The Girl Who Stutters and The Boy Who Mutters

"Alright hurry up and get your shit out of the trunk, " my sister, Anna, says as she taps her foot impatiently.

I grab my bags from the trunk and we haul our stuff up towards wherever the office is. I really have no idea where we're supposed to be going, at this point I'm just following Anna. When she does finally stop walking though we aren't in any building or anything, we're standing in an enormous line that I'm sure will eventually lead us into a building. A line full of old and new college students, I of course belong to the latter category.

And if you're wondering, no, I am most certainly not looking forward to this new college experience.

I barely survived my high school experience and I honestly don't think college is going to be much better. I was always the weird girl with the stutter, when in fact it isn't a stutter. It's a speech deficiency, I'm not stupid or anything but I stutter when I talk. Point blank. But still I don't need to be known as the weird girl who stutters again.

I'm not like most people, I don't look at college as a new beginning or a place to party and make new friends. It's strictly education. There's no way around that. I don't need to humiliate myself anymore than I did in high school.

I was thinking about bailing on college. Even if I was valedictorian my senior year, my education is certainly not worth being called stutter girl again. The only reason I even agreed to go is wholly because Anna agreed to share a room with me.

"We're going to be here all day if this line doesn't fucking move, " Anna says taking a seat on one of her suitcases.

"M-maybe we should just c-come back l-later, " I suggest sitting on one of mine as well.

But we decide to persevere. We sit in line for hours. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, it was at least half an hour, but that's still a pretty long time.

By the time we get into the little office everyone is gone except fot the tired looking secretary. I feel bad for her, the first day of college must always be the worst for secretaries.

"Annabelle and Abigail Smith, " Anna says dropping her bags to the floor a little too overdramatically.

The scretary swivels over to the computer. Soon enough two pieces of paper are being printed and she's handing us each a pair of room keys.

"Annabelle you'll be staying in the D dorms near the other side of campus, " the secretary says handing Anna one of the two slips of paper, "you'll be in room 24. Abigail you'll be in Dorm B, room 69."

I'm not even going to attempt to make a dirty comment about that room number.

Wait a second...

"There must b-be s-some mistake, " I begin to say but before I can finish anna snatches my key and the piece of paper, before promptly dragging me out of the office.

"What w-was that?" I hiss at her, "we have to go b-back and tell her t-there was a mistake."

"There was no mistake Abby."

"But we're supposed to be sharing-"

"Abby I lied, " she says running a hand through her perfect hair, "you wouldn't have come had I told you otherwise. You've been bound at my hip since we even started school."

"You l-lied to me?"

"I want to meet new people Abs, " Anna says squeezing her eyes shut, "Christ don't look at me like that Abby. You're acting like I just broke up with you or something."

"I-in a w-way you sort of are-"

"Well look at it this way, " Anna says throwing her arm around my shoulders, "this is a place full of new beginnings. We can be whoever we want here, you could be an athlete, an author, a crazy guitar chick..."

"To e-everyone else I'd still just b-be Stutter girl, " I say staring down at the ground. Anna flinches beside me when she hears the name I'd been given at the beginning of my freshman year in high school.

Anna has always been the one who was most protective of me, especially when it came to my speech deficiency. She got suspened our freshman year for punching Scott Rogers in the nose after he'd promptly followed me around for three class periods fake stuttering.

So I've kind of been relying on Anna for the longest time now, which is probably pretty selfish since she actually has a social life. Anna has always been the popular one. She knows how to talk to people and she's quite the looker. Now me on the other hand, I'm a short pale brunette in dyer need of sun, oh and let's not forget about that stutter.

"If anyone calls you that I will personally castrate them, " Anna says before perking up again. "There is a plus side though! Dorms A and B are co-ed."

"W-what're you s-saying?" I ask narrowing my eyes at my sister. It's pretty clear that she's trying to tell me I might be living with a guy though.

"I'm saying that this is going to be a wonderful opportunity, " Anna says giving me one of her prize winning smiles.

"Anna-"

"Have to go find my dorm, see you later baby sister, " she plants a kiss on my cheek before sprinting off in the other direction. She's only running because she knows I'm too lazy to try and catch her.

I can't live with a guy. They're all sex-crazed monsters. I already stutter, I'd make a complete fool out of myself if I had to live with a guy. I don't even fully understand their species yet, not to mention the fact that I'm still a virgin.

I've always had trouble when it comes to guys. Not that I really ever attempted anything with their gender, and when I say that let me make it clear that I'm not saying I have ever attempted anything with my gender. I guess I've been on a couple first dates, if studying counts as a date that is. Most of these "dates" usually consisted of a series of awkward silences and me internally facepalming.

As I begin the walk towards my new dorm I silently curse my sister.

She must have been working on this for months now. This must be why she ran to the mail box everyday for three weeks to check it. The college sends a form telling you about your roommate, I never realized until now that I never actually got mine. She had told me she was checking for some makeup magazine when in reality she was hijacking my roommate information.

