Just Pucking Money [COMPLETED]

Chapter 3 - Spoiled roommates

Lily

It's the end of the first day of classes and it feels good to be back. The atmosphere is filled with excitement and nerves. I make my way past a group of relieved freshmen as one of them says they should go out and celebrate being in college.

I pick up the pace. Last year, I was one of them. At the start of the year, I wanted to do all the things you're supposed to do in college. I wanted to go to parties and make new friends.

This year, all I want is to survive and make enough money for my bills. When it all came crashing down, I immediately started applying for scholarships and I managed to get most of my tuition covered.

But I still had to spend my summer trying to earn the rest. During the day, I smiled until my cheeks hurt as I worked the register at a grocery store, and at night I cleaned office buildings while listening to podcasts and audiobooks. And it wasn't even good audiobooks, it was random people reading books from the public domain. Because those are free.

Even with all that and constantly picking up extra shifts and taking any temporary jobs I could, I only just managed to scrape together the money needed. But I did it.

So when I was able to find a room close to campus for only seven hundred and fifty dollars, I was overjoyed. It's totally worth spending a few hours a week cleaning and doing laundry. Because it's the cheapest place anywhere within walking distance.

Someone shouts across the quad, waking me from my spiraling thoughts. I look up just as he steps out into the sunlight. I slow my steps and stare at him as he puts on his sunglasses. Have his arms gotten bigger? His hair is perfectly messy. Just long enough to showcase the black curls.

As always, he looks ready to conquer the world. Or at least take full advantage of it.

I keep walking in his direction as a woman comes up to him holding something. When he spots her, she holds it out to him. A pen?

His face breaks out in an amused grin, and he looks her up and down. He takes what I can now make out is a marker. She pulls down the already low neckline of her shirt and shoves her breast towards him. He laughs a little and I walk even slower as he writes his name on her boob.

There's heat in my cheeks as I watch him, and when he finally stands back up, I release a breath I had barely been aware I was holding. He hands back the marker and smiles.

Shaking my head, I tear my eyes away from him. There's nothing here for me. There's no way someone like Ethan Preston would even look twice at me.

I adjust my bag and keep my eyes on the ground as I again hurry my steps. There's no time for fantasies right now.

I resist the urge to look back over my shoulder at the hockey player and dodge a couple holding hands.

When I arrive home, I can smell the disaster before I see anything. The apartment smells rancid and smokey. I peek into the kitchen and almost want to scream. The sink is filled with dishes. There goes the time I had hoped to use to get an assignment started.

Steph looks up from her tablet on the kitchen table.

"Oh, did you have a chance to do Eve's laundry? She was asking about it."

"I'm doing it now," I say and sigh. Yeah, this is the downside of the cheap room. Chores. Which is fine. I'm pretty sure the three other girls living here pay over twelve hundred for their rooms. I'd much rather have the cheaper option.

I dump my bag on my bed. It really is a small room. There's a single bed, a small desk, and a wardrobe. And enough floor space for... well, nothing really. Maybe I could do a sit-up if I really wanted to, but that's about it.