I must have dozed off, because when I woke up, my neck hurt, and the sun now looked warmly orange rather than brightly yellow. I rubbed my hair sleepily and yawned loudly. My laptop was hanging crookedly over my legs, the documentary on sugar substitutes in the food trend was still running. If I counted the length of the movie and added the timeslots of all the commercials in between, then I had slept for about an hour and a half. And that was on the first day. Wasn't I supposed to be making friends? I shook my head to dispel the tiredness and stood up. "Well, Sleeping Beauty. I was about to kiss you awake, but your bad breath stopped me," said a gruff voice from the other side of the room. I flinched and almost dropped my laptop. A broadly grinning boy with long brown hair tied into a knot looked over at me, his laptop also on his lap and glasses perched on his nose. His light brown eyes flashed mischief, but he seemed very likeable. I grinned and shrugged my shoulders. "That's how I keep them all at bay. Can't everyone have a piece of this excellent cake," I said and made a gesture that included my body from top to bottom. He laughed and held out his hand to me but didn't bother to stand up.

"I'm Dennis. I've also been assigned to this room." To avoid some unspoken embarrassment, I closed the distance between us and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, I’m Elias. Yes, I came here today too, but must have dozed off. Didn't even know I was tired." I grinned and immediately liked Dennis. "Yeah, I saw that haha. To be honest, I was a bit worried that I'd have a weirdo for a roommate, but you seem alright," he said and looked me up and down demonstratively. I rolled my eyes, but grinned. Then I pulled up a chair because I was too lazy to keep standing up and it was strange to talk to someone from above. "Have you had a chance to see the campus yet?" I asked, letting my gaze wander outside. Our room was on the second floor, so we had a pretty good view through the large double windows of the meadows in front of the building, which were interrupted only by small sandy paths and trees that provided shade for the students. Dennis put his computer aside, probably to fulfil the social etiquette of conversation. Or just because.

"Nah, I came straight here. I was going to go ask for a campus plan, but got a bit distracted with the boring stuff." I raised an eyebrow. "I haven't chosen my classes yet" he admitted meekly, rubbing his thighs as if he felt uncomfortable. I looked at him in disbelief. "School starts in a few days and you don't know what you want to study yet? Then why are you even here?" My question sounded more incredulous and ironic than intended. Dennis rolled his eyes and pinched the sensitive spot between his eyebrows with his fingers. "Hmm, good question. I mainly wanted to get away from my parents, who want me to at least have a degree. No matter what, the main thing is university, or school in this case. I think they're a bit keen on academic status," he said sarcastically, but his eyes sparkled. "Well, except maybe philosophy, where you end up in a museum or unemployed anyway, as my dad always used to say," he added with a smirk. "I can understand that very well, believe me. I decided to study business administration because my father was always nagging me about it. But I thought I'd make the best of it. Speaking of which," I gestured outside with my head.

"Do you know if anything's going on today?" Dennis laughed. "You're hot for the university experience, aren't you? I've already seen a few pretty girls," he looked at me conspiratorially. "If you have enough charm, maybe even one will say yes eventually." I looked at him and frowned. "Let's leave it at that." He raised his hands. "Chill, that was just a joke. I hold women in very high regard. I love them," he pulled his laptop onto his lap, smiling again. "Let me finish this for a moment, then we can go on a tour together if you're up for it."

While I waited for Dennis, I opened WhatsApp and looked at a few pictures that Sienna had sent me of her apartment.

Well, what do you think? Pretty, isn't it?

Her apartment was brightly furnished with large windows and light colors. A friendly smiling girl sat on the sofa in the picture and formed a peace sign with her fingers. Are people still doing that?

Not as pretty as you. And not as pretty as my new roommate, I typed with a grin and unobtrusively took a photo of Dennis, which I then sent to her.

Looks nice (wink wink smiley). Oh, and you suck-up hehe (kissing smiley).

I put my cell phone in my pocket with a smile. Luckily, I never showed my chats to anyone. With others, I would have grimaced slightly in embarrassment at the obvious kitsch. But with Sienna it was easy, it was rather funny but in a very sweet way. I closed my eyes and imagined her soft hair and red lips. Just a little moment of escape. But before my thoughts could wander off in a rather naughty direction, Dennis rescued me. "Well, are you thinking about me? You're a bit red in the face," my roommate joked and then theatrically closed the laptop. "I'm ready, shall we?" I nodded and stood up. "Nah, sorry, I'm already taken. But if that changes, I'll let you know." I bit my lips and looked at him with an exaggerated lust for love. "Yeah yeah, I'll wait for it," he snorted and held the door open for me. "I'm glad that we two princesses have found each other in these 18 square metres."

As we walked along the corridors and down the stairs, more and more students came towards us, some looking around shyly and avoiding eye contact. But most were smiling, talking wildly or simply focused on finding their room numbers. We walked down the corridor and came into a large room with two decorative pillars holding up the ceiling in the middle. There were tables and benches with a modern design everywhere and many people were already sitting at them. Large doors at the end of the room let in the remaining afternoon light. "This should be the common room of Building C. We are building C, FYI" Dennis noted, studying the map on his phone that we had got online from the secretary's office website shortly beforehand. "The grounds are quite large, there are actually buildings in the alphabet up to F. According to the plan, they are arranged in a circle. Here," he pointed behind us to the left-hand side, which was also visible from our room, "is the park. And there," he pointed to the right, "is the inner square between the buildings. Shall we go there? From there we can probably get to the canteen, the library and the sports field further back." I was glad that Dennis was taking this on board and followed him blindly. I was far too busy studying the faces of the young people around us, imagining what they were thinking on this first day, what they were looking forward to and whether they would be potential new friends. It was not like I was desperately looking for new friends or so, but I was kind of just trying to fit into a crowd of unknown somebodies.

