Back to the dorm

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

On their way back from their shopping expedition, Kelly stopped to answer her phone. “Go on ahead,” she said with a wave. “I’ll head back in a bit.”

{if Candyoutfit = TRUE}

Traci returned to their room alone, and eagerly kicked her shoes off and closed the door behind her. She sat at the small desk next to her bed peered into the shopping bag. Gingerly, Traci removed the skirt and top she had purchased earlier and ran her fingers across the fabric. Why the heck had she let Kelly talk her into buying something she would never wear?

She thought about just tossing the clothes back into the shopping bag. She could sneak back to the store later and return the clothes.

With a sigh, Tracy hung the clothes up in her tiny dorm closet instead. Best to just humor Kelly for now.

{else}

Traci returned to their room alone, and eagerly kicked her shoes off and closed the door behind her. It had been exhausting running around with Kelly that morning. That girl was built to shop. For her part, Traci was just glad to be back in her room. The mall was much too crowded and noisy for her liking.

{endif}

Blessed, peaceful silence. Traci closed her eyes and let it center her. Then a quick text to Tommy just to make sure he was doing alright. Next, she fished a book at random out of her bag and lay on the bed and began reading. At some point she had fallen asleep and Traci woke up to find the book she had been reading still open, and laying across her belly.

The door burst open and an angry looking Kelly stomped into the room.

“Bitch,” she said flatly.

Traci shot into an upright position, a sense of panic shooting through her. “Me?”

“No,” Kelly said, sitting next to Traci. “Fucking Zoey from down the hall.”

“Umm…OK.”

“She’s a bitch.” Kelly collapsed sideways and rested her head on Traci’s shoulder.

“You said that.”

“Cuz it’s true.”

Traci instinctively moved her head to rest her cheek against the top of Kelly’s head. “Um, what happened?”

Kelly made a loud harrumphing noise. “I’ll tell you later.”

“OK.”

Kelly shot to her feet dramatically. “For now…” She gestured toward the door with a big flourish. “We—that’s you and me, girl—need to have some fun! It’s our last night before the semester officially starts. Who knows how much time we’ll have to go out after this?”

“What did you have in mind?” Traci was dreading the answer just a little bit.

“Hmm.” Kelly tapped a finger against her chin as she gave it some thought. “We could head back out to Strangelove’s.”

“Huh?”

“The bar we were at last night, duh!”

“Oh.”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “OK, I can tell you’re not a big fan of that idea. We could just be boring and head down to Campus Square. I think they have an arcade or something nerdy like that. You’d probably have fun there. So, what do you think?”