Ice Cold

01

I shook my head at him, going toward the door.

"Take care of it yourself," I said before leaving the room to go to the shower.

James and I didn't have sex often. It only happened a few times, but he was the first guy I had ever been with. I had a feeling about my sexuality for a long time, especially when I was suspecting my brother, Fox, was not straight. But it wasn't until I got to college, and got with James, that I knew for sure.

I quickly washed myself in the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist as I headed back to the dorm room. When I got in there, Stella was standing over James's bed and hitting him with my pillow.

Stella was one of the first people I met at Brown, aside from James. They were the only two people I could spend a lot of time with here. Everyone else I could only take in small doses.

Without saying a word, I shut the door and opened up my closet before quickly changing into some new clothes. Stella paused from hitting James to turn and look at me as I buttoned my pants.

"Are you ready to go get some food or what?" she asked me with her eyebrows raised, pillow held up in the air.

"I guess," I told her, throwing on a shirt after putting some deodorant on then closing my closet door. "But I have class in, like, half an hour."

"Let's go," she said, throwing the pillow back onto my bed. "He says he's skipping today."

I shook my head at James as he rolled over to face the wall. We were only two weeks into the fall semester and he was already skipping classes. I wasn't going to tell him how irresponsible it was of him, but he would soon be staying up all hours of the night trying to catch up just like he had done the year before.

Stella and I left the dorms, walking down the brick pathway toward the closest dining hall.

"So what's the plan for this weekend?" Stella asked, her short legs moving fast to keep up with me.

I shrugged. "I might go home."

Stella let out a frustrated groan, looking at me with an irritated expression.

"That's lame!" she exclaimed. "We're on weekend number two and you're already going home?"

"My parents are going through heavy children withdrawals," I told her with a sigh.

She gave me a strange look. "Aren't your other siblings home?"

I shook my head. "My oldest brother is at UCLA, my older sister moved into an apartment with her school friends, and my younger brother is in his first year of college. They went from having four kids at home to two."

Mom and Dad had been blowing up my phone ever since I went off to school. They were probably doing it to the others as well, but it was most realistic that I would be able to go home.

Raven moved out over the summer. She wasn't far, but she was definitely enjoying the independence she never got since she commuted to college. Robin was too far away to come home, but it wasn't like he would even if he was closer. And Fox was in his first year and he was all alone in the city with his boyfriend, so we probably wouldn't see him for a while.

That left me getting their daily texts and questions asking me when I would be home next.

"You'd think they'd be happy with all you guys finally leaving," Stella joked as we made it to the dining hall.

"They're definitely not," I said, opening the door for her.

The dining hall always smelled of the same greasy foods in the morning. It made me miss home more than I'd like to admit. The food here was no match for Dad's cooking.