I trusted her.

Standing in front of this dorm room I already know I'm fucked.

I press the key into the hole. I breathe in and out before pushing the door open and finding a shirtless guy sitting on a bed.

A hot shirtless guy.

I suppose this is the part of the story when something triggers a chain of events that will undoubtely lead to us falling in love. Well that's not exactly what happened.

Something was definitely triggered though.

This asshole's temper.

He stared at me and once I explained to him I was supposed to be his roommate he got all pissy and basically threw a huge tantrum. He started screaming about how he wasn't supposed to even have a roommate this year and a bunch of other stuff I didn't really understand. Here's a small snipet of some of what I did understand:

"I paid for a single this year!" He shouts before pointing towards me, "you are not supposed to be here. I suggest you walk your little happy ass back down to the office and get a different room because you sure as hell can't stay here."

As you've probably already guessed things went downhill from there. The hot guy- his name is apparently Liam- actually went and got the secretary. They both had a very heated conversation in which went too fast for me to follow, at one point I'm fairly certain one of them started speaking French. I never actually paid attention until I noticed the secretary leave the room and come back with another person. But not just any person, a certain asshole whom I didn't think I'd ever have to see again.

I'm sure you remember me mentioning him a few hundred words ago. I nearly didn't even recognize him at first. Scott Rogers, the guy whom my sister punched in the nose. Also the boy who got kicked out of the school about a month later and got sent to a private school because he got into a fight with one of the teachers. I haven't seen him since high school so you can't blame me for doing a double take.

I'm not going to lie and say that he wasn't cute back in high school, but I'd be lying if I said he was just cute now. Cute is definitely an understatement. He's changed completely, especially appearance wise. He doesn't look like the raging bad boy everyone knew him as in high school, instead he looks like a guy straight out of prep school, but then again it's like at the same time he doesn't. His hair is gelled back and he's wearing a button down shirt with a bow tie. But just by the smirk on his face and his body posture he isn't fooling me. Bad boys like him

Don't willingly change into prep school students.

When Scott walks in with the secretary he doesn't even glance my way. He probably won't even recognize me or much less rememeber me.

"Scott a small problem has been presented to me recently, " the secretary says rubbing her temple slowly.

I watch Scott and Liam do a quick bro hug type thing, so apparently they know each other.

"What's the problem?" Scott asks furrowing his eyebrows at the secretary, "I've been here less than two hours. What have I already managed to screw up?"

"Mr. Harding, " she says referring to Liam, "specifically asked for a single room this year and it appears that there has been a mix up with how many rooms we have available. And because your father is the dean of the school I know he would want you to do this for him so he doesn't have to go through anymore trouble."

"I wanted a single too though, " Scott says shoving his hands into his pockets.

"But Mr. Harding is paying for a single, " the secretary says, "so I'm afraid Ms. Smith is going to have to be your new dormmate."

Scott's eyes immidiately fly over to me and I can see them widen slightly. I don't know if it's because he recognizes me, he doesn't like the idea of living with someone, or both but his face immidiately scrunches up.

"Stutter girl?" He asks narrowing his eyes at me. Of course he would call me that, I guess he never even had the courtesy to know what my real name is. He smirks at me when I don't attempt to do anything and says, "what? That stutter got your tongue?"

"Oh you two know each other, " the secretary says sounding slightly more chipper. Maybe she figures we'll go about this more willingly just because we happen to know each other.

"T-this i-isn't g-going to w-work, " I say stuttering more than I usually do, if that's even possible. "Isn't there s-some other r-room I could stay in?"

"I'm going to need you to work with me, " the secretary says looking at me with very tired eyes, "there aren't any other rooms I know of that I can give you. Until I find out this will only be temporary, so please just bare with me here."

"B-b-but what-"

"What's the matter Stutter girl?" Scott asks raising an eyebrow at me, "scared of me?"

To be brutally honest, yes I'm still completely terrified of Scott. But I'm mostly just scared of having to live with this asshole, especially if he's going to call me Stutter girl everyday.

"Listen, " the secretary says, "I know I'm just a cranky old office lady today but I don't need either of you trying to fight with me about this right now."

"You aren't cranky or old Margaret, " Scott says furrowing his eyebrows at her, "I mean sometimes you are cranky but you aren't anywhere near old."

"He's a sweet boy, " Margaret says smiling over at me, "trust me. I used to help put on his diapers, I've known him a long time. If he causes you any trouble you can come straight to me."

Margaret throws a warning glare at Scott before opening the door and walking out.

I knew this would be a horrible idea, this whole going off to college thing. I told Anna something horrible would happen within the first five minutes of me getting here.

"Well we might as well hurry along, " Scott says gesturing towards the door, "if we're going to share a room we need to establish which drawers you want to put your shit in and which side of the bed you want as yours."