[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
So where do I begin exactly? How long ago would you like me to start this? How about college, you know. The place where we first met…

~ Strange Bedfellows ~

After I left the parking lot, which took a lot longer than I had intended; just standing there staring at the place where my brother had just been with his car, hoping that maybe at any minute he would double back and take me out of this place, I finally decided to turn around and head back to my new home.

It was odd referring to anyplace but the house I grew up in, as home. With the exception of a few days at one brother’s or a night over at a friend’s, that house was the only home I knew.

I was going to be at this place for the next four years, if I was successful. Which I had hoped I would be. I’m sure everyone got that sick feeling in their stomachs when the time came to leave home. Maybe it was just the lobster roll acting up. Served me right for trying lobster at a McDonald’s. What was I thinking?

The campus was just a big series of hills, my dorm being at the bottom of the biggest one of all. I could just tell what a bitch it was going to be in the winter when snow and ice would make this thing one big skating rink. Maybe I would finally get a nice firm butt out of this though.

People were still coming in an endless mess of unpacked cars and crying mothers. I had to dodge at least three carts full of things on the way to the elevators. I almost decided to take the stairs but I had no clue how to get to my room from the stairs, in fact I had no clue how to find the stairs.

I rode in the middle of the biggest family I have ever seen. They reminded me of the Hoo’s from the Grinch story. There were about ten of them, one smaller then the next. The smallest one in pig tails with big blue eyes staring up at me. I bet her name was Sally but they got off the elevator before I had time to ask.

I trudged down the long hallway passing by rooms filled with laughter and music. The upper classmen I thought and I couldn’t help sighing, like high school all over again. How I hated going into the new school and being the lowest on the totem pole. My freshmen year in high school I remember being terrified of the seniors because one pushed me up against the lockers my first day of school, I probably got in his way or something but it was enough to keep me pale when they came anywhere near me.

AJ threatened to go to school and beat the crap out of anybody that needed an ass kicking but then he also said that from some obscure village he was staying in at the time. Those were his roaming years.

I finally came to my room which was right next door to one of the loudest rooms I had passed thus far. They had Dave Matthews blaring in the background. “So typical” I muttered under my breath finding my key and letting myself into my new home.

My roommate still wasn’t home, everything left where it had been when I walked Howie to the car. I looked around trying to sum up what this mystery guy was going to be like. So far all I had was his name. The guy I was supposed to room with originally and got to know over the summer via telephone calls had decided at the last minute to go somewhere else, so I was going into this blind. “Couldn’t be any worse then what I came from though” I said walking over to his desk and looking at the pictures he had planted there.

There was one of a beautiful girl in a cheerleader outfit. My guess was it was a girlfriend. Next to that one was a family portrait of four people. A blonde woman who looked to be about 50, a man standing to her left with his hand on her shoulder and a guy who was most likely my roommate standing next to him. A girl rounded out the picture. They looked so nuclear.

I picked the picture up to try to examine this guy, I think his name was Kenny if I remember correctly. He was blonde and wore glasses. It seemed like maybe we were about the same height but he had a lot more muscle then I did.

Moving away from his desk where he also had the big computer, I moved towards the bathroom. I was lucky because my room was a smaller corner room, I only had to endure one roommate while most of the guys had two. I also had the luxury of having a private bathroom. This whole floor had them. Very rare I guess but judging by how small it was, I could see that it wasn’t going to be that good of a deal. It was about the size of a closet with a standing shower and pink tiles. It had a mildewy smell that would have sent Leighanne running for cleaning supplies.

I pulled back the generic white shower curtain to see more pink tiles and some off colored mold around the drain. “Eww” I said quickly closing the curtain and moving out of there.

We had only one window in the room located on the opposite wall of the door. Since we were on the fourth floor, there was a landing outside of our window which looked out into the courtyard. I walked over and opened it up letting in some fresh Boston air. Then I decided to plop on my bed. The most uncomfortable thing I have ever laid on in my life. It swished like plastic. I stared at one of the few bags I had brought in, which contained my bed stuff and decided to go ahead and make my bed.

