I dropped my bag onto top of the bed next to everything else. The room was small, really little more than a bedroom and a small bathroom with a shower, more than enough for me at least. While mom and dad weren’t around, not that it bugged me, my aunt was. She had taken me in a few years back when mom and dad went off who knows where. As such, while my uncle watched the others, she drove me. She looked around the room and looked back at me, “You better have your own touch on this place when I come to visit, Kit,” she laughed.

I shook my head, “Auntie, it’s just a college dorm.”

“Kit, you’re gonna be here for four years,” she rolled her eyes with a small smile, “Besides, what if you have a cute girl over?”

“Are women even allowed in the men’s dorms?” I asked her with a raise of my brow. It wasn’t like I knew the answer, orientation was in three days so I didn’t even have a student handbook.

“Oh who cares,” she patted my shoulder, “Eric and I better hear that you’re up to no good and having a blast alright?”

I snorted, “I’ll do my best Auntie.”

“Call me if you need anything, Kitkat,” her smile dropped a bit, “I do mean anything kiddo, and I’m sure the girls would love to have you back on holidays.”

I smiled, “Thanks Auntie, I’ll make sure to come back on Thanksgiving if I can.”

“Good,” she nodded with a light chuckle, “Alright, I’ll let you get settled. Oh, there’s this.” She held out… a debit card?

“A card?” I asked as I took it.

“Yeah, your uncle and I set aside some money for you, it’s nothing extreme but it’ll be enough for you to get food and anything that catches your eye, so long as you’re not spending it all within a day, you can let us know if you need a bit more alright?”

“Thanks, I will,” I gave her a hug and she stiffened for a second before hugging me back.

She started chuckling, “You haven’t given me a hug in ages Kitkat!”

“I won’t see you for awhile,” I muttered.

“That’s true,” she let go of me as I did the same, “Well I’m off, tell me any naughty details on holiday alright?” She winked at me before turning around.

I rolled my eyes as the door shut behind her.

--A Few Weeks Later—

The student handbook definitely doesn’t allow guys or girls to be in the same room for lengthy periods, except in larger groups. Not that it mattered, none of the RAs followed that. As long as you weren’t too loud they didn’t care. Not that that did anything for me in the slightest. I rarely left my room except for class or food.

Which is probably why it took me like three weeks to see her. I still don’t know what’s wrong with me, ever since I saw her at the diner nearby, I’d made a habit of eating there whenever she did. It was totally weird to do, and I was still holding myself back from finding out her name, at that point I’d really be stalking. Stalking isn’t good, especially if you’re suddenly infatuated with a random stranger. It’s not love at first sight, that stuff is ridiculous honestly. There’s probably something familiar about her then, maybe she came from back home or something. Or maybe she’s related to one of my old friends back home. Still, the fact I was following her a bit was gross. First off, a guy doing that? Creepy, like really creepy. I’d get the cops called on me if I went anything further.

I should probably like, make an attempt to talk to her, but that would be the absolute weirdest thing for a guy to do. And creepy. Especially creepy. Sure a girl wouldn’t be better, but the social vibe doesn’t make it creepy until they start to break mentally. So, talking to her after seeing her once or twice wouldn’t have been weird, maybe, I’m a guy but I probably could’ve said something, maybe a greeting, just a short stupidly simple conversation.

Hey, you must like the food here too. I could have said something that simple and not come off as a fucking creeper. But not, Admiral Dipshit, yours truly apparently couldn’t get the courage to do that. What the hell is wrong with me, really?

I felt my head hit the table and couldn’t bring myself to lift it, so I sat there listening as the few tables around me went quiet for a minute. The conversations around me slowly started back up and I just sat there. I didn’t have any more classes for the day so at this point I could just do whatever until I felt tired. Which usually involved reading whatever I came across online. Sometimes whatever videos.

So I just laid there, steaming in my own thoughts for what was probably like thirty minutes when someone interrupted the soup I was trying to make with my brain.

“You good there dude?” A waiter asked, his eyebrow raised at me quizzically. I mused on the fact he was probably around my age for a minute. “Dude?”

I felt a pang in my chest and winced, probably from how loud his voice seemed. Little too quick there pal, I’m still recovering here.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just needed to think I guess,” I rubbed my forehead and sighed. I felt the table shake and the guy was waving to his boss. After a quick thumbs up, he turned to look at me. My eyebrow copied his as I stared back.

“You look like shit dude,” he said.

“I took a shower?” I answered slowly.

The guy snorted, “Naw, I mean your face. If this were a cartoon your face would be drenched in shadows.”

“Oh…” I sighed, “Yeah I don’t know, but give me a bit and I’ll be fine.”

“You sure dude?” the guy asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright then, good luck,” He picked up the tray he had set down and left. I sighed again.

What the hell am I even doing? And that pretty much explains how the weeks from there went. Class, food, read, sleep. I didn’t do much else until Thanksgiving. I can’t say it was much different from usual though.

Kaffeina

Yeah I know, I have a problem but I'll work on the others soon.