Mommy

"Took you long enough," Carmen snapped when I entered the dorm.

She sat in front of the only mirror in the room, right by her unmade bed. Sporting a cream bra a short shorts, she brushed her already glowing hair.

I dropped my keys on one of two bedside tables separating our beds.

"I was in class," I said. "Are you ready for us to go eat?"

My stomach growled at the thought of potential food. I didn't want to go eat this morning before class because of the promised we made to each other on the road to the campus.

"Oh, I already ate." She continued to brush her hair as if she was just talking about the weather or something.

"I thought we were going to go eat together. You promised that before we even got here. We made a pack to always eat together for at least the first month until we felt more comfortable here."

She threw me a dirty look in the mirror. "You're acting like such a spoiled little brat. You were expecting me to spend the entire time without food. It's already noon for God's sake."

"I haven't eaten either because I wanted to keep my promise," I crossed my arms over my chest. "You should stop making promises if you're not going to keep them."

"I promised to eat with you until I felt comfortable enough around campus. Guess what? I'm already comfortable so I'm off the hook."

She grabbed the curling iron then turned her music on to end the conversation. My anger and disappointment was drown out under Katy Perry's Hot and Cold. It was moments like that which made me doubt our friendship. Carmen wasn't a bad person but sometimes she'd act like the she was the only girl in the world that mattered, anyone else was there to follow and server her.

I dropped the backpack on the floor as I laid on my small bed, looking up at the white ceiling. The wall felt like they were closing in on me. I wasn't used to small spaces since I grew up in a bedroom five times as large as this one. College reduced me to life as a poor. I had never slept on a twin bed before. My bed had always been king size, covered in the smoothest silk my mother could purchase, with soft pillows under my head which felt like pure feathers.

I draped my arms over my eyes, summoning the picture a particular set of brown eyes melting me in place. A slight change in the lighting made me uncover my eyes. Carmen was standing over me, dressed in leggings and tank top.

"You're going to class like that?" I frowned.

"Duhh, why do you think I'm dressed like that?" She flicked her hair back over her shoulders. "Anyways, about Friday night. I'm really sorry for the way I acted, you were a really good friend coming back to get me so fast. I shouldn't have been mad at you for leaving, you were never fun enough for parties anyway."

I raised an eyebrow in disbelief and sat up straight. Carmen never apologized unless there was something else coming. She was going to ask for something. I knew it. I also knew I would succumb to it regardless of how reluctant I may be of it at first.

"Don't worry about it," I said coolly, waiting for her to throw the curve ball.

"Why did you leave so fast anyways?" She put her hands on her hips. "I know you don't really do anything when you go to parties. You just sit on a danm corner and embarrass the hell out of me but you've never just left before."

I shrugged, "I guess I got more bored than ever. There wasn't anyone I knew."

"So you didn't make any new acquaintance? Like some idiot you happened to give my number instead of yours?"

"I didn't give anyone your number, I swear." I did make a new acquaintance but I didn't give him anyone's number.

"Well anyways, I got a call from some guy claiming to be your friend. I think his name was..."

My heartbeat quickened, my breathe came in short waves. Please be him, please be him.

"...Joey or something like that."

"What?" I deflated. "Are you sure?"

"I don't know and I don't care. The guy sounded poor anyways."

"How can you tell from a simple phone call?"

"It's obvious, Irene. Poor people always sound so annoying and they beg for everything. You have to know this thing if you don't want to get trapped by one of them."

"Isn't that highly stereotypical?"

She sat by me, her arm draping over my shoulders. "I'm speaking for your own good, Irene. Not everyone on this campus is here for the same thing as us – to gain an education to be able to make an honest living. Many of them are here to trap some rich, naïve girl. Your parents have their own car company, they're one of the richest people in Utah. Back home, almost everyone was in the same social status as us so we didn't have to worry about them wanting to steal from us. But here is a different life. You have to be careful, Irene. Those scholarship kids who put on an air of highly educated people are just better informed thieves. They want to reach the high life in the quickest ways possible and we are their perfect ticket. As if our donations and taxes weren't enough to feed them."

"I don't think Joseph's like that."

"So you did make a new friend?"

"Well...yes. His name is Joseph and he's totally hot. Like smoking hot."

"How much does he got?"

"Of what?"

"Money, Irene. How much is he worth?"

"You can't put a price tag on somebody, Carmen. That's terrible."

She rolled her eyes at me. "You're so naïve. Of course you can put a price tag on people. That's how you find out who you need to hang out with and who to stay away from. The more someone has, the more he will be able to help you in the future."

