My eyes jerked open, a sheen of cold sweat covering my forehead, whilst my hands shook uncontrollably. I flickered my eyes around the room, subconsciously searching for the burning car that held my brother captive. It wasn't there, instead, I was met with the unchanging pink walls of my room. A sadistic part of me wanted it to be there; maybe then, I would feel closer to Blake again.

Sunlight poured in through the window beside me, washing away the vestiges of my horror, leaving me to return to my mundane existence. I willed my breathing to go back to normal, implementing a breathing technique I had recently learnt.

I sighed loudly, sliding out of my bed and heading towards the bathroom. The nightmare wasn't anything peculiar, I had grown accustomed to it, and now it was almost like a norm.

"Savannah!"

My mother yelled as the loud clattering of pans rang through the house. I dried myself off before donning light skinny jeans and a peach blouse, leaving my hair to hang loosely on my back. I appraised myself in the mirror, deeming my efforts worthy for the day.

"Morning mum." I murmured as I entered the kitchen, quickly spotting her familiar head of cropped blond hair. Her petit frame stood in front of the stove, wrist twitching as she expertly flipped the pancakes.

"Morning sweety," she said over her shoulder.

I made a beeline for the coffee maker, needing the caffeine to ease my throbbing head. The coffee immediately reduced the pounding into a dull ache, making me release a sigh as I took a seat in front of the plate my mum had served.

"Are you having those nightmares again?" She asked lowly, catching me off guard. I opened my mouth slightly, quickly formulating a lie, when she spoke up again "Don't lie to me, I heard you scream." sadness filled her eyes, and I hated that I was the cause of it.

"It was nothing, it's probably the nerves from being away from home." I shrugged nonchalantly.

The prospect of being away from home, away from the memory of my brother, scared me. I craved familiarity, I didn't like the unknown. So, leaving home to a foreign place had my nerves skyrocketing.

"Okay, but if they get worse you could always call Dr Jones. You haven't been to her office in over three month." I winced subconsciously at that.

I had no desire of seating in a boxlike room, surrounded by potted plants as I recited my most horrid memories to a beady-eyed lady. It wasn't that she wasn't good at her job; in fact, she was too good. Her eyes, a crystal shade of hazel, scared me the most. When she stared at me, I felt naked. Like she had stripped me of my defence, and that she could see inside my head. It drove me crazy.

Furthermore, I didn't want to become a financial strain to my mother. The therapists were expensive, and she was already taking enough shifts at the hospital to pay the bills.

"Are you all packed?" She quipped after we were both done with our breakfast. I simply nodded, treading up the stairs to retrieve my boxes.

I was leaving to attend university, today being the arrival date. Though nervous and slightly hesitant, I was excited too. I could be just a normal freshman there, no one would view me with pity or speak to me like I was frail glass. I would have the opportunity to live like a normal young adult, well at least as normal as it could get.

"Do you want to visit your brother before you leave?" My mother said as we loaded my few boxes into the car. She knew how important Blake was to me, that I would never leave without telling him goodbye, and I wouldn't.

"I already went to see him yesterday." I answered thickly, I was still not happy about not being able to be close to him. I exhaled, climbing into the passenger seat after my mum before we drove down the monotonous neighborhood.

The whole car ride consisted of jittery silence, my focus set on the other cars breezing down the road. I laced my trembling finger together, urging my nerves to cease whilst I dragged in the motive air.

Even as my mother strategically drove into the tight parking space, I was still failing at curbing my more than obvious edginess. I breathed in deeply before slowly exhaling, urging my raging heart to calm down. I climbed out of the car, stiffly making my way to the trunk to grab my boxes.

"Let's find your dorm room first," my mother suggested, making her way towards the tall building in front of us. We had already toured the university earlier in the week, so the aristocratic structures were semi familiar, and we could point out distinct places, such as my dorm building.

"I'm going to miss you so much."

I scrutinized the glossiness of my mum's large blue eyes, detecting the sadness settled on her immaculate features. She brushed her thin fingers over her eyes, wiping away the tears that collected underneath them. I would probably be crying too, if I wasn't still too nervous. We were now at the car again, all my boxes safely placed in my new room.

"I'll miss you too, but at least now, you and Mark can get freaky without wondering how much of it I can hear. Which is all of it by the way," her face morphed into one of mortification in seconds. Mark was her, six-months long, boyfriend and the only reason I wasn't so worried about leaving her alone. He made my mother happy and he was an extremely good man.

"Oh God, I told him it was a bad idea. I'm so embarrassed!" Her tears were long forgotten at this point "I'm such a bad mum, I probably scarred you for life, didn't I?"

"It's fine, let's just not talk about this ever again."

Nobody wants to have a conversation with their mother about what they do behind closed doors. It was about as dreadful as the awkward sex talk we had when I was thirteen. I shudder at the memory, slightly shaking my head to clear it of the mental image. Her hand shot up to cover her face that had turned ten shades darker than her crimson lipstick.

"Agreed."

"I guess this is goodbye then." pregnant silence lingered in the air as she squeezed me tightly against her chest. I wrapped my arms around her, digging my face into her neck as I commemorated her scent to heart, wanting it to comfort my disarray. The hug broke apart and I watched as her car drove down the road until it rounded a conner, disappearing from my sight.