Once that was done I sat there on the bottom bunk just staring across at my barren desk. I had so little, I could just see this guy come in with his nuclear family and size me up. Perfect mom would take him aside and whisper in his ear, “Honey that boy seems like a loser so hide all your valuables”

I closed my eyes then and heard Shelby’s voice in my ear; scolding me for such negative thinking. “Thinking like that will have you on your way home within a week Nick Carter! Stop being a victim and own yourself”

I rolled my eyes at my internal voice and just as I did in walked my new roommate.

Now you know the moment when you meet someone for the first time, especially someone you know you will be spending a lot of time with? How important it is to try to get a good first impression of each other? I had really felt like I had figured out the kind of guy this Kenny person was going to be with his perfect nuclear family and everything he could ever want taking up my dorm room. That’s why I was so surprised when I was greeted with a guy, obviously the one in the picture, wearing a purple short jacket and jeans. That was normal enough but he was also wearing a pair of cat ears and a black clown nose. I am not kidding! I didn’t know exactly what to say to that so I just sat there with my mouth wide open.

“Hey” He said walking in and shutting the door looking both ways in the hallway first as if he was trying to hide after killing someone.

He stared at me which made me realize I hadn’t said anything back, I was still just staring at him with my mouth open, “Hey” I finally responded.

“Name’s Kenny” He said extending his hand to me as he briskly walked over.

“I’m Nick” He nodded and sat down next to me, starting to ramble on about something.

I wish I could have focused on what he was saying but all I kept thinking about was the ears and nose. He knocked on my head so I turned towards him, “Huh?” I said.

“I said when did you get here?” He laughed at me.

“Oh…um…just a little bit ago”

“I got here yesterday! The parental units finally left today thank GOD!” He said lying down on my bed. “Are yours still here?”

I didn’t feel the need to go into the whole my mom’s dead and my dad’s crazy thing just yet so I just nodded.

“You don’t talk much huh Nick?”

“Sorry I’m just tired I guess. Long day” He sat up and pat my back, “Yeah don’t I know it man…a long ass day definitely” He started surveying the room much the same way I had done, only difference is I was sitting right there as he did it. I could tell he was looking for my computer and my nice TV, both of which I didn’t own.

“You like Chinese food?” He asked randomly.

“Kind of yes, I love egg rolls”

“I do too man they are the best damn things in the world. I can tell this is totally going to kick ass rooming with you”

I wasn’t sure how my liking egg rolls fit into our relationship but I just nodded. “Um…Kenny”

“Yeah man?”

“Um…what’s with the…” I didn’t say it but instead pointed to his head. He moved his hands up to his head and started to laugh hysterically, “Aww man you must think I’m a crazy ass huh?”

“Nah I’m just a little curious”

He took off the ears and the nose, “Okay well I like to video tape things man and my alter ego is a cat named Periwinkle”

“Oh okay, well that’s interesting”

“Yeah thanks man, I love doing shit like that. Dressing up and acting, hey maybe you can be in one of my movies sometime”

“That would be awesome” I laughed, I don’t know what it was about this guy, he had to be the oddest one I had ever met but there was something about him that I liked. “So you were filming then?”

“No” That cracked me up for some reason, and I went into a fit of laughter, I couldn’t stop myself. It was embarrassing, he was just staring at me but then he started up too and that’s how my roommate and I became friends. Laughing about his cat ears and stupid black nose.

That night over Chinese food we really got to talking. He said he knew the best place in china town to go get some egg rolls so while I was putting my stuff away he went to get them. He came back with a dozen of them and a 2 liter of Coke.

