Dysfunctional Lover

6.

"It doesn't matter what's written in your story so far. It's how you fill the rest of the pages that matters."

••••

"Oh so.. what were you doing with Kai for so long?" Becca asks, smirking and removing her sneakers at the same time.

"Sleeping." I answer.

Becca's eyes widen and her mouth forms an o. "For real?"

"What? No. Not in the sense you are implying. I slept and he did god knows what. I was very tired."

She is still smirking.

"Oh please remove that God awful smirk off of your face. It doesnt suit you at all."

She makes a face and returns to her normal expression. "Oh I got you a new set of keys." She throws them at me and I catch it.

"You're a life saver."

"And I've also given a set to Lucas. He said he'll keep it in their room. In case we misplace them like today."

"Clever." I praise.

"Hey why don't we two do something tonight. Like have a girl's night or something?" She suggests.

"Every night is a girl's night for us Bec." I remind her with a laugh.

"Well, yeah, but we haven't done much as roommates. I don't want you to think of me as that type of girl who spends all of her time with her boyfriend."

"Okay okay. What do you wanna do?"

She pulls out her Bluetooth speakers from the drawer of her study table. She plays "Shake it off" by Taylor Swift.

She begins crazy dancing to the beat and holds her hands out for me.

"Seriously?" I ask, laughing at her stupid moves.

She raises the volume and nods. I get up and start crazy dancing with her. We laugh and hop on our beds and do some very silly steps.

A loud knock on the door interrupts us and I shriek involuntarily.

Becca lowers the volume. "I'll deal with the bastard."

She opens the door revealing Kai and Lucas. "Is there a party going on here?" Lucas asks excitedly.

Becca nods. "Why aren't we invited then?" Kai asks.

"Because it's a girl's night." Becca says with a no nonsense expression.

"Hey that's not fair. Elena?" Lucas gives me the puppy dog look and I laugh.

"Sorry boys. Can't go against my roommate." I tell and they both frown. It's real cute.

I take out my phone and click a picture. "Hey!" Kai protests.

I laugh harder. "You both are looking like puppies who've been kicked out of their homes."

"Now off you go." Becca says and slams the door in their face.

"Woah that was savage, girl." I compliment.

She gives her sheepish smile and raises the volume again. We resume with our dancing. Next comes a slow song and Rebecca takes my hand and we start doing salsa. She takes the role of the guy. Appropriate as she is quite taller than me.

After almost an hour of this foolishness, we plop down on our beds, tired.

"That was fun." Becca says.

"It was." I agree.

"I really like you, you know." She tells.

"Me too." I look at her and smile.

After a few minutes, she is back on her feet. Man, this woman is so full of energy.

"Next. Let's paint each other's nails." She takes out her big grand makeup box.

"Isn't that a very stereotypical thing that girl roommates are expected to do?"

"That is exactly why we should do it. We're in college now. We should do all of the stuff they tell in books and movies." She says excitedly.

Thank goodness Chris taught me how to paint nails properly in high school or I would've messed up real bad.

I do Becca's first. She has very well shaped long nails. With the help of a tape, I do a diagonal two shade. She selects the colours. We talk about our school life meanwhile. It turns out very pretty.

She frowns when she sees my nails. They are very short. Not because I have nail biting habit or anything. They are neatly chopped.

"Whatever have you done to your nails?" She questions.

"I never grew them long." I answer.

"Now why is that?"

"Because I've studied in a convent. I used to have a school uniform and my hairs were always in a braid or a ponytail and we weren't allowed to grow our nails."

"Was it hard?" She asks sympathetically.

"Not really. We girls used to have a lot of fun. But I missed the normal life that my sisters were leading. I was treated differently. As Kai would say, 'the odd one out'." It feels nice to share this stuff with someone other than my sisters.

And I couldn't really share it with them because they were working very hard to not feel bad about the differential treatment and support me.

"But.. why is that? I don't understand."

"I'm not telling you because I don't want you to treat me like I'm a breakable object. To be handled with care and pity. You make me feel like a normal person."

She hops onto my bed and hugs me tightly. "Okay. As you wish. I won't force you. But promise me you'll tell me if something's wrong."

I smile and nod.

"Let's watch a movie then?" She says excitedly again and I burst into laughter. But I control myself because it could be hazardous for me.

"Which one?" I ask.

"How about 'how to lose a guy in 10 days'?" She suggests and I nod.

She brings out her laptop and starts the movie after hopping onto my bed again.

"I'm glad I got you as my roommate." She says very sweetly.

"Same here."