Room with a View

A Room With a View by Tryp Vaughntain

Studying hard can have its downfalls. They never tell you that all that studying, working late into the night on assignments for class and barely sleeping or eating can take a toll on a young person’s mind and body. They only tell you that you must study and work hard of you want to succeed in life. There are some of us that don’t make it that far. One person is Sarah. She had worked so hard to get into Harvard all her life. High school seemed like a breeze for her, but she had no social life cause all she did was study and study some more. It was what she was supposed to do since it was mandatory for her. Now that she is technically an adult, she does this craziness to herself voluntarily.

               Halfway into her second year, she was pretty brunt out. Not having a social life before moving out there on your own also has some downfalls. She was out every night with her new friends and staying up all night studying when she wasn’t in classes. Busy with all this living going on a friend offered her something that was supposed to be much stronger than the coffee or red bulls that I drink.

“Sarah, you look tired,” everyone kept telling her. And what can you say to that?

“Thank you, you look tired as well,” nope cause she did look tired more tired than anyone that told her that did.

One crisp winter morning, she was sitting in the library trying to study for a final, when the guy she had been flirting with since the beginning of the year slid into the chair next to hers.

“Hey wake up!” Daniel whispered as he poked her in the side.

She jumped and knocked her bag and all its contents out on to the floor beside them.

“Shit,” she spoke before she could stop herself. Shushing came from all around.

Daniel chuckled softy.

“did you just come here to scare the shit out of me?” she barked. More shushing.

“No that was just a bonus. I came here because I knew that you would be here. Studying hard like you always are, so I brought you something will help you with that,” he opened his fist and in the palm of his hand he had a tiny white pill.

She was confused. How was a Tylenol going to help her study?

“Umm. no thank you I’m good,” she shook her head and then grabbed her cold coffee.

He put the pill on the table next to her laptop.

“This is just a little pick me up to aid you with your workload, trust me you’ll thank me for it later,” he sounded so sure of himself.

Daniel grinned and pointed at the pill one more time and gave me a thumbs up. He was always a little nerdy, and she loved it.

Watching him walk away with his cute butt, she picked up the pill and put it in her pocket forgetting about it till two days and no sleep later.

Scrambling around her dorm looking for some cleanish pants she can put on, she finally found some jeans and quickly put them on. She grabbed her bag and phone, and she was out the door on to her first class. By her last class of the day, she was worn out, but she still had much more studying to do. Back at the library in her favorite spot she was all set up to get back to work. She reached into her jeans pocket hoping to find a folded piece of paper that had important notes on, instead she ended up pulling this little white pill out. She was at her wits end and needed a pick me up. So, she popped it in her mouth and took a drink of her water bottle and swallowed. She wondered how long this ‘pick me up’ would take to pick her up. She giggled to herself.

               All set up with her books and laptop in the corner of the large, drafty library. She loved this spot. It was in the windowless part of the building, so there was at less distractions, but you can see most of the library from here too. Finally getting back to work, all the reading, constant note taking and the bright light from her laptop was taking a toll on her eyes. Almost an hour after she got there, she put down her pen to rub her eyes. Yawning and stretching her arms out she thought she needs coffee. Closing her laptop, she slid it into her bag and got up. The library looked dark, almost like it was closed but this library never closes.

That’s odd, she thought as she slowly picked up her bag and walked towards the entrance where the coffee cart was set up. Where was everyone? She was sure that there was a fair amount of people here already when she arrived and now no one. She walked through the first set of doors to the building, and she expected to see the big windows that let you see outside instead of the outside she stumbled into a room of doors. The floor to ceiling windows that let all the light in were now another set of double doors, just like the ones she just came through. Honestly what the fuck was going with her?

The room she was sitting in had eight doors in total. Each side was like a mirror to each other. There were eight red doors. Which one would she choose? Since when did this little lobby have so many doors tat you could choose from?

Thinking hard about what the cause of this could be. The pick me up! Oh, my fucking god!! Daniels stupid fucking pick me up!!!! Finally deciding to pick a door and walk through it. She stood up and turned to the left and went towards the first door she could.

She opened the door, but it was pitch black when she tried to see what was in store for her. Taking a step into the ark room, she was able to get one foot in the door and then when she took the pressure off her right foot ad tried to back step, but it was a no go. Forward she went.

Into the darkness she leapt.

She fell into this hole…. This hole laughed at her and mocked her as she went down. How? She couldn’t understand it. All she knew was that this hole she was falling into was making fun of her. After about three seconds of closing her eyes, she opened them only to feel the grip of hands. Yes just hands. The grabbed her and held her up. The mocking voices were coming from these hands. She couldn’t figure out how this was possible, but it was unfolding in front of her eyes…. She couldn’t deny it. As her falling slowed down she was able to take a better look at these hands, and they were coming from the darkness. They were coming from nothing.

You suck! You’re going to fail! You’re just too dumb to pass! Shouted the hands till I stopped falling and they put me down on a black and white checkered floor. The hands were silent and all pointing me forward then when I stood up all the hands in front of me melted away into the darkness and A red wooded door come into view. Obviously, she was supposed to go through it. Not like she had anywhere else she could go. She crept towards the door. She didn’t go to open it right away because she wanted to see if she could hear anything coming from the other side. It sounded like a party was going on in there. Shakily, she reached out for the doorknob and turned it. With her eyes closed she pushed the door open and stepped into the bright white light that enveloped her. She stumbled out from behind a tree only to trip and fall on the grass. People all dressed up were walking towards a stage and a whole bunch of folding chairs. She knew this place it was Harvard. Graduating class of 2025. That was her class.

“Sarah, what are you doing here?” Daniel looked at me shocked.

“Why wouldn’t I be here,” she wanted to get more information from him.

“Umm, because you were kicked out earlier this year,” He stated.

She gasped.

“What… um what are you fucking talking about?” she couldn’t believe it. He must be trying to prank her some how.

Are you ok you don’t look like yourself. He took a step back and looked at her from head to toe.

“didn’t you also cut your hair all off?!”  he was gently pulling her hair out of her sweater.

She pulled back and threw her hood on.

“Why was I kicked out?” she asked.

Now he was looking at her like she was crazy. “You were kicked out after you got arrested for drugs, you remember that right?” maybe she was crazy.

“Look, I got to go. See you later,” she rushed over to the tree that he door opened to.

She walked around it multiple times and there was no fucking door.

Crying and cursing the tree, she tripped and fell face first on the ground. She didn’t even look up she just kept her face planted on the grass. Crying herself to sleep, she didn’t care who seen her anymore.

Everything she worked hard for all her life was now gone. She had no future anymore. Now she knew what it was to be completely hopeless.

Suddenly, she felt someone shake her.

“Sarah, Sarah, Wake up!” she opened her eyes. Everything was a blur, but things were finally starting to come into view.

It was my roommate. She looked worried and kind of mad.

“Sarah, what the fuck are you doing? You were supposed to help me last night?” she said.

“What? Wait we are still roommates?” hopeful.

“Sarah are you ok? I think you need to sleep more.”

Oh my god! It was just a dream! Thank fucking god! Remind me to throw away that pick me up and never take any drugs until I graduate at least. Hahaha, she chuckled to herself.

The End