Those Years with the Oddball Roommates
College really is a jungle—once you’re in, you realize there’s all kinds of birds in the damn forest.
Our dorm was supposed to be six girls to a room, but we only had four. Each of us had our own… distinctive style. The one who left the deepest impression on me was Serena Vance—gorgeous, the kind of pretty that turned heads. The other two? Pretty much useless. One was Tara Brooks, a total fence-sitter who swayed with whoever talked to her last. The other was Tiana Avery, who might as well have been blind with her eyes wide open.
Back when we first started university, during military training, the four of us actually got along great. Whenever we went out, we moved as a pack—getting up together, training together, eating together. We were so damn happy that while everyone else was losing weight from training, our room finished boot camp looking like we’d all gained a belt size.
But over time, our sleep schedules and personalities started to clash. I was a bit more than just “chubby”—not huge, but definitely not slim—and I was on the introverted side. I was self-conscious about my body, so after class I’d either flop onto my bunk or hide out in the library. Little by little, I joined the others less and less.
Even so, back then we still had a tradition: one dinner together every weekend. Four girls circled around a bubbling hot pot, steam curling up between us as we shared the funny little things that had happened lately. For a while there, things felt warm, easy—almost harmonious.
There’s a saying that three women together are enough to put on a whole drama. For fuck’s sake, can you even begin to imagine the show four girls can put on?