Disclaimer: The following story contains activity that would be considered of homosexual nature between consenting college students. While none of it crosses into a gratuitous nature, if such material is offensive to you or you are not of the legal age to read such material in your area, please do not. Other than that, please enjoy the story!
The Living Years
Chapter 3 "Just Another Day"
"Sorry..." Trey mumbled, after accidentally bumping into Shawn.
It was to be expected however, since the sink was so small. That and the fact that they were now permanent roommates.
Admittedly, it had been a shock for both of them to find out that they'd be rooming together yet again. Shocking and awkward. Now anyways.
They'd both done well to avoid talking about their situation over the weekend. Or each other.
Ben had been keeping Shawn pretty busy, dragging him to all sorts of campus events all weekend. Trey, hadn't left the dorm room much since Friday night and still had no friends.
But now, now it was actually time to start living in reality. Because today was the actual first day of classes.
Both of them had early morning classes, thus the reason why they were both up getting ready.
There was pretty much an awkward silence filling the room as they both worked to get ready.
Shawn was brushing his teeth and Trey was looking through his clothes trying to decide what to wear.
Back home, he'd always had to dress a certain way just so he wasn't picked on. But now, now he was free to dress how he wanted. People paid to come here and no one really cared how he dressed. Or at least, that's the way he saw it.
It wasn't just picking out his clothes, any ones he wanted, any way he wanted to wear them, that had him feeling nervous. It was picking them out near Shawn.
For some reason, he felt as though he had to pick out the best outfit he could so that Shawn wouldn't think of him as being some poorly dressed loser, worse than he probably already thought him to be.
He still felt so trapped when he was around Shawn just because he felt like Shawn really didn't like him. It was strange because, he felt somewhat connected to Shawn.
He didn't want to be feeling that way about his own roommate, but that was the way it was.
"Your turn," Shawn mumbled, as he finished up at the sink.
Shawn had taken his shower the night before, after having been dragged all around campus by Ben, he'd been pretty dirty and smelly.
And he'd already picked out his clothes and had them ironed, so he was pretty much ready. Ready and nervous, as he felt the butterflies in his stomach fluttering at full speed.
He was at college. It still hadn't sunk in for him that he was studying courses that would help him for his future career. It hadn't sunk in that he was completely on his own from here on out.
But he had plenty of time to think about that later. Now, now he was feeling hungry. And he was done with everything.
He looked over at Trey, debating whether or not to invite him to come to the cafeteria with him. Whatever.....feelings...he may have had for Trey, it still didn't change anything. Trey was still a loser.
"Uh...I'll be back," he decided to say instead.
He realized that he didn't have to say anything at all, but he didn't want to just take off leaving Trey to wonder whether or not he was coming back just because it was rude.
Trey looked up at Shawn but didn't speak.
Shawn just took it to reinforce the fact that Trey really was a loser and left without saying anything else.
Trey let out a sigh and sat on the edge of the bed, wondering why he felt the connection to Shawn that he did.
He had a long year ahead of him and this was only day one. ***********************************************************************
"Pillow fight covered in jello? Okay!" Jesse mumbled.
Amber smiled over Jesse before shaking him awake gently.
Jesse opened his eyes quickly before shutting them again, moaning.
"God, sometimes being a vampire in the morning is perfectly okay," he mumbled in a raspy morning voice.
"Sorry," Amber spoke, getting up. "But I thought you said something about having a morning class today?"
"No that's Monday," Jesse replied, wrapping himself in some more of his covers.
"It is Monday, Jesse," Amber replied, brushing her hair as she looked out her large window. "As in the first day of school."
Jesse let the statement sink in as he thought about it. He'd spent all of his weekend going to parties and following the girls around. Everyday was a party for him, so the days all just kind of blended together.
"Ugh..." he groaned, sitting himself up.
He really didn't even want to be here just because he wasn't ready to start doing actual work, but he was curious to see what college classes would be like. It was the only thing keeping him from going back to sleep and blowing off his morning classes.
"God I'm so nervous, aren't you?" Amber asked.
Jesse got out of bed and walked into the bathroom, not bothering to close the door behind him. He figured, plenty enough girls had seen what he had to offer, so he didn't care about adding Amber to the list.
"Well I'm still tired, if that means anything at all," he replied, beginning to take his much needed piss. "I stay up late but don't usually get up early."
"That's the way I felt when I started going to cheerleading practice in the mornings. But then my captain was all like, 'Amber you can't come to practice tired in the mornings' and I was all like 'But Tiffani-"
Jesse hadn't heard the rest as her words were drowned out after he flushed the toilet and took the liberty of shutting the door this time.
He could easily tell that Amber wasn't exactly the brightest of all the girls he'd ever met, but she was still hot and his roommate, so he was just going to have to deal with her.
"Anyways, I've been getting up early for years now, so it doesn't bother me," Jesse could hear Amber say as she walked into the bathroom.
"Hey, I what if I was in here naked?" Jesse spoke, not really all that upset.
"Hey you're not supposed to even be here, remember?" Amber spoke. "Besides, seeing you naked would be a good thing."
Jesse wasn't going to argue with that statement.
"Truer words have never been spoken, my dear," Jesse spoke, as he left the bathroom in order to figure out what he was going to wear on his first day of class. ***********************************************************************
Noah didn't even have to wait for his alarm clock to go off. He was already up.
He'd been up all night, basically. And not because he was particularly excited about the first day of classes. No, he'd been kept awake. By his roommate and his snoring.
