Heavy footsteps pounded the hallway linoleum outside Annabelle's dorm door, a familiar pattern of *DO-DOM* that she heard every Friday evening after the dining hall closed, marking the absence of any custodial staff or campus workers until 6 a.m. the following morning.
'Probably that pair of ugly fraternity pledges running off to vandalize the student union again or drink beers through their asses again,' she thought to herself, scribbling red ink across her botched attempt to solve a titration problem, a symbol of yet another failure in tonight's study block.
Annabelle pulled her right ear out and twisted, re-analyzing her mistake.
'The initial conditions are set correctly, perhaps I mixed up th-' her thoughts were interrupted by the high-pitched whistle and *KABOOM* of a firework out her window, green and yellow flashes piercing through slits in her shades, casting a pattern you'd only see on St. Patricks Day across her dorm room. The light revealed forgotten panties in the crevices of her roommate's cot, a woman who, despite her well-mannered casualty towards Annabelle when they crossed paths on campus, could be an absolute bitch in the discomfort of their concrete block of a dorm room.
Having already forgotten her chemical revelation thanks to the loving whisper of the firework, Annabelle wheeled her chair to the window, raising the shades and gazing at the bodies illuminated by the campus's sometimes inconsistent streetlights.
Through the mass of shadows dancing and passing through the dorm's green, Annabelle could make out her roommate, Luciana, with a man who was certainly not a sophomore and judging by the University of Arizona tag across his sweatshirt, not a student here either.
Annabelle watched as they made out under a dimmed streetlight, their tongues reaching into each others' mouths, begging to go deeper. The sight of Luciana making out with a man wasn't new to Annabelle, in reality, it was a weekly occurrence under that same streetlight, the same familiar buzz of the city traffic, and piles of homework and notes piled on Annabelle's desk. The only item that wasn't constant was which guy was banging Luciana that week.
For some odd reason, this particular instance was different. Annabelle's eyes stayed locked on the two instead of closing the blinds like she usually did. She brought her face closer to the window, secretly hoping to see clearer details of the two's tongue dance.
'Why is this different? Why do I feel like I can't look away? My entire life I've stayed away from boys and sex, rejecting the advances for high school prom, even covering my eyes when a sex scene occurred in a movie,' she thought to herself.
Annabelle began to throb, a suppressed feeling of want breaking through the barricades of staying pure that she had maintained throughout her life. That Want, it was stronger this time, more persistent than she had ever felt. Her head became clouded as she became to desire something she never understood.
'I can't contain a curated routine of studying, working, and sleeping for my entire life, I need to experience the world, a side of socializing I've always avoided. For me to become truly pure, I need to understand what makes sin so desirable,' Annabelle realized.
For a split second, she was ready to leave the familiarity of her room and explore a real Saturday night. For a split second, she was done with the constant pressure from her parents, the meticulous grade calculating, and the professor-ass-kissing. For a split second, she was finished keeping her eyes glued to printed paper, problems covering corner to corner.
And then, as she stood up, the weight of her thoughts slammed down, guiding her hand towards the light switch and her body to bed...