❝Embarking on a new life is like stepping onto a blank canvas; with every stroke of courage and curiosity, we paint the masterpiece of our journey.❞
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The sky is incredibly gloomy despite it being a very exciting day for her. The ash color clouds and dimly lit natural lighting weren't matching her mood. The passing cars were vibrant, but not as vibrant as they would've been had the sun been shining bright into the sky rather than hiding behind the clouds. On top of everything else, it was raining. The sound of light rainfall hitting the car reminded her of the days she would sit in her childhood room, sketching the scenery. Even though it was extremely gray and gloomy, her smile rests upon her lips.
Her gray noise canceling headphones are on her head as she sits in the passenger seat, quietly listening to her Rainy Days playlist. Aurelia drowns herself in music on days like this. Sometimes, the music helps her determine how she feels for the day, and on good days, it gets her creative juices running for another painting she wants to finish. That's one of many of her goals this year. Finish all the unfinished canvas tucked away in the trunk of her mother's car.
A tap on her shoulder causes her to pull her headphone off and turn around in her seat. "Yes?"
"I wish you look a bit sad," Her mother tells her, wiping the tears under her eyes carefully so she wouldn't ruin her makeup she spent hours on before they left the house. "You're going to be leaving us for months, but you're sitting comfortably."
"I am comfortable." She says, making her momma hit her shoulder.
"Ouch!"
"Sean! Do you hear how she's talking to me!" Her mother says dramatically, pushing her father's shoulder from the backseat as he drives.
"I heard her, babe." he laughs before glancing over at his daughter with a smile before shaking his head.
Aurelia laughs quietly, covering her face so her momma won't notice that they're laughing at her.
"She has never lived without us before! How can she sit comfortably right now!" Her momma expresses as she sniffles softly.
Rolling her eyes, Aurelia pulls her headphones back on, listening to one of many of her favorite songs. Her mother is being really dramatic. She's behaving as if Aurelia will never return home ever again. This is her first year at, one of her top picks for college. Shouldn't her momma be happy that she decided to enter the tough world of arts? Maybe she's concerned that she won't make it far with it. The art world is hard, especially when she wants to showcase her unique paintings to the world. Sure, every artist is unique, but eventually they all blend together. But she refuses to blend when it comes to her artwork. Aurelia is shooting to stand out.
"Aurelia!" She hears her mother say her name loudly.
"Momma!" She says back, pulling her headphones off once again. "Can we please not do this? You knew I was leaving today, why are you crying like this?"
"My only child is leaving me and you want me to be happy?" Her mother sniffles. "That's cruel."
"Yes," Aurelia sighs. "I want you to be happy for me."
"Honey," her father backs her up. "College is an exciting milestone! We should be glad she wanted to go to college. Imagine if she decided to work a random nine to five for the rest of her life and not do what she loves to do? That would be more heartbreaking than her moving into a dorm room."
Aurelia holds her father's hand, gracing him with one of very few toothy smiles that she does. Looking back at her momma one last time, she holds her hand out. As her mother squeezes her hand, she smiles warmly. "Please stop crying. Let's make this a very happy moment. Okay?"
Her mother fans her eyes before nodding her head. Aurelia laughs quietly as she turns around, pulling her headphones back over her ears.
She never expected her mother to cry so much. Her mother, Lauren, spent most of her time at the hospital. Even then, Aurelia understood that her mother was important, being the head doctor. Although her job is important, Aurelia saw her less than she saw her father. Her father, DeSean, worked as a tenth grade biology teacher, and he was home more. Therefore, they spent more time together. Now that she thinks about it, that's probably why her mother's so emotional.
To her, it must seem like time flew so fast. Her baby, Aurelia, is no longer her baby but a new adult. A new adult that's off to college.
Aurelia dreams of having her art work displayed in her very own art gallery. Her passion for creating unique works and understanding the history behind all works of art in the world grew over the years. When she was nine, she remembered seeing The Son of Man by René Magritte in a cartoon she was watching. Of course the cartoon was one of those educational ones, where every episode focused on something different. It was all she had to watch since her parents never really showed her anything else, but the picture looked so peculiar to her, and she just couldn't take her eyes off. Her father used to tell her that's when she really started loving art, but it was a bit later that she really became serious about it.
Aurelia was about eleven when she started drawing with her number two pencil and notebook paper. Starting with lines and circles, seeing how she could make them look different each time. She kept doing that for hours a day, after homework and chores. When her art teacher, at school, gave her class paint and a blank canvas, Aurelia just fell in love.
Her emotions would just travel through the wooden handle, and pours out through the bristle of the paint brush. When she finally realized she was down, her art teacher's face looked so shocked and surprised.
"This is honestly so beautiful," her art teacher uttered to her. "I'm so shocked by your details. It's like I can feel what you feel. Excited. Passionate."
