Everyone knows how awkward it is to take a shit in public, but how about taking a shit in public while two people are going at it in a shower stall five feet away? Yeah. Too awkward for words to describe.

Five minutes ago, I strolled into the washroom, and the door swung shut behind me. The shower was running, squeaking, probably because they hadn't been updated since this dorm was built ages ago. The counter might have been yellowing, but it was clean, so I plopped my things onto it, blissfully unaware. I locked the stall behind me and dropped my pink flannel pants.

A hint of a moan rose up from the general direction of the showers.

I stared at the tiled floor, eyebrows squished together. Someone must've really been enjoying their shower. But who was I to judge? I habitually bawled my eyes out in the shower. My brows relaxed as I leaned back and crossed my ankles.

"Harder, baby!" squealed a high pitched voice. It was followed by an... enthusiastic moan.

A flush of adrenaline tingled through me. I let out a bark of laughter. 

There were two other people in the adjoining showers making sounds that were clearly not normal shower sounds. Were those even normal sex sounds? Maybe my university decided to film a porno in the showers without telling anyone. At this point, that seemed more likely than this scenario.

She moaned louder over the spray of the shower.

I blinked rapidly, then openly stared at the motivational quote slapped on the blue door of the stall, likely by my RA.

Life is not a fairy tale. If you lose your shoe at midnight, you're drunk.

I rolled my eyes. This was not happening right now. Instead of staring at useless quotes, I needed to hightail it out of here without running into Romeo and Juliet.

"Oh my God!" She gasped.

My chest tightened. I pulled in, then slowly released a deep breath. 

I just needed to dash out of the stall, wash my hands (because ew, who doesn't wash their hands), and speed walk back to the safety of my dorm room, avoiding all conflict. 

Easy, right?

Well, if there were space in the small stall, I would've been pacing. "Just do it," I said under my breath and in one fluid motion, unlocked the stall. The door swung open.

The steady stream of water screeched to a halt.

My already racing heart was about to explode. Body ready to bolt, my leg muscles tightened. Shit!

I rushed to the sink, movements jerky. Turn on faucet. Ouch, hot. Wrong handle. Press soap dispenser. Wash hands as quickly as humanly possible and–

The curtain separating the showers from the sinks, toilets, and urinals was pulled back, revealing a girl from down the hall. She gave a broad smile and adjusted the towel covering all her important bits. 

"Oh, hey Nat," she said.

My face, neck, and ears became impossibly hot, and hands froze in place under the stream of water. I tried to return the smile, but it might've come across as a grimace as I fought to make a coherent sentence come out of my mouth.

Luckily, she was already on her way out the door.

The tension gripping my muscles released its hold, and shaky laughter escaped my lips. I briefly closed my eyes as I ripped off a piece of paper towel to dry my hands. That was painless.

"Something funny?"

My eyes flew open faster than an extreme couponer on Black Friday. I turned away, in the direction of the trash.

"Nope, nothing is funny at all in my life currently, at this very moment, what about you?" I said. 

Duh, two people were in the shower, and the second person just had to be Tyler Sawyer. I mean, I shouldn't have been surprised, but now I was definitely deleting his list. I shot another glance his way.

He cocked his head, gaze direct.

Mouth unusually dry, I avoided his probing eye contact.

But, I ran into the other issue of staring at the rest of his chiselled body. The droplets of water running down his abs were especially fascinating, seeing as they led my eyes down a path that hit a white towel wrapped around his waist.

I jerked my attention back up to his face, a face that radiated superiority.

"Whatever you say," he said, pink lips curled into a knowing smirk. He turned to leave, posture perfect with his shoulder back and neck exposed. Well, a whole lot more than his neck exposed.

My lips pressed into a white slash. I threw out the paper towel, wanting to wipe that smirk off Tyler Sawyer's face.

"Next time put a sock on the door," I mumbled to his back. Sarcasm might've been the lowest form of wit, but made me feel like I had the last word without the actual confrontation.

"Sorry, did you say something?" he said and turned back around.

I yelped, then gave him an incredulous stare. 

"What?" I said, choking on my words. I mentally cringed. Maybe my mumble wasn't as mumble-like as I thought. "Uh, I said that I hope you have a good night."

"Sure you did, Little Miss Sunshine," he said, giving a pointed look at my shirt that read, radiate positivity, before he left. The door actually shut behind him this time.

I grabbed my toothbrush using unnecessary force, almost snapping the flimsy plastic. My face scowled back at me in the mirror as my mind mulled over the past fifteen minutes. Jerk.

Finally alone, I brushed my teeth and washed my face. 

I rushed down the hall back to my room because I didn't want to run into anyone else on my floor. It was around twelve, so it wasn't likely I would've run into anyone, seeing as the floor parties died down around eleven. People didn't trickle back to the dorms until two.

