1 An Open Relationship #3
I sat on the bed, but jumped back up when I heard it emit an awful creak.
I obviously hadn’t chosen the luxury dorm.
For the next hour, I put away my things.
Then the door opened again. The girl who appeared was a blond with clear eyes and a pointy nose.
She looked sort of airheaded. I could tell right away she was sizing me up.
“Hi,” I said.
“You’re Jenna?” She looked more enthusiastic than I’d expected. “Cool! You don’t look like a weirdo. I’m hoping you aren’t?”
I blinked with surprise.
“Honestly, I would consider myself pretty normal.”
I probably should have said boring.
“Cool! My parents had me freaking out about this whole roommate idea. I was terrified about having to spend the next few months with a stranger. But then, I’m kind of weird myself. I admit it. By the way, I’m Naya. Nice to meet you.”
She spoke so fast it was hard to understand her. I watched her sigh and fall back on her bed. Hers creaked, too, but she didn’t seem to care.
“I hope you don’t mind me picking this side,” she said. “I’m happy to change.”
“Not at all. Your bed doesn’t seem much more comfortable than mine.”
“I actually tried to take a nap and couldn’t.” She frowned. “We’ll have to get used to it, though. What else can we do?” She looked over, saw her purple suitcase, and shouted, “Did my boyfriend come?”
“Some guy came, but I don’t think he’s your boyfriend. He said his name was Ross.”
“Ross? He sent Ross?” She sounded confused and indignant. “I hope he wasn’t a pain in the ass.”
A pain in my ass? I mean, we hadn’t been together long, but he seemed like a pretty nice guy. He’d helped me with my stuff even though we’d never met.
“Not at all. He brought my suitcase upstairs.”
“Ross helped you?” She seemed confused. “It must be the summer heat. It got to his brain.”
She stood and opened her bag and dug through her things. I did the same, asking her as I laid my favorite boots in the closet, “What are you going to study?”
“Social work.” She smiled as she folded a sweater. “I really want to help dysfunctional families when I get done.”
“That’s so altruistic,” I said.
“I don’t know. It is a job; you do get paid for it. What about you?”
“English,” I confessed.
“Oh, cool. Do you like poetry?”
“No.”
“Theater?”
“Not really.”
“Novels?”
“No.”
“Anything else? You must like reading?”
“Ummm…”
Confused, she asked me, “You do know that studying English means lots of reading, right?”
I admitted that I hadn’t known which major to pick.
“Oh. Well then.” She must have been confused about what to say next. “Maybe you’ll learn to like it.”
“I hope so.” I smiled. “Otherwise, the next four years are going to be long.”
Or not. My parents hadn’t wanted to let me move far from home, but I’d managed to convince them to let me do a trial semester away. In December, I’d find out if I would stay there or go somewhere closer to them. For now, I was certain I didn’t want to go back.
Naya and I talked for a while, and that made me feel good.
She was a sweetheart. I didn’t understand why her brother had wished me good luck.
We were soon chatting about our families and how they had cried when we’d left and how we were going to miss them.
We lost track of time until she looked at her phone and realized it was nighttime.
“Shit!” she shouted. “I’m going to be late.”
I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure because I didn’t know her well. I couldn’t resist though: “For what?”
“My boyfriend is living close by with his two roommates. He wants to show me their place, and… No! I’ve only got five minutes till he picks me up!”
She was yelling so loud I was worried the neighbors would complain as she dug hysterically through her closet and began tearing off her clothes. “Dammit, I need to get changed right now!”
“You look fine,” I murmured, looking at the blue blouse and jeans that fit her like a glove.
“You’re kidding, right? I look like an Oompa Loompa. I’ve been waiting forever to see him again, and he’s been waiting to see me, too.”
As I watched her jump up and down, trying to fit into her impossibly tight pants, I said, “Well, I’m sure you two will have fun.
” I took out my phone. Monty obviously hadn’t gotten in touch.
One day… He couldn’t keep his promises for one day.
Some romantic he was. Naya threw on a blue sweatshirt so fast it almost tore, then walked over to the mirror hanging on my closet door and touched up her mascara.
“Maybe you could use some eye shadow?” I asked.
“Mine’s buried in the bottom of my suitcase somewhere!”
“Here,” I said, “you can use mine.”
“For real? THANK YOU!”
I shrugged. It was just eye shadow. I tossed it to her and she caught it in the air. Then she gave me a stare so strange I had to ask her what she wanted.
“Nothing, just…you want to come with us?”
I hadn’t expected that, and I wondered aloud, “Who? Me?”
“Is there anyone else in the room?”
