She dragged her suitcase behind her, the sound of its plastic wheels clicking unevenly on the pavement. Her dorm loomed ahead: brick, old, and too quiet for a place that held hundreds of people. That suited her just fine. Silence had always felt safer than voices filled with empty promises.
Love, for her, was a lie people told themselves when they were desperate to feel something. She'd believed it once - too deeply, too quickly. And it had left her in pieces.
Not anymore.
Not here.
Here, she would focus. On school. On herself. On building something that didn't depend on anyone else. Love wasn't part of the plan. It never would be.
She reached her door, turned the key, and stepped inside the room that would be hers for the next year. It was small, plain, and quiet - exactly what she needed.
A fresh start, even if her heart still ached with the past.
The room was already half-occupied.
On the bed by the window sat a girl with bright eyes, a messy bun, and a wide grin that stretched too easily across her face.
"You must be my roommate!" she beamed. "I'm Lydia."
Brianna nodded, forcing a small, polite smile. "Yeah. I'm Brianna."
Lydia bounced off the bed and walked over to help with her suitcase. "You're lucky. I grabbed the side with the view but I left you more closet space. I figured that's a fair deal."
Brianna didn't care about the view or the closet space, but she nodded anyway. Lydia's energy filled the room like sunshine trying to break through a clouded window. Brianna wasn't ready for sunshine. Not yet.
"Thanks," she said, placing her bag beside the bare bed.
They spent the next half hour unpacking. Or rather, Lydia unpacked and narrated every step-where she was from, what she planned to major in, how excited she was about orientation week. Brianna listened quietly, offering the occasional hum or nod, her mind half-present.
It wasn't that Lydia wasn't kind. She was. In fact, she reminded Brianna of someone she used to be. Before everything changed.
Before she stopped trusting anyone.
When Lydia left the room to meet some girls down the hall, Brianna sat on the edge of her bed, looking out the window. The campus was still buzzing. Laughter floated up like music from the quad below.
Her phone buzzed beside her. A text from her aunt.
Let me know once you're settled. I'm proud of you. Love you always.
She stared at it for a long time before replying with just two words.
I'm fine.
Then she turned off her phone and lay back on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling. The shadows of moving branches played across the walls. It should have felt peaceful.
But all she could think about was how much she had once hoped this part of her life would look different - shared with someone who said they loved her, someone who promised never to leave.
Promises were just words.
And love... well, love had rules.
And time broke them all.
The room was quiet now. Too quiet.
And in that quiet, the memories crept in-slow, uninvited, but sharp as glass.
It had been a rainy afternoon. Her shoes were soaked, her backpack heavy, and her heart a little fuller than usual. He had walked her home, hand brushing hers in the kind of way that felt like a question and an answer all at once.
He had laughed at something she said-genuinely laughed, the sound echoing down the narrow street like music. She remembered how light everything felt in that moment, how her guard had fallen just enough to let the warmth in.
"You're different, Bri," he had told her that day. "You make things feel... real."
She had believed him.
Every word. Every look. Every time he touched her hand or smiled at her like she mattered. And maybe she did matter. For a while.
Until she didn't.
Until the calls stopped. The messages dried up. Until she found out that she'd been nothing more than a fleeting moment in someone else's life.
She never asked for an explanation.
She never gave him the satisfaction of seeing her broken.
But she was.
And ever since, she had carried that hurt like armor - wearing it quietly, keeping it hidden beneath polite smiles and deflective words. She promised herself she would never let someone get that close again. Never give anyone the power to leave her bleeding from wounds they didn't intend to cause.
She blinked, pulling herself back to the present.
The ceiling above her was still. Her heart, not so much.
With a deep breath, Brianna turned on her side and faced the wall. Maybe the past would always follow her. Maybe it would take time to silence the echo of a love that never really was.
But she was here now.
And she wasn't going to fall again.
At least... that's what she told herself.
/0/86466/coverbig.jpg?v=d31aa6d5bae22685f63c869edb558129)
View More Comments on App
/0/86713/coverbig.jpg?v=22532312abb581bb0af87ccc4a8b6038)
/0/55905/coverbig.jpg?v=5d94f6406b3ee7e65e5d0449871e3b3e)
/0/73040/coverbig.jpg?v=de0760cf2bd001aa298f2033e9d9d2cd)
/0/65644/coverbig.jpg?v=9f7c004464e160d8a0cc0e732ecf1744)
/0/65656/coverbig.jpg?v=bca7a26f976b281a1ac0e8d986049347)
/0/60498/coverbig.jpg?v=62dcb7be9563dc3a710aa1e248de0ea9)
/0/78800/coverbig.jpg?v=767bbf56f1262f093e5e6fb728879971)
