~Chasing Amy ~
Winter time in Boston was fun, the snow never stayed on the streets for too long because of all the activity, it would just disappear right after a huge snow fall, kind if like what they say happens in Manhattan but maybe not to that extreme. On campus however, it was a completely different story and our first snow fall made me feel like I was living in paradise.
I have always been a sucker for nature and how awe inspiring it could be. I blame that on AJ. I picked up his love of all things earthly. Okay AJ and a little bit of Kevin too. Anyway our first major snowfall on campus brought almost a foot of snow and a half day of cancelled classes. We found ourselves running out and being kids all over again. I have never in my life made so many snow angels.
Kenny made a big snowman and then splattered it with red food coloring and stuck a twig in it’s eye. Very creative but the Resident assistants didn’t seem to think so. They gave him a stern warning to shape up.
Long after everyone went back inside to warm up I sat myself on one of the cold green benches and just took in the scenery. That’s when Amy walked by once again. Ever since I had actually spoken to her that day that Howie came, I hadn’t said much more. She dropped the only class we were in together and even though I was tempted to speak to her on more then one occasion in the cafeteria or when she walked by the common areas, I never actually did. Sometimes we’d smile at each other but other then that; nothing.
She was walking kind of slowly and stopped right in the middle of where I had made my third snow angel of the day. She stood over it and examined it as if she was looking at a crime scene. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was up to but before I could put too much thought into it she plopped down on the ground right next to mine and made her very own. She was laughing which made me laugh.
I got up off my bench and made my way over to her as she playfully continued to sway her legs in and out of the snow, “That one is mine”
She quickly jumped up and screamed which caused me to jump about a hundred feet in the air and quickly raise my hand to my mouth in a Shhh gesture.
“What are you trying to give me a heart attack or something?” She asked rolling onto all fours and getting herself off the snow, wiping off the ice as she straightened up.
“Sorry…didn’t mean to scare you I was just saying that the other snow angel is mine” I was feeling dumb suddenly like I had interrupted something spiritual for her.
“It’s okay…I just didn’t realize that anyone was out here” She looked down at the ground and I couldn’t tell if her cheeks were flushed from the cold air or embarrassment.
“It’s the dead center of campus, of course there will be people around silly” I said laughing at her. She finally smiled, “I guess you think I am pretty retarded for doing that huh?” She pointed to her angel which was now running into mine making it look like a Siamese snow angel.
“I did the same thing and when I did mine half the world was out here watching” I shrugged to her which made her laugh again.
“Well okay then…um I should be going” she said suddenly putting up a shield and walking off the grass back towards the dorms.
“Hey wait!” She stopped as I followed her, “How come you dropped Karl’s class?” She seemed surprised that I knew that.
“He didn’t like me”
“Karl? He likes everybody”
“Yeah well not me…besides I wasn’t doing well in there”
“Oh…well I miss seeing you in there”
I think it was the wrong thing to say because she suddenly grew cold with me, “Well anyway I need to go” She walked away almost in a huff.
“What did I say?” I asked myself as she fell out of my view.
I tried not to think about it that much but that girl just got to me for whatever reason. I seriously found myself thinking about her at all times which seemed odd because she classically wasn’t the type of girl I went for. I admit I tended to be shallow in the girl department falling for the cutest or sexiest women out there. I’m not even sure if I thought about Amy in that way. There was something else drawing me to her.
So at lunch the very next day when I noticed her sitting by herself in the corner of the huge cafeteria I once again approached her. What really sucked for me at lunch time was I didn’t ever have the same times free in the afternoons as any of the guys I hung with. Kenny didn’t even bother to go to lunch since he always woke up so late. I think I can count on one hand how many times the boy actually went to his 9 o’clock class. The others seemed to have theirs much later in the day. I got stuck with my lunch time at 11:30 which was way too early to even be considering eating lunch. I don’t think I even ate lunch that early in grammar school. Most times I skipped it myself opting to go to the good old campus McDonald’s.