I had my schedule down pat, and usually, everything went according to plan. 

But, Tyler Sawyer decided to throw a wrench in everything.

I shut the door to my room behind me and put all my things away. Hopping into bed, I snuggled under the mound of blankets, warmth seeping back into my toes.

Only then did I let my head fall back, thankful for my single room. 

I'd had my fill of people for the day. I thought orientation week was busy, but this was the longest week of my life. From finding all my classes to the club fair to meeting a million people, my first week of classes had been one hurdle after another. So, even though every other freshman was probably having a wild night out, I was utterly exhausted after this week of trying to get ahead on work.

I curled into myself, chest caving in.

My phone buzzed on the bedside table, the light illuminating the room.

A bolt of irritation hit me. 

I reached out to turn the thing off, but when I squinted to read the small text, I was greeted by the name of the sender. 

Mia Chabra. My sister. 

A heaviness settled in my stomach. You better be out having fun tonight, girl! But not too much fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do😉 And, call me soon! I want to hear all about your first week of classes!

I put the phone down and considered agreeing to call her, then not following through. 

Biting a hangnail, I picked the phone back up and typed a quick response. I'll call you on Sunday if that works for you.

The whoosh of the iMessage sending echoed in the silent room.

I scrubbed a hand over my face, knowing the call would be like every other time I talked to my sister.

Voices from the hall rung clear in my room through the paper-thin walls. Someone stumbled into the wall outside my room, the thud sounding painful. But, soon enough, there was a smattering of giggles.

I'd also avoided Mia's comments on what my Friday night activities should be, namely not with my good friend, sleep. 

I tried to imagine what she would say if I told her about the awkward interaction I just had. She'd probably tell me to stop overthinking everything. As if she understood my Type A personality. Which reminded me, I had to delete Tyler Sawyer's list.

I opened my notes app and scrolled to the first entry. I scanned the old list, made my first night here.

tyler sawyer

pros:

- hotter than sebastian stan combined with ryan reynolds. heck, maybe even hotter than ian somerhalder, if that's even humanly possible

- has a picture holding cute dog on ig

- DIMPLES

cons:

- who actually refers to themselves as their last name? sawyer reminds me of tom sawyer the mouse thing in that disney movie

- arrogant hockey boy

- will prob never actually talk to him

- tbh too many to count i give up

I highlighted the whole thing, deleted it, and promptly fell asleep.

Wrong. Again.

With a twitchy feeling in me, my legs crossed and uncrossed, unable to stay still. 

I glanced back at the offending string of questions, and slammed my Calculus textbook shut, shoving it to the corner of my desk.

"Ugh," I groaned, rubbing my brow to ward off a headache. 

I'd spent my whole Sunday working ahead in my hardest subject. I was either stuck, or my brain was rebelling at the amount of information I was attempting to shove into it. Either way, it was probably time to call it quits for the night.

Leaning back in my chair, my gaze drifted out the window.

There was a roaring bonfire in the quad with groups of students huddled around it. It was early September, but as soon as dusk hit, the temperature here dropped. 

A girl, bundled in a blanket, skewered a marshmallow and stuck it in the fire. When it caught aflame, she shrieked and pulled it out. The boy next to her grabbed the stick from her and blew out the fire before she could do any damage waving that flaming marshmallow around. She kissed him on the cheek and ate the marshmallow, peeling back the charred layer as he wrapped his arm around her.

Ribs squeezing tight, I shoved my hands in the pocket of my hoodie.

It was a commonly known fact that marshmallows roast better in the embers of the fire, turning that perfect golden brown with a gooey centre. 

Plus, waving a fiery stick around probably wasn't the brightest thing to do. But, in my experience, boys didn't really go for the brightest of girls, so she had that working for her.

My phone rang, shattering the silence of my Sunday evening.

I darted over to my door to pull it closed. I left it open whenever I was in my room, like everyone else on my floor. That made it easy to chat whenever or find someone to go grab a bite with. But, I didn't want this call broadcasted for everyone to hear.

It rang again, this time vibrating in my hand.

I climbed into bed with my tablet in my other hand but kept shifting, unable to get comfortable.

The shrill noise sounded again.

Plastering on a smile, I picked up the phone. Even though Mia wasn't FaceTiming me, she said she could tell when I wasn't smiling on the phone. It was one of her many talents.

"Hey, Nat! It's Mia," she said.

I hesitated to tell her that, yes, I know, I have caller ID. But, instead, I said, "Hi, Mia, how're you doing?"

"I'm so great right now, Elijah just went out to get some groceries so I thought I'd call and catch up with you. We just got back from his family's cabin, we went on a little getaway for our three-year anniversary," she said.

