The Time Traveler’s Girlfriend
Clarke may not have gotten her first choice when it came to residence halls on the historic campus of Polis University, but she at least lucked out that her dorm had been slated for single occupancy this semester. So although there was an empty twin bed, she’d been assured by the housing department that she’d have the space to herself until at least the spring semester.
The blonde freshman quickly made the space feel like her own; decking it out in her original artwork and anything/everything that brought her inspiration. She often used the spare bed as a catch-all, covering it with books and photographs and art supplies. She knew she’d have to reign in that bad habit eventually, but as it was only a month and a half into the fall semester, she wasn’t too concerned.
However, very early one brisk October morning, she awoke to sound of dull thuds as heavy textbooks hit the ground. She sat up in bed, heart racing from her rude awakening, only to be further startled by the source of the textbook avalanche. A girl, no young woman, no beautiful young woman was curled up on the spare bed asleep. Nude. The woman was completely naked and not a stitch of her clothing in sight.
Clarke’s thoughts skipped and hopped around in her brain; from who she was, to how she got in, to her photographs that were definitely going to be crinkled underneath the curves of the woman’s body, to the tattoo that ran the length of the woman’s spine, to the luscious brunette waves that partially obscured her face, and to the chill in the air. Clarke eased up quietly, stood carefully from her bed, tiptoed over to the no longer vacant bed, and attempted to ease her belongings out from under the woman.
She’d managed to retrieve almost everything, except the draft of her research paper for art history, when the unconscious woman turned and let out a sleepy groan. The groan evolved into a barely audible mumble, “Hmph, Clarke, just give me half an hour more. I don’t have class until noon today.” This woman knew her, but for the life of her, Clarke could not place the sleeping beauty.
The only explanation that would make any sense was that the housing department had assigned her a roommate after all. That would account for how the woman got in and knew her name, but it still didn’t explain the nudity. She pulled a spare blanket from inside the wardrobe, and covered the sleeping woman’s body. As she reluctantly climbed back into her own bed, half sulking and half curious about the roommate mix up, she witnessed the woman wrap the blanket tighter around her body and mumble “Thanks, baby, I love you.” Clarke wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep easily after that.
//
Lexa woke up warm and comfy in her dorm room bed sometime around mid-morning. Her girlfriend of a little more than a year was sitting at one of the built in desks, typing away on her laptop. When her girlfriend noticed Lexa stirring she, turned to face the brunette as she stretched. “Morning sunshine, where’d you go last night?”
Lexa rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, confused by Clarke’s line of questioning. “Umm…just to sleep?” Clarke got up from her desk and sat next to the Lexa on the twin bed they often shared, despite it being a tight squeeze. “I got cold in the middle of the night, and realized you weren’t in bed. I turned on the light and you weren’t in the dorm at all.” Both Clarke and Lexa furrowed their brows for very different reasons; Clarke because she wanted answers and Lexa because she didn’t have any.
“Babe, I swear I didn’t leave. I remember going to bed spooning you last night, you trying to wake me up early this morning, and then nothing until just now.” Clarke shook her head from side to side, “I never tried to wake you. My alarm went off at seven, like always, and you still weren’t here. I tried texting and calling you but your phone was still plugged in at your desk. I finally went to take a shower and get dressed, and by the time I got back you were asleep under the covers.” Tension filled the little dorm room. “Look Lex, I’ve got class. Maybe when I get back this evening you’ll be ready to talk to me about what’s going on.” Clarke wore a look of disappointment as grabbed her backpack, stuffed her laptop inside, and all but stormed out of the door.
//
Clarke must have drifted off at some point in the night, despite actively trying to stay awake, because when her alarm went off this morning the mysterious woman was gone. She made a bee line for the housing department office as soon as they opened. The older woman behind the desk assured Clarke one hundred times over that no one else had been assigned to her dorm. It did nothing to reassure her.
Eventually she had gone to class, stopped by the small student-run coffee shop near her dorm, and came back to her room to study. Clarke was startled to find the sleeping brunette in her dorm again when she opened the door. When Clarke saw the sleeping figure this time, curled under her spare blanket in a bed that was supposed to belong to no one, she grew angry. She marched right over to her, threw back the covers, only to find her once again completely nude.
“Damn, babe. I know you’re upset with me and all, but why you gotta wake me up like that! I was just taking a cat nap!” Clarke’s blue eyes were dark with anger. “Who the fuck are you, how do you keep getting in my room, and why are you calling me ‘babe’?” Lexa stared at Clarke in confusion, partly because she legitimately didn’t understand what in the hell was going on, and also because things just seemed off. The dorm was decorated differently, sans a few of Clarke’s staple original pieces, and Clarke herself was different. The most obvious incongruity being that the she had cut her gorgeous blonde locks.
Lexa looked around the room, trying to take things in. “Why’d you change everything Clarke?” Bewildered blue eyes squinted as the blonde tried to make heads or tails of the situation. “Who. Are. You?” Green eyes, wet with tears, sought some sort of explanation. “Stop it, babe, please.” Clarke grunted in exasperation, grabbing the closest heavy object next to her, which happened to be a thick roll of un-stretched canvas. “Tell me who you are or I’m calling campus security. I’ve had enough!”
Lexa jumped out of bed, holding her hands up, as she slowly circled the room looking for anything that she recognized as her own, yet failed to do so. “Clarke, c’mon it’s me, Lexa. Your girlfriend. We’ve been dating since the end of your freshman year!” The blonde’s jaw fell to the floor, “I don’t know who you are, but I just started my freshman year.” A bewildered Lexa shook her head furiously, “Babe, you’re making no sense. You started your freshman year in the fall of 2022. We’re juniors now.”
Clarke dropped the roll of canvas and dug her phone from her back pocket. She handed it over to Lexa, who astonishingly knew the passcode by heart. The brunette nearly crumpled to the floor when she opened the calendar application. Clarke couldn’t help herself but step in to steady her. She wrapped the extra blanket around Lexa’s shoulders, who still seemed comfortable in her nudity around Clarke, and watched as she searched up current events on her phone. “Clarke…” Her name had never sounded so desperate before. “Clarke, please wake me up.”