They'll Think It's Just Cause We're Young

It was nearing two in the morning when Breanne finally arrived at her destination. After driving the twenty three hour drive from Atlanta to North Dakota, all the college freshman wanted to do was find her dorm and fall asleep. But she should have known it wouldn't be that easy. No, nothing in Breanne Miller's life was never simple.

The dorm number scribbled down on the piece of paper that she held in her feminine hand was printed sloppily on the dry erase board on the door. It was the middle of night but in true Breanne fashion, she had already lost her student ID. Nervously, she tapped her manicured fingers on her jean clad leg, trying desperately to think of a solution. Taking in a deep breath, she raised her knuckles to the door and knocked lightly, knowing she was about to wake her future dorm mate.

It was only a few seconds before the doorknob made a clicking nose, and the door creaked open. Breanne's blue eyes met the shirtless chest of a towering man. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand while he yawned. She took in his appearance. He had to be at least six foot six, blue eyes and short brown hair. When he cleared his throat and gave the mystery girl a questioning glance, she felt herself snap back into reality.

"Oh, um,” she stuttered out, looking down at the small piece of paper to confirm the number once again, just incase the numbers had magically rewrote themselves in the past minute. As she looked back up at him, he was looking the average sized girl up and down. A blushed instantly rose to her cheeks though she was mildly disgusted by the action.

“I was given this dorm number, but this must be wrong,” Breanne mumbled, knowing her older brother would throw a fit if the school put her in even the same building as men. He looked back into the room, and gave a shooing motion to someone inside the room. Turning back, he gave her a wide, grin, and she couldn't help but to be repulsed by the sleaziness of his smile.

“You’re right, I already have a roommate, but you’re welcome to stay the night if you want. I’m sure he won’t mind,” the handsome student said to Breanne while shooting her a suggestive look. She inwardly groaned, and shook her head, her eyes dropping to her feet.

“No thanks.” It came out of her mouth bitchier than she had intended, but it didn’t matter, as her feet were already carrying her down the long hall, with doors on each sides of her. Upon hearing the door shut behind her, Breanne let out a sigh.

She wasn't quite sure what she was going to do next. The idea of calling her brother crossed her mind but she pushed that away rather quickly. She didn't want to disrupt him. He made it known that he had his first practice early in the morning and that he would call his sister afterwards. Though Breanne knew he would understand the circumstances, she decided against that.

Instead, she went site seeing around the new town she would be calling home. There wasn't much to see but Breanne wanted to spend some time outside before the North Dakota chill took over.

The late summer night was warm, but a small breeze swept across Breanne's bare legs as she used her phone as a flashlight, stepping over tree roots. The sound of moving water caught her attention as she gracefully made her way through the dim lit woods. The sun was finally rising behind the trees, providing little light.

Finally spotting the stream, Breanne was more focused on a large rock that was half covered in deep green moss. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she perched herself on top of the boulder. Her body began to relax as her ears were filled with the beautiful sound of the water with the occasional snap of a branch in the distance.

It wasn't long after that Breanne made her way back to the campus. She felt lost as a few early birds walked around the large campus. Eventually, she found the building she was looking for.

Thankfully, a woman sat behind the desk, her squinted eyes boring blankly into the computer screen before her. Breanne cleared her throat after a minute, causing the woman's tired eyes to look up at her instantaneously. After a judgmental once over, the employees eyes finally connected with Breanne's.

“Um, hi, I must have written down the wrong dorm number; there were two guys already in it." She sighed deeply, letting her annoyance shine through and nodded. Breanne took this time to speak up again. "I also lost my student ID."

“Name?” She questioned dryly, showing her lack of amusement in the irresponsible student.

“Breanne Miller. Breanne with an E, not an I.” The woman didn’t say anything. The only sound that could be heard in the small office space was the rapid typing as she moved her fingers rhythmically across the keyboard.

"You're in Squires," she spoke after a long silence, catching Breanne off guard. "And you're going to have to wait while I print you a new identification card," she informed Breanne who simply shrugged before showing the woman her Georgia driver's license.

It wasn't much of a wait before the woman with fiery red hair handed Breanne her shiny new ID.

"Thanks so much," she started, but the woman was already lost once again in her computer screen. With a purse of her lips, Breanne turned on her heel, floating towards the door.

The building wasn't too hard to find. She flashed her student card under the electronic lock causing the door to click open. The lobby was decorated in every color of the rainbow.

Breanne counted the numbers as she passed each door until she finally arrived at the one she was searching for. Lynette was written in loopy purple letters on a dry erase board.

