Essentially, when the new semester started, I got this new roommate, whom I didn't really like. He'd keep me up every night with snoring that broke the sound barrier and coughing that sounded like he was choking on a dead goat. But honestly, none of that was his fault. He did do other things that I didn't like, though, that made me uncomfortable, which I mentioned in the video. I lived with him for about 2 months, and I must say that I wouldn't exactly recommend him to anyone. I'd tell my friends of the horrors that interrupted my daily life. They'd laugh at me, practically calling me a pussy and/or racist because my new roommate just-so-happened to be black. I'd like to think that I'm not prejudiced in any way, but, reflecting upon how I had felt back then, maybe I was projecting a few stereotypes on him. He was a pretty chill guy, to be honest, and he was supportive of my (attempted) relationship with this girl that I really liked. You'll notice that I stopped the video in the middle of a thought, because he came back from wherever he was going, and I wasn't able to finish my video.
This Monday, however, I moved out of that room, and am now sharing a room with my friend Lestat.
The reason I made this video, though, was kind of silly, yet effective.
I'll have to go a little back to the past (SAMURAI JACK) to explain the full story. But you know, if there's anything I do best, it's reminiscing on past memories. I have no clue what a trigger warning is, but there might need to be one of those in order. Or maybe not.
Anyway, this chain of events all started on my very second day of college. Or was it the first? I'm not to sure now. But it was one of those nights, I promise! I had gotten finished taking a shower in the public floor bathroom, and was walking back to my room. I arrived to see a gentleman around my age standing in front of my door, knocking. I said, "excuse me", as he was in my way from getting into the room. Of course, I assumed he was a friend of my roommate, Jeremy. The guy turned around and smiled at me, shaking my hand and introducing himself. I'm not quite sure what his name was, but he sure remembered mine. It turns out this dude was knocking on every door on the 6th floor, asking people if they wanted to go to a party. Me, being a peon to such affairs, quickly accepted. I'd known that ECU had a reputation for being the top party school in the state, but wow, a party on the first night? You've gotta be shitting me. So I got all ready as quickly as possible, and followed the now rather massive group of people. We headed down the hill. It was in this group that I met one of my best friends in the whole wide world! Her name is Cassandra, but the bros and I just call her Cas. She comes into play later.
As we made our way down the street, I was totally confused, and the two groups started to diverge because apparently some people thought certain parties would be better than others. I simply picked one group to stick with, because I was so out of my element, and I didn't know where to go. I suppose I just picked the group that seemed to know where they were going. We walked into a neighborhood atop a steep hill. It wasn't hard to tell which house hosted the party, as loud music was blaring from a brightly lit house in the distance. We came upon the house, and entered. Gosh, my stomach was in knots. I was so intimidated by the fact that I was literally about to attend a frat party, that I was shaking. "Keep your cool, Jacob," I said to myself over and over in my head. The dude standing at the door was this typical frat brother, who asked questions that only served to unhinge me a little more? "Are you a freshman, bro? Man, you're going to be coming back here until you're out of here! This is the best party spot in Greenville!". He charged me 5 dollars to get in (because I wasn't a girl), and gave me a cup. He led me over to the beer keg. I had no problem drinking, and if I was at a frat party, I might as well get the full experience, right? So I had a drink or 6, and I sat on the couch, observing a game of bear pong. I was invited to play by one of the other people attending the party from my floor. It turns out that I'm not all that bad at beer pong. "Maybe I'll fit in here better than I thought," I said to myself. As the night went on, I filled my cup up at least 4 more times. When I had finally had enough, I walked down the hill, confident that I could find my way back home. It was only thanks to luck and my amazing drunken navigational prowess that I was able to find my way back to the dorm.
As I entered, there I noticed there was a huge group of people hanging out in the main lobby. I thought this would be a good opportunity to make some friends, so I went in. Everyone watched as I entered. One kid in a leather jacket looked at me, and said, jokingly "Welcome to Alcoholics Anonymous, what's your addiction?". I replied (what I thought was) cleverly, "Ha. My addiction? Ehh, probably crystal meth and World of Warcraft." I got a few giggles from girls in the room, but one guy in the room said "Ayyye! You play WoW too?". And that's when I met Zach. He was sort of a nerdy guy, but I could tell that he was a real social butterfly. He's probably my best friend, and we've been bros ever since. My drunken confidence made me an awesome friend. So I'm pretty sure I asked Zach to marry me like 14 times that night, but it was probably the booze speaking. We chatted about the PvP scene in WoW, and his about with holy paladins; we just really hit it off well in general. I spent the rest of the night talking to people and making friends with an unparalleled amount of confidence and social prowess. I figure I hit the sack around 6 AM, when I was the only one left in the lobby.
My first night at ECU was a resounding success, and, at that time, I felt like that I was going to thrive in in this new environment (at least socially). But that isn't exactly what this post is about. It was about her.
