Myka awoke in the morning and her first impulse was to see if her new roommate was awake yet.

She was curious if those "jet-black tresses" would be a tangled mess of morning hair. But she couldn't tell because all that was sticking out above the blanket was the very top of Helena's head. The shape of her body was outlined by the rise in the bedspread, and she was curled up like a puppy.

Sweet.

Myka checked the orientation schedule on her phone and saw that their first event (a lecture about alcohol safety split up by gender, sure to be tons of fun) was in a little less than an hour. She climbed down from her bed and approached Helena's, which hadn't been lofted, so that she could wake her.

"Helena?" She tentatively whispered her name, hoping in the moment that she was a light sleeper. When she got nothing in return, she lifted the corner of the bedspread and placed her hand on Helena's shoulder. She noticed small freckles under her fingertips and the imperfection made her lips twitch upward for just a second.

As she began to gently shake Helena and say her name again, Helena shot up, violently sucking in air through her nostrils, as if Myka had awoken her by throwing cold water on her.

Her hair indeed still looked fantastic, but her face was marked with confusion and Myka let out a cackle, which she quickly suppressed. Helena just looked at her bleary-eyed and said nothing.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I just wanted to let you know that we have our first orientation assembly in about forty-five minutes. I just didn't want you to sleep through it."

"Oh… yes, thank you." Myka noted that Helena's morning voice was about three octaves lower than her normal one. Well, alright, that was an exaggeration, but it was deep and crackly, like she had been smoking in her sleep.

"No problem." And she walked out of the room to go get a shower.

So, sexy morning voice as well? Girl was the whole package. Myka was mentally preparing herself to be sexiled for the majority of the year. Thank god Pete and Steve had a couch in their dorm room.

Upon Myka's return, Helena was already gone, but had left a post-it on the door.

"Thanks for waking me up. –H"

Myka had just assumed that they would walk over to the assembly together, but if Helena didn't want to, that was fine. They were roommates, not friends.

She picked up her phone to text one of the boys and she already had a message from Steve waiting for her.

"Hey Myka, Pete and I are getting breakfast then heading to our assembly. Catch you later."

Right. Walking over by herself, it would be no big deal. She picked out her clothes (pretending that she didn't try just a little bit to mimic Helena's comfortable look from yesterday was a lie) and changed into her jeans, slightly over-sized sweater and the short lace-up leather boots that Tracy had probably already realized she'd stolen.

It was a start.

"Not that it matters," Myka assured herself as she looked in the mirror. "You are an intelligent, interesting woman. People will like you. Just be yourself." She stood a little taller, then realized there was a stain on her sweater. "Typical," she said as she rolled her eyes, but didn't change, and left for the assembly.

Over the following weeks, Myka and Helena only saw each other on occasion. They had gotten very good at avoiding one another, though Myka wasn't sure if it was intentional or not. She caught Helena in the room at strange intervals and, often, Helena didn't even sleep there. Or if she did, she would get back after Myka had fallen asleep and was gone again before Myka woke up.

She would look down at Helena's bed each morning and find herself inexplicably disappointed when the girl wasn't there.

It barely felt like she had a roommate at all.

But Myka understood. Classes here were no joke. She, for one, was completely overwhelmed. She was studying biology with the intention to go to medical school after she graduated. So far it was all calculus, genetics, chemistry… She had yet to feel particularly passionate about her studies, but she assumed that would come in time. She was, however, tired of memorizing things and longed for the days of reading for pleasure.

She had asked her advisor if she could take an elective in the English department and was all but laughed out of the room. And every week she intended to return to the book club, but the anxiety that welled up every time she thought of it kept her from going back.

Pete had started seeing a girl named Kelly (who had been Myka's genetics study buddy, but boyfriends trump study buddies). Pete was also rushing a fraternity and Steve had met a computer science major named Claudia with whom he was spending most of his free time. Myka liked them both very much and was happy that everyone was settling into their new lives, but she did, more often than not, feel pretty isolated. She had come here for change, to have a fresh start, and she found herself falling into her bad habits from home.

One Sunday evening in early October, sitting in her room alone after a weekend of studying for a test that she still didn't feel prepared for, she called her parents.

