Sarah!?!?

The door opens. She’s 5’8”, creamy dark mocha skin, plump lips with red lipstick, tight jeans with a jean jacket over a red tank top. Her hair has grown out since I last saw her, the black curly locks reaching past her shoulders.

It’s Sarah. How is it Sarah? She looks down at me, surprise and annoyance clear on her face. “What are you doing here? Where are your parents?”

“… I, I think I’m your roommate?” I can’t help it, it sounds ridiculous. The sheer size of this coincidence is too monumental to wrap my head around.

“Like hell you are. I’m talking to the housing office. Stay here, but don’t touch my stuff.” She pushes past me and heads down the hall toward the stairs. I step inside and place my trash bags full of friendship and emotional support on the empty bed. The room itself is pretty basic, two beds with drawers underneath for storage and two desks, each symmetrical in layout across the room and a window directly between the beds with a shared nightstand underneath. I open one of my bags up and stick my head inside to drown out my own thoughts with fluffy plushy calm. I probably shouldn’t be sticking my head in a plastic bag but those warnings are for children, I should be fine and I don’t want to fully unpack just for Sarah to get me moved.

Sarah. I’m an only child by birth, but then my parents decided to be good suburban role models and fostered a ‘troubled teen’. Which is how at 13 I became a younger sister to 16 year old Sarah. I didn’t really understand how she would feel about it at the time, I was just excited to have an older sister. She… did not like our family. I never really got the chance to ask how she ended up in the foster system. She quickly crushed my childhood dreams of sister sleepovers and games. At first I told myself she just needed time, there is no good way to find oneself in that situation after all so even without knowing the details I could guess she wasn’t feeling great about life. But day’s turned to weeks, and then months, and years… she left the house shortly after turning 19, and I hadn’t heard anything about her since. Not that this was a huge difference from the occasional dismissive comments she made when she was **** to acknowledge my existence.

With my head safely inside my plastic safety blanket, I rub my cheek against Kirlia, and wonder if I put her evolution Gardevoir in the same bag. Them together make a great sister pairing… but no. Maybe this is my chance to be real sisters! I’m not the same quiet 13 year old who couldn’t handle rejection. I’m 18 now! And some other things changed too… probably… maybe. We have tons to catch up on! Like… where has she been since leaving home? How did she get into college? What’s her favorite cartoon? Even though she doesn’t want to be roommates, we could still be friends… maybe she likes Pokémon. Maybe we have classes together! Wait, she probably isn’t a freshman… right? I have no idea if she’s been at college this whole time. I certainly didn’t hear anything about it.

The door slams open, scaring me. I jump up off the bed, my bagged head tossing the bag up and spreading my Pokémon plushies across the bed and onto the floor. Oh, there Gardevoir is. I look at Sarah in embarrassment, but can’t keep eye contact with her glowering at me so turn my eyes to the floor.

“There aren’t any other rooms available. You’re staying. Hurry up and get your stuff, don’t touch my stuff, and don’t talk to me beyond the basic necessities. Got it?” She sounds pissed.

I nod, my throat closing on my vocal cords due to some misplaced survival instinct to be as quiet as possible while trying to communicate. I scurry from the room and begin making trips from my car to bring everything up. After several treks up and down the stairs, I finally finish with my school supplies in my desk and my entire bed covered in my legions of Pokémon plushies. I realize the second two bags worth of them I had in my trunk were probably overkill when Sarah looks at them and rolls her eyes. Okay, she isn’t a Pokémon fan.

This is fine. It may be difficult, but I get to reconnect with my sister! Who doesn’t like me, my family, my Pokémon, my existence…

This is fine.