All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [9]
She set the book the aside. She didn't have to read the next page. All she had to do was lay back and remember. She pulled the covers up to her neck, and stared up at the ceiling, suddenly afraid to close her eyes. Did she want to remember? Did she want to go back to Paloma Gardens, to Emily, to the day where it had all begun? Her eyes burned as she tried to keep them open, but the past was pulling her back. Her lids grew heavy, as she gave into the desire to see it all again.
The dorm room was smaller than she'd imagined, the walls bare, begging for posters. A cheap-looking dresser sat next to each twin bed. This was it? Natalie wondered. This was college? She'd worked so hard to get here, holding down two, sometimes three jobs, as well as maintaining a straight-A average. And she'd ended up in a bedroom that didn't look much better than the one she'd shared with her mother in a run-down apartment in Los Angeles. But the room didn't matter.
She was free. She was starting a new life, and she couldn't wait. This life would be different. No one would have to know where she came from or what she'd left behind. No one would have to meet her poor excuse for a mother, who was drunk more often than she was sober. No one would have to know that she'd taken a five-hour bus ride to get here, with no one to send her off or say good-bye.
No one would know that she owned nothing more than what was contained in the two old suitcases now sitting next to one of the beds.
She could be anything she wanted to be, and she wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to make her father proud. He'd told her that the one thing he'd always wanted was a college education. But his parents hadn't been able to afford it, so he'd taken a job as a truck driver. He'd told her it would be different for her. And it would be different, but not because of him. He'd died when she was eight years old. But his dream for her had continued to burn in her heart, despite her mother's best efforts to squelch it. That dream was beginning today. She just hoped her roommate, Emily Parish, wouldn't be a total freak or a big party girl. Natalie might have made it to college, but this was just the first step in her ten-year plan to become a doctor, and she would need somewhere to study.
The door burst open and a girl came flying into the room with so much energy and sparkle that Natalie took an instinctive step backward. Wavy, long brown hair, laughing brown eyes, and an incredible smile. Emily Parish quite simply lit up the room.
"Natalie Bishop?" Emily asked. "Are you my roommate?"
Natalie nodded and said, "Yes" as Emily enveloped her in a big bear hug.
"Wow. Can you believe we're here?" Emily asked when she finally let go.
"Not really."
"We are going to have the best time. I've been waiting for this day for so long. I can't even tell you."
"Me, too," Natalie muttered, as Emily's parents entered the room. Richard and Janet Parish were the picture of rich sophistication infancy clothes and expensive jewelry. They were polite to Natalie, but she could see from their expressions that they were more than a little worried about leaving their daughter in the dorm. With the help of a few strong guys down the hall, Emily's belongings were unloaded. By the time they were done, there was barely room to turn around.
"Don't worry," Emily whispered. "As soon as they leave, we'll have a garage sale."
"You can't sell your stuff."
"I didn't want to bring it all. They insisted. They're a little overprotective."
Overprotective was right. Both Emily and Natalie received endless instructions about staying safe. Mrs. Parish pulled Natalie aside at the last minute and said, "Watch out for our Emily. She's an innocent She doesn't know what she doesn't know."
Natalie promised she would, because there was no way she couldn't promise. Besides, she was used to watching out for her mother, and Emily couldn't possibly be as difficult as that.
When the door closed behind the Parishes, Emily cranked up the newly connected stereo, jumped