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When school started, I would even see Lina, Ian, and Sienna from time to time. But they all didn’t live here – Lina lived nearby in a shared flat, Ian had found a small apartment with Oscar and Sienna's apartment was also a 20-minute drive away. It wasn’t far, but far enough. "...the sports ground is also supposed to be quite big," said Dennis, looking at me meaningfully. "Excuse me?" I asked absentmindedly, looking at his map, his finger pointing straight at a large oval grass-green dot. "Do you play any sports?" he asked and kept walking. We walked out of one of the large swinging doors and stepped out onto a large forecourt, more like a courtyard. It was neatly paved and there were small artificial trees everywhere, surrounded by benches in a pentagon. Signs pointed to the buildings, the canteen and the library, which looked spacious, had big windows and showed many books piled up high. "I wonder why we need a library. The universities all have one anyway," I thought aloud.

Then I remembered that I had left Dennis' question unanswered. "Um, I swim and run. But I'm not really good at ball sports. I don't like it that much either haha," I laughed nervously. "Oh, me neither. I'm not the sportiest, I'm more of a computer guy," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand and then nodded towards the library. "I don't think all universities have their own. But I know that people from outside the dormitory are also allowed to use it." "Do they actually have an indoor swimming pool here?" I asked, my arms tingling as I thought longingly of the fresh water that awaited me every time I jumped into the cool pool, enveloping, and surrounding me like a secret to be kept and locked away inside. I loved swimming, it gave me the feeling of freedom, control over myself and my body and it made me feel every inch of myself through the cold touch of water. I also loved the silence that settled on my ears and in my head underwater. It was like a sanctuary, like my own little world that I didn't have to share with anyone. And to be honest, it was probably also like my own little therapy session. I could think undisturbed, in peace and quiet. Which was by all means necessary every now and then. Dennis thought about it. "I think so, but there's definitely a swimming club at the school. And it's not far, a 15-minute walk and you're already there. You seem to be a bit of a water rat, don't you?" He poked me in the side, and I grinned. "If it fits, it fits.”

The first evening passed uneventfully, we had looked around the entire residence halls and got an overview. It was much bigger than I had initially assumed. But to be honest, I didn't want to know how much my father had paid for the rent. From the looks of it, it was unreasonably expensive to live here. "What did you decide on in the end?" I asked Dennis casually. We were sitting on two beanbags in a corner of the library, playing on our cell phones. I had wondered why we didn't just want to chill in our room, but his arguments that we would only meet people outside the room and that our room didn't have such cool beanbags had convinced me. I nibbled on a rubber snake and tried to protect my house from bloodthirsty zombies with sunflowers and shooting plants on my cell phone. "I took social sciences first to annoy my Dad a bit haha. But I'm definitely going to sign up for computer science too. I think that's my baby." I nodded and had just mowed down a zombie when a high-pitched female voice behind us asked, "Hey, sorry you two." We turned our heads in anticipation of being sent out now that the library was closing. But there were only two girls standing there, grinning broadly. The blonde of the two stroked a strand of hair coquettishly behind her ear and then looked shyly at me. "My name is Max, and this is Maya," she pointed to her friend, a pretty, dark-haired girl, who now waved slightly and also smiled. "Hi," Maya and we said at the same time.

Max bit her lip. "Well, we saw you here and thought maybe we'd ask if you had any plans for tomorrow night?" I exchanged a glance with Dennis. He was obviously keen on the invitation because his eyes were sparkling, and the corners of his mouth twitched. Before I could say anything, he was already nodding his head exaggeratedly. "Do you have something specific in mind?" I continued to nibble on my rubber snake. Max on her part continued to look at me, although she answered in Dennis' direction: "There's a party in building B tomorrow. We live there and have been invited. They say you can let anyone who wants to come know. As the school hasn't started yet, the supervisors aren't so strict about curfews and stuff. Would you like to come?" A slight raise of the eyebrows indicated her slight uncertainty. I smiled and tried to make it seem friendly but reserved. I didn't want to send any signals because Max seemed to be interested in me. At least that's what I assumed from the look on her face. "Sure, we're looking forward to it. Thanks for letting us know," said Dennis. "Oh, by the way, my name is Dennis, and my handsome roommate here," his hand made a wagging motion towards me, "is Elias." "Nice name," Max said quietly and grinned. She didn't really seem that shy, even though she pretended to be, and I didn't quite know how to respond. "Ahh thanks," I said weakly.

"Dude, she totally fancied you there, did you see how red she got at the end?" Dennis joked to me when they had left, clapping me on my shoulder. I just grimaced, pulled out my cell phone and texted Sienna.

Hey, how are you? Have you finished everything for your apartment already?

"But maybe you should subtly let her know that you already have a girlfriend haha. It is a girlfriend, isn't it?" he asked me with a quick sideways glance, slight irony in his voice. "Yeah, sure, what else?" I asked absent-mindedly. "Well, you never know," he said, but then went back to thinking about the two girls. "But I thought the other one was cute, what was her name.... Maya, right?" He was still talking to himself, but I was already thinking about someone else. Sienna. Even though we'd only seen each other this morning, it seemed strange not to see her. I didn't know if it was a feeling of missing her. I was also used to seeing her every day. We were from the same town, lived less than 10 minutes’ walk away and used to go to the same school. Sienna was always there; she was my best friend and my person. We knew each other inside out and always knew what the other was thinking and feeling. Presumably even before we knew it ourselves. It sounded annoyingly cheesy like a story in a romance book. But Sienna had been my first best friend back then, Sienna and her brother. "Yo, where are you again? Daydreamer, aren't you?" Dennis said, holding the door to the apartment building open for me. "Sorry, I always think a lot. I'm just very intelligent," I joked.