You Found Me

“All set, honey?” Dad asked from his standing place next to my dresser in my dorm room. He was still holding the box of my pictures to put up on my desk in his hands, and he looked like he wanted nothing more to hold onto it for the rest of his life. Just like he wished he could do with me.

“Yeah, I’m good. I just have to put my clothes away.” I was kind of glad that my roommate had stepped out to get coffee because I could already feel the tears starting to pool in my eyes. What a wonderful first impression that would make.

“God, I can’t believe it,” Dad mumbled under his breath, his misty eyes surveying the room before landing back on me. “My little baby’s going off to college.”

“Dad, please don’t start,” I chuckled, but my laugh sounded forced and awkward. “You’re making this harder.”

“I’m sorry. I just…God, the house is going to be so lonely without you.”

I wanted to make a snarky remark about how he should get a dog or something to keep him company, but my voice refused to move around the massive lump of emotion lodged in my throat. So instead, I rushed across the room and crashed into him, throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face into his shoulder.

His breathing got ragged as his grip closed around my back, and I could tell he was doing everything he could to keep from crying. “You can call anytime, okay?” he asked in a strained voice. “I’m only an hour away. I can be here in no time if you need me. And call any time of day. I don’t care if you have a nightmare at three thirty in the morning. I’ll answer.”

That was it. Hearing my dad beg me to call him was enough to make me slip off the cliff and plummet into the deep end. The tears ran freely onto Dad’s light gray t-shirt, creating a wet spot that he had no prayer of hiding.

“I’ll call,” I promised as I tried to regain my composure, pulling away from him and using the sleeve of my light sweatshirt to wipe off my damp face. “I’ll call tonight, right before I go to sleep. Just to say goodnight.”

Dad leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I’ll answer. Now go mingle with people. Don’t you dare stay in your dorm room alone when you’re in the middle of New York City.”

“I won’t,” I promised. “Bye, Dad.”

“Bye, Leigh. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

There was another fast hug, this one without the emotional roller coaster, and then he was gone.

After the door shut softly behind him, I wiped my eyes again and went back to my stuff. I had to unpack. Unpacking would direct my attention on something that wasn’t how homesick I felt already, how real it felt once my dad had left.

And it would keep me from thinking about Harry.

Although it had been nearly a month and a half since I’d ended it with him, he still plagued almost my every thought. At the beginning, it had been harder to push him out of my mind. It got easier over time. Not easy, but…easier.

All too soon, my stuff was put into my drawers, my pictures were put up on my desk, and my bed was made. When I looked over at my friends and family, bright, shining faces grinned back at me. I wanted to feel like them.

But instead, I climbed onto my bed, which was about ten feet above the ground (okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration), and stared out the window at the city.

The view was incredible, with all the yellow taxis and bright clothes of people sticking out against the dark colors of the pavement and buildings. The city was bustling, moving, flowing and growing with the times.

I wanted to do the same.

Just as I started to wonder seriously if I should go out and explore, even if I were by myself, the door opened, and my roommate poured in.

She was tall, much taller than me naturally, yet she still wore a pair of red heels that made her soar even higher. Her outfit was perfectly coordinated, her red blazer a sharp contrast to her black tank top and skirt, and her hair was done back in a tight bun, not a strand out of place.

I instantly felt like we weren’t going to be very good matches for one another. In my sweat shorts, light blue t-shirt, and thin black sweatshirt, we were as opposite as could be. Not to mention the state of disaster my hair was in after carrying my suitcases and bags into the room.

“Hi,” she greeted kindly with a small smile. “I didn’t know if you wanted coffee, so I was going to text you, but then I remembered we didn’t get each other’s numbers. So…I didn’t.”

“It’s okay, I’m good,” I laughed. “You want to fix that now?”

She nodded, so I reached over and handed over my phone. Instead of reaching for it, she gave me a sassy look. “Ain’t no way I’m reaching for that,” she told me in a ghetto voice, bobbing her head back and forth.

The imitation was the absolute last thing I expected, and I couldn’t help but snort with laughter. Soon, I heard her light chuckle mix in with mine.

“We’re going to get along well, I think,” I anticipated as I hopped off the bed. The bottoms of my feet stung from the hard impact against the linoleum, but I made no indication to it as I walked over to the girl and handed her my phone. “I’m Leigh, by the way.”

“Diana,” she replied distractedly as she programmed in her number.

“Where are you from?”

“I lived in Rhode Island most of my life, but my family now lives just south of Boston. What about you?”

“Connecticut,” I replied shortly.

She tossed my phone back to me, which I caught with ease, before pulling her own cell out of her huge red bag. “Text me so I’ll have your number.”

I did as she directed, and she got my message within seconds. “Really? Just ‘hi’? You couldn’t have done anything more original?”

I bit my lip for a second before sending her a better thought-out text. Bernardo the monkey sleeps in the West Wing.

She got a massive grin on her face as she started to laugh. “That sounds like a code or something. The eagle flies at midnight.”

“It’ll be our code. Like if we see a celebrity or something.”

“Okay. So if I see Tyra Banks walking down the street, I’m going to scream that at you.”

“You like Tyra?” I gasped, eyes wide open. “Do you watch America’s Next Top Model?”

“Of course I do,” she scoffed. “And Tyra is just flawless.”

“Who’s your favorite?”

She paused for a second. “Well, I really like Ann, the one who they always showed the picture of with that sandwich? And Allison was incredible, too, and I loved Alisha from the British Cycle. She always used to make this face-”

“Where her eyes popped out of her head!” I finished with a loud laugh. “Oh my God, I loved her so much.”

“Yes!” Diana exclaimed before chuckling again.

“Alright, this is fantastic. We’ve just bonded. And I think this means that we’re going to get along.” For the first time in months, the smile on my face felt very permanent and very real. “I have an idea. We should go out for dinner, and we can continue finding out things that we have in common.”

“That sounds perfect.” She started to walk again toward the door, her heels making loud clacking noises against the near-empty room. “I found this little restaurant about a block away. It looked really good.”

Without another word or getting dressed into more appropriate clothes, or at least clothes that made me look a little more professional like she did, I hurried after her, stuffing my phone into my pocket.