Jeremy was still asleep and snoring even now. He figured as much, considering the fact that he was a sophomore, which probably meant he had a different set of classes altogether and was on a different time schedule.
He didn't care either way. Jeremy was a semi overweight nerdy loser who spent most of his free time playing video games on his giant Alienware computer.
That was basically all that Noah knew about Jeremy, or all that he cared to know for that matter.
What he knew now was that it was time for his first class of the day, Music Appreciation 1000. He never really got excited the day before a new school year because the way he saw it, he was still having to go to school, and eventually, the excitement factor of living a 'new' year, wears off.
Today was no different for him. He'd already told himself that he just wanted to get in and get out of college. So far, he'd gotten in, but now he wanted to make sure he graduated.
School, was still just school.
That's what he thought about as he quietly worked to get ready. Not because he didn't want to be rude, but because he didn't want to be around when Jeremy woke up. Their conversations had been limited to discussing the finer points in the Pokemon series, a topic that nearly bored Noah to tears.
Jeremy wasn't a bad guy, he just wasn't an interesting one.
And he wasn't^Å.Trey for that matter.
As much as Noah wanted to tell himself that he didn't want to think about Trey, the truth was that he couldn't stop his thoughts, no matter how hard he tried.
And now that he was about to start his first day of class, he was even wondering whether or not he'd run into Trey during the day.
Given the sheer size of the campus itself, that was an unlikely possibility. That and the fact that Trey might have even switched schools.
It was a ridiculous notion, but he had had a lot of time to think about what he figured was going to happen to him while he attended college.
As he grabbed his backpack and quietly crept out of the room, he noticed a familiar face.
"Hey," he smiled.
He'd only known Zoey a short amount of time, but he was already beginning to feel as though he'd be able to call her a friend soon.
In a lot of ways, she kind of reminded him of Sabrina.
"Hey," Zoey replied, as she turned the key in the knob of the door to her room.
"So I got saddled with a couple of early morning classes," Noah started, as he joined Zoey at her side.
It was funny, he'd usually only seen Zoey looking extremely `artsy' and average. Not to say that she wasn't a good looking girl, which he was certainly taking notice of now that she looked a little different.
Gone were the thick black `artsy' glasses. She must have been wearing contacts.
Her hair was even done differently.
And as far as her attire went, while she wasn't dressed all that differently, the particular style just altogether made her look attractive to him.
"It would have been so much better for me if you'd have just let me think you were stalking me," Zoey smiled, putting her keys into he jacket.
"Where would the fun in that be?" Noah asked, smiling back.
There was a moment where the two of them just smiled at each other.
Noah wasn't quite sure what to do exactly.
"Well, we should go..."
"Right, yeah," Noah replied, moving to Zoey's right as they walked down the hallway.
"So what's your first class?" Zoey asked.
Noah had memorized his schedule pretty much the day he'd picked his classes.
So he didn't know why he'd actually pulled out his course schedule and looked it over.
Maybe it was nerves.
"Uh^ÅMusic Appreciation 1000," he replied.
"Art Theory 2610," Zoey replied.
Noah pushed the `down' button once the two had reached the elevator.
"So I guess all your classes are pretty much freshman level huh?" Zoey asked.
"Well, you do generally have to take freshman classes when you're a freshman, yeah," Noah replied.
"Aren't we a sarcastic smart ass today," Zoey replied, shoving Noah playfully as the two got into the elevator together. "Of course, I live for sarcasm."
Noah just smiled over at Zoey as he tried to keep from feeling too nervous about his first day of class. *******************************************************************************
As a rule of thumb, Trey generally tried to at least look like a person he wasn't.
Not by dressing a certain way, although that was pretty much what he'd done all his life.
But through his actions.
He'd never once had anyone to talk to over the phone. Ever.
But he had a cell phone which he talked on quite frequently. What was he doing on the cell phone? Pretending to be talking to all the friends he wished he had.
He did it in public so people wouldn't think he was as lonely as he was.
He also made sure to walk a certain way, sit a certain way, and pretty much do everything in a way that would suggest that he was every bit as normal as would have liked to believe he was.
All of that had extended to today.
He had thought he'd know where to go.
After all, he and^Å.well, he and Noah had went and located all their classes together so that he wouldn't be lost when it came time to actually attend them.
But that was nearly three months ago.
He had intended to go and look for them again before this day had come, but he hadn't expected to have faced all of the things he had over the weekend.
Certainly a rough start to his college career.
Needless to say, he was now lost.
But he had taken great strides not to look like he was.
He knew it was foolish not to have a school map in his hands, but he figured it was bad enough he was a freshman. He'd much rather have kept that fact to himself.
His first class was Psychology 1000. It was a required class that all students had to take before they graduated. Trey had decided to take all of his required classes first so that he could get them out of the way.
He knew that just because it was a 1000 level course, didn't necessarily mean that there would only be freshman enrolled.
He knew that the class was in the Language Building. As to where the hell that actually was^Å
But none of that was stopping him from walking like he knew exactly where he was going.
He was even sipping on the latte some girl in the lobby had handed him and practically everyone else for some reason.
First day thing, probably.
He made it a point not to look directly into the faces of anyone he passed, although that was probably mostly accredited to the fact that he was just that petrified.
Still though, he was taking strides not to look that way.
He'd been walking a good ten minutes.
He wasn't too worried because he had left early for this very reason, but he still wanted to get to class early.
Thinking about that stuff among other things was exactly the reason why he'd found himself bumping into a very surprising face.
"Oh^Åuh, sorry, I'm-"
He stopped.