My lack of funds and refusal to call D and ask for a loan forced me down into the cafeteria. I walked over to Amy slowly as if I was approaching a lion who might attack if you came at them too quickly.
She looked up from her bowl of cereal and smiled, that made me pick up the pace a little.
“Hey….mind if I sit here with you?” She motioned with her hand for me to sit so I did.
“I hate eating this early” I confessed looking down at my undercooked burger and soggy fries. You could totally tell that parents weekend was well over.
“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you. I heard that Gus spits in the burger meat before he cooks it” She looked over towards the kitchen area and then quickly back down at her bowl of.. “Grape nuts?” I was trying to make out what she was eating.
“Yeah, I get on these little Grape Nut kicks where I eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner”
“Yuck” I crammed a soggy fry in my mouth loaded with ketchup as she stuck her tongue out at me.
“So…what exactly is a Grape nut anyway?” What a stupid opener and I could tell by the sly little smile forming on her lips that she agreed.
“You shouldn’t knock um till you try it” She held up her spoon with some of it on there which I took, “Before I put this in my mouth do you have cooties? Because I don’t do cooties” She laughed and I shrugged, “Okay…but if I don’t like this then you have to take a big bite out of my spit on burger”
“Oh stop being a baby and just try it…jeez!” I opened my mouth and swallowed the cereal which turned out to be really yummy. Yes I said yummy.
She waited for a reaction and when she saw my smile she snorted, “See? I told you!”
“They are really sweet”
“Well, no they aren’t but I put so much sugar on them that it’s more like sugar with grape nuts. And them I mush a banana in there”
She made me addicted to the stupid things and sure enough I found myself eating them all the time. That’s how Amy and I became friends and how just like those stupid grape nuts, I also became addicted to her.
We just kind of hit it off after that, deciding to meet for lunch on every Wednesday and Friday; the two days we both had to eat early. It was odd because we didn’t really talk about anything heavy or even real, unlike Kenny who managed to tell me his whole life story after our first meeting. Amy was just like me, I’m sure if I could use a special telescope to look into her soul I would see a big metal shield with a rusty keep out sign hanging from it.
We pretty much had differing tastes on everything from music where I liked the heavy stuff like System of a Down and Korn, she preferred The Backstreet Boys, she insisted I looked like one of them, I think his name was Justin… Who cares anyway?
She loved dramas and musicals where I preferred movies where heads would eventually get lobbed off.
One thing we were identical with was our sense of humor. Dry, sarcastic and witty. Sometimes we would be sitting in silence eating our sugared grape nuts and eavesdrop on some of the conversations going on and just laugh at the stupidity of some of the people who we went to school with. Especially the fraternity and sorority guys.
We both typically shied away from all of those types of activities at college. Kevin thought maybe pledging to a frat would be a great idea claiming that I was lucky because his college didn’t even have them. AJ on the other hand threatened to disown me if I became anything with a Greek letter attached to it. ‘Those are even cultier than cults! How can Kevin want you to Not join a cult and then want you to be a frat boy? Sometimes that man makes next to NO sense I tell you!’
At first I was a little worried when people around me left and right were going over to the dark side as Kenny put it. Kenny and his Star Wars analogies. He was right though, everyone was going Greek on us and I felt the pangs of peer pressure tugging at my brain. I’m so glad I didn’t succumb because hearing stories especially at lunch table conversations which I wasn’t invited to but listened in on anyway, those clubs were nothing but torture factories.
“I don’t get why they just don’t say you know what? I’m not going to let you treat me like garbage anymore!” Amy said after overhearing pledglings sitting next to us from a popular sorority house claim that they were mentally abused all night long by their sisters.
“People are dumb I guess” That was the only answer I could think of. She nodded in agreement right as Kenny with a tray in hand came and sat next to us.
