Amira. "I won't bring him back to our room anymore. I'm sorry."

"It would have been nice for a warning, you know," added Jennie.

"I texted you last night," said Amira.

"Yeah, in the middle of the night after I was sleeping for 3 hours," sneered Jennie, waving her arm around towards Amira.

"Okay, I'm sorry," said a deflated Amira. "It won't happen again, I promise."

"Well, if you want to hook up with guys every night, then go to their place from now on because I don't like it when a person is in my room without me knowing it!"

"It's my room too, you know," reminded Amira.

"And what have I done to invade your privacy, huh?" shouted Jennie, her eyes widening with anger at every syllable.

"Nothing, I guess," replied Amira. "Okay, I'm sorry, I won't bring anyone back here without first asking you ahead of time."

"Thank you," jeered Jennie as she sat down at

her desk to begin studying. She reached out and grabbed a cold water bottle

from her mini fridge.