How was this possible? How was this possible that he just happened to have bumped into^Å.
"You may be a weird little pussy who runs away from people on first sight, but now you're seriously adding spastic dumb ass to the list?"
He thought he'd left Shawn back in the dorm room over half an hour ago.
Trey said nothing as he just stared at Shawn who looked pissed with his arm crossed and over at Shawn's friend, who has an amused look on his face.
"Look, Shawn, it was obviously an accident," Ben spoke. "Let's just forget about and move on."
Trey looked over at Shawn who was still staring at him like he was highly pissed off.
"Shawn, man-"
"Whatever," Shawn replied, shaking the hand Ben had put on his shoulder off of him.
Trey just looked straight ahead as Shawn and Ben moved past Trey and over to the other side of the walkway past him.
Another awkward moment he could add to his list of the rest of them.
So far, he was living with someone who hated him, completely alone in an entirely new school and completely lost in a new school.
He had to wonder if this was what his college life was going to consist of from now on.
Jesse wasn't in a very good mood.
For starters, the fact that he was even up right now was in need of some serious reconsideration. It wasn't like he needed college anyway. He had enough money to last him the rest of his life.
And then there was the fact that he had no idea where to go.
He had cancelled all his classes because he had never intended to have to come back to this god awful place.
He hadn't even thought about that over the weekend, as he'd spent all of his time doing what he usually did, which was to party.
Now, now there were no parties, as he'd quickly discovered people actually wanted to be here. To learn, of all things!
So, he wasn't sure what to do really.
Amber was in class, and so were most of the other girls from the sorority. And he hadn't exactly made friends with any guys, so there weren't really any other people around for him to talk to.
Not that he'd even want to associate with anyone here.
As far as he was concerned everyone here was light-years away from being anywhere near as interesting as the people back home.
As such, he was still left with pretty much nothing to do.
So that was when he started looking around.
He had already decided that he was going to at least see if any of the classes are boring.
There were a large amount of people heading towards one particular area, Jesse noticed, consisting of several large buildings that were all close to each other.
He figured that had to be where a lot of classes were. Otherwise there wouldn't be as many people heading that way.
With a sigh he begrudgingly began heading that way as well, deciding to head towards the largest, newest looking building, hoping that he wouldn't be as bored as he was predicting that he would be.
His early, `misadventure' with Trey had left Shawn feeling less excited about his day. Granted, the fact alone that he was even Trey's roommate had left him considerably less excited anyway.
Now^Å.now he just was feeling really^Åsour.
Like he had a permanent bad taste in him mouth and that it was the reason why he was feeling like he was in a bad mood.
It was weird because he was always such an outgoing person in school who tried not to let anything get him down.
He'd had a mostly enjoyable high school experience and had been lucky enough not to be one of the losers people like him picked on.
Now he had to fault Trey for that.
Because now, he really felt like a loser and he didn't know why exactly.
Maybe it was because he knew Trey was a loser, and that he was now the roommate of a loser.
Or maybe it was because no matter what he did, around Trey, he always seemed to become a loser.
But most of all it was the way he felt.
The way he felt about Trey and the way he felt around him.
Two different, scary, feelings.
Feelings that he knew he needed to get a handle on before anything worse happened.
Trey was definitely all about trying to look cooler than he was, and where he sat and how he picked his seats in class definitely played into that.
For starters, he went out of his way not to seem too eager to get to the class.
For one thing, seeming too eager would be a dead `that's a freshman' giveaway.
Plus he didn't want to seem like the nerd that he was.
So when he got to his second class of the day, Anthropology, and saw that they weren't quite ready to start, he immediately turned around and walked as far away from the classroom as possible.
Far away enough to look like he was just there for a class, not excited, but not too far that he couldn't see the classroom when the class already in session let out.
He only had to wait about ten minutes before the class let out and he noticed people around him beginning to head into the classroom.
Trey put on a slow walk.
The slow walk he used whenever he was in an unfamiliar place trying to seem cool.
He walked slowly, but as he did, more and more people seem to be coming from somewhere he hadn't seen exactly, and were passing him to get into the class.
He put a little more pep into his step, in an effort not to let too many people pass him but once he got inside the room, he realized the severity of his mistake.
Nearly every seat was already full.
What was more, everyone appeared to know each other.
At least, that was the way things seemed to him.
It certainly seemed much louder in the classroom than it would have been if no one in it knew each other.
He hated having to find a place to sit.
Anywhere.
On buses.
In movie theaters.
In cafeterias.
In classrooms.
That was usually the reason why he tried to arrive to everything that required finding a place to sit as early as possible, in an effort to avoid all of that.
He'd even gotten here early enough.
And he hadn't been standing THAT far back.
He honestly didn't know what had happened.
What he did know, however, was that he now needed to find a seat, before more people came in and made it that much harder for him to find one.
He started up the stairs that led to the rows of seats, spread out like seats in a movie theater in a coliseum layout.
He started trying to group some things together in his head.
Having spent his entire life living in the inner city, he rarely saw anyone of the white ethnicity.
He was used to being surrounded by black and Hispanic people from sun up to sun down.
Since coming to college, however, that scenario had all but flipped around entirely.
It seemed the majority of the school was white, making up a good 60 percent of the student body and faculty.
The rest was spread amongst the Asian, black and Hispanic student body.
He noticed instantly that most of the white students seemed to be sitting together, along with the Asian, few Hispanic and few black students.
Even though he himself was black, he didn't quite feel `black'.
