Chapter Text
The first day was a rainy one. Marianne was moving into a new college dorm room, and fate had it so that the weather would be against her. She arrived at the building and her clothes, hair and bags were soaking wet from the rain. She didn’t stop for a second to assess the damage though, that could wait for a throughout revision once she arrived at the safety of her room. Besides she encountered an… interference with her plan. As she was arriving at the door of the building, there was someone else also entering. The person was wearing a raincoat with a hood, so Marianne couldn’t see their face, so her eyes were immediately drawn to the hand that lingered on the door to leave it open for her. She continued to walk steadily through the halls, focused on arriving and only that. She had memorized her room’s number so she didn’t even need to check twice. However, as hard as she tried to not get distracted, there was one major distraction right in front of her, walking right in front of her. Luckily the mysterious person ahead of Marianne was walking just as fast. All she could see of this person was the back of her head and her back, which wasn’t a lot, considering the person was pretty well covered by a dark green raincoat. A few moments later, the hood of the raincoat finally fell back and Marianne was greeted by the sight of golden locks of hair, messily tied on this woman’s head.
Marianne was pretty much breathless, and starting to feel an odd and confusing sensation by chasing after this woman, but she was certain she was going in the right direction. They were just headed the same way. But when the stranger started walking faster, something inside Marianne pushed her to keep up. Her body was tense, her back starting to ache from carrying her bags, she was uncomfortable in her wet clothes and for some reason, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the back of the head of this complete stranger. Until finally, stopping suddenly as if she had knocked an invisible wall, the woman stopped and turned to a door, hastily opened it and took a step forward, but hesitated in the doorway. Marianne stopped right along with her, glanced at the number on the door her face contorted in an awkward grimace, confused for not knowing whether to smile or frown at what looked like an unexpected coincidence. It was her room. It was their room. Room 28.
The woman turned around. “You were following me,” she stated.
A sigh escaped Marianne’s lips. Surely because of her race under the rain and down these halls and the abrupt stop. She didn’t stop to think it might have been mostly because of the sight of the gorgeous woman that stood in front of her. She couldn’t form many coherent thoughts at the moment either. The stranger turned out to be a strikingly beautiful woman. The divine hair met the strong contours of her face, and they turned into delicate lines of mouth, nose, cheeks, but everything, absolutely everything in that face, and for a moment in the hall, the building and the entire world revolved around those green eyes. They were heavenly yet angry. They were so angry. Why? Marianne had an instant to wonder. She felt punched in the chest with only this woman’s gaze and she felt compelled to fall to her knees. That wasn’t what she did at all thought.
“Is this your room?” Marianne asked, still breathless.
“Is it yours?”
An answer, apparently, wasn’t necessary. The stranger walked into the room and her entire invitation was just the act of leaving the door open behind her. Marianne walked in and simply glanced around the room. One side was clearly occupied, and the one closest to the door was neat and blank as a canvas. Mine, Marianne thought. She was suddenly content, even if it didn’t feel in the slightest like home yet.
“I’m Mariane. Art student. Your new roommate,” she stated slowly but confidently, “what’s your name?” she asked.
Marianne turned to look at the other woman who, despite being in the room that should be her home while in college, she looked like she felt completely out of place. Awkward and tense. “Héloïse,” she answered at last. Héloïse’s eyes traveled around the room, just like Marianne’s eyes did as if she were seeing it for the first time as well. She sighed and took off her raincoat, leaving it on a chair. “I need to go out,” she announced, without looking at Marianne’s eyes again. And just like that, she left the room.
When she was alone, Marianne felt her lips try to pull the shape of a smile, but she relaxed her face. She closed the door and got to work on settling down, getting dry clothes and unpacking. Meanwhile, looking over her shoulder at the other side of the room. Although it was clearly lived in, it looked oddly empty and orderly. Not like it was purposefully kept that way, but like there weren’t enough things to get messy. Strange, considering the woman that lived in there looked so fiercely full of life. The room was soulless without Héloïse in it. Other than feelings and emotions that lingered in the air like perfume, bittersweet scents of Héloïse’s presence, there were also facts about the room. There were plenty of books, a surprising amount. There was an electric piano on the bed, the unmade bed. Not too many papers scattered around, but Marianne fed her curiosity enough to find out that those were music sheets. On a chair, there stayed Héloïse’s raincoat and on another was Marianne’s red bomber jacket. She guessed her new roommate didn’t mean out, outside, but somewhere in the building. She’d have to be crazy to go outside under that rain.
The last thing Marianne unpacked were some of her art supplies. This wasn’t all, but she was smart enough not to bring it all with her under that rain. Smart, considering the supplies she looked over on her lap were damp from the rain. A new block of blank paper sheets survived, thankfully. Only a corner was a bit damp. She would be fine. She only had to get comfortable, and tomorrow she’d get up on her feet and prepare to take down this last year of college and finally graduate. The last thing on her mind before she went to bed that first day was, of course, her new roommate. Héloïse came back late, as if she had purposefully been waiting until Marianne would be asleep. She was quiet about her nightly routine and she was asleep before Marianne could quiet down her thoughts for long enough to join her. They had a long year ahead of themselves, and it would be nice to see Héloïse smile at least once before graduation, Marianne thought with a smile of her own as a tiny seed of determination was planted in the back of her mind.