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Lana lay on the stiff dormitory bed, staring at the celling. She felt like she was in prison. After one night in the small room, surrounded by nothing but white cement walls, she felt miserable. There was no wait staff to cater her meals. There was no one to drive her to where she needed to go, and the room was completely unfurnished, filled with only three pieces of furniture: two beds and a desk. She felt like she was in prison, and she was sure that if her father had seen the conditions that he had sent her to live in, he would immediately ask her to come back home.
However, her father refused to come to the dorm. After several text messages and picture messages, he had told her to figure it out for herself. Clearly, he didn’t understand the conditions that he had sent her to live in. There wasn’t even a refrigerator in the dorm to put any food in or a microwave, not that she had any food to put in either one. She had deduced from the night before that the only place to get food was the cafeteria, a central area where students were herded together to eat two-star food at dirty tables, and she wasn’t trying to settle for the fattening burgers or chicken sandwiches that the university supplied. She was used to having her own personal chef. She had always had fresh food and options, and as bad as her stomach was growling at the moment, she wasn’t about to subject herself to the horrid atmosphere of the cafeteria.
Lana sat up as she heard a key hit the lock on her door and the doorknob turn. She froze as she waited for the unknown perpetrator to enter. She hadn’t invited anyone to visit her besides her father, who was unlikely to come due to their conversation earlier in the day, and it unnerved her that her security was so easily threatened. Lana watched as the door opened and scowled when she saw the familiar face that came through the door.
“What are you doing here, Ziggy?” Lana asked, looking at the disheveled red head.
Ziggy stared at her, a grin on her face and set the bags that she was carrying on the ground. Lana watched as the other woman pulled out her phone, completely disregarding her request and began to type.
“What is wrong with you?” Lana screamed in frustration. “Why is it that every time I ask you a question, you blatantly ignore me to play with your phone?” Lana waited for the woman to respond, even to look up for a moment, but when she didn’t get a reaction, she began to get up. “Alright, I’m done with this,” Lana sighed.
“Wait,” a robotic voice said.
Lana looked at the source of the reply, and she instantly realized that it came from Ziggy’s phone. “Fine,” Lana stated, stopping in her tracks. “Is this how you are talking to people?” she asked, curious as to how difficult it would have to be to use such a menial device to communicate.
Ziggy nodded.
“Okay,” Lana said, realizing that the woman hadn’t been ignoring her but was simply typing her speech into a text-to-voice application. “Then, use the app, but tell me why you are here. I’m not big on stalkers.”
Ziggy nodded again and hit a button on her phone, causing the robotic voice to go off again. “I’m your new roommate,” the voice app replied.
“My new roommate?” Lana inquired. “I didn’t request a roommate.”
Ziggy made a soft whispering noise that Lana took as a laugh and began to type again. “The university assigned me as your roommate. You don’t choose your roommates around here.”
“Well, I’m going to call the dorm office and get you assigned to a different room. I like being by myself and seeing as we didn’t get off on the right foot, I think that it would be better if we both just went our separate ways. Besides, the only reason that I am living in the dorms instead of the comfort of my home is because you got me kicked out of Mr. Hindberg’s class, and if it wasn’t for you, I would be sitting at my kitchen table, having my chef make my lunch right now.”
“Sounds rough,” Ziggy’s voice app commented.
“It is rough,” Lana interjected. “This place is like a prison. I haven’t eaten all day, and now, I’m roomed with you.”
Ziggy signaled for Lana to wait a minute and reached into her coat pocket, pulling out a crinkly wrapper that indistinctly held a large hamburger. She typed for a minute and looked up at Lana. “You can have it if you want,” the voice app said.
“No, thanks,” Lana said, shaking her head. “I will gain like ten pounds from that greasy burger.” Lana felt her stomach gurgle in protest as she rejected the small peace offering, and as the enticing smell of the burger filled her nose, she could feel the saliva build in her mouth.
“Are you sure?” Ziggy’s voice app pressed.
“Yes,” Lana said, waving the delicious smelling beef away.
Ziggy made a face and shrugged, unwrapping the burger and putting it to her lips. Lana watched as the other woman started to take her first bite, but she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Wait,” Lana said. “I guess one burger wouldn’t hurt, even if it is made with processed meat.”
Ziggy took the burger away from her mouth and handed it to Lana, who instantly bit into the tantalizing piece of beef. She was used to her healthy diet, one that was full of low-carb meal choices, but as she took another bite of the large burger in her hand, she began to wonder if she had been missing out by refusing to try new things. The burger was by far the best thing she had ever eaten. Maybe, it was because she was hungry, or maybe, it was because it was new, but that moment she felt rather open to new food and even new situations, and she decided that maybe having Ziggy around wasn’t such a bad thing after all.