by Aidan Wayne
It was a good thing she’d checked for what merchandise staff needed so that she’d ordered black dress shoes ahead of time. Because she doubted there was a store around here that carried nice women’s shoes in size eleven.
After that was a woman who asked for her name, followed by “Please state your gender. I am not allowed to insinuate anything based on appearance.”
That was kind of nice. “Female.”
The woman—Samantha, by her nametag—smiled at her. “All right, you’ll get your picture ID taken next.” Which she did. The picture wasn’t great, but she’d never really photographed well. Besides, she’d just gotten off a plane. Even if she’d taken some time in the airport bathroom to finger comb her hair and break up her curls a little, there wasn’t a whole lot she could’ve done.
Picture ID in hand, she got to sign up for courses, and that was a lot of fun, if stressful. They were cautioned to sign up for two “learning” courses max, and only one or two “college credit” courses. And that if you wanted to sign up for two of one, to only sign up for one of the other. In the end she decided to sign up for the Disney resume-building class and the Disney brand-marketing class, as well as a basic economics course for her college credit. She figured, she was at Disney, might as well take advantage of it and take mostly the Disney-offered classes.
And then it was time to go to the apartment complex area. And meet Ashlee.
ASHLEE WAS in the middle of unloading her stuff with her mom and dad, carrying her things up the two flights of stairs to the third floor where her assigned apartment was, when someone came up the stairs, carrying two purple suitcases.
She had curly brown hair that reached to her midback, and was wearing jeans and a light blue top, with a lacy white cropped cardigan over it. It was a cute look.
She was also tall, probably as tall as Ashlee’s brother Brandon, and, um, very… broad? But nice! She looked very nice!
“Hi!” Ashlee said, going over to her. “Are you Dana?”
She nodded. “Hi,” Ashlee said again. “I’m Ashlee.”
“Hi,” Dana said, holding out a hand. “Um, it’s nice to meet you in person.”
Ashlee took her hand to shake. It was a pretty large hand. But Dana was a large woman. This was totally fine. Dana was pretty. She looked like a girl. Ashlee shouldn’t be freaking out. Why was she freaking out?
“Um! Well, come on in. I’ve already started, you know, getting settled. Our living room opens to a balcony, which is super nice.” She turned to show Dana into the apartment. It was a decent size, definitely larger than Ashlee’s shared dorm at college. “We’ve got a living room and kitchen, and our room has a lot of space, so it’ll be really easy to share. It’s kind of dull right now, but it’ll look great with some decoration. I’ve got all sorts of pictures to put up. And I’m sure you do too.”
“Right,” Dana said, setting her suitcases next to the bed that wasn’t covered in Ashlee’s polka-dotted sheets and purple comforter. “I, uh, I like your bedspread.”
“Thank you.”
“Purple’s my favorite color.”
Ashlee smiled. “Mine too. I have all sorts of purple accessories and stuff. You could totally borrow some, if you wanted.” One of the best ways to get to know a girl was to trade stuff back and forth. You learned her taste and got to wear some new, cute things. She and Dana, well, probably couldn’t share clothes, but jewelry and stuff was easy.
“Oh,” Dana said. “Um, thanks. Maybe.”
“I’m going to finish helping my parents unload,” Ashlee said, after a silence had settled. “But half the closet is yours, obviously.” She waited for Dana to nod and then left her in the bedroom to head back to join her parents. She actually was finished with all her bags; she just needed to unpack and put her clothes away. But she also wanted to give Dana a few minutes on her own to decompress.
She met her dad as he was bringing up the television they had bought at a local Best Buy. Ashlee couldn’t fall asleep without a TV playing in the background.
Oh no. What if Dana hated TV? Or couldn’t sleep with it on?
Well… she could ask. Hopefully Dana wouldn’t have a problem with it.
DANA SIGHED as she set her suitcases on the floor and got ready to start unpacking before she hit a snag; the closet didn’t have any hangers.