He looked the part, but didn't act it, and he was sure that any black person he'd meet, if that ever happened, would be able to tell that about him right away.
So in that respect, black people, at the school and in the class, intimidated him.
He was almost afraid to look any of them in the eye.
He felt like everyone was starting at him ESPECIALLY the black students, who were in small clusters throughout the room.
He just kept walking, trying to find a section he'd be comfortable sitting in, but as he was taking longer and longer, people were passing him and filling seats that were vacant just seconds earlier.
He was starting to feel a bit panicked.
He always panicked at the slightest mishaps.
And even though he'd since stopped showing his panicked feelings, the actual panicking hadn't ceased.
He literally didn't know what to do and was even considering sitting on the floor before he noticed a girl towards the top, in one of the few sections where most of the black kids were sitting, was waving him over.
Or at least, he'd thought she was waving him over.
It turned out, she'd been waving a buff looking black guy behind him up and over, who'd actually bumped into him, causing him to drop his book and notebook.
Not only did he not stop, but he actually seemed annoyed.
Trey had just bent down to start picking up his stuff when he noticed the guy turn back around and walk back over to him.
"Aye, yo, my bad man," he spoke.
Trey had already had his stuff picked up by that time as the guy turned back around and headed towards the girl from earlier.
Realizing that there really wasn't anywhere else to sit, Trey walked around from the back and to the other side, sitting in the same row as the girl, right next to her.
He noticed the guy looking over at him with a scowl on his face and the girl frown at him and turn to look over at him.
"Don't worry about him," the girl spoke. "As long as I stay in the middle, he won't bite."
Trey figured that was supposed to be a joke so he just smiled at her and got settled.
"And the exponential product of the sub variables is always going to be equal to^Å."
Jesse realized that his first mistake was following a hot blonde into the class he was in, which turned out to be an advanced math class.
Math had never really interested him in school.
No subject had really interested him in school.
It was what he did after school that always got his attention.
Now, he realized that he was stuck in a boring class, that as far as he knew, wasn't even on his schedule.
That is, if he'd have made a schedule.
He never planned on having to come back, so he never went through the trouble.
Now he was going from class to class, trying to find one that interested him.
So far, the deciding factor had always been a hot girl.
Now he knew hot didn't always equal interesting.
"And if we double the second variable-"
Jesse sighed and looked at the person sitting to his left.
A guy.
He didn't really judge guys on their appearances, but the guy didn't really look like a nerd to him.
So he figured he'd give him a try.
"You'd think they'd supply us telly's and such for those who aren't interested," he spoke.
The boy smiled, trying to keep from laughing and turned to face Jesse.
"Math can get a little boring sometimes, yeah," he spoke.
"We passed boring after Professor Snoozefest introduced himself."
The boy laughed and cleared his throat.
"I'm Todd."
"Jesse Yorkshire," Jesse replied. "Hey, so you mean to tell me people actually pick this class?"
"I guess," Todd replied. "I mean, it was a requirement for my major. But I don't mind, math's easy."
"Oh god, not for me," Jesse replied.
"Why don't you tell us the answer back there, son?"
Jesse just continued to doodle away on his paper, only looking up when he noticed things had grown oddly quiet and people were now looking up at him.
He looked up and around at everyone.
"I can't very well give you all autographs now can I?" he spoke.
"No, son, but you can tell us what the variable is in the equation I have here on the board."
Jesse sighed and squinted at the board up ahead.
"Nope, sorry wasn't interested," he replied.
"And I wasn't asking."
Jesse furled his eyebrows at the professor before frowning and letting out a sigh.
"And here's where I go off to try for course number three," he spoke, standing up.
Everyone watched as he headed towards the back door.
"The answer is twelve, I believe. Good day sir," he spoke. "I said GOOD DAY!"
Everyone sat speechless.
"He's right you know, it IS twelve," Todd spoke.
Noah would be lying if he told himself that he wasn't nervous.
It wasn't being around all the new people that had him nervous, although that was part of it.
No, it was being in a new situation that had him feeling the butterflies in his stomach.
It was new because it had been a long time since he'd actually been excited to be having to go to a class, let a lone nervous.
And admitting it to himself, he realized that that's exactly what he was.
He was both those things and was expecting this whole experience to be a change from what he was used to.
Looking around the room of his first class, he felt a little intimidated.
He was used to small rooms that held no more than 35 people.
This room looked like it could hold nearly five times that amount of people. It was as large, if not larger than a movie theater stadium.
He wasn't quite sure where to sit so he decided to just sit in the middle.
It wasn't exactly the back but it wasn't the immediate front either.
He nearly got up and left once he saw a face he hoped to never have to see around campus again.
Sitting about two rows in front of him was the British nut job he'd come to know as Jesse Yorkshire, a guy who only thought he was famous, but certainly acted just like you'd expect a spoiled celebrity brat to act.
He considered moving but just stayed where he was once he saw the course instructor walk into the classroom.
"Frozen much?" a girl next to Noah spat out, rubbing her arms. "God it's like the guy never heard of a window. You don't need A/C for everything."
Noah stared at her for a few seconds, realizing there weren't even any windows in the room, before turning his attention to the front.
His thoughts soon ceased once he noticed his instructor walking into the room.
She was a redheaded woman about 30 years old, fairly nice build, and all around nice looking person.
He just hoped that as his first professor and class of the day, things went smoothly for him.
"Wow, I got a big class this semester," were the first words out of her mouth.
Noah looked down at his schedule to see what her name was.
Before he found it, he looked up once he realized she'd said it.
