The Secrets We Keep

CHAPTER ONE

~Astrid~

Bright rays of the morning sun shine through the window on the opposite side of my college dorm room. I squint my eyes. Usually in the mornings I have to grope around on my I nightstand for my large, black glasses, because I am practically blind without them, but today I wake up seeing fine. It's now that I notice the material pressed against my nose and ears. I must have fallen asleep with them on. I push myself up to a sitting position with my hand and notice all the textbooks and notebooks spread across my bed. I'm not even covered in my navy blue bedspread.

"How late did I stay up?"
I ask my self out loud as I rub my eyes.

Yawning, I swing my legs over the edge and stand up onto the cold, hardwood flooring.

I look up and see my room mate Maria still fast asleep, tangled up in her sheets and fluffy, white comforter. Her extremely curly, brown hair is spread across her face. I contemplate on whether or not I should wake her up.

I look at our plain, white wall and check the time on the clock hanging in between our beds. It's exactly 8:00 am. Normally I would never sleep in this late, but it is a Saturday so I guess it's okay. I'll allow myself one sleep in.

I decide not wake Maria up, as that would not be a pretty sight. If there's one thing I've learned in my two years of rooming with her, it's to never wake her up unless it's an absolute necessity. Even then I have to be careful.

I walk over to my mini fridge and grab the coffee pot that rests on top. Another thing I've learned is that mornings don't work well with me unless there's coffee. Or maybe I don't work well with mornings. Either way I need coffee.

I walk into our small bathroom and fill up the pot with tap water from the sink. Maria's makeup is scattered across the white counter top while my few toiletry items are safely contained in a small, green toiletry bag.

I set down the full pot and grab my brush from a drawer and brush out my long brunette hair. It seems like my hair has three settings and they all come at random. Either lightly curly, frizzy (this is mostly when it's humid or raining), or wavy. I prefer the curly over the other two as they are usually a mess to take care of and to look at.

I look in the mirror and my hazel eyes stare back at me from behind my big, black glasses. People in high school used to make fun of me for my big glasses and call me a nerd. I think they were just jealous of my good grades seeing as the majority of them were failing most of their classes. But jokes on them because I'm currently attending Argosy University in Orange, California and I'm in my second year of studying counseling psychology with a full scholarship.

After brushing my hair I see that, much to my relief, my hair is work in my favor today as it is curly. Just the way I like it.

I return to the main room which is the bedroom/kitchen/study room all in one and heat up the coffee pot. While that is heating up I return to my bed to clean up my books.

I pick up my math book and my science book along with notebooks for each one and return them to a black crate I keep next to my wooden desk for all of my schoolwork. Then I put MacBook on top of my desk.

I hear a switch flip and go to get the pot of coffee. I reach into the little fridge and pull out my french vanilla creamer. Then I pour the coffee into a plastic coffee cup and then stir in the creamer. The creamer swirls with my stirring creating patterns until it's all mixed in. That's one thing I've always loved to do is watch the creamer settle in. I love watching the swirling motion for some reason.