Dammit. Looked like she’d be living out of her suitcases for a few days until she bought some. On that note, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a list of all the stuff she needed to get. This was her first time living away from home, since she commuted to college to save money. She had an idea of the stuff one needed to live independently, but this would be the first time putting that into practice. Like getting hangers.
Okay. She was living alone. The bed was a mattress that hadn’t come with sheets or blankets or anything, so she’d need a duvet set. Shampoo and conditioner and stuff, which she’d figured she’d buy in Florida anyway. What else, what else….
A laundry basket. That would be important. They’d been told during opening ceremonies that each housing campus had a laundry facility. So getting a laundry basket and laundry soap early on was a good idea.
She couldn’t think of anything else off the top of her head, but she was pretty sure as the days went on, the list would get longer. For now, there were buses that left every hour to a grocery store and others that went to a supercenter, so she could hop on one of the latter to pick up what she needed, along with some groceries.
Speaking of which. Dana left the bedroom to check out the kitchen. She liked to cook, so she hoped there would be actual pots and pans and stuff. It’d be really annoying if she had to buy those herself.
Checking out the cupboards was a relief when she discovered that the place not only came with a pots and pans set and some baking pans, but dishware and cutlery, along with some other general utensils, like spatulas, a potato masher, and a ladle. Cool. She could work with that.
She turned around when she heard footsteps. Ashlee and an older man who was probably her father were coming back into the apartment, carrying a large flat box. They went straight into the bedroom. Dana followed them in to find Ashlee’s dad setting up a TV.
“You must be Dana,” Ashlee’s father said, holding out a hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
I’ll just bet, Dana thought. “Nice to meet you. Uh, we have a TV?”
“Do you mind?” Ashlee asked. “I can’t fall asleep without background noise.”
Dana gritted her teeth. She couldn’t sleep with noise or light, and a TV would be both.
But maybe it’d be okay. She tended to stay up late, so maybe she could just turn it off when she was ready to go to bed. “I’m used to sleeping without noise and stuff,” she said honestly. “But I guess I could try it.”
“Um, well, maybe yeah, we could try and then figure something out if it bothers you?”
Dana was pretty sure it would bother her. “Yeah, sure.”
“Okay.” Ashlee smiled at her. Her teeth were white and perfectly straight. And Dana doubted she’d needed braces to get them that way. “We’re going to finish getting it set up, then.”
It seemed like a dismissal. “Right,” Dana said. “Cool.” She needed to go over the bus schedules anyway. If anything, she wanted hangers so she could unpack, and the duvet set so she wouldn’t be miserable sleeping that night. And groceries would be a good idea too, obviously.
AFTER THE television was all set up, Ashlee went out to dinner with her parents before saying goodbye to them as they started the drive back to Georgia. They’d all arrived a few days early to spend some time together at the parks, so she didn’t feel so bad watching them drive away.
Then she was alone at the stairs of her apartment building, and it was time for her to really unpack and spend time with her new roommate.
Things would be fine. Dana seemed nice. Maybe a little quiet, but she was probably shy. Maybe she wasn’t a huge people person, like Ashlee was. Either way, Ashl
ee was sure she’d be able to help Dana come out of her shell a little bit.
Dana wasn’t home when Ashlee unlocked the apartment door, and her suitcases were open on the bed but not unpacked. Ashlee shrugged it off. Maybe Dana had gone out to get dinner too.
She felt a twinge of guilt at not inviting her out with them, but the dinner with her parents had also been a goodbye, and after all, she didn’t know Dana that well….
They’d have plenty of opportunities to go out for dinner together anyway. Maybe they would go out together tomorrow or something, after their first Disney day. It could be like a minicelebration that they were both here and really going to work.
Yeah, that was a nice idea. She’d bring it up to Dana when she got back. Pleased with herself, Ashlee got to unpacking her clothes.
