Changes

Chapter 2

Melanie's POV
"No, please walk me to my dorm!" I beg Matt when he points in the direction that I'm supposed to go and starts walking away. "Mel, it's just down the hall." He whines, "Matt." I cut him off and he sighs, taking my bags out of the back seat and slinging them over his shoulder. Matt has always been really built, just like Ricky.

When we were little they would make me sit on their back while they did push ups. For Christmas Matt even asked for a weight bench, which my mom obviously got despite Meryl trying to talk her out of it. "Thank you." I grin and he rolls his eyes playfully before leading down the hall.

Girls upon girls holding brown boxes and suitcases crowd the walkway and for some reason I don't mind all of the commotion, I'm just happy that I'm here and out of that damned house.

"303, here this is you." Matt steps back a little so I can open the door since his arms are full.

The breath catches in my throat when I take in the dorm room. It's huge, much bigger than I imagined. Two desks, two beds, two sides of the room, one which is being occupied by multiple posters and clothes scattered across the floor. Matt sets my stuff on the unoccupied bed and looks around the room. "You'd think this is my room back home." He snorts, referring to how messy it is.

"Hi, sorry about the mess!" A chippy girl with blonde hair and pale skin slips out from the walk-in closet from the side of the room she's on. "Um, it's okay." I give her a small smile and she returns it with a huge one. "I'm April!" She clips cheerfully and opens her arms for a hug, that I want to dodge but find myself too late as she wraps her arms around me. She squeezes me tight and I awkwardly hug her back. "Melanie." I say into her hair just before she pulls away. "But people call me Mel." I explain as she looks at Matt. "This is my brother, Matthew." I motion towards him and he holds his hand out. "But people call me Matt." He chuckles. April looks at him and moves in for a hug instead which he surprisingly returns.

"What year are in?" Matt asks after their exchange and she continues smiling at him. "It's my third." She tells him and they both laughs "Nice, me too."

We all talk for a few minutes before April walks back over to her side of the room. Matt helps me unpack a few of my things before his phone goes off and I grin at him. I know it's his girlfriend that he won't tell anyone about but they've been talking since the end of his freshman year in college. I don't know why he doesn't just own up I it. "Shut up." He mouths and throws one of my shirts at me.

"So, you all set?" He glances at me again and I roll my eyes. "I guess so."

"Call me if you need anything." He hugs me and runs his hand through my hair to purposely mess it up, again, and I flick him off before he walks out.

"You and your brother seem.. close." My new roommate speaks up and stands on her bed to hang up a painting of a skull with blood running down its face. I stare at the image and immediately feel creeped out but quickly decide not to say anything about it when she pulls out a staple gun and staples it onto the wall. It's so strange for her to be a bubbly person and be interested in such disturbing things. "Yeah, I have two of them actually and they're both older so you can assume how that goes." I say casually and start unpacking the rest of my stuff that Matt didn't help me with already. "Yeah, I get it. Overprotective, huh?" She asks and I nod, forgetting she can't see me. "Yeah, they are."

April tells me about her parents, growing up in her town, her high school and her first two years here. She has a boyfriend and they've been dating for 9 months and she has 1 sister named Rose who's a senior in high school. I gather all this information as I fold my clothes and put them away in the dresser on my side of the room, against the wall that's across from my bed. She seems sweet, despite the multiple black posters and the bloody skull painting on the wall, I like her. "Are you going to hang anything up?" She asks me and I look at the wall above my bed.

"Um, yeah just not right now." I say. "Okay well you can use this if you want." She hands me the staple gun and I set it down. "Thanks." Silence lingers but it's not bad, just casual. Shortly after thought April speaks up.

"Would you want to go to lunch with me? I'm calling an uber to take me to town. And I'm meeting up with some friends so you could meet more people too." She offers but I politely decline. "I really should finish unpacking so I don't have to worry about it later." I smiles sweetly. "Okay, well I'll be back soon." She smiles and leaves after her fifth time asking me if I'm sure I don't want too go.

Shortly after April leaves I continue unpacking my bags as I play music on my phone. I take several posters and pictures of me and my friends and hang them on the wall above my bed and dresser, decorating my side of the room a bit more. I take my MacBook from my case and set it on the computer desk on the other end of the room. Afterwards I start hanging up t-shirts and arrange them in the closet.

After I'm done I plop down on the bed and scroll through my twitter feed. I can't believe I'm actually at college. Ever since I started high school I've just wanted to get out and get on with my life and now I have. Everyone kept telling me that I'd miss high school. That when I left I'd miss it but that couldn't be further from the truth. I do miss my friends but that's the only thing that's ever going too tempt me to visit home expect for summer vacation. I hate that small town and I've been desperate to see more of the world.

"Samantha we need to go.." the door flies open and I jump up quickly.

A boy with brown curly hair walks in and his eyes land on me. "You're Sam's roommate? You do not look like what she said." He stares at me and I shake my head in disbelief. What the hell?

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong room." I stand up slowly as he looks around carefully. "Yeah, I've definitely got the wrong room." He glares at Aprils posters. "Sorry for barging in..." he pauses, clearing asking for my name. "Melanie." I smile but he doesn't return it. "Harry." He waves awkwardly.

I glance down his body and take in his appearance. Black jeans, white t-shirt,  black leather jacket and black boots. I must admit he's rather attractive. The more I look at him the better looking he seems to get. "Mhmm." He clears his throat. My eyes snap back up to his and I apologize quietly but he brushes it off.

"Nice to meet you." I try being polite despite his rude entrance and my non discrete body scan. "You too, I'd better go." He says and rushes out of the room before I have time to say anything else.

What the heck just happened?