Aurelia remembered being so surprised that her art teacher knew how she felt. She understood her art piece. Her words sent waves through her heart. It gave her enough confirmation that she wanted to do art for a living. She alway envisioned herself as another Picasso, but of course, that's just her dreaming unrealistically. Again. It's not a crime to fantasize about it though. The dream isn't impossible.
Aurelia looks down at her phone and smiles when she sees a message from the group chat that she and some of her closest friends set up before they all went their separate ways to different colleges. Sabrina, the oldest—oldest by five months—got into Harvard, and her journey to be a neurosurgeon. Aurelia and the rest of the friend group wasn't surprised since she always had the best grades and studied a lot more. Cameron decided to go to a university out of state as well. He decided to go down the language branch, study different languages. He was never good in the math classes, but he excelled everywhere else.
They were sending messages, asking Aurelia if she made it to the campus yet. Smiling ear to ear, she looks up from her phone, getting excited as the car pulls into the crowded neighborhood with student housing, which isn't that far from the main campus. She gives them a quick response before pulling her headphones off and looking at the small house that seems to be two-story.
"Did they give you your roommate's name?" Her father asked her as she put her phone in the front part of her overalls and her headphones in her bag.
"Uh," Aurelia nods her head. "Their name is Jackie. They told me I got pulled from the waitlist, so I got chosen for student housing. My roommate is a year older. I think they're in their second year?."
"Are they a boy?"
Aurelia rolls her eyes and sighs before opening the passenger door. "Yes, I took the survey and said I wanted a boy for my roommate, so they paired me with one."
Her father playfully pushes her making her push him back while laughing.
"Stop the shenanigans and go open the door." Her mother scolds them both while taking one of two of Aurelia's luggage from the trunk of the truck.
"Hold on, momma." She tells her as she looks around to see a few other people in the neighborhood moving in. "I have to call my roommate to see if she's inside."
Just as she finds the contact, a car playing loud music pulls up right behind her mother's truck. Her parents shared a perplexed look, but she took the courage to approach the car. As she approaches, four people get out. Three girls and one guy.
The guy was tall, but not taller than her dad. He was wearing a gray hoodie, with university on the front, and jeans; a standard college guy outfit. He was tan, not an orange tan, but a light bronze tan. His hair was as dark as his eyes, giving him a very intimidating aura. Once they meet gazes, Aurelia carefully turns her eyes to the other three girls.
"Aurelia!" Jackie smiles and hugs Aurelia tightly, making her stiff a bit at the sudden hug.
"I'm Jackie! Your roommate for the year!" Jackie greets before turning around to properly greet Aurelia's parents.
"I'm Genesis and this is Abby, we're Jackie's friends." Aurelia nods her head politely, but smiles awkwardly.
"Nice to meet you." Aurelia looks at her parents and Jackie before the older girl turns towards her.
"Let me show you the place," Jackie finally looks at her. "Babe, can you show her parents around downstairs?"
"Oh-" her parents said at the same time before laughing a bit, but they were just as confused as Aurelia.
"We're fine. Aurelia will be the one living here, so she should know the layout." Aurelia's mother tells her before holding onto her father's arm.
Jackie nods her head and pulls Aurelia towards the steps up to the door. She hands her a key to the dorm, and smiles before unlocking it. Inside the dorm, at least on the first floor, was really clean. The kitchen, dining, and small living area was all very clean. So far, Aurelia wasn't regretting accepting Jackie as her roommate.
"So basically, this is our closet," Jackie points to the door on the left the moment they walk into the home. "You can put your coat and jackets here. You can also store your umbrella and other stuff like that in here."
Aurelia noticed how weirdly friendly she is, but it could be that she's just happy to have a roommate. Jackie grabs her hand and leads her upstairs since the bottom floor was an open concept. Everything could be seen without having to look around fully. She probably does all that on her own.
"Here's the bathroom," she smiles and pushes the door open the moment she sets foot on the last step. "Our room is right here."
Aurelia looks around the bathroom, nodding her head slightly before following Jackie to the bedroom that's small. It wasn't too small. There's enough walking space, and there's a small desk for each side of the room. Jackie walks over to the closet, pulling the doors open.
"The space is pretty big. You get the right side of the closet and the right side of the room." Jackie smiles. "And we're done. I hope you enjoy your time here!"
Aurelia smiles and nods her head. "Thank you for the quick tour, you seem busy."
Jackie crosses her arms and giggles. "Yeah, I almost forgot about you. We were at this small event for freshmen. When you are done settling in, maybe you should head to the main campus after."
Aurelia laughs a bit and nods. "We'll see. Thank you for the tour."
"Of course!" Jackie says walking out of the room with a smile.
Naturally, she followed behind her, meeting her parents back at the truck while Jackie walked to the car she came in with her friends.
"Remember what I said, good luck settling in!"
