Somewhere Else

Chapter 14: Where It All Started (i)

I imagine seeing Aksel again for the first time with someone else in tow, and instinctively grimace. "No," I say, "I think I would rather do it on my own."

Priscilla nods. "I get it. The offer still stands, though, if you change your mind."

I smile at her. "Thanks. It means a lot to me."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, Emi," Priscilla says, her puppy-dog expression hitting me hard. I wave it away and turn it into a joke.

"I should probably write it into an essay and submit it for that competition Elina was talking about," I say flippantly. I laugh at my own joke, but Priscilla sits up and bed with shining eyes.

"Oh, my God, Emi," she exclaims. "You should totally do that."

"Shit, I was joking." The idea of writing a whole essay and exposing my experiences with Aksel to the world is terrifying.

She ignores me. "You really should. It's a terrific idea."

"No," I say, trying to shake my head, even though I'm lying down and can't move it much. "Writing isn't really my thing."

Priscilla blows a rude raspberry. "Everyone can write."

"Not well," I correct her. "And I'm one of those who can't write well."

"What matters," says Priscilla, wagging a finger at me, "are the experiences you share. Not the quality of your writing."

"Why don't you write something? You could probably even do it in Finnish."

"My experiences aren't as interesting as yours, though. You've interacted with actual Finnish people. It would be more interesting to read about your experiences with them. Cultural misunderstandings, surprising similarities..." She trails off, and I look over to see an oddly wistful look on her face.

"Oh, come on," I say. "Your story is worth telling too. You moved halfway across the world – to a different hemisphere, no less! – to get to Finland. I would be interested in reading your story."

"Hm." Priscilla thinks that over for a moment, then unleashes her next spontaneous idea on me. "All right, then. Why don't we both write something and send them in? That's fair, isn't it? I'll do it if you will."

That sounds like a whole lot of work to me, so I demur. "We'll see."

"Emi!" Priscilla bounces on her mattress and glares at me. "Come on, it'll be fun! Let's do it."

"We'll see," I repeat, not budging on my stance.

Priscilla huffs. "Meanie," she mutters, then flops back onto her bed.

I laugh.

After a moment where we both stare at the ceiling in silence, I say, "For someone who was excited about having a roommate to do stuff with, you spend way too much time lying in bed."

Priscilla groans. "What about you? You're doing the exact same thing."

"I wasn't the one who said it would be exciting to live together."

"Hey!" When she sits up again to look over at me, her furrowed brow tells me that I've hurt her with my offhand comment.

I sit up as well. "I mean, don't get me wrong," I say, backtracking to take that look off her face. "I think it's cool that we're living together now. I was just saying that we spend too much of our time lying around."

"Okay," Priscilla seems to have made up her mind about something I'm not privy to. "Next weekend, we'll go to a party."

I blanch. "A party? What party?"

I have never been – and will never be – much of a party creature.

Priscilla shrugs sheepishly. "I don't know. But we'll find one. Zuzi probably knows all the parties in Helsinki – she loves these things."

"I don't," I say.

"Neither do I," Priscilla confides, then giggles. "But you wanted exciting, so we'll do exciting. It's too late to back out now."

Groaning, I collapse back onto the bed. "I regret saying anything now."

When I turn my face in her direction, I see Priscilla sticking out her tongue at me.

I'm about to say something pithy to her when my phone chimes. "Saved by the bell," I quip, even though I make no move to reach for it.

"I'm not scared of you," Priscilla calls in a sing-song voice. The bed creaks as she rolls to the edge and throws her feet down onto the wooden floor. "All right, enough lazing about, lazybones. It's time for homework."

I let out a longer, louder groan. "I swear, you're the only person I know who gets excited about homework."

Already out in the hallway, Priscilla corrects me in a muffled voice. "Not homework. Finnish homework. Only Finnish homework."

I give a snort of laughter and shake my head, even though she isn't here to see it. She must be the biggest Finnish fan I have ever met. Sometimes I envy her – she is in the country of her dreams, living the life she must have always wanted to live. In a way, even though she is still feeling her way around this foreign land and culture the same way the rest of us are, she has made it.

Sighing to myself, I scramble up from sprawled out position. Priscilla is right. There's still Finnish homework to be done. Elina makes us go around the class reading out our answer for certain questions – I don't want to be caught off guard.

Besides, Finnish homework has become easier, now that I have someone else with whom to suffer through it.

I swipe my phone off the bed and idly thumb through it. The notification that distracted me from Priscilla's party plans – saved by the bell, I'd said – was sitting on-screen.

Your things are still in the apartment.

I still, staring at the text. Almost absently, I read it again, and then a third time, before I let myself take a long breath.

It takes me just another moment of hesitation, before I'm opening the message and my fingers are moving without thought.

I need them back.

My laptop is still back there. I'm going to need it eventually – I've been going through apartment listings with Priscilla's laptop, but having my own again would be useful.

Besides, I need more of my clothes back. I hadn't packed too much on my way to Tatiana's – I had just wanted to be away as quickly as possible. Now that I'm back in Helsinki, it's a different story. I'm sick of wearing the same few things to class day after day.

Aksel must not have much to do tonight, because my phone chirps again, almost immediately.

Should I ship everything to your parents' address?

No, I text back before I can change my mind. My heart is in my mouth as I tap out the rest of the message. I'll pick them up on Saturday.

I hit 'send'.