"I'm Professor Tennison, but if you guys wanna call me by my first name, you can," she spoke. "It's Nora by the way."
Nora, Noah though.
Like the female version of Noah.
He looked around at everyone in the room.
It was hard for him to tell whether or not anyone was a freshman like him. In high school, he only shared classes with people in his grade.
Now it was different, and he almost hated that he couldn't tell anyone's year.
He wasn't at home anymore.
He'd since realized that he couldn't exactly stay as antisocial as he'd been for the past few years.
He needed to try to embrace his life a little bit more.
He was just happy that Zoey was helping him to come out of his self created shell a little more.
"So, just to let you know, I won't be lecturing today," Nora spoke, sitting on the edge of the desk in the front of the room. "I like to get to know my students personally first. It makes it easier for me to teach. So^Å.who wants to start first?"
Noah looked around.
No one seemed to be willing to volunteer.
Of course, he wasn't surprised once he saw that Jesse kid standing up and clearing his throat.
He didn't just stand up in his seat. He stood up, walked all the way down his row and straight down to the front of the room, blocking everyone's view of Nora by putting his back to her.
"Well, I really didn't think I'd need to do this everywhere I went here, but apparently you people aren't as literate and pop culture informed as you obviously should be."
Noah rolled his eyes, sighed, and slouched in his seat a little, preparing himself for the show he knew was coming.
"So I've decided to be gracious and inform you myself," Jesse continued. "I'm Jesse Yorkshire, London's most eligible bachelor and world's most superb party thrower."
"I thought P. Diddy was the best party thrower?" the girl from earlier next to Noah spoke.
Noah looked over at her and noticed that she had actually been talking to him, not just making a statement to herself out loud.
He stared at her staring at him before sighing again and shaking his head slowly as he looked down.
Already his college experience was turning out to be a worse version of his high school experience, he thought.
"You know, I could have gone to Yale," Jesse continued, turning his attention to Nora. "Everyone tells me I'm scholastically advanced."
"Really? Well you should have no problem in this class then," Nora spoke.
Jesse frowned.
"What exactly is it that you teach, anyway?" he mumbled.
"Music Appreciation," Nora replied.
Jesse straightened up and smiled.
"I know loads about music," he spoke. "Who's trendy here anyway?"
"Uh well-"
"Seriously?" the girl next to Noah asked, preventing him from hearing what was going on up front. "Is he really doing this?"
Noah didn't even bother to face the girl this time and noticed her turn back to the front after a few moments out the corner of his eye.
"I never quite understood that American wannabe British rocker stuff," Jesse spoke. "Then again, I'm not sure I want to."
"Oh get over yourself already!" the girl next to Noah suddenly shouted out.
Noah's eyes widened as he looked over at her in horror.
He quickly glanced around the room and realized that everyone's attention was now focused in their general direction, including Nora and Jesse.
He turned around and sunk even further in his seat, trying to keep from turning red from his annoyance and embarrassment.
Jesse narrowed his eyes before starting up the stairs leading towards the area the girl was standing in.
"You must be one of the lasses in love with your favorite blue eyed blonde haired fake, right?"
Noah frowned in annoyance as the girl shoved past him and out to where Jesse was.
"Just because you're all British and have that accent you think you know more about music than I do?"
"Did you just admit that the British are the most informed people in the world?" Jesse spoke, crossing his arms. "I think you did."
"What are you even doing here if you could have gone to Yale, freshman?" the girl asked.
"Can't you tell? I'm badgering random music girl number one-"
"Oh please-"
"Sod off already," Jesse mumbled.
Noah turned away from the two of them, feeling embarrassed just for the fact that he even knew who Jesse was.
It sort of made him feel like because he knew Jesse, he was a part of this.
"Okay, I think that's enough for the debate in social economics," Nora spoke, joining Jesse at his side. "They teach that somewhere in this building by the way, I believe."
Jesse looked over at her.
"Thank you for that," he replied, heading for the door. "I've had enough of all of this anyway."
"And don't come back!" the girl called after him.
"Uh^Åthanks^Å."
The girl turned towards Nora and smiled.
"Sierra," she spoke.
"Right. Well, I guess I'm glad he's gone then," Nora spoke.
"Of course," Sierra spoke. "Because no one likes an attention hog. By the way, I wanna go next introducing myself. I might be a while."
Noah rolled his eyes.
Trey had planned the perfect schedule.
His first class was the furthest from the dorm and started at 9 in the morning.
His last was almost right next to his dorm hall and ended at 3.
He was taking 16 hours this semester, so he was going to be busy with class every day just the same.
It was one class followed by another and then another.
Now that he was done, he realized that all the walking he'd done had left him more than a little hungry.
He had a five day meal plan built into his housing payment schedule, which let him eat however much he wanted as long as the cafeteria was open.
His dorm was one of the few freshman dorms whose food was actually good, or so he'd heard from a few people he happened to be sitting around in one of his classes.
He hadn't had time to eat in the morning before class, although he probably could have made some time.
It also didn't really matter, as he wasn't that hungry then either.
Now he was.
There was only one thing that worried him: people.
Just like he hated having to look for places to sit in class, he hated having find places to sit in the cafeteria at high school.
Having never had any friends, finding a place to sit everyday was always mortifying for him. It was especially hard because sitting with the wrong people given the school he went to, could have gotten him into big trouble.
Now, he didn't know what was what.
After handing his i.d. card to the woman at the entrance of the cafeteria, the first thing he did was get a good look around.
There were two areas he could have sat in. One on his left and one on his right.
