tarsa-johnson:
Sharing the Room // Tarsa and Charlotte
Starter: closed For: @charlottewinthrop Setting: Hawthorne, Tarsa is moving into the bedroom. Tarsa’s eventual side of them dorm. Current outfit but with flats instead. Flying into New York City because it was cheaper had been a good monetary decision, but she clearly had not planned how much time it would take to get bedding supplies at Macy’s, find the Metro North train at Penn Station, ride the train, and then call the car ride service to get to Haddon University with her luggage and bags would take. Admittedly, riding the train upstate to Haddon Creek had been beautiful with the New York scenery being unexpectedly beautiful with lush greens and beautiful views of the Hudson River.
It was evening by the time she finally arrived at Hawthorne dorm, which she honestly could barely believe was actually a dorm. It was an old converted Victorian home, and in the twilight blue with the lights on and the students hanging out on the porch smoking and chatting, it felt surreal—the meeting of the old world and the new.
But she already loved it.
She put her duffle bag strap over her head, grabbed her Macy’s bag in one hand, her suitcase in another, and headed up to her room. She and her roommate—who was named Charlotte Winthrop—were in room 11 on the second floor. After checking in with the RA, she lugged her stuff up with her and headed upstairs. She gently knocked on the door before opening it, bringing in her things. “Sorry, travelling took a bit so I was late,” she explained. “I’m Tarsa Johnson. Not Tammy. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she explained, wincing internally at the reminder of her embarrassing birth name. That’s what you get being born to a teenage mom in Alabama.
Lottie had managed to find someone to move the things on her side of the dorm around — the bed was lofted high enough to fit the desk and her mini-fridge under it with a curtain hung for a bit of privacy. Settling into Hawthorne was always an interesting experience, finding new ways to store their clothes and the fabric that they kept on hand. The standard dresser had been swapped out for a larger set of drawers and tension bars at the foot of their bed allowed them to hang up their dresses, so they were counting it as a win.
It was minutes past dusk and they were touching up their lip gloss when the knock on the door sounded through the small room. Smacking their lips together and smoothing out the fabric of their blouse, they spun to face the door with a grin. “Oh no worries, I got in last night so I’ve been here a while.” They dismissed with a wave of their hand as they gently shut the door behind the other. “Sorry about the mess, I’m just setting up my espresso machine. Where are my manners? It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Charlotte but you can call me Lottie. Everyone does. They/them pronouns but gendered language is fine.”
They plugged in the espresso machine after turning back to fiddling with it, adjusting it’s position on the top of the chest of drawers. “Oh! If you ever need anything, just ask. I’ve been doing this whole dorm thing for three years, I’ve really amassed quite the collection. I have a toaster oven and this bad boy, plus some dishes stored under my bed. I also have a small storage unit nearby with some stuff for the holidays, you don’t mind if I decorate our door for Halloween do you?”
