Page 9 of Clichés & Curses

‘Honey, I’m home!’ Nina announced, entering our apartment.

College had had its fair share of ups and downs in the past couple of years, but it had also given me one of the greatest blessings of my life: on the day that I had stepped foot into my dorm room for the first time, I was introduced to my roommate, and now best friend, Nina Alvarez.

When it came to choosing a roommate, I had decided to request one and let the university do the searching, instead of doing it myself. Keeping my fingers crossed, I’d hoped to get along with whoever I ended up being roommates with.

Thankfully, we did, even catapulting into one of the greatest friendships I’ve ever made.

When it had come to discussing our living plans for our sophomore year, it was a no-brainer that we wanted to live together again.

And here we were, rooming together again for the third year running.

‘Welcome home, babe!’ I replied, matching her enthusiastic tone.

‘I smell something delicious. Is it food? Are you making food?’ she rushed out her words as she stepped into the kitchen, the mouthwatering smell of the lasagna slowly filling the air.

‘I’m just reheating our leftovers from last night,’ I told her. ‘You came home just in time.’

‘Oh, thank god. I’m starving,’ she said dramatically as she set down her bag by the kitchen island. Then, she headed over to the sink to wash her hands before plopping herself on one of our kitchen stools in our newly leased apartment.

Nina and I had decided to switch to a new apartment for the new term. The old apartment was fine, but we had realized that we wanted to have our own bathrooms instead of sharing one.

Our new apartment wasn’t anything special: just one open space with a kitchen a few steps away from the doorway, a countertop thrown in the middle of it to separate the kitchen from the living room, and windows that showed off a view of the streets below. Not to forget, there were three doors on the right wall: two of which led to bedrooms with their own attached bathrooms; the middle door covering a washer and a dryer.

When Nina and I had toured the building and this particular apartment last semester, we had instantly fallen in love and knew this was the one. The apartment was still slightly messy, since I had only moved in a week ago, but even so, I knew we had made the right choice moving here.

Just as I was taking out the plates and utensils, the alarm of the oven went off. Wearing mittens, I took out the heated lasagna, making sure to position it perfectly with the coaster. Nina wasted no time scooping it up and putting it on her plate. By the time I took off the mittens and went to sit next to her, she was already savouring her food.

I let out a small laugh and scooped out a proportion of my own, filling my plate.

Silence enveloped us as we enjoyed our reheated leftovers, the sounds from the streets below being our only companion.

‘I’m so glad we decided to make lasagna last night,’ Nina eventually said, moaning out her satisfaction in between bites. ‘This was exactly what I needed after today.’

‘I guess training was harder than usual today?’ I asked her, taking a bite of my own. Nina had arrived back on campus a week earlier than me, as was required by the track team. But the coach had decided to allow them an extra two days off the previous weekend to let them prepare for the semester.

‘It was brutal,’ she groaned out. ‘Coach had us running drills like a maniac. It was as if he was punishing us for taking the time off he gave us. I can already feel how sore I’m going to be this week.’

‘It’ll get better,’ I said, trying to cheer her up.

‘Yeah. Hopefully, I’ll get used to it by this time next week,’ she said, letting out a wistful sigh. ‘Anyway, enough of my whining. How was your day?’

For a moment, I considered telling her about what had happened today in ASL class and how I could possibly end up partnering with Colton Reed for a class assignment.

Nina had known all about my crush on Colton, just as I did about her crush on Miles, his teammate. But I had never told anyone about the curse before, and I didn’t want to get her hopes up over something that wasn’t worth mentioning— not when this thing with Colton couldn’t go any further than us just being mere classmates.

‘It was okay.’ I shrugged. ‘I decided to walk back to the apartment today, instead of taking the bus—but that was pretty much the highlight of my day, along with this lasagna,’ I answered, my spoon pointing at whatever was left on my plate.

She let out a laugh. ‘The lasagna also happens to be the highlight of my day.’ She scooped up another bite, before adding, ‘Wait, wasn’t your first ASL class today? How did it go?’

Being roommates for two whole years together, Nina had been a witness to my disappointment each semester, when I couldn’t fit the ASL class into my schedule, as it had always clashed with my other mandatory classes.

When the stars had finally aligned for me to be able to take it this semester, she was just as ecstatic as I was to learn that ASLwas going to be on my list of classes I would be attending.

‘It was,’ I nodded. ‘Nothing much happened since it was just the first class, so it was mostly just an introduction to what we can expect in the course.’

But I did sit next to Colton for almost a whole hour and got to talk to him, I added in my head.

Just as she was about to reply, her phone, placed next to her on the kitchen island, started buzzing with tons of notifications. She picked it up to see what the fuss was about. A look of excitement crossed her features at whatever it was.

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