Page 23 of June

Enid laughed and replied, “Your secret is safe with me. But why do you have Tim, then?”

“He’s my roommate’s TV. She has this thing where she likes to do work on her laptop and watch TV on an actual TV. You know the campus channel that shows the same movie over and over again for like a month?”

“Oh, wow. I forgot all about that, but yeah.”

“She’ll sit there, reading a book, and just have Tim on in the background. I have nearly every movie that channel has shown memorized.”

Enid laughed and said, “Well, that’s a talent. Maybe you could turnthatinto a career one day.”

Caroline laughed, too, and said, “My roommate should be out right now. If you want, we could go to my room, and I could show you the sketches I have there from my trip.”

Enid looked around, so Caroline worried she’d say that she wanted to stay at the career fair instead.

“Okay. Sure. I can’t stay long, though.”

“No problem,” she replied.

They both stood and started walking in the direction of Caroline’s building, which was straight down the campus’s main drag and then one block over.

“So, Jodie’s not your roommate?”

“No, she lives down the hall. My roommate was randomly assigned to me. Her name’s Viv. She’s nice.”

“Not crazy? I didn’t live in the dorms when I was here. I lived at home for the first year and got an apartment with a few friends for the rest of undergrad, so I never had a random person assigned to share a small room with me.”

“She’s not crazy, no. She’s very studious and not all that social, but she’s nice and clean. The room is always spotless on her side.”

“What about your side?” Enid asked.

“I’d say I’m relatively clean, but I definitely leave my bed unmade most days and need to take out the trash more.”

They walked for a few more minutes in silence before Caroline unlocked the door that led to the staircase up to the second floor, where her room was on the right. She unlocked it, too, and let Enid walk in before her.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a dorm room. They’re even smaller than I remember,” Enid said.

“Yeah, I know. We bunked our beds, which helps add some space.”

Caroline dropped her bag on the floor by her desk and pulled out the bottom desk drawer to find her old sketchbook.

“Um… You can sit down wherever.”

There were only two chairs in the room. One was her desk chair, and the other was Viv’s. Viv had the bottom bunk, and Caroline didn’t let any of her visitors sit on it because that wouldn’t be fair, but it would also be weird for her to suggest that Enid sit on the top bunk with her, so she pulled Viv’s chair over toward her own desk to sit on, and Enid sat in hers. Then, Caroline handed Enid the sketchbook.

“Where did you go on your trip?” Enid asked as she opened it.

“A little bit of everywhere, but I focused mainly on the west from here. I went up through Mississippi, Arkansas, into Oklahoma, and I just kept going.”

“How long were you gone?” Enid asked as she flipped the pages.

“About three months. A little longer, technically.”

“By yourself?”

Caroline nodded.

“That’s brave. I was worried about moving to Florida on my own, and you just got in your car and started driving?”

“I was restless in school. My parents are great people, and I love them, but they couldn’t understand it. They’d both gone to college, liked it, and found their lifelong careers. It wasn’t working for me, so I told them I wanted to leave. I made sure to text and call them regularly so that they didn’t worry as much, and I sent them pictures, too. The deal was that they’d continue to support me as long as I still graduate on time, which is why I’m taking summer classes.”

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