Page 4 of What We Got Wrong

Olivia Palmer was sitting in her empty dorm room, listening to the commotion as other students moved into their dorms, and she was absolutely ecstatic. She’d never done anything on her own. She’d never been allowed to, really, but here she was, in Michigan of all places, by herself.

She’d chosen Livingston State University because it was a small school, only around 3,000 total students, close enough to her home near Chicago that her parents wouldn’t have full-blown meltdowns at her leaving, but far enough that they wouldn’t just pop in for a visit, randomly. Not that that was likely to happen, regardless of the location of her school, but she needed space.

Livingston’s campus was only around 200 acres, its own little world on the far west side of a suburban city about forty-five minutes outside of Detroit called Brighton, MI. The area was quaint, with an adorable downtown district, but Liv wasn’t planning on leaving campus much. She’d come to visit once, the previous fall, her mom generously attending the tour with her, and Liv had fallen in love with the school, with the way the leaves were changing color on the trees that covered campus, with how tucked away it all felt.

She felt like she could take on a new life here.

Her parents hadn’t even insisted on escorting her, like she thought they would. They’d let her climb on an airplane, with just her backpack and a carryon suitcase, with the promise that they’d send several boxes of her things to meet her in the coming days, as long as she signed the contract that they had written up, committing to things like visits home and a summer internship at her dad’s company. That’s all, and she was alone, for the first time in her life.

Well, alone was a slight exaggeration, she supposed, given the mess of stuff on the other side of the room. She hadn’t met her roommate yet, but she was looking forward to all the cheesy experiences: borrowing clothes, sharing makeup, late night hangouts. She wanted nothing more than a normal college experience.

Sharing a room was something she’d have to get used to, though, which she was reminded of when the door flew open, and a whirlwind of energy swirled into the room.

“Hey, I’m Quinn,” the girl said, her smile wide, hazel eyes flashing with kindness as she stretched out her hand to shake. “I just threw my stuff on one side, but if you have a preference, I could totally move.”

“I’m Olivia Palmer. Liv, please. And no worries,” Liv replied quietly, taking Quinn’s hand and shaking gently. As their palms met, Liv took in the full effect of her roommate: a few inches taller than her own 5’5”, wearing long navy blue shorts, past her knees, covered in pockets, with a clip handing off her belt loop, keys jangling, and a white Livingston State University T-shirt, boxy but rolled snug on her upper arms, showing off a surprising amount of muscle, her golden brown hair pulled back into a messy low ponytail, with light freckles splashed across her friendly face. She didn’t carry herself carefully, or try not to take up space, like Liv had been trained to do, and Liv felt drawn to her in a way she didn’t fully understand. “I’m happy to take this one.”

With that, she set her suitcase on the open bed and started to unpack.

“Is that all you brought? Or, are your parents parking and bringing more up?” Quinn asked her.

Liv shook her head. “I flew in by myself. They’re shipping a few boxes in the next few days, but my dad couldn’t take the time away.”

“I totally get it. I’m on my own today, too,” Quinn said, still with that magnetic grin splashed across her face. “But I’m only a couple of hours away from home, so I stuffed my car to the gills. There’s a bunch more downstairs, actually…I may have gone a bit overboard.”

She said this last part, scanning her stuff, as if suddenly aware they were meant to coexist in a fairly small space for the year, looking over at Liv and her single carry-on suitcase. She must’ve rationalized it or assumed that they’d find a way to make the tight fit work, because she continued chattering away.

"I'm one of five kids," Quinn said cheerfully. "So, my parents couldn’t break away today, either.”

“One of five?”

“Yup! Peter and Nico are five years younger than me; they just turned thirteen. And Everlee and Juliette will be eight in a couple of weeks."

Liv felt her eyes bulge out of her head. “Two sets of twins? I can’t imagine.”

“They’re all a lot, but I love those little idiots,” Quinn said, fondness seeping into her tone regardless of the harsh word she used for her siblings. “My parents are always busy, though, with the littles, so I kind of try to stay as out of their way as possible to make things easier for them.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Liv said.

“What about you?” Quinn asked. “Any siblings?”

Liv didn’t want to talk about that, so she chose to go with a half-truth. “My parents get to focus all their attention on me at this point. It’s a little overwhelming.”

“I can’t imagine,” Quinn parroted back. “Where are you from?”

“I grew up in a suburb outside of Chicago,” Liv answered.

“Oh, so not too far,” Quinn said, beaming at her. “I love Chicago.”

“It has its merits,” Liv allowed. She gestured to Quinn’s shirt. “So, we’re very excited to be Livingston State University students, rocking the spirit wear on your first day on campus.”

Quinn laughed. “I am super excited! But, to be fair, it’s not my first day. They opened the dorms early for student athletes. Practices started the beginning of last week.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t room you together with other athletes, then,” Liv said, though for reasons she couldn’t pin down, she wasn’t disappointed about the random assignment.

“I actually asked my coach about that,” Quinn replied. “I thought it might be easier for scheduling and stuff, but I guess they’ve had issues in the past, teammates not jiving and having no space from each other, so they stopped purposely putting teammates together.”

“I guess that could be hard,” Liv said. She had finished unpacking. “I’m getting kind of hungry. Do you want to go grab some food?”