Bullet(2)

I’d decided to attend college at…well, maybe I shouldn’t say. I was moving from my hometown of Winchester, Colorado, to one of the smaller universities located in a small, sleepy college town far away from home. If you’ve ever visited Colorado schools like Adams State, Fort Lewis, or Western State, then you know the kind of town and the kind of college I’m talking about. But…well, this story has needed to be written for a while, and I’m changing some of the names and the places to protect the innocent…and the guilty too. And, bottom line, I suppose it doesn’t really matter where I went to college, only that I did, and that’s where Ethan and I met. The town where I went to college really wasn’t much different from Winchester, but it was my first time living away from home, over two hundred miles away. I was homesick at first but soon got swept up in the pace of college life.

I lived in the dorms and got stuck with a roommate who thought she was God’s gift to teenage boys. Charlotte Edwards’s only gift to men was her free favors. And, lucky me, I got to experience them all. I was a young, naïve virgin, raised in a strict Christian atmosphere, sheltered from a lot of real life, so Charlotte was hard for me to take at first.

I was sure she was trouble the minute I moved in. Above her bed hung a poster of a close-to-nude man, something that—at the time—had made me blush. The guy was clean shaven but with a little bit of stubble, dark brown bedroom eyes, huge muscles, no shirt on, his jeans unzipped, his hand snaking down into his underwear, suggesting that he was all hot and bothered for whatever woman walked into his gaze. Yeah, that poster made me uncomfortable…even if I had to admit later that the guy was hot as hell.

Worse, though, was her blatant advertising of who she was and what she wanted, now that she was out from under her parents’ roof. On the desk lay a compact of birth control pills. And she danced around the room in a lacy red teddy with some kind of mood music on her boom box, some R&B tune I hadn’t heard before.

I was grateful that my mother, father, and brother were waiting outside in the truck for me. They’d sent me inside to find the resident advisor, affectionately known as our RA, who in turn gave me a map of campus and a key to my room. I wanted to locate the room first and then get my family so we could start hauling in all my things.

I hid my initial horror and became the always polite girl I tended to be. “Hi. I’m your roommate, Valerie Quinn.”

“Hi. I’m Charlotte Edwards. Where you from?”

“Winchester. What about you?”

She gave me a funny look and tossed her long black hair behind her shoulder. “Where the f*ck is that?”

Well, that was rude. “Do you know where Colorado Springs is?”

“Duh.”

“Winchester’s about an hour away, to the west.” I still wanted to play nice. “Where are you from?”

“Denver.”

“So why’d you decide to come here to college?” I knew there were already some good schools in and around Denver, so I was curious why she wanted to go so far away from home. Maybe she’d earned a scholarship or something.

But, in a matter-of-fact voice, she said, “Change of scenery.” And she decided to leave it at that.

“Well, this is definitely a change of scenery. Anyway, my parents and brother are going to help me drag all my stuff in here. You don’t mind, do you?” I was hoping she’d take the hint and change into something a little less comfortable.

“It’s your room, too.” Luckily for me, she reached in one of her dresser drawers for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and pulled them on.

“Be right back.” As I walked down the hall, I thought, Everything’s going to be all right. She seems nice. First impressions aren’t always right. I guess I was too young to know I should follow my intuition.

My parents, brother, and I started taking boxes out of the back of the truck and placing them on my side of the dorm room. When everyone had set down the first load, I said, “Mom, dad, Danny, this is my roommate, Charlotte Edwards. Charlotte, this is my family.”

Danny, a good-looking junior in high school, could hardly keep from drooling on his shirt. Charlotte’s long, shiny black hair draped over her t-shirt, the little piercing in her nose flashing every time she tilted her head in that way she thought made her look cute, and her brown eyes smoldered with continual lust…for my little brother?

My graying parents seemed neutral—they showed nothing positive or negative toward my new roommate, but they did notice the poster above her bed and seemed dismayed. Did I already mention my parents were deeply religious?

“Hello, Charlotte.” My father put out his hand to shake hers. Maybe that’s where I got my politeness—from my dad.

“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Quinn, right?” She accepted my father’s handshake and then shook my mother’s hand. “Danny.” She extended her hand to his, a smirk on her face. Well, I thought, this is one boy she won’t get.

But she too was polite as we carried in my boxes. She even offered to help with a few.

When the truck was entirely unloaded, I walked with my family to where it was parked so we could exchange goodbyes. “Valerie,” my mother said, “I hope everything works out. Charlotte seems nice, but…I don’t know about her. I hope you can get along with her.”

“That makes two of us.”

My mother was having a hard time seeing me in this environment, leaving her nest for good. Out of Danny and me, I was the oldest child, so she’d never gone through this before. Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged me. “Keep your grades up, honey. Have fun. And remember we love you.”

My father kissed me on the cheek. Then Danny, Mr. Cool, said, “Bye, sis. Don’t miss me too much.”

“Come here, you little twerp, and give me a hug.”

He did and then whispered, “I’m gonna miss you, ya know.”

“Yeah, I’ll miss you, too.”

They got in the truck, and I stood there for a few minutes after they’d left. I’d waved goodbye to my family, my home, my friends…and my childhood.

* * *

I set the last box on my bed and started sifting through its assorted contents, deciding where to put them (not that there were a whole lot of choices). Charlotte lay on her bed, once again clad in just her little red teddy. She thumped her hand on her bed to the beat of the music she was playing, some Lady Gaga song I’d never heard before. “Hey, Valerie, why don’t you invite your little brother up to visit for a weekend?”

My back was turned from her face as I continued sifting through my box. I was glad, because I’m sure my expression was one of shock at the very least. This girl wasn’t trying very hard to make a friend. “Why? He’s busy.” I suspected I knew why she was interested in my brother, but I figured she was just asking to get under my skin.

“Busy? Doing what?”

“For one thing, he’s on the football team.” I pulled some pencils out of the box and put them in my desk drawer. Once again, I repeated my question, “Why?”

Her lips curled up in a half smile. “He’s awfully cute, you know.”

“He’s in high school.”

She raised her eyebrows, the smirk still firmly affixed to her face, making her tiny upturned nose look pug-like. I was starting to not like this girl. “So? He’s probably still had a little experience.”

I started laughing, unable to help myself. “You don’t know my family very well.” Our parents had us on tight leashes, so, while my brother might have had a little experience, that was likely all he’d had. “Sorry, Charlotte, but he can’t come up.”

“Oh, I get it. I guess I’m just not good enough for your brother.”

The last thing I wanted was an argument with my new roommate on my first day away from home. “No, that’s not it. I don’t know you well enough to make that call. But I can tell you he wouldn’t be able to make it. It’s a long drive and he has a lot on his plate.”

“It’s not that long of a drive.” She sat up. “I’m going to the restroom. Excuse me.” Her tone of voice was nothing like the sicky-sweet purr she’d used earlier. She stomped across the room and walked out the door to find the restrooms down the hall. I started to suspect this school year would be a long one.

* * *

Good-looking guys roamed every part of the campus. A girl could get lost just looking at all of them—well, this girl, at least. But the ones I got to know during my first month on campus were either taken already or not the guys a father would want his daughter to date. And, since I’m inherently a people pleaser, especially when it came to my parents, that made them off limits…while my guard was up, anyway.

Needless to say, in spite of Charlotte, I enjoyed my first few weeks of college. It was tough, but the professors and other students were friendly and helpful, and that meant a lot to this small town never-been-away-from-home girl. I soon became familiar with the campus and the surrounding college town. I loved the weather (so far) and the surrounding countryside. I began to feel like this place might be a nice home for the next four years.