I felt a knife cut through me. How could she say that? We were best friend? Did she forget who she was talking to? "Is that how you chose to be my friend?"

She got up to throw a last glance over her outfit in the mirror. "Of course not. You and I are the real thing. We don't need money to stay friends, trust me."

She grabbed her keys her bed, "I have to go but I'll talk to you later. We can go look for hotties together."

She blew me a kiss before she closed the door and left me with my thoughts.

I couldn't help the confusion flowing through my mind. She was right about people in the world wanting nothing but an easy way to the top but did that apply to Joseph? He was so sweet following me around just to carry my bag. Even though I kept pushing him away, I wanted him to stay close enough for me to see. I wanted him to be thinking about me every passing seconds just like I did.

I was being crazy. I was thinking like a teenage girl experiencing her first crush. That was totally wrong. He wasn't my first crush. I'd had boyfriends since middle school but Joseph felt like the only real one. He felt like my first. The other boys were mainly just for show or to please Carmen. Joseph was different. He made me think about things I'd never thought before.

I'd only known him for less than a week and I was already doodling his name and mine on my notebooks. I was picturing myself in a white dress in a Cathedral with him at the end of the aisle. I'd caught myself in class doing it. How embarrassing? I was supposed to be a grown woman but I was doing what little girls do. It was a matter of time before I would attach my name to his last name and declare myself a Mrs.

My phone's vibration echoed in the near empty room. Carmen and I hadn't entirely unpacked yet. There were still piles of boxes under our beds and by the small closets the room came with. It wasn't due to small time frame or anything like that. We were too lazy to get to it especially since neither of us was used to do anything that resemble labor work like lifting boxes. That was the butler's or the maid's job.

My mother's face appeared in the screen, her constant frown decorating her face. I turned the phone face down so I could hide her judgmental eyes.

Another wave of vibration picked up as soon as the other one ended. Then another, and another one. They were soon interlacing with each other. I could no longer determine when one finished nor when the other started. I plunged my head under the pillow bared of a pillow case.

I waited for them to end but they never did. My mother could be incessant sometimes.

I got up the bed to heat up some noodle soup since my stomach was pretty much eating itself. There was a restaurant not far from here but I was too tired to reach there without food so I had to settle for concentrated food. I poured the liquid on some plastic bowl that I dug up in one of the boxes yesterday morning. I sat down on the bed to calmly eat my lunch.

The vibration picked up again, making it difficult for me to concentrate on eating. I burned my tongue more than once and I dirtied my dress.

Finally I picked it up, readied to throw virtual punches if I had to. "What mother?"

"Umm, is this a bad time?" answered a deep voice.

That was not my mother. I put the bowl of soup on the bedside table.

"Who is this?" I asked even though I'd already guess who the owner of the voice was. There weren't two like it.

"It's Joseph, the guy from this morning. The one who helped you with your backpack," he said as if I needed help to jog my memory of him. He had never left my mind in the first place.

"Oh, hi," I answered calmly while hyperventilating on my bed. "How did you get my number?"

"I kind of asked your friend. I hope that's cool with you. I don't want to come off as a stalker or anything."

"You're not a stalker...yet but I think you're in your way there."

I liked that idea no matter how idiotic it sounded to wish for someone to stalk you. I knew Joseph wouldn't hurt me so it wouldn't hurt to have him everywhere I went.

"I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to talk to you so..."

"So you asked someone else to give you my number which I specifically said I wouldn't give you?"
"Umm, I didn't think of it that way. I can lose it if you really want me to not have it."

I laughed, "You're being ridiculous. I'm not that horrible, I wouldn't tell you to do that after you went through all that trouble to have it. I can't think of Carmen being easy on you."

"I think she wanted to jump through the phone to choke me to death. I don't know why she gave it to me at the end but I'm glad she did."

My grin fell. I knew why Carmen gave him my number. It was certainly not to hook us up. She wanted me to personally cut him off. She wanted me to prove that I was listening to her.

Normally, I would do exactly that. I would follow her instructions to the letter because she was my friend. I would not doubt her reasons. She was my best friend so she certainly wouldn't make me do anything that will inevitably hurt me.

However, this felt different. Joseph didn't feel like a danger I needed to run away. "I'm glad she did too."

I laid on the bed, stomach down, my feet kicking in the air, and my fingers playing with the strands of my hair. I was the epitome of a grown up 12 years old.