To his immediate left after walking up a few steps was a relatively small area labeled the `Shack Café'. There was only one side for seating while the other side was where all the food was, among other things.
On his right was the larger side, the side he guessed was where most everyone sat. There were several different food areas, and rows upon rows of places to sit.
Both sides were set up similar to a restaurant, with small tables, larger tables and booths. And for a cafeteria in a university dorm hall, the whole place looked great.
The ceiling, he noticed, was made like a greenhouse, with windowed panels that let the sun in clearly.
As far as he could tell, everything smelled great.
He wasn't sure what was what, but he didn't care.
All he cared about was that it all smelled good.
A few people, in groups, passed him and headed for the area to the right of him.
He watched them as they got trays and headed in line to get their food, then he took the time to study both the right and left areas more clearly.
The right side, which had quite a few people already eating, seemed to be occupied by mostly white students.
There were small groups of them and some larger groups and they were all relatively spread out. A few of them were even sitting by themselves, watching the flat screen t.v.'s angled on the corners of the wall.
Then there was the left side, which was the poor mans right side.
That area was occupied by far less people, mostly black. The other difference was that most of the people were sitting together, talking and laughing loudly.
Some of them were playing dominoes even. Without directly stereotyping them, they seemed to be dressed exactly like all the people from his school back home. That and acting like them, from what he could see.
He knew that he wasn't at home, so if he wanted to sit on the right side, he knew that he could and no one would care.
But he was so used to acting a part to fit in with his own `people' that it almost made him uncomfortable to think about sitting anywhere but on the left side.
So without thinking about it anymore, he started over to the left side after grabbing a tray, cup, and some silverware.
He wanted to look around for a seat before he got his food, but didn't want to look as nervous as he felt, so he just confidently walked over to a line that was serving cheeseburgers, figuring he'd get two of those and some fries.
The burger line was the longest of the two in the area, the other being a deli line serving sub sandwiches, but it wasn't as long as any of the lines on the right side, for lack of people.
He waited in line all of about two minutes before he got his food and drink and then started walking slowly.
He was trying to look around for a seat without actually having to look around for a seat. Or at least, making it seem so obvious.
He wasn't sure where to sit really.
It didn't really seem like anyone on this side was eating alone. He didn't want to be the only one.
He swallowed, trying to keep himself from panicking over something so silly, but realized that it was exactly what he was about to do.
He started walking fast, ready to head over to the other side after all before he heard someone calling out `yo' behind him.
He wasn't sure if it was being directed towards him, but he stopped to make sure.
Turning around, he noticed the girl from his second class, the only person all day to talk to him, waving him over.
He looked behind him to make sure that he was the one she was waving over before starting over towards the table she was sitting at, which just so happened to be the one where every seat but the one to her left was occupied.
At the very end of the table was the group of guys he'd seen playing dominoes earlier, even louder now that he was closer to them.
Then in the center was a large group of girls, talking about something, just as loud as the guys were talking.
Towards the end was a mixture of guys and girls, which to Trey looked like a bunch of couples. They were quieter and were the only ones at the table with food and trays.
Directly next to the girl was the guy from earlier, who put his arm around her shoulder and leaned over glaring at him.
Most of the people who looked like they were a part of a couple seemed to be staring at him, curiously.
He just took a seat, nervously next to the girl, who moved her backpack to make room.
"Hey," she started, with a smile.
"Uh, hey," Trey replied, trying not to appear nervous.
"You stay here?" she asked.
"Yeah," Trey replied. "First floor."
"Oh," the girl replied before looking down and back up. "I'm Grace by the way. This is my boyfriend Dro."
Trey looked over at the Dro guy whose glare seemed even worse before looking over at someone less threatening.
"You a freshman?" Grace asked.
Trey wasn't really sure whether or not he wanted to tell the truth or not.
He couldn't exactly tell one way or another if anyone he saw was a freshman or a senior.
He just decided to tell the truth, as he knew that it wasn't exactly good to lie to people who were being nice to you.
"Yeah," he replied. "I am."
"Oh," Grace said. "I'm a sophomore."
"Really?" Trey asked.
"Yeah I took a few AP classes in high school," Grace replied.
Trey had taken AP classes as well. He just didn't take any AP tests in order to get the credit.
He hadn't been aware that he'd looked as shocked about it as he was until Grace commented on it.
"Black people can be smart too, you know," Grace spoke.
She'd said it in a way where Trey couldn't tell whether or not she was being playful with him.
"Right," he replied. "Sorry."
"Baby, I gotta get to work," Dro spoke, standing up all of a sudden.
"I know Dro," Grace spoke, sounding annoyed. "Damn. I was talking to somebody."
Trey noticed Dro glaring at him again before he looked away.
"Well come on then," Dro said. "I'ma be late."
Grace rolled her eyes and stood up, grabbing her tray.
"If you'd just get yo ass a real damn job so you can buy a car, I wouldn't have to drive you everywhere," she said.
Trey watched as Grace and Dro walked over to the end of the table before Grace grabbed her backpack.
"What's your name?"
Trey, again, wasn't sure that she was addressing him, but decided to speak up anyway.
"Trey," he replied.
"Well Trey," Grace said. "I'll see you around then."
"Yeah," Trey replied, smiling at Grace smiling at him.
He turned away after Dro glared at him while putting his arm around Grace's shoulder and stared walking her away.
He heard him mumble the words punk ass' and nigga' a few times too.
Trey always felt more at ease and willing to be more social whenever people actually extended the effort to get to know him, so he was feeling excited on the inside.