As the group leaves, Aurelia smiles genuinely at her parents, despite their concerned expressions. Her mother looks like she is on the verge of tears, but of course, before that happens, Aurelia grips her luggage and her mother's hand.
"Come on, help me." She laughs, that excitement never leaving her face as she leads her mother to the room upstairs.
"Aurelia," her mother's voice cracks. "Are you sure this is what you want? That girl seems very wild. Nothing like you."
Aurelia tilts her head as she sits her luggage by the ladder of the loft bed. She turns to her mother and crosses her arms. Her mother is right. Jackie is the total opposite of her, but she's sure the girl is like that because she was in a rush to get back to her friends. Besides, she didn't mind the idea of only seeing the girl occasionally. She is the type that likes to stick to herself, unless it's with her closest friends.
"Roommates aren't supposed to be exactly like me, momma." She explains with a reassuring smile.
"Yeah. Well, she could at least have the decency to help you settle in some more."
"Momma." Aurelia sighs and starts to dig in the bag her mother brought up with her.
Inside were cleaning wipes, so she could wipe down the desk and the railing of the bed. Aurelia just wanted to be sure everything was clean before she started putting her stuff away. As her mother and father help her situate everything, Aurelia couldn't stop thinking about the information she was given about the event they were holding for freshmen. Though it sounded exciting, it wasn't really her kind of thing. Parties scared her. Even when Cameron dragged her and Sabrina to one every other weekend.
She remembered at one of the mystery parties Cameron dragged them to an older guy repeatedly tried to make passes at her. Aurelia tried her best not to sound too dismissive or reject him nicely. The man didn't leave her alone until Cameron protected her by pretending to be her boyfriend. However, the way Jackie spoke about the event, it's obvious a campus thing they do with freshmen every year, so maybe she should go.
"Look at her," her father murmurs to her mother. "It's like she's all grown up."
Aurelia turns around to look at her parents, smiling sadly.
"It's time for us to go." Her father smiles and kisses the top of her head. "Make sure you call us every other day."
"No! Everyday!" Her mother hits his arm before kissing Aurelia on the cheek.
Aurelia follows her parents back to the truck, kissing them both on the cheek as a last goodbye. Of course, she would see them again, but it was time to live on her own, spend her new left, her new journey at the school of her dreams. Grabbing her bright yellow easel, she waves to her parents as they drive away, down the same road they came into the neighborhood. Smiling down at her easel, Aurelia turns around on her heels and begins to walk back to the house, closing the doors right behind her.
The girl carefully makes her way up the concrete stairs pushing the front door open and closing it with her foot. Aurelia walks over to a generally empty spot in the living area to set her easel up. Once everything is perfectly set up, she pulls her phone out of her pocket and facetime her best friends. After a few seconds of waiting, they both answer, almost at the same time.
"How is it?" Sabrina asks right away, making Aurelia laugh.
"Better than I expected."
"What about your roommate?" Cameron asks her as she takes a seat on the couch, sinking into the cushions. "Is she cool?"
"Yeah. She's different, but she does give off that party girl vibe. Kind of like a female version of you Cameron." Aurelia explains, pulling her attention to the ceiling as she talks to her friends.
Sabrina hums softly. "Do they have orientation?"
"That's not until tomorrow, but..." Aurelia looks at her screen seeing that both of her friends seem very busy on their end, especially Sabrina.
"But?" Cameron repeats, looking down at the camera. It seems like he is driving somewhere.
"But Jackie, my roommate, said they do a big event for freshmen and I should come." Aurelia didn't seem very convinced, and she definitely didn't know if she should go since she's socially awkward and can't hold a conversation for more than ten minutes before going to short single-word answers.
"First day of that college girl life and you already saying no to a way of making other friends besides us." Cameron shakes his head while Sabrina rolls her eyes.
"Just ignore his annoying ass," Sabrina laughs. "If you don't want to go, you don't have to, Relia."
Aurelia shrugs and sighs.
She honestly was still debating, but it wouldn't hurt to just look around, get a sense of the people, maybe talk to other freshmen that could possibly live nearby or taking the same classes. Cameron was somewhat right, she should definitely try to use this event to connect with some new people. Aurelia loves her friends dearly, but maybe having friends in the present would help her feel less intimidated by the simple fact that she will be alone. Chasing her dreams.
"Fine." Aurelia sighs again.
"Yes!" Cameron cheers. "Our baby is growing up, Brina!"
Sabrina shakes her head and laughs softly. "I see. Tell us how it goes. Okay?"
Aurelia nods before ending the call with her friends. She walks up the stairs, deciding to freshen up just a little bit. She didn't want to change into other clothes, she just wanted to make sure she looks decent enough to blend in the crowd rather than stand out. She was only going to have some conversation, or possibly meet new people.
Of course she just hopes it goes well.
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