Free Second Chances by Eliza Lentzski

chopsticks into the takeout container. “I texted a few times to see if you wanted to order Chinese with me.”
    “I was in the library.  Down in the basement stacks.” The lies easily flowed off her tongue. “I must not get reception down there.”
    “In the library on a weekend?” Meghan clucked her tongue disapprovingly. “Girl, we’ve gotta get you a social life.”
    Allison tensed and rapidly worked the muscles in the back of her jaw to avoid snapping at her roommate. “Midterms are coming up,” she reminded her in a strained voice. “I don’t want to fall behind.”
    “All right.” Meghan shrugged and dropped the topic. “I’ll be watching a movie in my room if you need me.”
     
     
    Allison released a long, tired sigh and let her shoulders slump when Meghan turned the corner to go back to her room.  She took off her boots and methodically lined them up next to the other shoes near the front door.  She walked past the kitchen and wrinkled her nose at the permeating scent of Chinese takeout coming from the room.  Meghan must have ordered stinky tofu again.  Both of her roommates hated cooking for themselves; it was a wonder they weren’t 100 pounds heavier and perpetually poor from all the delivery food.
    Allison walked past Meghan and then Brice’s bedroom door.   Brice’s door, unlike Meghan’s, was open and the room was dark.  That her second roommate wasn’t home didn’t surprise her.  Out of the three of them, Brice was the most social and was hardly home, especially on the weekends.  Shortly after the three women had moved in together, Allison had given up trying to keep track of whomever Brice was currently dating.  Her bedroom might as well have had a revolving door.
    But Allison didn’t live with the other girls because she was hoping to make best friends in college who’d be bridesmaids at her hypothetical wedding.  They paid their rent and their share of the utility bills on time, and that’s all she asked.  College was temporary – 4 years of her life.  She had no disillusions that she’d find, form, and nurture any lasting relationships during college, romantic or otherwise.
    She made her way to the bathroom to wash her face, taking the time to go through her nightly ritual of removing her make-up and brushing her teeth.  When her face was scrubbed clean, she stared at her pale reflection.  She never wore too much make-up.  She didn’t consider herself high maintenance.  Plus, her mother had always told her that only ugly girls needed make-up; and Allison Hoge was not an ugly girl.
    As she continued to contemplate her reflection, a sharp sob bubbled up her throat and escaped past perfect teeth and parted lips.  She grasped onto the edge of the bathroom vanity for stability, surprised by the intensity of the emotion.
    With nothing else to occupy her mind, she finally allowed herself the one realization that she had shoved into a dark corner of her mind until she could no longer deny it.
    She had kissed Reagan Murphy.
    Safely tucked away in her bedroom and hidden by darkness, the tears started to freely fall.
     
    +++++

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    Allison walked two fingertips over the curve of an antique globe near her seat at her favorite coffee place in Providence.  Unlike a carbon copy coffee chain, she preferred this shop for the randomness of its décor.  And as an added bonus, no one ever bothered her to relinquish her table, even hours after she’d finished her coffee. 
    She love d the look of the antique globe – slightly yellowed by age – but it no longer served its purpose. It was obsolete. Her fingers traced over the country names carefully scrawled on the map.  Czechoslovakia.  Formosa.  Countries and territories that no longer existed.  Geography had always troubled her; it wasn’t stable or fixed, but fluid and ever changing. That’s why she loved words, particularly poetry, even if her father scoffed at it as a