Lara (Reynolds Ranch)

“It’s so good to meet you.” I stick out my hand as she stops inside the room.

“It’s funny that you beat me here since I grew up just outside of the city,” she remarks, taking my hand.

“I know. It’s because my parents wanted a head start. They’re planning to spend the weekend in the city before heading back, so they want to pawn me off as fast as humanly possible.”

“You’re not supposed to tell strangers that, pumpkin,” my mom says, pressing her finger to her lips.

“It’s okay. My parents didn’t bother to come down.” The smile on her face is an attempt to mask the pain of that statement, but it’s clear she’s not happy about the situation.

I look at my parents, and I’m reminded of how lucky I am that they love me so much. “Well, who wants some pizza?” I call out.

“I’m starving,” Kelly says. Good. I’m going to like her for sure.

****

“Come on, who cares what they say. We’re in college and we’re adults so we can come and go as we please,” I whisper, dragging Kelly by her arm.

“Girl, you’re going to get us in trouble with the resident chick.”

“Please. It’s not a big deal. We’ll be back before they even know we’re gone.” It’s midnight and I want to head out to grab some munchies. It’s nearly two when we creep back into the dorm and no one sees us. At least until we reach our floor.

“Lara, Kelly?”

“Maria, what are you doing up?”

“Someone pulled the fire alarm. You two were missing and that’s not acceptable.”

“Well if it had been a real fire we wouldn’t have burned up.”

“Damn, I didn’t realize there were curfews,” I lie. Curfew is midnight during the week and no curfew on the weekends, but I don’t want her to know that. We’ve only been here less than a week.

“Fine. Don’t let it happen again.”

“We won’t.” I smirk. Grabbing Kelly by the hand, I led her back to our dorm. As soon as the door is closed, I break out into a fit of laughter. “Damn she’s a drill sergeant.”

“I told you she’d catch us.”

“Relax, nothing happened and now we have ice cream.” That lightens her mood and she grins, snatching the bag from me.

“Yes we do.”