Freshman Year - Part 8, New Dorm, Roommates, Problems

In the second semester of my freshman year I was moved to the oldest dormitory on campus. It was built in the Georgian style of architecture was three story walk up with dormers on the top floor. I was again going to be joining two other girls in a triple on the top floor. The other girls had been together the previous semester and had lost a roommate who failed out. So, I lugged my green duffel bag up the stairs and went to the first door on the right, which was my new room. I put my bag on the bed up against the wall on the left, perpendicular to the door, which was to be mine and began to unpack. I had a closet all to myself on the same wall as the door in this room and a dormer window opposite the door and desk just past the window. The room was twice as long as the other room I was in last semester, so no bunk beds were needed. There was a bed that faced parallel to the door across the room, a desk, another dormer, a bird cage in which there was a turquoise parakeet,

a desk in the corner, and then another bed to the far right perpendicular to the door. Immediately to the right of the door was a large double closet that the other two girls shared. There really was quite a lot of floor space in this room. I finished unpacking and decided not to hang my Lord of the Rings poster this year, since it only reminded me of the bad times of last year.

Later that day, I got to meet my new roommates. Nancy was a sophomore geology major and had shoulder length brown hair and an alright body but a puffy face. I wasn’t sure why she looked that way. Tiffany was a psychology major from Massapequa, Long Island and was overweight but pretty and also had shoulder length brown hair. They seemed okay to me. So there we were talking, getting acquainted, when suddenly a black student pops up to the door shyly and says, “Yo, you got my stuff?”

And Tiffany says, “Yeah.” She gets up, and goes to MY closet, opens it up and goes into MY sneaker, gets out a baggie, with god knows what in it and hands it to this creep and he hands her some money and then he vanishes into the hallway. It all happened so fast; I was just trying to figure out what happened when Tiffany said, “See. That is the way it is around here. We know that you had some sort of trouble last semester and that is why you are here with us. If you tell anyone what is going on here, we can involve you, just like that. It will be your word against ours. We are not the ones with the history of problems here now are we? So just keep your mouth shut and everyone will be happy.” Then she just smiled at me.

I was terrified. What had I gotten myself into now? What the fuck drugs were they dealing out of my room? Out of my sneakers? I answered her, “Okay, I’ll play along, but get that shit out of my sneakers now.”

“Sure Sue.” She smiled at me smugly, and she went back to my closet and took all of the junk out of my sneakers and put it into her closet. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I started thinking. I was going to have to find a way to make my side of the room safe from them. Then I was going to have to find a way to make them respect me. Shit I hated to have to live this way. All this and on my very first day back on campus! But no one was going to understand why I needed to switch rooms AGAIN.

As time went by, I learned the routine in my dorm. At night, the upperclassmen would play the card game hearts. I had always loved the game as a girl and in my family we had always played. So, sometimes if they didn’t have a fourth, I would join the game. They were surprised at first, because apparently none of the women in the dorm knew how to play. Not all of them played very well, so it was pretty easy to beat most of them, especially if they were drunk. So I made some allies with the upperclassmen.

Late one night, or should I say, early one morning, as I lay in my bed, my roommates returned totally fucked up on god knows what, barely able to speak.

“Oh god! I was so fucked up on mescaline I was just shaking and throwing up. I couldn’t believe you were blowing that guy! I mean, we didn’t even know him.” said Nancy.

“I know! Wasn’t it great?” replied Tiffany.

Nancy said, “Yeah! It was super. I would have blown him too. He was gorgeous.”

The next morning, Sunday, as usual I saw that Tiffany’s string bikini pants disappeared into the rolls of fat at her hips so that you couldn’t see that she was wearing any underwear at all except at her crotch. It was truly gross. They were gross. They were junked up whores.

“My mom is coming today to buy me some new skis. Fuck her. I wish she would just leave me the fuck alone!” said Tiffany.

Ahh, the loving Tiffany, I could not even afford lift tickets. She was so spoiled. She owned skis and her mother was coming to buy her new ones. Tiffany couldn’t even give her mother the time of day. Too busy getting high and getting laid. With that, they lit a joint, put on some David Bowie’s Suffragette City, and blew pot smoke onto the parakeet to make him chirp to the blasting music.

I went out for cream of wheat for breakfast. I had to find some new friends to room with next year. There was no way I could live this way.