My eyes narrowed. Mia never really called just for calling's sake. Or to "catch up." But, she did always give me way more information than I really needed or wanted, so at least that stayed consistent.

"Congrats on three years, that's great. I'm doing good, busy," I said and picked at the fraying edge of one of my blankets.

"Busy's good," she deadpanned.

"Yeah, yesterday I did some really fascinating reading on–" I started to tell her more, but she cut me off.

"You know, Mom actually has to tell you something, so you should call her," she said. And with that, her real reason for calling was revealed.

"Why can't you just tell me what Mom told you to tell me like she always does?" I said.

"Nat, call her, okay? It's about your business stuff."

She knew if she said that, I'd call Mom immediately. "Right, then I'll call her as soon as we finish talking."

I was ready to pull the phone away from my ear and call Mom. My business was my baby.

As if she could tell I wanted to hang up, she said, "Hey, not so fast! I have questions for you."

I straightened. Uh oh. Immediately my thoughts went to The Bathroom Incident, as I decided to call it. How could she know about that?

"What did you get up to Friday night? Anything fun? I need to live vicariously through someone," she said. I slumped into my plush back pillow. Of course, she didn't know about The Bathroom Incident.

"I actually stayed in on Friday, I was so tired after my first full week of classes. Plus, it was club week, and I signed up for–" I said, but she cut me off again.

"Natasha, you really need to stop being so scared of putting yourself out there, using all your silly pro/con lists. Gosh, you've never even had a boyfriend. All you really accomplish is pushing people away–" she went on, but I stopped listening.

My pulse sped up as she preached to me. I cracked my knuckles, fighting the urge to argue with her. Mia droned on about her fantastic university experience and the many friends she made.

Who was she to stomp on my pro/con lists? So I liked to think things through, sue me. They'd served me well this far. But, her little boyfriend dig hit a little too close to home.

Mia continued on, giving anecdotes and going on random side tangents.

There was a thickness in my throat as I half-listened to her try and guide me when she so clearly had no idea about my interests or personality. We clashed in so many ways.

Extrovert, meet introvert.

Emotion, meet logic.

Mia, meet Nat.

"Hello, Nat? Do you understand what I'm telling you?" she said, finishing her latest tangent on how much Elijah has improved her life.

"Oh, yeah. For sure. Thanks for the advice," I lied. Mia meant well.

"Anytime little sis," she said, "I actually was just talking to..." she continued on, telling me about all the details of her life. I picked up my iPad and doodled with my Apple pencil, hand gliding over the smooth screen.

I'd learned long ago that Mia was a great sharer, not so much a listener. It'd never really bugged me, but I'd never really wanted to talk to her before without her quick fixes or advice that just wouldn't work for me.

A sigh rose from deep in me unconsciously.

"Did you say something?" Mia said.

"No," I said, wrapping my arms around my knees. "You were talking about the date you were planning to surprise Elijah on his birthday?" I prompted.

"Right!" she said, her words blurring together as the minutes passed.

The seeds of her words took root in my brain, though, taking hold.

I crossed my arms, frowning.

I did not push people away. She barely knew me. I could have a boyfriend if I wanted one, and I'd prove it to her.

Although, as much as I hated to admit it, sometimes, there was the little voice in my head that said, maybe I was just designed to be alone.

So... I just shared my writing for the first time!🙈 What did you think? What are your initial thoughts about Nat? Are you going to keep reading? (Okay, I'll stop bombarding you with questions now, but seriously, lemme know).

Enough about the book. I started posting my story here because I want to get to know you too. So, tell me about yourself, if you're comfortable!

I'll start. I'm Nikki and I love everything reading-and-writing-related. To date, I've never made pro/con lists about my crushes, but I have sent many a drunk text. I'm all about everything from contemporary to sci-fi to fantasy, but always appreciate a healthy dose of romance in everything. I have tons of knowledge from a lifetime of reading. Some random facts about me are that I'm from Canada and I'm a university student.

Now tell me about you! Where are you from? Are you in school and what are you studying/studied (econ student here!)?

Oh, and how could I forget some shameless self promo... here's my obligatory reminder to please vote for JPS and add it to your reading list. And, if you're feeling so inclined, give me a follow so you can be notified whenever I have important info about the story to share. Okay, now that's enough of all that, I feel so conceited and awkward asking you to follow me.

But, in all seriousness, I'm so excited for you to come along with me on Nat's story. Sit down, grab a cup of tea (or your beverage of choice), and get reading with me, you lovely human.

You can also read the entire Just Press Send series on YONDER, the next-generation reading app from the Wattpad family. Link to read here: https://yonder.onelink.me/6vpb/46a0c21e