Violet Bedsheets

For a while, the only noise that William could perceive came from the scratches of his pencil against his workbooks. Nicola's adverse reaction to his cleaning occupied his mind whilst he absentmindedly solved practice equations. Was it an issue of privacy? He hadn't gone into her room; it was just the kitchen and living room that he dealt with. Clearly, she was angry at him, even for someone as socially clueless as himself that was obvious, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why.

Then he heard it.

From the wall behind his bed, ****, suppressed sobs that drifted painfully into his ears like a punishment for his misdeeds. He sat still, awkwardly listening whilst his roommate cried in the next room over.

With shaking legs, William exited his room and deftly crept over to place his ear against Nicola's bedroom door. Her breathing was heaving and hysterical, the sound of her sucking in air desperately whilst she labored in sadness like a vacuum.

"Nicola?" He spoke against the door, unsure of how to progress. More sobbing was her only response, and for a minute he felt paralysed outside the gorgeous girl's room.

"Nicola?" Still no response emanated except for the sobs.

"Nicola, I'm coming in." The words erupted from his mouth, but now that he had said them there was no chance for retraction. He turned at the doorknob slowly, and gently pushed the door open, revealing the inside of his roommate's quarters.

His roommate's space was decorated much like the living room; movie posters and the like covered every bit of the walls and ceiling, whilst a bed, desk and closet identical to William's own mirrored the layout of his room. Her bed, which was covered in violet bedsheets lay against the dividing walls between their rooms such that her headboard and his faced one another. The carpet in her room was stained similarly to how the living room had been prior to his cleaning, and takeaway containers and disused drinks lay in mounds across the tiny room. Unlike his room, hers had a small window beside the bed that gave a spectacular view across the campus' great lake.

Atop the bed, Nicola sat curled into a ball, her bare legs folded up against her so that she was pressing her face into her knees whilst her arms lay atop of her head. Her hair splayed across her forearms on either side, and the only motion from the tall girl were vibrations from her crying. Salty tears streamed down her flesh before dripping onto the bed, forming small wet spots on the dry sheets.

"William, please just go away." Her voice was muffled as she refused to look at him, every syllable iterated between bouts of snivels.

"Did I do something? I'm sorry that I upset you, I didn't know--"

The tanned girl began sobbing even more, her whole-body convulsing with her crying whilst she desperately burrowed herself deeper into a ball. "I didn't know how bad it had gotten."

"What do you mean?" He approached her, kneeling with one leg and tentatively lifting an arm to put on her shoulder.

"The mess... It feels like... It felt like...", Nicola stuttered, liquid flowing down her red cheeks, "it felt like my whole life was in disarray and I didn't even realise it. When you cleaned up, I looked inside the apartment, and it came to me that I've just stopped caring and I didn't have anyone else that cared either and I..."

Suddenly, she threw her arms around William, making him gasp as she locked around his stomach with an iron grip. "Thanks for caring," she whispered softly into his hoodie.

Recovering, he returned the hug, and so for a while they stayed there, the unlikeliest new friends on campus.