unlock and laughter fill the apartment. The laugh was contagious, one that made a person want to laugh even when he or she had no idea what was funny. I peeked out of my room and saw the source. She was talking on the phone and laying on the hideous lip love seat with her head hanging over the edge. Her hair was long and dark with alternating streaks of blue and purple at the ends. She had it pulled to the side with a sparkly black hair comb and wore tight red pants with black converses and a black and white striped shirt. There are only a handful of people in the world who could pull off that look, but she was one of them and stunning in the process.
The girl was a classic beauty…the kind artists of old would use as their muse to create stunning portraits. Her skin was like porcelain ivory, not pale, just delicate. Her eyes were set in such a way that her stare remained intense, a complete contrast to the animated style in which she moved and spoke.
I don’t know why, but I immediately liked her, maybe because she was the total opposite of me. I waited until she got off the phone and then knocked on the door a little so I wouldn’t startle her.
“Hi, I’m Avery, your new roommate. Are you Kaitlyn?” She looked at me with a mix of horror and interest as she stood up from the lips. I couldn’t help but notice her body, a habit I’d been trying to break for years. It was perfect. She was petite, but still looked very much like a woman, having curves only where it mattered.
“I am certainly not Kaitlyn…that is a name my mother gave me. I go by Issy, which is short of Isadora, my middle name. It’s a much better description of me as I was named after my grandma who was totally cool. We were wondering when you’d get here.”
“We? I thought Naomi was in Portugal.”
“Oh, she is. I’m talking about my cousin, Jake. He crashes here a lot, especially since I’ve been alone these last few weeks. He’s a little protective of me to put it mildly, but he’s fun, so I let him believe he’s got the upper hand. He has a key to the apartment, so don’t be freaked out if he just walks in.” She said all this flippantly, as if it were the most normal thing that a guy I didn’t know had a key to my apartment.
“So,” she asked, crossing her arms. “What’s your story? Are you wild and crazy, totally annoying, or a kleptomaniac?”
I laughed and joined her in the living room. “No, I’m afraid I’m boring, somewhat clean, very private, and not at all annoying.”
“Fantastic! Then you and I will get along fine. I was worried when the University said they were giving away the room. The three of us have known each other since high school, and well, you’ve seen some of the crazies around here.”
I had to hold in a laugh, thinking of how most people who met Issy for the first time would probably use that same descriptor.
“Having hot roommates is kind of an essential part of the guy magnet thing,” she explained looking me up and down as if to check my credentials. “You’ll do just fine. By the way, we’re heading to Caesars tonight to catch the Wild Cats play. They totally rock…you wanna come?”
“Um, thanks,” I answered, considering it for a moment. I had been to Caesars one time last year when I first met my old roommate. She was hooked up in a matter of minutes and left me to make conversation with complete strangers until I finally dragged her home. Remembering what a colossal disappointment that night was, made it pretty easy to decline. “You know what? May I get a rain check? I have a ton to do tonight.”
“Suit yourself, but if you change your mind, you know where to find us.”
As I watched Issy frolic and sing around the apartment as if in her own Disney movie, I almost changed my mind out of sheer curiosity, but I hadn’t gotten in my run today and was definitely feeling it. Aaron’s full examination of my body had agitated me.
I envied Issy’s lightheartedness; she was so dynamic and free, whereas I felt like I was constantly contained in a box. Ironically, I had spent most of my life running in different