The first few weeks of school were near disastrous for Lydia. She couldn't find her classes, kept getting confused and couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. All she wanted to do was see Beetlejuice. She tried every weekend to come home, but when she planned on it, something would always fall through. She would have a test or paper due that she could not miss and she would have to suffer the long weekends alone in her room. She couldn't sleep and hardly ate, but she consumed herself in her work. It was her only distraction, her only comfort when she was away.
Her roommate, Meghan, cast an indifferent eye towards her. She couldn't understand why Lydia couldn't get her head on straight. This was college, supposed to be the best years of their lives and Lydia was digging an early grave for herself.
"Lydia, why don't you take a break and go down to get something to eat?" She urged, breaking Lydia's concentration on her notes.
"I'm not very hungry Meghan, just go without me." She said, slightly irritated, but more exhausted.
"I'm not hungry either, but you are wasting away. You need to relax, go out for a few drinks. Get plastered for God's sakes and start having some fun." Meghan never studied and stayed out until all hours of the night at one party or another.
"I don't want to."
"Okay you have to tell me what's up with you. Why are you killing yourself?" Meghan said in a forceful voice. Lydia slowly turned her head and Meghan was a little shocked to see dark bruises underneath her eyes. When Lydia first arrived she was withdrawn and sad, but Meghan could see that she was very pretty. Now her cheeks were almost a grayish pale and her eyes seemed sunken in. Her eyes were dull and red from crying and lack of sleep.
"I miss him so much." She said in a shaky voice. She knew that she was going to start crying again, but she couldn't imagine how. She would have thought that all of her tears would have been long gone by now.
"Miss who?" Meghan urged her sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Lydia's desk.
"BJ."
"Who's that?"
"He's my boyfriend. I had to leave him to come here and I can't stand it anymore." She felt like he was a drug that she needed in order to survive.
"Why don't you go visit him?" She urged in a soft, comforting voice.
"I have all this work to do, I can't leave until it's done, besides tomorrow's Friday and I have to go to class." She sounded miserable. Meghan thought about that for a moment and then snapped her fingers and popped up, pushing Lydia out of her chair.
"You need to see him girl, or you will be six feet under before midterms." She said typing furiously at the computer.
"What are you doing?" Lydia asked sitting down on her bed after being pushed off. Meghan just continued typing and then hit send. She turned around with a big smile on her face.
"You can thank me now."
"Thank you for what?" Lydia raised an eyebrow looking at her roommate.
"I just sent an email to all of your professors saying that you were deathly ill and couldn't make it to class and I asked for an extension on your papers." She said smiling. Lydia didn't know whether to be amused or upset and began pacing the room.
"That means they all think that I'm going to die. What am I going to tell them when I come back?" She asked placing her hands on her hips.
"Lydia, if you don't go see that man of yours now you will be dead. You need this break to relax and hopefully when you come back you'll be a little bit better." Meghan grabbed Lydia's suitcase and began throwing clothes in it. Everything was happening so fast that Lydia barely had time to react to anything. She took her suitcase and was shoved out the door.
"I don't want to see you until Monday." Meghan said and waved goodbye. It wasn't until Lydia was halfway down the road that she realized that she would be seeing Beetlejuice for a whole three days.