WHEN DANA got off the bus, her arms full of bags (and one laundry basket), she had a moment of panic about how she’d lug everything to her apartment building, which was several blocks inside the housing complex area.
She ended up putting everything inside the laundry basket and hefting it. It was heavy, but she could manage, at least for a little while.
The walk back was not easy, but Dana was nothing if not strong. She finally made it to her building and stopped to take a breather before making her way up the two flights of stairs to the third floor. She set the laundry basket down, unlocked the door and pushed it open, and then picked the basket back up and shuffled inside, kicking the door closed behind her.
“Oh!” Ashlee said, poking her head out of the bedroom. “Welcome back.”
“Thanks.”
“Where’d you go?”
Dana set the full basket on the kitchen table and started to unpack her groceries: perishables in the fridge and freezer, everything else in the pantry. “Out for groceries and stuff. Hey, the fridge and freezer both have two shelves. You want the bottom ones and I’ll take the top?”
“What?”
Dana sighed. “For your food and stuff. It’d be better if we kept it all separate, right?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Sure.”
“And the pantry’s got four shelves,” Dana continued, as she put away her snacks and dry goods. She’d gotten some split peas and vegetables, and her plan for the night was to make a nice soup that would last for the week, so she wouldn’t have to worry about dinner. “Do you want to do the same thing, you take the bottom two and I’ll take the top?”
“That sounds good.”
“Cool.” She finished unpacking and took the much lighter laundry basket into the bedroom so she could start hanging up her clothes. She’d also gotten some baskets to put on the little shelf on the top of the closet, for underwear and socks, and a hanging shelf thing for clothes she wanted to keep folded, like pants.
Ashlee’s clothes were already unpacked, and her side of the closet was practically bulging with stuff, including a little accessory hanger. The bottom of her side of the closet was full of shoes.
Dana hung up her clothes and lined up her three pairs of shoes: the black dress ones she’d gotten for Disney, her sandals, and a pair of nice flats. Her sneakers she was wearing from the plane ride. She set her laundry basket on the floor next to them and then made her bed. The supercenter hadn’t had a purple bedspread, but she’d found a nice striped green one, with a white fitted sheet, top sheet, and pillowcase that all had matching green trim.
It sort of clashed with Ashlee’s bedspread, but that wasn’t all that important, was it? She didn’t think it should be.
That all done, Dana went back into the kitchen. Ashlee was leaning on the counter, doing something with her phone.
“Hey,” Dana said, “you mind if I use the kitchen for a little bit?”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Ashlee said, moving away from the counter and over to the table. She watched with apparent interest as Dana pulled out the large pot and filled it with water, then set it to boil while she assembled ingredients. “What are you making?”
“Pea soup.”
“Oh. Do you like to cook?”
“A little, yeah. And soup is, you know, super easy.”
“I’ve never cooked anything,” Ashlee said. “No one in my family really cooks.”
“Oh.” Figured. Dana pulled out a knife to start chopping onions.
Silence.
“How was your flight in?” Ashlee asked. “I know you said that you were a little nervous about it.”
“Hm?” Dana looked up from the onions. “Oh, it was fine. You were right. It wasn’t such a big deal.”
“I’m glad.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Silence. Dana concentrated on her vegetables.
“Well, uh, I’m going to go on a walk,” Ashlee said. “Get a better feel for the campus, you know?”
“Okay, sure. Have a good time.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you in a little bit, I guess.”
“Okay.”
Ashlee left, and Dana breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to take some getting used to, having someone else in her space. Dana was used to being at home, often alone, while her parents were at work. She liked her space and she liked her privacy. But this was just another experience. She was sure it’d be okay.
Still, it was nice to not have Ashlee around for a little bit. Dana took her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it, thumbing to her Pandora app before setting it on the counter. She had no idea how long Ashlee would be gone, but she could use the time to play her music and cook uninterrupted. Though there was no way she was doing any dancing when there was even a chance that Ashlee would catch her at it.