Now that I had a social life in-between my anime/video game loving roommate, I felt on top of the world. I recall there was one instance that I had called Zach to ask him if he wanted to go to dinner. He didn't pick up, so I just shrugged it off, and went on my own. I arrived to my usual dining spot in the dining hall, food in hand. In the distance, at one of the large tables, I noticed a large group of people sitting. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until I noticed that among the group sat Zach. it was obvious that he was flirting with the girl next to him. She was gorgeous, absolutely stunning. I didn't know if I should feel slightly offended if he was ditching me for some chick, or if I should feel moved and warm-hearted that Zach was genuinely interacting with a girl. I guess my reaction changes depending on who I tell. But anyway, this was crazy. Somewhere deep inside, I said "Man, I don't think he can get a girl like that. She's like a total babe.", but Zach was my friend, and I support my friends 'till the very end.
A couple days after that, as we ate together, Zach was excited to mention that he now had a "bae". "Wow!" I replied, legitimately astonished. "What's her name?" He told me that her name was Caroline. See, I didn't have any sort of crush on Caroline or anything at the time, because (like I said), support my friends' relationships, so I congratulated him as continued to rejoice.
Honestly, I'm not sure when I met Caroline officially, but I recall that she was really really sweet. See, she'd been home-schooled, and Zach was her first boyfriend ever. Regardless of when we first met, though, I remember that the three of us used to spend a lot of time together. I really don't know who the third wheel was in the situation, me or her, as she'd be around when me and Zach would simply hang out between classes, but her presence was never really a burden, so there wasn't a problem. The two shared a really cute relationship, and I wish it would have lasted longer. It seemed that Zach really put so much focus into video games rather than taking her on dates, or spending any real time with her. She felt sort of estranged, I suppose. As a result, she broke it off with Zach about a month in.
I hung out with Zach, trying to comfort him as much as possible in his time of grief. I knew that he was suffering, but he tried to not let it show.
And so it seemed like I hadn't mad contact with Caroline for the longest time, when I finally made myself a part of the group of friends she rolled with.
Interestingly enough, this stemmed from another unlikely event.
There was always this kid I just hated. And I'm serious when I say hate. I absolutely loathed this kid. I'm not quite sure how I met him, but, from what I can recall, he was another one of those kids I met in the lobby that night I got wasted. I didn't even know his name, but he was super-duper annoying to me.
I've since put my hatred to rest, so I can't remember much about how we established any sort of relationship, but I have a theory that I'm pretty sure about.
This guy was a friend of Zach's, so he was constantly chilling with him, which is where the (strained) relationship he and I shared came from. I recall that once he, Jeremy and I were walking around campus finding a place to grab a bite when they started talking about League of Legends or something. At the time, I didn't play League, so I didn't know much about it. I listened as they went on and on about the viability of certain characters and such. And at the time, it just-so-happened that the League of Legends World Championships were taking place. As Jeremy was watching the games, this kid felt as if he was entitled to walk into our room without knocking and take a seat. It was really really REALLY annoying. "Shit, I have such little privacy here as it is. I can't deal with this guy just barging in," I often thought to myself. When I verbalized my concern to Jeremy, he stated that he couldn't agree more. So he and I sort of pushed this kid away. It was difficult at first, but I think he got the message, and started to leave us alone. But, honestly, I had felt bad about the way I had treated him. I mean, his actions weren't exactly justified, but I took a step back and realized that maybe we were a little too harsh towards him. He still talked to us whenever he saw us, but he never really hung out with us the way he used to.
One (dark and stormy) night, Jeremy and I went to one of our favorite food joints near where we lived. It was called "The Galley". Anyway, we popped in, and ordered the food we'd be taking back to the dorm. It was then when I saw the uber annoying kid with Cas, the friend I mentioned earlier. "That's... weird," I told myself. I don't know what exactly went through my head, but I thought to myself "Y'know, maybe he's not such a bad guy after all". I mean, if Cas was hanging out with him, he couldn't be too awful, right?
The next evening, I was out in front of my resident hall smoking, when Annoying Kid approached me. I'm not sure what we talked about, but I invited him to play this video game that we both had on Steam. We went to our respective rooms, and began to play. We'd end up playing all night that evening. We had a total blast. And from then on, I knew he and I would be amazing friends. Ever since, we would spend more and more time together, playing League and socializing on the side. Heck, I accompanied him to the local card shop to cheer him on in Friday Night Magic. After that night, he and I were inspired to design a Dungeons & Dragons-esque game that we still play with our friends to this very day.
Oh yeah, by the way, his name is Lestat. I believe I mentioned him earlier in this post. It honestly took me a while to learn his name because it was kind of odd, but it didn't take me long. Apparently, he was named after some sort of vampire in a Tom Cruise movie.
But, like I said, it was Lestat that led me to some of the amazing people that I'm friends with now.
<Incomplete> ~I won't finish this one for a while. Enjoy the post for now.
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