Out of the Shadow by Jl Paul Page A

Daddy,” she said as she set the box near her bags. “This is Ally, my roommate.”
    Mr. Lofgren extended and hand, his smile as warm and friendly as his daughter’s. Ally shook his hand and offered a smile of her own. “It’s nice to meet you, Ally. I hope you and Shannon get along okay this year.”
    “ I’m sure we will,” Ally said, shooting a glance at Shannon. “I like her already.”
    “ Great,” Mr. Lofgren said. “That will put me at ease.”
    “ Shannon, damn! What did you put in here?” a boy asked as he heaved a box on the nearest bed. He was a few inches taller than Shannon with hair the same color and same length. His wire frame glasses covered his brown eyes and his cheeks reddened when he noticed Ally. “Oh, hey.”
    “ Hi,” Ally said. “I’m Ally.”
    “ Logan,” he said, the blush on his cheeks deepening. “Nice to meet you.”
    “ You, too,” Ally said, hiding a smile. It seemed as if shyness ran in the Lofgren family.
    “ I’d love to help you girls unpack and take you to dinner but I still have to get Logan off to school,” Mr. Lofgren said. He looked at Ally. “Logan goes to school down state.”
    “ Oh, cool,” Ally said, tucking her hands in her pockets. “Well, I hope you have a good semester, Logan.”
    “ Thanks,” Logan said, his eyes on his feet. “You, too.”
    “ I can unpack just fine, Daddy,” Shannon said as she kissed his cheek. She hugged him fiercely before moving to her brother. Logan gave her a quick, embarrassed squeeze and practically ran out of the room.
    “ You girls behave and you call me if you need anything,” Mr. Lofgren said, pressing a kiss to Shannon’s temple. “I’ll see you next weekend.”
    “ Bye, Daddy,” Shannon said, her eyes on him until he disappeared from the room. She sighed and her shoulders slumped, tearing at Ally’s heart.
    “ Hey,” Ally said, wrapping an arm around the girl. “Come on, I’ll help you get settled. I already put my clothes away and only have a few things left to do. We can do it together and talk and stuff. What do you say?”
    Shannon graced Ally with a watery, grateful smile and nodded. She ran a finger under each eye. “Sorry, but I’ve never been away from home before. And, now that both Logan and I are in college, Daddy is home alone. My mother died about seven years ago.”
    “ I’m so sorry,” Ally said, clutching her chest as her mind ran to her own mother. She didn’t know what she’d do if she lost her mom. She loved her mother with a fierceness so deep that it pained her sometimes to think about it. She’d had a wonderful relationship with her mom for as long as she could remember, although she’d always been a daddy’s girl at heart.
    “ It’s okay,” Shannon reassured her. “How about you? What about your family?”
    Ally paused, wondering if it was the right moment to confess. She bent over a box, stalling for time. She decided to wait a few days and get a better feel for Shannon. She liked her right now, sure, but what if she found Shannon to be a horrible gossip? What if Shannon decided later that she didn’t like Ally?
    “ Well, I live with my mom and dad and my younger brother, Alec. We live in a little town outside of Chicago,” Ally explained. “I attended Meridian Valley the past four years so I know what it’s like to be away from home.”
    “ Wow,” Shannon said as she froze, a photo of her father and brother in her hands. “That’s cool. But didn’t you miss your family?”
    Ally shrugged. “A little but I had my three best friends with me.” She smiled as she thought, not for the first time that day, of the boys. She missed them terribly and it felt strange knowing that she couldn’t just run to their dorm and bug them if she was bored. She still had Jamie and that was a comfort, but it just wasn’t the same.
    “ My best friend is going to school in New York,” Shannon said as she set the picture frame on the nightstand next to the naked bed.