"Yikes" I say, flopping onto my newly made bed. I turn my head to look at my best friend, Izadora, who is sitting on her own bed, separated by a small dresser next to mine. "What a day."
"Tell me about it," Iz sighs. "But we've done it, Ray! We're officially college girls!"
It is the start of our freshman year at the University of Oregon, and we have just finished moving all of our stuff into our new apartment. This is our dream, living together and attending the same college. Ever since we were children Iz and I have been best friends, and she keeps me wild and adventurous when I desperately need it. There's no way I would have agreed to this living situation without her.
I let out a snort. "Sure we are. We're sharing rent with three other guys, all broke sophomores who need the extra money, two of whom we've never even met. For all we know there could be a serial killer sleeping across the hall from us."
"Pah," Iz waves her hand in in the air, shooing away my negativity. "They're perfectly nice. I know Kyle's mom, she's close with my own, and she said these three have been best friends throughout childhood and are all great. Honestly, we're probably gonna be terrible influences on them."
I laugh. "You've got that right." Iz and I have a tendency to get carried away when we're together. Eighteen years and we still haven't figured out if it's a bad thing.
My stomach rumbles and I get the sudden urge to consume pizza. Today has been a day of change, and if I'm being honest it's been rather nerve-racking, but surely pizza has stayed the same even if the rest of my life and routine may never be. "I think ima order a pizza."
"How could you order a pizza right now? Aren't you gonna come to that party tonight?"
I look at her with pleading eyes. "Enough has already happened today. I just wanna curl up with a pizza and read a book. No more, I might break apart into itty bitty pieces."
Her eyes widen. "Well I'll be damned if I'm the one stuck cleaning you up."
I gasp in mock hurt. "Now I really need comfort food. Even my best friend has turned on me!"
Iz swings her feet off her bed and stands up, snatching my hand and pulling me out into the main room.
"Fine, loser. I'm sure there's a pizza place around here somewhere," She heads for the door.
"No!" I gasp, tearing my hand away and sinking to the floor. "Must... do... deliveries...social interaction will... kill me..." I grab my heart and pretend that my body reflects my crumbling willpower to continue breathing.
The door suddenly opens and Kyle steps through. We've met Kyle multiple times, to make sure the apartment actually exists and to get the keys so we could move in today. He's the only one of the three that we have actually met (i.e. probably not a serial killer). All of them had to work today, so me and Iz got permission to let ourselves in and unpack.
Kyle has a classic handsomeness about him. He has brown hair and eyes, with straight white teeth and an easy smile. He works at a nearby shoe store, and is currently wearing his work uniform, which is just a black T-shirt with the company's logo on it. He is tall and fit, and plays multiple sports for the University of Oregon, which is where we all go and is only a ten minute walk away. As far as I can tell, he's good natured, funny, and nice. He seems like the kind of guy who always looks on the bright side and would be a really caring and involved boyfriend.
His eyebrows raise when he beholds me splayed on the ground. "Oh my. I wasn't told my new roommate is prone to dramatic fainting. It might be a dealbreaker."
Iz snorts. "Please. You'd be so lucky to break her gorgeous ass from fainting."
"Might not be so gorgeous if she's falling all the time. More likely bruised."
I feel my face flush and I scramble to my feet. "As much as I love debating the potential state of my ass, maybe we could start over? I'd prefer to begin on a better note."
Kyle laughs, then says, "we can have a do-over." He steps back through the door and shuts it once again.
Iz turns to me immediately, giggling like a fiend, and whispers urgently, "strip!! Right now, before he opens the door, just straight up get naked and start dancing like crazy! Actually no, lay on the floor again but be all sexy, oh my gosh imagine his face!" She starts tugging on my clothes, giggling like a maniac, partly disabled by the laughter taking over her whole body.
Kyle opens the door again, yelling excitedly, "roomies!!" He stops in his tracks and takes in the sight of Iz grabbing at my clothes, still laughing hysterically, and let's out a low whistle. "Why hello new roomies," he sings, pretending to check us out.
I push Iz away from me, laughing at Kyle. "I'm gonna order a pizza. Want one?"
He shakes his head, slinging his jacket on the rack next to the door. "After you do that, I can give you both the official tour."
I pull out my phone and walk back into my new room, quickly looking up the nearest pizza place that does deliveries and clicking on the number.
"This is Eugene's Pizza House, how can I help you?" A deep, husky voice answers. It sounds distinctly masculine and slightly bored.
"Um hi, you make deliveries right?"
"Uh-huh."
"Great, I'd like a pepperoni pizza to be delivered to apartment number 97 in SW Pinegrove Apartment Complex?"
"Really?" The guy's voice sounds surprised.
"Um...yeah?" I mean, pepperoni pizza is pretty generic, you'd think it'd come as less of a shock.
"Uh, sorry, sure. You want breadsticks with that?"
"No thanks, just the pizza. How long should the wait be?" I stall, laying down on my bed and fiddling with a strand of my long wavy hair. In truth, I wouldn't mind hearing his melodic voice again, which is silly, because we're talking about the most mundane thing. Hell, it's not even a real talk, he's being payed to participate after all.
"About 20 minutes. That okay?" I briefly wonder if he talks to everyone who calls with the same sort of normalcy, almost like we've known each other longer than we really have.
"That's perfect, thanks."
"No problem."
"Alright, love you, bye."
"Love you... too?"
Oh shit. I gasp and clamp a hand over my mouth, cursing myself for speaking out of reflex. That's what I get for usually only calling Iz or my parents. He must really think I'm crazy. The line is silent for awhile, but I can tell he's still there.
"I hope you don't expect a discount just because we've confessed our undying love for each other," he says in an amused voice before ending the call. For some reason I feel like he was smiling.
For some reason, so am I.
#####
"Oh my gosh Iz the worst thing just happened to me," I exclaim, stepping out of my room. "This is a whole new level of stupidity! Where are you?"
"Kitchen!" She yells.
I shuffle over to her as fast as I can, finding her sitting at the kitchen island looking at her phone.
She looks up at me and says, "Kyle's changing, then he's going to give us the tour and stuff. I personally wanna wait for the other guys to get off work before he shows us around so it's not awkward when we make ourselves at home, but— what's wrong?"
"Izadora," I start, using her full name so she knows I'm serious. "I have made a complete fool of myself and you are going to love this story."
After recounting the past five minutes to Iz and suffering through her terrible teasing and laughter, Kyle walks into the main room of the apartment.
"Okay, tonight let's get to know each other better and play a game or something, and we can wait for the tour until Ferris and Jackie get home. Should be like an hour," he says.
Iz and I agree, and Kyle pulls out a deck of cards to pass the time. After several hands of speed, there's a knock on the door.
Iz immediately starts giggling, "what if it's the same guy?"
I scowl. "It will not be the same guy, they probably separate the deliveries and phone-people. Calm down."
I walk over to the door and pause outside of it, listening to the irrationally loud drum of my heart. While mentally reassuring myself that it likely will not be the same guy with the deep voice and quick humor, I assess how I must look.
I have on blue-gray lounge shorts and a form fitting black top that shows just a sliver of skin from the hemline to the top of my shorts. My hair is in a loose messy bun on the top of my head, and I have on a little mascara. My feet are bare, and my natural tan shows on my toned legs.
It could be worse.
I let out a deep breath and remind myself that pretty soon I will be eating a hot pizza and drowning my sorrows in delicious grease.
I square my shoulders and open the door.