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Delicate rays of light cascade through the dormitory windows, distributing a warm glow throughout the building. The shuffling of tangled sheets indicates a sense of life and wake in the room numbered ‘144’ where limbs are gently threading themselves apart from one another. Julie takes great care to peel herself from her roommate without disturbing her visibly peaceful sleep, she might’ve had a class in 30 minutes but Raelyn didn’t, and it’s been made very clear through conversation that Raelyn wasn’t a morning person.
The coldness of the room made itself clear as Julie’s feet swung over the edge of the mattress, her bare skin being attacked by the stinging and unmotivating temperature. She sighed while she opted to ignore the lack of a working heater and snuck over to a shared dresser, reaching for a pair of cat-themed socks so that her feet didn’t make such a sticky noise whenever they left the floorboards. It isn’t like she could hear the full volume of the noise herself. In fact, she barely could, she was looking into hearing aids and taking signing lessons with Raelyn for a reason, it was just the feeling that it caused which had her fighting against a very strong gag reflex. Though the biggest reason she wanted to muffle the disturbing noise was because she could barely remember how loud it actually was, and god forbid she risk waking the angel sleeping ever so soundly in her own dorm room.
Julie swiftly tiptoed over to the open kitchen through a small, make-shift living and dining room while she contemplated her breakfast, she didn’t want to use something so loud as a toaster or the stove which required her to turn on the over-head kitchen hood, but she didn’t want to have cereal because she planned on dressing herself while eating and the cereal they currently had stocked got soggy annoyingly quickly. She snapped her fingers as she figured that she would toast her bread using the oven, it isn’t as noisy as the toaster or the stove and she’d have more than enough time to pull on something comfortable for a long class of child studies.
The oven knobs turned with a click as Julie set the appliance to the closest it had to a grill setting, she collected exactly 4 pieces of white bread from the freezer behind her, doing all of this in almost a single and swift motion. She left the frozen bread to defrost on the counter while she skipped off to where she previously woke up and gathered in her arms a long sleeved band tee, a pair of tight and comfortable shorts and of course, some comfortable undergarments; a pair of boxers and a supportive, somewhat wireless bra.
Julie was hunched over a discarded pile of clothes on the rolling chair by a small desk, searching through it for any accessories she could potentially make use of, before a noise erupted from the covers across the room. Undeniably, it was the soft yawn of her dear Raelyn. Julie had to stifle a progressively building ‘aww’ using the soft garments grasped between her fingers, covering the bottom half of her face as she admired the girl stretching for the ceiling, tears pricked at the corners of Raelyn’s eyes while she performed her waking ritual.
“ ‘Are you awake, Jules?” She whisper-mumbles, lifting a clumsy hand up to her face in order to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
Julie needs to take a moment to collect herself, she couldn’t describe how this girl made her feel, not if she was asked. She felt the butterflies in her tummy trying to escape through the many pores on her body so that they could swarm the thing that was causing them. Her heart is threatening to shatter her ribs, it’s working over time. She loved this girl insatiably.
Like a deer in headlights, she replies, “mhm, right here, Rae”.
“Morning. It’s so cold, I can’t see out of the windows they’re so frosted over.”
“Yeah, I gave up fixing that long before you woke up,” Julie relaxed her poster slowly and continued to rummage through the lazily stored pile of clothes and pulled out two pairs of earrings, one fashioned a pair of witches hat wearing frogs dangling from the clasp and the other a pair of mushroom studs.
“I can tell,” Raelyn references the array of fingerprints surrounding the window handle.
She grasps at the covers in anticipation and decides to, metaphorically, rip off the Band-Aid for once. The cold hits her like a train as she suppresses a squeal and sprints for the dresser. She jumps from one foot to the other while she searches desperately for something warm to wear. Finally, after thrashing around for a good moment, she snatches from the furniture a pair of super fluffy socks and a project she made herself a while ago. She doesn't waste time covering herself, the clothes sit heavily over the top of her skull-themed pajamas.
The black socks are detailed with white web prints and spiders and are partially covered by the long, skull patterned pants. The “project” was something Raelyn made sometime in the beginning of college with another partner as a collaborative assignment. It’s actually one of her proudest works, a kingly robe, almost cape like. The collar of it clasped around her neck with a click, hiding the fur on the inside, the collar reaching halfway up to Raelyns jaw-line. Huge, white fluff rested on her shoulders, leaving space between the neck and collarbone while still being malleable. The robe reached all the way down to just above her ankles and its material is as soft as silk on the outside and even softer than a cat's fur on the inside. It’s coloured black and is fashioned with gold details embroidered in a hypnotic pattern which becomes more abundant at the bottom. Thin, gold chains, metals and jewels litter the garment where appropriate. The excess fabric folds at the bottom and the whole piece compliments the wearer perfectly, wrapping around a person's body flawlessly. It’s the ideal outfit for wintry weather.
She knows of Raelyns immaculate sense of fashion, they’ve been living together for years, yet Julie can never get over how talented and blatantly stunning her girlfriend is. She takes in the view, letting the sight soak through her eyes and into her brain, forever staining the back of her eyelids like many times before. The full volume of a timer makes her flinch out of her trance.
“Oh yuck, I have to go in 20 minutes”
“Really? Already?”
“Yeah, I’m about to make some grilled cheese, would you like some?”
“Mm grilled cheese,” Raelyn cooed at the thought of something warm and flaky in contrast to the tough, freezing weather.
Julie snickers at the non-direct answer, “I’ll be taking that as a yes,” she says as she hurriedly hops over the messy floor and towards the kitchen yet again. She gathers the remaining ingredients from their fridge and constructs two sandwiches before placing them both on the rack inside of the oven. She’s turned off the timer beforehand and resets it till she suspects the meal to be ready. The buttons of the round device click whenever they’re pressed, and especially so when Julie presses down on the ‘start’ button.
Raelyn, having nothing else to do, follows behind her girlfriend closely. She clenches the sides of her robe in a weak attempt to protect herself from the cold.
She waits for a moment, watching and admiring the work of her roommate before she asks, “did you need me to do anything?”
“Hm, actually do you mind watching the food? I really do need to prepare my hair and find something warm enough to go out in.”
“Yeah, of course, I don’t have anything important to do anyways.”
“Perfect, thank you, Rae.” Julie disappears from the kitchen, the lack of time steadily setting in and causing her to rush.
Raelyn watches as she sprints out on her tippy toes and snorts to herself, she’s dating such a dork. She leans against the fridge opposite the oven, and slides down lazily, she already despised mornings, but this frostbite-inducing weather was only making this all the more miserable.
“I’m so lucky she’s mine,” Raelyn thinks to herself.