Page 1 of Worth the Risk

Chapter 1

Emilia

May

Junior year has finally come to a close. After finishing up my shift at The Blue Bean, the on-campus coffee shop, I submitted my last two final papers. Now that that's all done with, I really need to get packing. Rosie, my roommate, and I are moving out of our dorm tomorrow and into an apartment for the summer and our senior year. I am beyond excited to be living in an apartment with my best friend, it’s like a real taste of adulthood. I am also excited that I won’t have to go home to see my mother this summer or during the school year breaks. Yes, that sounds harsh and a part of me will always love her but we have a complicated relationship

“EMI!” Rosie comes barreling into our apartment, her long dark brown almost black waves flying behind her, interrupting my thoughts. “It’s over! I also got an A in my editorial photography class.”

“Ro, that’s amazing.” I pull her into a hug. Rosie is a Film and Photography major. I might be biased as her best friend, but her work is incredible.

“Thank you.” She smiles brightly. “Did you submit your drugs and human behavior final?”

“Yes, I just did.” I exhale a breath, I love studying psychology but it can require researching and writing about a lot of tough topics. Drugs and alcohol in particular hit very close to home, so the class didn’t bring up the best memories to say the least.

“Thank goodness, now that you’re done with that we need to get your stuff packed.” Rosie has almost all of her things packed already, but between working and having back-to-back tough finals this year I haven’t had much of a chance to pack anything.

“Thanks for helping me Ro, I really appreciate it.”

“Of course, now I’m turning on Taylor Swift and we’re getting this done.”We work together to pack my things into a variety of different storage containers and boxes, singing along as we go. Three Taylor Swift albums later, and we’re finally done. I seal up the last box of my textbooks and we both sink down into the couch that comes as part of your dorm furnishings.

Thursday night has always been girls’ night in our world. When Rosie and I got assigned as roommates freshman year she declared we needed a night for just the two of us. Our Thursdays together have become one of my favorite traditions. We always watch rom-coms and get those pre-made cookies to make, which sometimes ends up with us just eating the raw dough.

It took some juggling with my schedule, classes, studying, and working but I always made our girls’ nights work. So far, I haven’t really lived through that “normal” college experience. Once I started college I prioritized my grades and working, which then led into grades, internships and working. It’s all worth it though, to create a good and secure future for myself. Something I severely lacked growing up.

“I’m pooped, let's order a pizza and watch a movie.” Rosie pulls up the pizza menu on her phone. “Pepperoni?”

“Sounds great.” Rosie places an order for delivery for the pizza and some lemonades. When the food arrives we sit on the ground in front of the couch eating off the small coffee table and watching our favorite nineties rom-coms.

I wake up to the terrible sound of my alarm. It’s Friday, aka moving day, and while I’m excited it’s also going to be a terribly long day. I get out of bed, open the door to our common area and head to our small fridge and tiny counter space to make a bowl of cereal. Rosie shuffles out of her room, dragging her slipper clad feet across the floor. I hold up the cereal in my hand silently asking if she wants any, to which she nods before sitting on the small couch. One thing about Rosie is she is not a morning person.

I finish making my bowl of cereal and then make one for Rosie. We quickly eat and then get ready, putting on some athletic clothing and sneakers. Hiring movers was way out of the budget and since we have no real furniture, just our clothes, books, other odds and ends we decided we could do the move ourselves. Girl power.

After an hour we finally manage to get the first round of our stuff out of our dorm, into the back of Rosie’s SUV and bring one box each into our new place. I’m already breaking a sweat, it’s May in New England so it’s not insanely hot yet but the sun is beating down today with no clouds in sight.

“Hey Rosie. Hi Emi.” I turn around and see Garrett, parked a few cars down from us jogging in our direction.

“Hey Gar.” Rosie says as I smile and wave in his direction before reaching into the back of the car to grab another box.

“You guys didn’t tell me you were moving today. You know I would’ve helped.”

“Yeah, cause we can handle it on our own.” Rosie states and I stare at her like she’s crazy. She’s super independent but there’s a huge man offering us help and I’m not about to turn him down. Garrett is tall, a little over six feet and super muscular, probably from all his training with the hockey team. Rosie and Garrett grew up in the same town and knew each other in passing. Garrett is one grade behind us, he is a rising junior to our senior. When Garrett got to campus his freshmen year, him and Ro had a class together where they reconnected and our duo became a trio. She was also the one who said she would tell Gar we were moving and with the hectic last week I had, it slipped my mind to confirm with her if he was available.

“Gar, we would actually love your help please don’t listen to her.”

“Ryan! Get over here.” A man I didn’t notice, standing outside of Garrett’s car looks up, then he hangs up his phone and walks over to us. “This is Ryan, my teammate. Ryan, Emi and Rosie. We’re going to help them move some stuff in.”

“Sounds good, nice to meet you both.” He smiles, his eyes catching on Rosie. You can’t blame him, she’s absolutely gorgeous.

“Fine, I guess you guys can help.” Rosie sighs.

“We really appreciate it.” I counter giving her a look. Getting everything into our apartment took half the time I expected after having the help of two strong men. They even went back to the dorm with us for the second load of our belongings and with Garrett’s car two trips was enough. Ryan and Garrett bring in the last boxes and set them down in the living room.“Thank you so much guys, honestly it was so helpful.”

“Of course, you guys know I would’ve helped. Rosie, you really should have told me you were moving in today.”

Rosie sighs, “I know, I'm sorry and thank you. We could have handled it though.”

Garret chuckles, “I know you could’ve but you know I literally moved into this building a few days ago.” My jaw drops, I knew Garret had moved but I hadn’t quite put together that it was this building.

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