1

​She is broken. I have broken her. I am broken.

​Ophelia opened her eyes slowly. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes before turning her head to squint at the alarm clock. 10:37. She is late. Class ends at 10:50 and it is a 10-minute walk to the class. Not worth it. She closed her eyes for just another second before rolling over and checking the phone resting on the bed just beside her. No new messages. Ophelia considered ditching her next class as well but finally she sits up. Her long legs dangle off the side of the bed as she surveys her messy dorm room. She slides off the bed and lands on the small patch of carpet not covered by the clutter. Grabbing yesterday's jeans and a tank top she slipped into the new day.

​Dressed now, she opened the door halfway and walked into the bathroom just across the hall. Her dirty blonde hair was messy, not quite curly but not quite strait. She plugs in her straitening iron and leans closer to the mirror. The pimples she popped last night had not quite healed yet and she could already see where new ones were coming in. Her eyes are a blue-grey hue today and looked lifeless to her. She rubbed at the bags under her eyes and sighed. She separated her hair and straitened it quickly. She unplugs the iron when she's done and puts it on her half of the floor to cool, knowing it would bother her roommate. She runs her fingers through her hair one last time before grabbing her bag, putting on shoes and leaving the room. It was only 10:47.

​Ophelia makes quick work of her walk across campus, .4 miles. It should have taken her 13 minutes, she did it in 7. She arrives at the building 5 minutes before the class began. She slows as she enters the building, checking her phone again. She has a message.

​"-On my way. Save seat.-"

​Ophelia types a quick response and proceeds down the hall to the lecture hall. She enters through the door on the extreme left and scans the sea of seats for an empty pair. She follows the flow of students through the middle isle until she breaks left. She passes in front of all the seats before cutting right and picking a pair of seats to the extreme right of the lecture hall. She might have been imagining it but it felt like all eyes were on her. She puts her bag on the ground in front of the seat next her and pulls out a notebook. 10:59, class would begin any moment. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the professor pass a paper to the girls in the front row.

​She recognizes very few of the many faces surrounding her. Two seats to the left and three rows in front of her is her lab partner. Ophelia contemplates calling out to him, but she can't remember his name so she remains static. Kat walks in at 11:05, the door slams loudly behind her but the professor continues his lecture. Kat rather awkwardly takes her seat, trying to scoot around an annoyed looking boy taking notes on his laptop. When she is finally settled Kat turns to Ophelia and gives her a warm, yellow toothed smile. She smelled faintly like tobacco.

"Girl, you would not believe the morning I've had! I walked into the women's room this morning cause you know, GIRL STUFF, anyways when I got into the stall the toilet paper dispenser…" Kat seemed oblivious to the dirty looks laptop boy kept shooting her way.

"Will you save my seat for just a sec? I'm actually visiting the little ladies room again-!"

Laptop boy audibly groaned and stood up. Kat reddened, "Oh shit, you think he heard that?" She laughed, grabbing a small bag from her backpack and left the lecture.

Ophelia glanced at the almost empty notebook paper in front of her. She had written the date in the upper right corner, 9/12/16. She had taken this course before, the lecture was basic stoic. Save paper for more important things. She erased the date. No, she rewrote the date. No, she erased the date. She looked over at laptop boy. He seemed angry, slamming wiry fingers against the keys. This time when Kat returned he didn't move. As she tried to maneuver herself around him, Ophelia noticed he set his jaw in determination and wrinkled his nose in disgust. Kat didn't.

The rest of class was uneventful for Ophelia. She sat listening but not quite hearing Kats babbles, while her mind wandered. Ophelia was preoccupied.

The lecture ended abruptly at 11:50. As Kat jumped up to leave Ophelia remained seated, and gently grabbed Kats wrist.

"What's up?" Kat raised her eyebrows and waited as Ophelia watched laptop boy leave. Then she pointed to the front where the attendance sheet sat forgotten after the girls had abandoned it.

"Oh my G, I totally forgot! Thanks for the reminder, I would have lost my attendance credit for today!" Ophelia followed Kat as she bounded down to the front of the lecture hall. "I can't believe no one bothered to pass it to our section. Rudeee!" Kat signed the sheet and spun around, "That guy next to us, he didn't sign! Should we stop him?"

Ophelia gave one sharp laugh before signing her name, answering Kats question. The two walked out of the building together before going their separate ways. It was 11:56 and Ophelia didn't have another class until 2. She started the walk back to her dorm.

It was 12:09 when she arrived back at her room. She hadn't locked her door. She opened the door as far as it would go into the messy room. Ophelia stepped in and dropped her bag immediately by the door. She stepped in the intricate pattern of bare carpet, taking care not to knock over the open garbage bag. She used the chair as a step to push herself onto the bed. She lies there for a while with her head phones in before she was able to drift away to sleep.

Ophelia opened her eyes. She knew immediately it was that dream again. She had had it many times before. She stared directly up at the ceiling above her. She spent what felt like an eternity trying not to look at what she knew sat at the desk just beside the bed. Ophelia squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the chair next to her slide backwards. It took a few moments before she heard the door swing open and a few more before it slammed shut and she heard the lock click.

Ophelia was awake. It was too dark, too loud to be that dream, but she lies still. It wasn't until she heard her roommate knocking on her door that she rolled over. It was 6:15, She had skipped her 2pm. She decides she would apologize to her professor tomorrow.

"Ophelia, are we getting dinner or not?"

Ophelia mumbles some response about homework and rolled out of bed. She landed perfectly in the bare spot by the bed and half walked, half hopped to the door. She unlocked the door and almost stumbled into her roommate.

"Let's go, everyone is already waiting in front."

Ophelia nodded but paused for just a second before following Mags. She glanced back at the door to her room before shaking her head and following Mags. Ophelia never locked her door.