ASHLEE HAD meant it when she’d said she wanted to explore the campus and figure out where everything was, but she also maybe wanted a little bit of distance from Dana.
She didn’t get it. She’d been trying hard to be friendly and ask questions and invite conversation, but Dana just wasn’t picking up on it. Or didn’t want to.
Dana didn’t really seem to like her very much. That was it. Dana just didn’t like her.
Ashlee kicked a rock.
This sucked.
Chapter Three
GETTING READY for bed was awkward. Dana tried her best to just act normal, but being in her pajamas was… really, really uncomfortable around another person she didn’t know all that well. She tried, though. She took all her stuff into the bathroom, the shampoo, conditioner, and soap she’d bought all lined up neatly next to Ashlee’s stuff. At least there wouldn’t be any worry about mixing up their toiletries.
She took a deep breath and undressed to take a shower. She normally took one in the morning, but between the plane trip and moving in, she felt ready for one. She did forgo taking her time, though, getting in and out as fast as possible. She toweled off as best she could, braided her wet hair to keep it from getting tangled up, and put on her pajamas. It was a cute tank top and bottom set in purple plaid, super comfy, and it made her happy to put it on.
Right.
Now to leave the bathroom.
Right.
Dana released her death grip on her towel and hung it up. She grabbed up her clothes to put in her laundry basket. And opened the bathroom door.
Ashlee was on her bed watching something on TV. Cinderella, from the sound of it. Dana guessed Ashlee hadn’t been kidding about really being into Disney.
“Hey,” Dana said tentatively when Ashlee looked up.
“Um.”
Dana frowned and then… noticed where Ashlee was looking.
Wow.
Fuck you, she didn’t hiss, reining herself in. So sorry this was what I was born with. Fuck off.
This was the person she had to live with for the next five months.
“I’m going to read in the living room,” she growled, grabbing up her laptop.
“I—um—”
Dana ignored her and left the bedroom, trying not to slam the door behind her. She’d stay out in the living room as long as she had to, until Miss Perfect fell asleep. And then Dana could turn
off her stupid television and go to bed and try not to seethe.
ASHLEE WATCHED Dana go with a lump stuck in her throat. She hadn’t meant to stare. She hadn’t. She had totally meant to treat everything as normal. She’d had roommates before. She knew how to live with other girls. Dana said she was a girl, so she was a girl, right? Disney wouldn’t have let them room together if she wasn’t, right?
Right.
Anyway, aside from that, Ashlee’d spent more than half her life backstage getting ready for dance performances, surrounded by people half-dressed, girls and boys alike. She was an expert at not staring. At not making things weird.
“Making things weird” was an excellent way to get blacklisted in a close-knit community like the dancing world, especially one in the South. You only had so many people open to you as friends. If it got out someone was different or odd or… interested in certain things….
Or people….
And Ashlee liked to be liked. She loved being social, and that had nothing to do to with who she might be attracted to. But different was different. Ashlee had learned early on to avoid different if she could, because people could be hateful and you didn’t want to be the one they were throwing stones at.
Dana was different. And maybe it wasn’t a choice, just like Ashlee liking girls wasn’t a choice, but it was still there. There and obvious. So Dana was making things weird too.
Still, it was stupid of Ashlee to stare. She’d apologize tomorrow.
ASHLEE’S ALARM went off at six the next morning, and she sat up to turn it off, yawning.
“What—” Dana said sleepily from the other side of the room. “What time’s it?”
“It’s 6:00 a.m.,” Ashlee said, getting out of bed.
“We don’t have to be at the buses until nine.”
“I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“Why are you up?”
“Morning stretches,” Ashlee said, grabbing her workout clothes from the closet. “Then I’ve got to shower and get dressed and ready for our location introduction.” They were supposed to dress nicely for the introduction and tour of the parks, even if Ashlee’s regular “costume” was going to be sweats for the most part.