“No, but…are you sure? I mean, I don’t know your boyfriend.”
“Yes, I’m sure, dummy! I can already tell I’m gonna love you. And so will the guys. Besides, you met Ross and you said you liked him, so that’s one down already.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t usually good at making friends, especially my first day somewhere.
But maybe it would do me some good to try to fit in.
After all, my brother Spencer had given me a long, boring lecture about how I needed to be more social.
And he’d made me promise I’d stop saying no so much.
I was already about to say yes when Naya begged me, “Come on, they’re nice. Plus there’s free Chinese food. Spring rolls and fried rice with shrimp.” Jenna does not say no to free Chinese food , my brain reminded me just then.
“Sure!” I said. “I’m there.”
“Cool!”
I grabbed my green jacket and threw it on as I watched her fixing her hair. I was interested in meeting her boyfriend. If he was like her, I’d like him. Naya picked up her key and said, “Come on, he’s probably waiting.”
We walked down the stairs together and Naya nodded at Chris, but he was busy handing out condoms to the new girls and didn’t notice.
“Poor Chris,” Naya remarked. “He’s so stressed out.”
“Doesn’t he have any coworkers?”
“I don’t think so. But he seems fine! For the most part.” She smiled. “We don’t have a lot in common.”
“No, it seems like you don’t.”
“He can be a little bit of a pain, but he’s really a sweetie.” She looked outside. “Hey, there’s Will!”
Will was tall, dark, handsome, and very peaceful looking.
He was waiting outside with his hands in his pockets.
Naya ran out of the building shrieking so loudly that Chris shushed her.
He was angry, but she didn’t pay him any mind.
I dillydallied a second to give Will and Naya some privacy while they kissed, and when Naya heard me open the door, she separated from him.
“Hey, babe, this is my roommate. She’s goofy, right?” she said.
I was dumbstruck, and Will smiled as if to apologize for her. “My name’s Will,” he said. “It’s a pleasure.”
“Jenna,” I replied. “Likewise.”
“Will, do you mind if she comes with us?” Naya asked.
“Of course not. Go get in the car before the other two eat everything.”
I got in the back seat and put on my seat belt, rubbing my nose, which was chilly, while Naya told Will how her brother was mad at her because she had lost the keys to her room five minutes after moving in and had needed to use his copy of the key.
And that meant Ross couldn’t borrow one.
Will shook his head and smirked. I guess he was used to this kind of thing happening.
Naya looked back and caught me glancing at my phone.
“Waiting for your mom to call?” she asked with a smile.
“Huh? No. She’s only allowed to call me once a week. We agreed on it. But of course, we both know she won’t stick to that.”
“My mom doesn’t even bother calling,” Will said. “Once you’ve been away for a year, she’ll get used to it.”
“Who are you waiting on a call from, then?” Naya asked.
“My boyfriend,” I replied. “He told me he’d call.”
“Oooh, you’ve got a boyfriend?”
“Yeah. A forgetful one.”
“He’s probably busy,” Naya replied, as if it weren’t important. “And now it’s time for you to get distracted and forget about him.”
“Will, are your roommates our age?” I asked, not wanting to talk about Monty.
“No. All three of them are sophomores. We’re the babies there,” Naya answered.
“Sue’s a junior, actually,” Will reminded her.
“Oh yeah, Sue. I forgot I was supposed to care about Sue.”
“Don’t be mean,” he responded.
“Will, you know I’m right.”
“Babe, Sue doesn’t come out of her room when you’re there because you two don’t get along.”
“We don’t get along because she’s unbearable.”
“That’s what Sue says about you,” he told her.
“See?” Naya crossed her arms. She was angry, but she got over it instantly and turned back to me, changing the subject. “So this handsome guy here and I have had a long-distance relationship for almost a year. Until this moment. Now we’ll finally see each other every day again!”
The light turned red just then and they stole a quick kiss.
“I heard long-distance relationships are hard,” I ventured, trying to be heard over their sucking sounds.
“Not for us,” Naya said. “We’ve been together for seven years. So there’s a lot of trust there.”
Good lord. Seven years. I’d only been with Monty four months, and it felt like an eternity. “Jeez,” I responded. “That’s almost half your life.”
“I know!” they both said in unison.
“But it’s like we met yesterday,” Naya told me, and Will nodded along as she explained.
“We were boyfriend and girlfriend when we were little kids. Like, too little even to do anything physically. I remember the first time Will kissed me, I tried to slap him. Didn’t I, babe?
He stuck his tongue in my mouth and it was so weird. I didn’t know people even did that!”