Aphrodite

"She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders & made it look like a pair of wings." ~Unknown

Most my life I've had this dream of having a big family. A white picket fence in front of this house on a good neighborhood street. Where we would all get up and eat breakfast together and talk about our problems. Where we would have all of our relatives come to our house for Christmas and Thanksgiving and just be a family. I would have an overprotective father and a caring mother. Maybe even a sibling or two.

I stopped having this dream once I turned thirteen.

Once you hit a certain age in an orphanage, you become hard to adopt. No one wants a teenager, nonetheless one that is moody and a brat.

Trust me I was moody and a brat at that age.

Each month, we would have a group of people wanting to adopt and they would come and look at the kids. I remember this one time when we had a group of parents come in and they were talking to some of the kids. These two parents named Diane and Josh had came and talked to me.

It was going good until this girl named Irina, that had it out for me, came up and told them that I would punch and kick her and bully her to the point that no one would want her. The parents were so disgusted with me that they called me virgil names and proceeded to take Irina and adopt her.

I guess you can see where this is going.

I never actually got adopted and a part of me is happy for that. I always just had to rely on myself and never had many friends. I was considered 'the loner' of the school. Everyone was friends with me but no one was ever close to me.

Irina truly hated me. Why, I'll never know. But she hated me to an extent that she told everyone my story.

My story started out with when I was two months, I was dropped off at the orphanage with a note saying my name was Aphrodite Hemmings and my date of birth. They also kindly asked to keep my name. Nothing more, nothing less.

Everyone always pitied me, no matter where I went. The girl that no one wanted, Irina always made sure to tell me that. But I paid them no mind. No matter what anyone said, I wanted to do something with myself. I wanted to go to college and get a good degree in nursing. I wanted to have something stable. Something to rely on.

So that's why I'm here, at Rueford University in South Carolina. I'm here to start over and have a life.

If I could just find my dorm room.

The college was absolutely huge. Once you pulled into the parking lot, there was people everywhere. A yard surrounded the college and there were people laying in the yard, throwing footballs, listening to music. Everything you could think of.

I had left my stuff in the car as I went to the front desk and got my schedule from the nice lady once you walk in the front door. This was the first dorm cite, where my dorm room should be. There were multiple dorm cites around campus where some would be just girls, just boys, or mixed. Mine, was mixed.

Looking at my key with the room number hanging off of it, I see Room 207. Where the fuck was room 207? I've been walking aimlessly around each hallway and couldn't find it.

"Hey, watch out!"

My head whipped up to look in front of me to see a small girl with long brown hair, almost black, barreling toward me on a skateboard. I squeaked and got out of the way just in time for her to get passed. I slumped against the wall with my hand pressed against heart, feeling it pump like hummingbird wings.

"Oh my God! I am so sorry!" I hear to my left. I look over to where it's coming from and see the girl that was on the skateboard looking at me with a guilty expression on her face. She's standing there in her whole 5'3 frame with the skateboard hugged up against her chest. She had combat boots on with leggings and a large off the shoulder cream colored sweater on. Her brown hair flowing in waves down her back.

I wave my hand in the air, "It's all good, no big deal. You just scared the living shit out of me."

She cringed at the cuss words and gave me a sweet smile. Taking a couple steps so she was in front of me, she pulled one of her hands out from her skateboard and put it in front of her. "I'm Miya Brock. I'm new here...well I'm actually not new. I'm a freshman here but I guess you could say I'm new but I don't know if you would count that, but-"

I cut off her rambling with a laugh and shook her hand. "It's fine." I said with mirth in my voice. "I'm Aphrodite Hemmings. I'm new here too, and also a freshman. I'm just trying to find my dorm room," I paused with a hopeful expression, "You wouldn't happen to know where room 207 was, right?"

She paused, looking at me with an expression I couldn't decipher and barked a laugh and hugged me with her one free arm. "Oh we're so going be best friends!" She pulled away and grabbed my arm to pull me off of the wall where I was still leaning against, and put me beside her. "It's right there." She said and pointed to the wall with another sweet smile, but this time it was a little cocky. I followed to where she was pointing and lookked at the wall, dumbfounded.

Right in front of me was not only a wall, but a door. Nonetheless, my door. Room 207. "And," I heard beside me, "It looks like we're going to be roommates." Still completely dumbfounded, I could only stare at the door.

"You good?" The girl said. Her voice pulled me out of my funk and I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. "You have got to be fucking kidding me! I have been looking for this goddamn door for forever and I not only passed it, but I freaking was leaning against it!"

Only silence followed after my outburst. I looked to the girl with a small smile to see her looking at me with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. "Sorry," I said with cringe, "it's just I've been looking for this for forever."

She blinked a couple times and shook her head. She gave me a smirk and snorted. "Don't apologize. I can see that you know that I'm not comfortable with cussing but I'm used to it because of my brother and his best friend. You just suprised me. I originally thought you would have been a shy girl but you amazed me." She gave me a blinding smile and took my arm in her hand. Damn this girl could get a metal with that smile and those perfect white teeth. "Let's go show you our dorm, roommate."

Pulling her own key out of her pocket, she unlocked the door and threw it open. She took a few steps inside and sat the skateboard on the ground where it rolled into the wall and no doubt left a mark. Her face scrunched up and she sighed and looked at me in exasperation. "I'm doing horrible."

I laughed once and nodded my head. I slide my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket I have on and look around. We still stand in the foyer where it leads into the living room. I walk the few steps to the living room and see that it consisted of a grey L couch against the far right of the room with stands on the edges of it and a coffee table. It faces a TV mounted to the wall in front of it.

To the left of the room a hallway lead to 3 doors which I imagine were the bedrooms and the bathroom. To the right of the living room, right after the couch and the stand, was a doorway that led to the kitchen. I found myself walking to the kitchen and my breath caught in my throat.

It was absolutely beautiful. There was a island in the middle of the room with white and black marble top. The floor was white tile with white walls. The refrigerator was black with little magnets attacked to it and the cabinets around the room where the same colors. The marble tops were the same as the island. Overall, it was beautiful.

Everything in my life always changed. One minute I would find myself with friends or straight A's, and the next I would find myself sitting in the bathroom eating lunch and having C's. One thing that never changed was cooking. I always had a passion for it. I'm not very good but I love doing it. I love doing it as much as I love helping people. That's one of the reasons why I want to become a nurse.

"Do you-" I stopped and swallowed the lump in my throat. "Do you cook?"

"I don't." I heard behind me. Footsteps grew closer and stopped right beside me. I couldn't bring myself to look at her. I didn't want to see the confusion on her face because I got emotional about cooking. It's happened before. "But my parents chose this dorm, hoping I would. I got a scholarship but my parents know some of the people on the school board so they chose this one. My parents are wealthier than most so we had cooks in our house. I always relied on them to cook. My parents want me to rely on myself so they chose one with one of the best kitchens, but I'm so horrible at it. I honestly believe I burn water. My brother is the same way."

I laughed and looked at her then. Her face was full understanding. I nodded my head at her and gave a small smile. I turned and started walking to the bedrooms.

"So," I started, "which bedroom is mine?"