While eating he told me he was from Michigan and never thought he’d get into college. He was an underachiever in every sense of the word almost not even getting his high school diploma. He had just graduated from a junior college and now he found himself here two years later at the age of 20. And old freshman he called himself. I kind of sat back and listened to him not offering much about me, while he told me of his neurotic mother who yelled and screamed at everyone and his father who made a habit of cheating on his mom every chance he got.

His younger sister who was only a year younger then him was already pregnant with a child of a guy who was now in prison. At best they all had, to quote him, a “love/hate relationship. They loved to hate each other”

I think it’s pretty funny that I thought he came from a nuclear family. I guess it just goes to show you, you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover.

During a lull in the conversation, he asked, “So you got a girlfriend?”

“Not really, I was seeing this girl in high school but we kind of stopped before we came up here” Kelly was also up in Boston at a neighboring college; Northeastern. I couldn’t wait to go track her down but she wasn’t due up here until the next week.

Our relationship had taken so many turns I wasn’t sure which way was up. Of course after I had gotten so seriously sick last year, our flame was briefly rekindled but never fully back to where it was. You can say I developed trust issues with her.

Being in the same city would be good though, like an ally. I needed one of those.

“Is that your girlfriend?” I asked pointing over to the cheerleader on his desk.

“Oh her? NAH! I mean I just want people to think I date a cheerleader, she came with the frame” I looked over to him waiting for him to bust out laughing but he only winked at me, which once again had me going.

“Boy you’re a happy little guy aren’t you?” He asked, I could tell he was going to make it a mission of his to make me chuckle as much as possible. If he only knew.

That’s when it dawned on me that I hadn’t laughed that much probably in the whole entire year preceding this one. Maybe this would be a good start.

My phone started ringing just as my giggles subsided. Kenny ran to get the phone before I could grab it, “Hello Pizza Hut how may I help you?” I started laughing again, “Nick? Oh yeah I have him tied up in the bathroom hang on I’ll get him then he gave me thee phone, “It’s for you”

I was still laughing as I answered, “Hello?”

“Who the hell was that?” I about died when I heard Kevin on the other end. I started laughing again.

“Nick? Are you on something?”

“No…sorry I’m a little slap happy”

He laughed, “Yeah I can hear that. So who was that?”

I so desperately wanted to say his name was Sven from the cult down the road but I decided to resist the temptation.

“His name is Kenny and he’s my roommate”

“Oh…well you should tell him not to answer the phone like that I almost hung up”

I rolled my eyes at him, Kevin the eternal party pooper. “I will”

“Good, so you all moved in?”

“Yeah pretty much”

“How are you doing? I mean you sound totally fine but are you doing okay?”

“Yeah…I’m okay” Just hearing the question made me suddenly long for home. Not so much home but them. Suddenly they felt so far away from me.

“Well you know if there’s anything you need”

“Yeah…I know and thanks”

“Sure no problem…so is your roommate a good guy?”

“Yeah he is” I found myself looking over at Kenny who had just come out of the bathroom with a glass of water.

“He’s got his head in the right place?” I watched as he put his brand new college ID into the cup of water and then placed it in the freezer of his dorm fridge.

“Nick? Are you there?”

“Uh yeah sorry, he’s kind of got his head in the freezer right now though” I said once again cracking up.

“Nickolas Gene you aren’t making any sense at all, are you sure you aren’t on drugs?”

“Kevin can I call you later? I’m kind of trying to get used to things here”

He paused and I could tell I kind of hurt his feelings, “Sure that’s okay I was just making sure the move went well. I’m glad you are having fun”

“Thanks for calling Kev. I appreciate it”

“I love you” He said but with Kenny standing there I just said, “Yeah me too”

When we hung up he was busying himself with something else, looked like he was writing a letter, “Why did you put your ID in the freezer?”

“Oh because I want to see the security guards faces when they ask for my ID and I hold up a frozen glass”

“Oh” I mean what else does one say to that?

I laid on the bed and smiled, this was going to be quite the experience and I feel asleep thinking that.