Chapter 15
You Did Say This Was a Party…
My first assignment was due on Friday. I had to spend most of the week in the library as I couldn’t figure out how to hook my computer up to the Internet. I printed off instructions from a school computer and followed them exactly, cheering inwardly when I heard the modem start dialing up, but then a message popped up saying it was unable to complete the connection. Instead, I pressed every button I could think of, again to no avail. I finally called the student helpdesk and made an appointment for one of their assistants to come take a look at it. I did manage to go into the settings and find a cool ocean screensaver, before beginning my paper with:
Every little girl dreams of being a princess. Few are born into royalty, fewer are lucky enough to become one by marrying a prince. And one very special young girl went from a peasant to a princess simply through words and catching eyes. A modern-day Cinderella story, with the heroine enjoying none of the riches, jewels, or dabbles in high society that most princesses are accustomed to. Whereas Cinderella enjoyed a Happily Ever After with her Prince Charming, Anna Anderson died believing she was a princess, but lives ever after as a fraud. Indeed, the story of the missing Princess recovering her memories (and fortune) has spurned several Hollywood movies, dozens of books, and even a Broadway play. Anna Anderson’s true story in itself is simply a fantasy: a case of mistaken identity and one woman’s delusions of grandeur.
I thought it was a good beginning, but then I began to second guess myself, wondering if it was up to Hobart’s standards. I kept reordering paragraphs and typing words and then erasing them, only to retype them. It got to the point where I had to force myself to close the document and go to bed at 3 a.m. Friday morning.
I wasn’t sure whether to be proud of the paper or terrified as Dr. Hobart appeared to be giving each of us the evil eye as we turned in our hard work.
“Bacon’s having a few people over tonight,” Erica hissed when I sat down.
“I thought you two were not—”
“We’re not. But he asked if I knew of anybody to hook up with his roommate, and I thought of you. Ruby’s going home this weekend to see her boyfriend.”
I grinned in spite of myself. “Thanks for thinking of me. Is the roommate cute?”
Erica shrugged. “Even if he weren’t, what else do you have going on this weekend?”
Touché. “What time?”
My computer was still on when I got home; I must have forgotten to shut it off when I finally crawled into bed last night/ that morning. I sat down and watched as the screensaver changed to a scene with a sunset reflecting off ocean waves, reminding me of college. If there was one thing Eckhart College had going for it, it was the location. I used to go to the ocean to think, to lose myself wondering what sea creatures roamed underneath the white-capped waves. I missed not only the ocean and the feeling of the sand between my toes, but I missed Jane, Lizzie, Nishaan, and—at times—even Adam.
And I missed being in love. A year ago Joshua and I were forming our relationship, and now I had nothing. I think I might want a boyfriend again. The momentous thought popped suddenly into my head. This single stuff was getting a little ridiculous. I wished it were that easy, suddenly deciding you want a boyfriend and POOF! there’s Prince Charming, lying at your feet with a rose in his teeth. Not so much around here. There seemed to be a million guys on campus, but most of them were way too young. Plenty of guys came up to our table last weekend, especially since Ruby happened to be there, but most of them were drunk and ended up annoying me. There were no eligible guys in my program either. But there had to be dateable guys somewhere out there, hiding under rocks or tucked away playing computer simulation games.
But, the hidden, broken part, reminded me that I was only supposed to be in love once. One time for the rest of my life. I am going to love Joshua for the rest of my life. But does that leave room for anyone else?
Erica picked me up promptly at seven. I wore my customary glitter jeans but chose a less conspicuous tank top.
“You did say this was a party, right?” I asked after I put my seatbelt on.
Erica put the car in gear. “A get-together. Why?”
“No reason.” I tugged down my tank-top, feeling massively overdressed. Erica was wearing denim shorts and a patterned t-shirt.
“I’m going to have sex tonight,” Erica commented as she stopped for a red light.
“With who? Bacon?”
She checked her lipstick in the rearview mirror. “Probably.”
Bacon lived in an off-campus apartment less than a mile from the graduate village. Erica gave the apartment door a half-hearted knock before pushing it open and gesturing for me to step inside. The first thing that greeted us was a giant pile of empty aluminum cans, the smell of stale beer filling the air. Erica headed to a brown couch that occupied most of the living room. I followed her, gingerly choosing a spot that had the least amount of dark patches. The carpet, equally covered in splotches, was rust-colored and all of the furniture appeared to be second-hand.
“What’s up, girls?” Bacon came out from what must have been the bathroom, judging by the cloud of steam that followed him into the already humid room. He attempted to knot the towel that clung below his beer belly, but abandoned the effort when it was clear there wasn’t enough extra fabric. He grasped the towel at his right hip instead.
“Hey.” Erica didn’t seem shocked by Bacon’s lack of attire. “You remember, Tammy, right?”
“Of course.” I eyed him carefully, praying he wouldn’t reach out to shake my hand. He didn’t.
“She’s not going to make-out with you,” Erica stated.
Bacon winked at me and said, “The night is young, ladies,” before heading down the hallway. He called out, “Beer’s in the fridge!” before the door opposite the bathroom slammed shut.
Erica got up and headed toward the kitchen. After a few “eww’s,” and “gross’s,” she came back in and handed me a beer.
“Where is everybody?” I asked, popping the tab.
Erica shrugged. “Bacon and Craig have a bunch of random people that are always coming and going.”
An awful thought occurred to me. “So are these random people coming tonight or have they already gone?”
