[Highest ranking: #72 in General Fiction]
Spring semester is here!
Classes are back in session but will the girls be able to handle the struggle or will they get taken down like 'hay fever'?
College wasn't easy before but throw in a proposal, newbo...
Alyssa was splayed across her bed flat on her tummy with her legs in the air. Her onyx name was finger-combed back in a ponytail that went well with her terry-cloth shorts and a wrinkled pink t-shirt. She'd been in her teal and grey room all day only going out to snag food like the half-eaten bag of Cheetos puffs on her reclaimed wood desk, the sipped clean glass that was next to the dry coffee mug, and the ripped open wrapper that once held a Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie. Her study appetite was a problem but she didn't have time to prepare a real meal; come Monday morning she had an exam in Biochemistry and a short essay quiz on acts one through three of Macbeth.
Her almond eyes rolled over the old English words of Shakespeare while her laptop sitting atop her blanket at the end of the bed was on Sparknotes. She tried to ignore her growling, twisting stomach. She was on the last scene of Act three and really wanted to get it done but she couldn't stop her head from nodded along to the low beat drumming through her closed door.
The moonlight and streetlights merged one stream of luminescent that slipped through the crevices of the slighted blinds.
She yawned and glanced back at her alarm clock with watery eyes, "9:08" She groaned like a wounded animal. "Come on, Lyssa." She refocused back on the minuscule words on the page twisting her tighten neck muscles side to side. "Just one more page."
A loud roar of laughter vibrated against her teal rugged floor and she dropped her head, "I need a break." She folded over the corner of the page and hopped off the bed then padded to the door.
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She passed Safiya's room, and the whine of a dying cry leaked from under the door. Alyssa started to twist the doorknob but her hand stopped once she heard Safiya's muffled tone say mama's here. She traveled down the stairs one step at a time, placing each sock-covered foot delicately on the carpeted stair as she washed her strained eyes over every jovial face in the balloon-cluttered living room. Some of the faces she knew, like the girl backing up on an equally rhythmic guy, was Lolli—the girl that did Lela and sometimes Safiya's hair. Sitting on their sofa, laughing at something some guy whispered in her ear, Heaven was dancing in the crowd as Emma and Wyatt—apparently they were back together. Alyssa shrugged to herself as she hopped off the last step and pranced to the kitchen.
Alyssa yanked open the fridge door. She slumped over to examine the bare glass shelves. Their food stash was running low since they only went grocery shopping on the first Tuesday of the month when all their paychecks were miraculously synched for one time. Well, not Alyssa since she hadn't found a job yet and hadn't been looking. She ignored Safiya's butternut squash flavored yogurt and swiped one of Harmony's vanilla yogurts instead then grabbed the half-empty bottle of red wine off the door. She knocked the door closed with her elbow and snatched a spoon from the dishwasher and a wine glass.
"The meal of scholars." Samuel teased leaning against the counter with glassy eyes.
Alyssa ripped the lid off the yogurt unbothered, "Your sarcasm is hilarious." She placed the vanilla treat in her mouth with a smirk.
