This girl smiled at me as she waited for me to answer. I shook my head as if to clear it. "Um…If you don't mind." I let out a breath.
"No problem!" She smiled at me and then bent over to grab the bottom portion of my bag. "I'm Cora."
I took a few steps up the final flight of stairs. "I'm Wakely." I huffed as I pulled the bag onto my floor.
"Nice to meet cha'. You're on the third floor too?" She asked as she stood next to me.
"Yeah, three-oh-four." I did my best not to sound too out of breath, but I couldn't hide the sweat stains that were forming on my tank top.
"Really! That's so exciting, I'm in three-oh-three. Right across the hall." She hooked a thumb toward her door, which was covered in pictures and glitter frames. "I have one of the other single rooms; my last roommate hated me and complained about me every single day to the RA, so for the last two years, I have had a single room."
"Why did your roommate hate you?" I asked, unsure if I really wanted to hear the answer. I pulled out my room key and opened it.
The room before me was completely sparse. There was a double bed in the corner, two dressers, and two doors, one to my closet and the other to my private bathroom. It looked almost sterile, like a hospital.
Cora took a deep breath and leaned against my doorway. "I'm a little weird. She freaked out when I bought some crystals and set them to charge on the windowsill. And sometimes I can be a little bit of a hoarder." She chewed on her bottom lip.
I laughed. "And that's the only reason why she didn't like you?"
She kicked her booted toe against the door gently. "And I sleepwalk. But I can't help that. When I get stressed out, I tend to wander when I sleep." She shrugged. "I woke up to her screaming when I was standing at the other end of the room."
"I sleepwalk too sometimes." I didn't want her to feel self-conscious, and it was true. "When I feel a lot of pressure, I tend to sleepwalk and end up in random locations. One time, my roommate at my old school found me trying to get out of the room. She recorded it."
Cora's eyes brightened. "Really?"
"Yup, here," I said as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and pulled up the video that Mina sent me a long time ago. I showed the screen to Cora, and she took it, enthralled in the video.
While she watched, I lifted my luggage onto my bed and opened it. I should unpack. I was stuck here, and I might as well get comfortable.
"That's crazy, I have never met anyone else who sleepwalks. I always felt like a weirdo." Cora let out a nervous laugh and handed my phone back to me. She looked down at the bag I was slowly unpacking. "Did you have anything else?"
"No, I tend to pack light." I grabbed some of my clothing and shoved them into my drawers. "My dad pulled me from a program in Seoul to be here." I felt like I needed to share more with her since she was so open with me.
"You went to school in Seoul?" Her mouth hung open for a few moments. "I'm so jealous. I tried to get my dad to send me abroad, but no dice. He wants me to focus on school work rather than focusing on being in another country."
I snorted. "Your dad sounds like mine." I wasn't about to tell her that on top of pulling me out of school he abused the shit out of me as well.
Unpacking was taking me less time than I thought. I was already halfway through the bag. That was a little depressing.
"My dad is a prominent plastic surgeon. He says that when I graduate with honors, he will buy me a trip to Europe. Maybe you could come too!" She said excitedly.
"Maybe." I nodded as I continued with my task. Did she really just invite me on a trip with her only after meeting me for about fifteen minutes?
I smiled. I liked Cora. She was unapologetically herself, and that was the type of person I would want to hang out with. I hated fake people, and Cora wasn't fake. Not in the slightest.
She sat down in the chair in front of my desk. "What does your dad do?" She asked as she watched me unpack.
Of course, this was her next logical question. I didn't want to lie to my new friend, but the fewer people who knew about my father, the better. "He's in technology."
"Oh, I'm such a dummy." She said with a smirk. "You're Wakely Gilford. Daughter of Barrett Gilford. That technology mogul."
"Shh." I hissed at her and dove to the door to close it. "I don't want anyone else to know. It always seems to be a thing, and I just want to get through this next year without making waves."
Cora nodded at me and zipped her lips. Then unzipped them. "Your secret is safe with me." Then she rezipped her lips closed.
I sighed. "It's not really a secret, eventually, people are going to find out, and I want to avoid that for as long as possible."
"I get it. You just want to live a normal life. But I can't believe that the girl across the hall from me is totally famous." She stomped her feet in excitement.
I rolled my eyes at her. "I'm not famous. Not in the least. My dad is, though."
Cora looked down at her phone and pulled up a picture of me and the man my father wanted me to date, even though he was an egotistical tyrant. "That looks like you are pretty damn famous." She swiped her finger across the screen to show another picture of me ducking away from the cameras.
"Okay first, that guy is a douche and I hated every second that I hung out with him. Second, people try to make up stories no matter what. I was just walking to the restaurant where my friends were at and they acted like I was trying to escape something scandalous."
I shook my head at the memory. When I got home, my father was fuming. I got the beating of my life that day. And no matter what I said to him, he didn't believe me. He just assumed I was trying to drag his name through the mud.
Now that I was only two hours away, I was scared he would show up randomly, and that had a knot growing in my stomach.
Cora waved a hand in front of her. "Either way, you're my friend now. And as my friend, I think it's time for something to eat." She stood and placed her hands on her hips. "Plus, I have to tell you about the Walker brothers." She gave me a smirk. "And you'll want to know about them."
I snorted at her. "What are they, some sort of royalty?" I asked as I shoved my suitcase into my closet.
"You could say that." Cora chuckled. "Let's go!"
Honestly, I didn't care about boys. But my interest was piqued. I knew that every campus had its resident 'gods,' but my main focus was going to be on school. Not boys. Absolutely not.
I wasn't sure how the year was going to go, but I felt better that I at least had one friend. Even if she was a little peculiar. And now I was going to learn about these brothers who apparently were something to talk about.