He'd been smiling, looking down at his food before he looked up and noticed all the people Grace had left him alone with were still staring at him.
He quickly looked down and started eating his lunch, avoiding looking at them.
Not really having much in the way of work to do in any of his classes, Noah planned to go straight back to his dorm.
He'd already done all his exploring back in the summer when he and^Å..well, needless to say, he knew the whole campus pretty well.
He was actually just hoping to catch a nap before working on a few songs afterward.
Which was why after turning the key to his dorm door, opening it and finding his roommate sitting at his desk playing some kind of game on his computer, he immediately groaned inwardly.
He tossed his keys on his bed and let out a sigh, not really sure he even wanted to address Jeremy's presence.
Apparently, Jeremy wanted to address him though, which he did after spinning around in his chair.
Noah plopped down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, or Jeremy's bed in this case, as he was on the bottom of a bunk bed.
"Is it hot out there?" Jeremy asked.
Noah hated stupid questions.
It was still technically summer, and it was Texas, so of course the high for the day had been 91.
He sat himself up on his elbows, looking Jeremy over.
He noticed that he was wearing the same clothes that he had on yesterday. Then he noticed that there were several empty cans of soda lying around as well as empty chip bags and a couple open cans of soup.
Jeremy wasn't exactly fat, but he wasn't skinny either, and now Noah knew why.
"Did you even go to class today?" Noah asked.
Jeremy laughed at the question, or did what Noah figured was laughing, before shaking his head and reaching for one of the soda cans.
"They just released a patch update for World of Warcraft," he replied. "I got a busy week ahead of me."
And here Noah thought the point of college was to go to class and get good grades so that you could get a good job. Otherwise, somebody was wasting their money.
Noah flashed Jeremy a bemused look who seemed to squeal with delight after getting a message from someone on his computer.
"DarkMageXoXo9 is supposed to be selling me a Knight's Ring for cheap," Jeremy spoke turning back to his computer. "And it just came out today!"
Noah wanted to laugh out loud over how thrilled Jeremy was to be getting a fake piece of nothing on his little digital time waster, but he decided against it and fell back on his bed.
He'd had a busy day.
He hadn't come back to his room right after class.
Now that he was back, it was nearly six in the evening.
He really wished that he could sleep in peace, but the constant clicking of Jeremy's mouse and clacking of the keys on his keyboard left him feeling annoyed for more than one reason.
Feeling defeated, he let out a sigh and sat up, reaching over to the side of his bed for his guitar.
He took it out of his case and let it sit in his lap as he thought.
He normally wrote songs about whatever he was feeling, which was why it was so easy for him to even write songs.
But he had so many different feelings going on in his head, he wasn't sure where to start.
He figured the lyrics would come to him as he started strumming a few cords.
Jeremy was too enthralled in his game to care, Noah figured, or else he would have at least given him some attention.
He continued strumming a few cords before he heard a knock at his door.
He stopped strumming and looked over at Jeremy who hadn't even moved since the last time he looked over at him.
He wondered whether or not Jeremy even had any friends as he got up to open the door.
He was a little surprised to see Zoey, even though she was the only person he'd talked to since he came to the school.
"Hey, you going to the floorientation meeting?" she asked.
"The what?" Noah asked, stepping out into the hall.
Zoey stepped, back, moving her open book to another hand.
"They do it every semester," Zoey replied. "And they always say it's mandatory. I don't think it is, but I don't know for sure."
"You going?" Noah asked, scratching his head.
"They take attendance," Zoey replied. "And I like to stay off Hitler Jr.'s bad side."
"Our R.A. is that bad?" Noah asked.
"Let's just say you don't ever wanna get drunk and have your boyfriend pee outside his door at four in the morning."
Noah laughed while rubbing his left arm and thinking.
He wasn't doing much anyway.
And if it was mandatory anyways.
"Lemme just grab my keys," Noah replied, although he figured that given that Jeremy probably saw sunlight and smelled fresh air maybe once a month, he'd probably never really need them anyway.
Noah had just shut the door behind him before turning his attention to the tall guy at the end of the hallway with the bullhorn.
"Meet in the Ark Hall lobby, people!" he was saying.
"Ark Hall?" Zoey spoke as she and Noah started down the hallway towards the elevator. "We normally have it downstairs."
Noah just shrugged as they continued down the hall.
Jesse had decided to go back to his room and change before going off and finding a party or something to go to but felt himself being pushed into the bushes next to the stairs that led up to the front door of the sorority house.
He would have been upset if it was anyone other than Amber, his roommate, and very good looking girl if he had to say so, that was now situated on top of him.
"Well this is new," Jesse blurted out when he realized that he was on the bottom of Amber.
Amber quickly shushed him and looked through the bushes.
"What the hell?" Jesse muttered, pushing Amber off of him. "This outfit wasn't cheap you know."
"Sorry but you can't just walk in there like that, Jesse," Amber spoke in a hushed tone. "Not by yourself."
"I'm sorry, do I or do I not have a room in there?" Jesse asked.
"Yes," Amber replied, sitting up. "But guys aren't really allowed in the rooms. And they definitely can't share rooms with us."
"Ever think about changing the rules, then?" Jesse asked, looking over his outfit.
Amber looked out of the bushes before turning her attention back to Jesse.
"Come on," she replied, grabbing his hand and standing up.
"What^Åhuh?"
Jesse didn't really get an answer as Amber basically pulled him straight through the bushes and into the sorority house.