She and her mom discussed her classes for a while, her mom filled her in on Tracy and what she was up to (she also mentioned that Tracy had thrown a ridiculous fit when she realized Myka had taken her boots… oops), and updated her on extended family gossip.

She didn't hear the dorm room door open quietly, and, as her desk was turned away from it, also didn't see Helena come in while she was listening to her mom animatedly telling stories.

When Myka's dad got on the phone, his first question was about getting her a flight home for Thanksgiving.

Myka's muscles tensed and she took a beat before she cautiously chose her words. "I'd really like to come home Dad, but I just don't think it's feasible. We only get a couple of days, and I have tests and papers due the next week. And with finals being so close after…"

She trailed off, not knowing what to say and desperately not wanting to get in a fight. There was tense silence on the other end of the phone before her father simply said,

"Your mother would really like to see you. But if you don't think we're important enough to spend your time on, then fine. Good night."

And he hung up on her.

Her father hung up on her.

Well, at least he had said "good night."

She had called them looking for the familiarity of home, looking for anything to hold onto, and instead, she felt even more alone than before. Before she knew it, she was openly weeping, her head down on her desk.

Shortly after she began sobbing, she felt a hand on her back, rubbing small, reassuring circles into her skin.

"Just take a deep breath, everything's going to be fine."

Her voice was calm and steady and Myka's muscles began to relax as her sniffles got farther and farther apart.

Helena handed her a tissue and stood there in silence for what seemed like ages. Myka couldn't even be bothered to be embarrassed, she was just too tired.

When she finally felt confident enough to speak, she didn't look at Helena, but rather just relayed the facts. "Sorry… that was my dad. He's… well, he's my dad."

"No need to explain, Myka. I've got one too."

Myka's eyes shot up to meet Helena's and she saw a deep understanding in them. And her guilt came on quickly, "Yeah, no, I'm sorry. Of course, I'm not the only one with parents… I'm sorry, I'm not usually this emotional."

Helena cut her off, "Myka, I don't know if you realize this, but you've said the words 'I'm sorry' in every conversation we've ever had."

Myka, of course, hadn't realized that, which just made her want to apologize further, but she held it back. "Well, to be fair, we haven't had that many conversations."

Helena chuckled, "True."

Helena retracted her hands that had been resting on Myka's back and Myka found herself desperately wishing that Helena had just left them where they were. She hadn't realized how much she missed human contact.

As Helena walked back over to her desk, she asked, "Myka, I don't have any plans for the evening, would you just like to talk for a while?"

The tears started to well up in Myka's eyes again. "Very much so."

They spent the next several hours talking about everything. Their families, what growing up in England was like, why Helena had come to school in the United States (she too had wanted a fresh start).

But mostly, they talked about books. It was amazing. For the first time, Myka didn't feel nerdy or strange for loving books and characters so intensely. And she actually wanted to share her thoughts. Helena had all of these beautiful, simple nuggets of brilliance to add to Myka's monologues in favor of or against this or that story and they blew Myka's mind.

It was close to 3 a.m. and they were getting loopy. They were lying head to toe on Helena's bed, both aware that they were going to regret the decision to stay up so late when they had to get up for class. But neither wanted to sleep. There were too many things to say.

"You know, I've always resented the term fiction." Helena said, matter-of-factly.

Myka just started giggling, "Yeah, totally, that's a thing that tons of people resent."

"No, but really..." Helena stopped, thinking to herself and Myka sat up when it seemed that Helena wasn't going to expound on her comment. She flipped all the way around and laid on her side, putting her head next to Helena's on the pillow.

"Tell me."

"Fiction implies that something's been 'made up.' Just because something isn't fact doesn't mean it isn't true."

Myka smiled wider than she had in weeks. Her mind was racing, wanting to respond to this new idea, but even still, she was drifting off to sleep.

Her left hand was placed on top of her leg and as her eyes closed, she felt Helena put her right hand on top of it. Helena's lips just barely brushed Myka's hairline and she squeezed her hand, reassuringly.

"Good night, Myka."

"Good night, Helena."

Maybe it wasn't going to be such a long year after all.