Erica hit my beer can with hers, confirming my suspicion that this had been a set-up all along.
“I take it the roommate’s name is Craig?”
She nodded.
“All right, let’s get this over with,” I told her as Bacon, now dressed, reentered the room.
“Craig-y,” he shouted.
A guy slightly less heavyset than Bacon, although a whole head taller, appeared.
“This is Craig,” Bacon waggled his eyebrows at me from behind his roommate.
Craig stuck his hand out. “Nice to meet you.” He wandered over to the bookcase and pulled out a deck of cards. “Want to play Asshole?”
I hope not, I thought before I realized he meant the card game.
The card playing could be best be described as awkward. Bacon and Erica barely said two words to each other, and Craig and I spoke even less after we’d exchanged our respective majors/concentrations. I was relieved when, halfway through the second round, a couple of other guys arrived. The one named Will was of average height and African-American. The other guy, Brandon, was tall, dark-haired and handsome. I sat higher in my seat, willing my psycho guardian angel to deal me a Queen of Hearts. After a few more rounds of cards, sans any queens, and a lot of beer, I announced that I had to pee.
“The bathroom is right there,” Craig said, leaning over me to point.
“Across from Bacon’s room,” Erica added.
After I’d relieved myself, I spent a few extra seconds washing my hands. The bathroom was as dirty as I might have imagined based on Bacon’s and Craig’s living room décor.
“Hey!” someone grabbed me when I walked out into the hallway. The arms that were wrapped around my waist were flabby and splattered with freckles.
“Bacon, get off of me,” I shouted as he attempted to drag me into his room. “What are you doing?”
He finally released me. “I wanted to show you my room.” His voice was the picture of innocence.
“You’re a jerk,” I told him before I headed back to the living room, Bacon on my heels. Erica was laughing at something one of the other guys had said. “What took you so long?” she asked when I returned to my spot next to her.
I avoided Bacon’s gaze as I picked up my cards. What was his deal, anyway?
“Go fish!” Bacon shouted, even though we weren’t playing that particular game.
Go sharks, I thought briefly before picking up my card.
After yet another round, Erica got up. Bacon, predictably, followed suit.
“Well, there’s goes that hand,” Craig said, tossing his cards onto the table.
Brandon grabbed his keys from his pocket. “Are you going to need a ride, Tammy?”
I glanced down the hallway. The bathroom door was wide open, but Bacon’s bedroom door was shut. A suspicious thumping sound began. “Are they…”
“They’ll be going at it all night,” Will said. “That is, if they don’t get into a fight first. And you don’t want to deal with that. Let Brandon drive you home.”
“Or you could stay.” Craig stretched out on the couch and turned on the TV. “I’ve got a pretty good movie collection.”
I thought for a second, wondering if there was a chance with either Brandon or Craig. They were both immature undergrads. Not Prince Charming. Not Mr. Right. But maybe Mr. Right Now. Brandon, now spinning his key ring around his finger, was way more my type. But then again, it’d been previously orchestrated that Craig was to be my “date.” If I read Brandon wrong, I’d end up alone in my apartment again.
Will looked over at me. “Well?”
Stalling for time, I got up to look at the DVDs piled on the shelf. “You have Monty Python?”
“Of course,” Craig replied.
“What’s Monty Python?” Brandon asked.
I pulled the DVD out of the plastic case.
“I guess that means she’s staying,” Will stated.
We were only a few minutes into the movie when Craig and I started kissing. We eventually, awkwardly, moved to his bedroom. We didn’t actually have sex, but not because he didn’t want to. I thought that I might actually have liked him, and didn’t want it to be a drunken hook-up, so I told him I was tired. He lent me a t-shirt to sleep in.
I was fast asleep when Erica barged into the room in the early morning. “Get your clothes on, Tammy.”
“What’s going on?” Craig asked sleepily.
“We’re leaving,” Erica said, tossing my tank-top at me.
After I’d hurriedly put on my clothes, Erica grabbed my arm. I glanced at Craig as she pulled me out of the room, but he’d already turned over.
“Did you guys get into a fight?” I asked after we’d gotten into the car.
“He’s such an asshole.”
“Why do you like him?” I asked.
She shrugged. I was afraid to keep prying, guessing from what the guys had told me last night, that they were the “on again/ off again” type.
“What did you think of Craig?” Erica asked.
“Craig? He’s all right.”
She gave me a knowing grin as she pulled up in front of my building. “See you Monday?”
I nodded.
Craig moved a little too fast for my taste, I thought on my walk back from class Monday morning. He likes TV wrestling. He’s friends with Bacon, and his apartment is disgusting… but he’s relatively good-looking and likes Monty Python. As I paused to let a car pass, I decided I might like him after all. But it had been two days since we’d hooked up and he hadn’t called. Erica went over there Sunday night and then this morning she gave me a full report on her and Bacon’s make-up. She didn’t say anything about Craig, except that he mentioned I was a “cool girl.” Right. I’m so cool.
That afternoon a guy from the computer center came to inspect my PC. I had high hopes that he’d be good-looking and my Internet wouldn’t be the only thing he could heal. But he was a typical computer science student: lanky with thick-framed glasses. He did manage to cure my modem woes, though. “I’ll plug your speakers in the right way, too,” he said from under my desk.
When he left, I clicked on the icon for the Internet and heard the familiar dial-up commence. This time it went all the way through and the front page of the college popped up.
“He did it!” I exclaimed aloud. I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between online shopping and researching my next paper.