"If anyone asks, you're tutoring me," Amber spoke, still leading Jesse by the hand. "I don't know, but people seem to think I need a tutor for some reason."
Jesse rolled his eyes before Amber pushed him into the room and locked the door behind her.
"Ugh," Jesse sighed, heading straight for the restroom. "All that filth you had me in. I'm going to need two baths off this one."
"But I thought you were gonna tutor me?" Amber asked.
Jesse stopped and turned around.
"I thought that was just a cover story?"
Amber put a finger on her bottom lip and looked up.
"Oh yeah," she giggled. "I forgot."
Jesse narrowed his eyes at her stupidity before peeling off his shirt and heading into the bathroom, Amber behind him.
"Don't sororities throw parties?" Jesse asked, looking into the bathroom mirror.
"Sometimes," Amber replied. "Heather's on the social committee. She would know."
Jesse undid the belt on his shorts and peeled them off after slipping off his sneakers.
"Yeah well, maybe you should ask her when the next one is," Jesse spoke, continuing to admire himself in the mirror.
He stopped and walked over to the bathtub, starting the water.
"I didn't know guys took baths," Amber spoke.
"There seems to be loads you don't know, dear," Jesse mumbled.
"Huh?" Amber asked.
"Nothing," Jesse replied, before he walked into the towel closet in the bathroom.
He took the time to check out his muscles for few minutes while the bath water ran, deciding that he'd have to visit the gym at least once this week.
He finally stopped admiring his own body before he took off his boxers and grabbed a towel, exiting the towel closet and stopping when he noticed that Amber was in his bathwater, and had also added soap to it, making it all bubbly.
"I thought this would work better," she spoke, grinning at him.
Jesse smiled at her before walking over to the tub and getting in himself.
"Finally, a thread of intellect," he replied.
"Dude, I so shouldn't even be here right now," Ben spoke, looking around. "I think we're having a floorientation thing too."
"Like you care," Shawn mumbled looking around.
Neither of them were really sure why it seemed like the floor meeting was turning into a gigantic dorm meeting.
"But this is gotta be more than one floor right?" Ben asked. "I mean, look at all these people."
It was obvious something was going on that they didn't know about, but Shawn was sure the R.A.'s would explain later.
Shawn himself was feeling a bit nervous. Nervous because despite trying not to, he was thinking about his roommate.
He wondered how his day went. What kinds of classes he'd taken. If he was even coming to the floor meeting.
And the fact that he was even remotely curious about any of that stuff was what had him worried. It was like he couldn't decide whether or not he really hated Trey, even though everything about him was telling him he should.
He even found himself searching for him at one point but found himself being interrupted by Ben walking into his line of sight and turning to face him.
"You think if I tried to get numbers during the meeting anyone would notice?" he asked.
Shawn frowned at his best friend.
"Yeah," he replied. "People would notice."
Although, he was wondering how in the world he was even going to pull that off.
And while he was thinking mixed thoughts Trey was feeling just as nervous as ever.
He didn't exactly hate people.
He hated how nervous he felt around them.
It just didn't seem natural to him to be so afraid to do something as simple as find at least one friend. The way he saw it, everyone had friends. Everyone but him, and he knew exactly why. He knew that it was his fault.
Now he was in another social scene he didn't want to be in.
He'd been under the impression that the floor meeting was going to be a meeting for the people on his floor only, which would have been no more than a hundred people. Instead, it looked like the entire lobby area was so full, it would be next to impossible to get in or out, let alone move.
This made Trey slightly happy, as with so many people, he didn't have to worry about trying to look like he had friends. Many people were lost in the crowd, disconnected from whoever they knew, and he realized that he could just seem like one of those people.
For some reason, Trey was wondering about his roommate, Shawn. After he finished eating, Trey had gone straight back up to his room, where Shawn hadn't been and hadn't come back to even before the meeting started.
That hadn't surprised him, as Shawn was obviously a social person with a life. It actually made him a little happy, because if he was going to be gone all the time, he wouldn't have to worry about trying to get to know him. Because even if he wasn't deftly terrified of the thought otherwise, the fact that already he and Shawn hadn't seemed to be getting along would have made that just one awkward situation.
It was extremely noisy in the room, given all the people, and most everyone looked like they didn't know what to expect as Trey noticed the R.A.'s making their way to the front of the room.
"How am I supposed to hear myself think?" Zoey asked as she and Noah entered the Ark Hall lobby and looked around.
Noah was a bit taken aback with how many people there seemed to be crowded into the lobby. There were so many people, he and Zoey barely had enough room to make it through the crowd.
"Maybe they're gonna give out concert tickets or something," Noah joked, shouting the comment.
"Maybe they already did and this is the concert," Zoey shouted back.
The two of them looked around a little more before the R.A.'s called a silence over the room and started with what they had to say.
As they went on with their fairly straightforward rules and guidelines, Noah looked around the lobby of the dorm hall he'd had a brief stint in.
Nothing had changed really, except there was no longer a table in the corner selling pizza's, not that he expected there would be.
He saw a few people he recognized from his floor and even a few from his classes.
Then, he saw someone that he had hoped against hope he wouldn't have to see again.
He knew that he saw him because he was looking at him too.
He and Trey's eyes were locked.
He quickly looked down at the carpet, suddenly feeling all kinds of emotions rushing through him.
Trey couldn't be here.
He^Å.kissed him.
He couldn't be here, Noah thought.
But the truth was, he was here.
And because he was here, he realized that his college life was going to be a lot more complicated than he originally thought.
Personal email: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com
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Copyright 2005