Exasperatedly, I picked up the last box I had, making my way back to the dorms, getting lost a few time amongst the sea of people.

I fumbled with the door, the weight of the box making it more difficult to maneuver my hands. I nearly jumped in relief when the door burst open, revealing an empty cube sized room. The room wasn't all that bad, it had two separate bed, each pushed against opposite walls of the room; rather small, but not cramped.

Seeing as my roommate had not yet arrived, I picked the bed beside the window, hoping she wouldn't mind. I had talked to her a total of two times on the phone, quickly gathering that she was an enthusiastic person. However, I couldn't judge her character based on two short phone conversations, I just prayed she wasn't a complete psychopath or an insistent brat.

It had been about an hour later, I had changed and was laying on the bed, everything unpacked and put away. I had just began closing my eyes when the door burst open, making me jump out of bed, startled whilst my heart drummed.

"This is all your fault Archer!"

A female voice screeched outside the door, vexation clear as day in her words. I squinted my eyes, frowning in confusion as a tall, shadowy, blond-haired, muscular silhouette stepped through the door, dragging a large bag with them.

"What the fuck, Avery?! How is this my fault? If you would have taken enough time to stop fucking Logan, maybe you would have known the...Oh, hi there," the tall shadow had stepped into the light, and I could clearly see his face now. A smirk rapidly displacing his scowl.

"H-hi." I stuttered, shuffling my weight from one foot to another as both of them blatantly stare at me. Feeling overwhelmed, I looked at my feet, unconsciously biting my lips while thinking of what to say.

"You must be Savannah. I'm Avery, nice to meet you. I'm sorry, did we wake you up?"she asked apologetically, while shaking my outstretched hand, flashing me a brilliant white smile.

"Nice to meet you too, and you didn't wake me up, so it fine." I smiled trying to make her feel less guilty.

"I'm Archer, and you are absolutely breathtaking." the tall guy said as his eyes undressed me. Considering that I was only wearing one of Blake's oversized t-shirts and some boy shorts, there was little to undress anyway.

"No, Archer. Don't even think about it, ever!" Avery said sternly making him pout his smirking lips as he sighed exaggeratedly.

"Why not? She's so hot," They were talking as if I wasn't in the room at all, and my face was completely flushed from the nature of the conversation. I hated attention, so the sudden spotlight had me itching to crawl back into bed and hide under my blanket.

"No way, she's my roommate, so don't you dare. Please just go look for some desperate girl, stupid enough to open their legs for you somewhere else!"

"Why don't we ask her what she wants?" He turned around, facing me, his pout still intact as his eyes lit in mischief.

"Do you want me baby?"

Suddenly, my throat felt dry as their attention fell on me. I gaped my mouth, my lips parting and closing. I couldn't think of any coherent response to his question. How could he possibly ask me this after meeting me only minutes before. Wait' wasn't he her boyfriend or something? I thought.

"God, no! He is not my boyfriend! Gross, he's my brother!" A disgusted expression dusted over Avery's face as she made a dramatic gaging noise. Come to think of it, they did look alike. From their identical blond hair, to their brilliant blue eyes. I kicked myself mentally for not seeing it before.

"Yeah, so that means I'm single and ready to mingle." Archer said while throwing a wink my way, making his sister pretend to gag again.

"Archer! Get the fuck out of my room!" She practically shoved him out of the door, banging it behind him. Not before he said a brief 'sweet dreams beautiful'.

"I'm really sorry about my brother, he can be a pig at times," she sighed, plopping on her bed dramatically as she gave me a sympathetic smile. I tried my hardest not to cringe at the sight. I loathed sympathy.

"It's really okay, he was probably just joking around," Avery scoffed, shaking her head while looking at the wall distantly, an overly disgusted look glazing over her features once again.

"I hope for your sake and mine, his is joking." She emphasized, making it seem like a threat towards her brother. I chuckled at bittersweet memories of Blake and I's banter, very similar to their own.

"I really hope my brother didn't totally throw you off. I promise he won't always be here." She sounded really worried, like she thought I would actually want to switch roommates due to her brothers straight forwardness.

"He didn't, we can just pretend it never happened and start over?" I suggested as her clear eyes filled with hope.

"Okay, I'm Avery Robinson, your new roommate, nice to meet you." Avery said as she outstretched her hand for me to shake.

"I'm Savannah Raine, and its nice to meet you too." I said while I shook her hand, resulting both of us chuckling.

"I'm so relived I got you as a roommate. I was worried I'd get some grade A snob or a creepy druggie," she said, exhaling loudly to show how relived she was.

"How sure are you I'm not some grade A snob?" Surprisingly, she laughed loudly, throwing her head back, her blond hair tumbling smoothly over her back.

"You're too sweet to be a snob, and you blush at the slightest compliment." she was right, I could never take a compliment well, I would always blush or stutter in response; pathetic, I know.

We spent the rest of the night getting to know each other as she put some of her things away. I learnt that she was majoring in fashion design, Archer is three years older than her and both her parents run a design company.

Avery was smart, friendly and caring, honestly she was much more than I bargained for in a roommate.