In the book "The Wild Palms", William Faulkner wrote, "Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain."

I believe many of us would choose pain as well. We would rather take the risk of getting hurt than to be left wondering what if. Sometimes though, I wonder if I'm just a sucker for wanting the pain or just a sucker in general.

It's a hot sunny day in Tampa, Florida. The humidity is almost unbearable and as someone who was born and raised in the south, that's saying something. I pull into a parking space near my apartment and watch as other students move into their dorms. After a few minutes, my older sister Danielle pulls into the spot next to me.

"Ready to move into your new room?" she asks.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I say to myself but instead smile and nod at her.

We grab some boxes and head inside the building. I'm so thankful that my apartment is on the first floor and near the entrance. I unlock the door to the apartment and take in my new home. A furnished living room comes into sight as we walk in. There's plenty of room for lounging around and a decent size kitchen just a few feet away. I walk around and notice two bedrooms to the right and another two to the left. Luckily no one else is here yet so I have my choice in rooms.

I decide on a room right across from the bathroom since there is only one. Sharing a bathroom with three other girls is going to be a nightmare.

After a few trips back and forth from my car, I finally have everything in my room. I decide to take a lunch break before unpacking so I can spend a little more time with my sister before she has to drive back home. We find a burger joint nearby and sit and talk about my college checklist making sure I have everything I need. Before long, it's time to say goodbye and I watch my sister as she drives off back to our home state of Georgia.

Back at the apartment, I notice I'm no longer the only one there when I walk in. The room next to mine has pop music blaring and I see a tall girl with long blonde hair and tan skin unpacking.

She notices me as I walk by and screams excitedly. "Hi! I'm Allie Thomas!"

I smile at her perkiness. "I'm Jasmine Henry."

We talk a little while longer as we both unpack our rooms. We seem to have a lot in common and I notice right off the bat that she reminds me so much of Kelly. I'm so grateful for that considering I'm missing my best friends like crazy.

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A few hours later, our other two roommates show up. They introduce themselves as Tiffany Rogers and Izzy Mason. It turns out that they are best friends and are thankful they will have the rooms next to each other.

We all sit around and talk about our new school. Both Tiffany and Izzy are Art majors while Allie and I are both going for our teaching certifications in English and math respectfully. I learn that Tiff and Iz, who are adamant that we call them that, are both from Georgia like me while Allie is a Floridian from Pensacola. We are all single except for Izzy who's boyfriend Mitch also attends UT. She lights up as she tells us about him and insists that we all go over to his dorm later and meet him.

After a while, Allie and I decide to take a walk through campus to familiarize ourselves with where our classes are. Not even five minutes into our walk, we are handed numerous fliers about freshman activities going around all week long. I see all these mixers to get to know people, sororities looking for new recruits, and the soccer game this coming weekend. I kind of dislike that this school doesn't have a football team but I guess I can learn to like soccer. I'm just glad they have baseball or I'd probably have to transfer schools.

We find the buildings our classes are held in. Luckily, we have all but one class together this semester. As we walk back to our apartment, we get stopped by a cute guy decked out in school colors. He talks fast about a party at his frat tonight and quickly rushes off to tell more people.

When we walk into the apartment, Iz runs over to us and asks if we want to go meet Mitch. We agree and walk the ten minutes to a small dorm building. Izzy pulls out her phone to call Mitch to let us into the building when we see someone walking out and quickly grab the door before it closes.

We head down a hallway as Izzy runs ahead of us and starts knocking on a door. A guy, we assume is Mitch, opens the door and she practically jumps him. We stand there awkwardly as they kiss for what seems like forever before breaking apart. Iz introduces us to Mitch, an average height guy with very pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. I look between both and notice how different both of them look from each other. Izzy is very petite, I'd say no taller than 5'1 with long black hair, dark skin, and dark brown eyes.

We are introduced to Mitch's roommate Kyle who says hi and bye to us all in the same sentence. After another ten minutes or so I silently plead with Allie and she quickly understands.

"Well, I'm sure you guys would like some privacy so I think we'll be heading out," Allie says as we start walking out of the super small dorm room. I'm so thankful for our apartment after seeing how small these dorms actually are.

Allie, Tiffany and I leave the dorm and start heading back towards the entrance. I walk ahead of them, talking with my new friends and not paying attention to where I'm going. I run into someone coming out of their dorm and fall flat on my butt.

"Ouch," I say to myself.

I look up straight into very familiar green eyes.

"Jasmine?"

Shit.