When Breanne entered her dorm room, her roommate was sitting on the bed to the left, typing away on her laptop. Peeking up, her dark brown eyes looked up from the screen and she shot a dazzling smile at her soon to be friend.

"You must be Breanne," she spoke, standing from her bed. "I'm Lynette," she introduced herself, pulling Breanne into a friendly, but constricting hug before she could even set her two bags down.

"You can call me Bre," she said with a smile once her roommate released her, "it's nice to finally meet you!"

Breanne soon learned that Lynette hailed from Winnepeg. She had arrived on campus yesterday afternoon and already made friends with the girls who lived across the hall. She assured that Breanne would like them but they were already at their first classes. Breanne laughed, thankful she didn't start classes until the next day.

After what seemed to be only a few short minutes but in reality was almost two hours, Breanne's phone began to ring.

"Hey," she spoke into the phone, feeling relieved to finally hear from her brother.

"Hey Bre, you make it okay?" Brad asked over the sounds of multiple loud conversations.

"Yeah, I'm in my dorm now," she answered, noticing her roommate was eavesdropping without bothering to keep it a secret. She smiled at her new friend. "What're you doing?" She asked, curious of what all the noise was surrounding her older brother.

"I just got to the locker room. I'll give you a call tonight and we'll grab dinner or something."

"Sounds good. I'll talk to you soon, Bradley," she finished, but rolled her eyes when she realized he had already hung up. She tossed her phone onto the bed Lynette had decided was hers before turning to see her smirking friend. Breanne raised her eyebrows at the girl, who had a smile creeping onto her soft features.

"Who was that?" Lynette asked bluntly, "your boyfriend?" She sang, wiggling her pampered eyebrows. Breanne pursed her lips, forming a disgusted face.

"No," she scoffed, "my brother." Lynette's eyes went blank for moment as the gears in her brain began to turn. Suddenly, her face lit up.

"Your brother is Brad Miller?" She asked. Breanne almost sighed. It wasn't unusual for girls to pretend to be friends with her in order to get closer to her brother. Upon seeing Breanne's rejected body language, Lynette continued. "I met him in the food line yesterday. He seems really cool."

Breanne felt the smile pull at the corners of her lips. Maybe being a college freshman wouldn't be so bad after all.

;;

Breanne tugged on a long sleeve Atlanta Thrashers shirt. Lynnette had poked fun of her roommate second she saw it, but easily complimented her ripped skinny jeans. Breanne rolled her blue eyes, and walked down that same hall that she mistakenly gone to the night before. The door across from one seventy four was the one her brother told her he would be in. The door was open, and she didn’t even have to announce that had arrived before Brad noticed his baby sister. The three other boys sitting in the room, playing a video game on the huge screen TV that Brad got for Christmas automatically took notice in the female's presence and looked her up and down. Brad quickly pushed his sister out of the room and closed the door behind him at their groans of displeasure and protests before they could get a better look. Breanne gave him a questioning look, but he chose to simply ignored it.

“So, how’s your first day at UND?” He asked, a cheeky smile stretching across his lips as they entered the elevator. She smiled back.

“It’s good. I heard you’ve met my roommate already?” Breanne raised her eyebrow with a smirk fixed upon her glossed lips. “You know, Brad, it’s not socially acceptable to hunt poor freshman girls at breakfast." He instantly blushed.

“Lynnette?” He asked, and flushed even deeper when she nodded to confirm his curiosity. “She’s cute.” He admitted, the pink finally fading from his cheeks. The girl smiled widely, thinking of all the good things that could come out of this as they stepped out of the elevator and to the front doors.

As the two were stepping out the doors, a boy was walking through the other set of double doors. His eyes connected with Breanne's, and he sent her a cute smile. She bit down roughly on her bottom lip and tried her best to hold back a blush, but she knew that failed horribly when he gave her a wink and continued walking. Breanne looked back to Brad, who was leading her through the open door, and talking about something that happened to him in class today, but his sister was completely tuning him out. She mentally thanked her lucky stars that Brad didn’t see that little exchange between the mystery boy and herself. Knowing her brother, he would have made it into something bigger than it really was. He always did.

But as the pair stepped off of the bottom step of the wide concrete staircase, he stopped her and put his hands on her shoulders. His face held every ounce of serious that Brad could muster. His eyes spoke for themselves as he looked into hers. "Breanne, you need to stay away from TJ Oshie at all costs, do you hear me?” All though she had no idea what or who he was talking about, Breanne nodded, mostly to satisfy him. He ignored her questions about who he meant and why, and started talking about what their mother said to him on the phone earlier that day. With a defeated sigh, she shut up and continued to walk beside him.

“Breanne, you need to stay away from TJ Oshie at all costs, do you hear me?”