“Hey Amy” he nudged me over in the booth, “I didn’t know you guys were friends” He looked from me to Amy and smiled.
“It’s a small world isn’t it?” Amy said sarcastically and got up to dump her tray. “I need to go, I’m having a small study group in my dorm room. Talk to you later Nick”
“See ya” I smiled at her.
“What time is that study session?” Kenny asked all interested in academics suddenly. That kind of made me sick to my stomach. Please don’t tell me we were going to be fighting over the same girl.
“In about fifteen minutes”
“Okay guess I’ll pass” I laughed at him as he shoveled rice into his mouth.
Amy just nodded at both of us and made her way out the door.
“Didn’t know you were so interested in studying” I said mashing my banana into my Grape Nuts to complete the delicacy.
“I’m not, have you seen Amy’s roommate?”
“No”
“She’s like the hottest chick here sunny boy! We all swarm around her dorm room just hoping to catch a glance of her in her thong”
“Okay” Boy I wanted to change the topic of discussion.
“I also heard she’s easy. At least that’s what hairy said”
I just laughed.
“You tight with Amy?” I shrugged, “We are kind of getting to know each other”
“Maybe she’ll invite you to her room so you can see what I’m talking about”
It was a little surprising that he didn’t even think I could be attracted to Amy. That I maybe wanted a relationship with her. Not sure why but it made me mad.
“I don’t use people like that”
Kenny sensing my anger held up his hands in a surrender sign, “Nick don’t get all uptight. I’m not a user either. I like Amy but damn her roomie is…just damn!”
Okay so as much as I didn’t want that conversation to stay in my head I found myself very curious as to what this person looked like so I figured maybe I’d invite myself to Amy’s little study group. I mean I knew her dorm room now because Kenny had drilled it into my head, so after lunch I made my way across campus to find Amy…again.
Her hallway was SO much quieter than mine, no Dave Matthews or people screaming in the hallways. The faintest sound of pop music was coming from a room down the hall but other then that it was almost library quiet in there.
I found her room and gently knocked hoping I wouldn’t look like too much of an idiot when I showed up for a study group for a class I wasn’t even taking.
She seemed surprised when she opened the door, “Nick? What are you doing here?” Her eyes were wet with tears and she sniffled before letting me into her empty room.
“Where is everyone?” I asked not sure if I should sit or wait for an invitation to do so.
She sat down at her desk and blew her nose, “What’s wrong?”
She laughed, “you probably think I’m like a crazy crying idiot or something…I promise I don’t spend all my time crying”
“Please…you should have seen me in high school. I was a mess” I joked but not entirely kidding.
“It’s okay to cry, now tell me what’s going on?” I knelt down next to her and placed my hands on her legs.
“My roommate!” She started and then took a deep breath.
“Jill…I’m so tired of all the guys coming over here just so they can try to get into her pants. My study group mysteriously consisted of four guys and the two of us and you know what happened when those guys got here and saw that Jill had bailed?”
“They left” I said feeling guilty for being a male.
She nodded, “You know sometimes it’s hard to look like this and live with someone who looks like her” I wanted to tell her I thought she was beautiful but I couldn’t. Those were words reserved for a different time. Anything I told her about her looks now would feel like they weren’t genuine. I remember because Melissa was the same way.
So I did the next best thing, “I don’t think she’s anything to brag about really”
“Please save it Nick. She’s gorgeous and it’s not her fault but still” She looked me in the eyes, “you know?” And the weird thing was I did.
“I’m sorry Melissa”
“What?” I didn’t realize what I had done.
“I said I’m sorry”
“You called me Melissa. Who the heck is that?” She laughed finding it amusing but I didn’t. Not at all.
“I did?”
“Yes you did”
“Sorry...” She could tell I was uncomfortable so she changed the subject, “Anyway what brings you here?”
Well if you want to know the truth I was just coming to check out your hot roommate too! Supposedly she’s easy and even though I’m not the slightest bit interested I had to see.
“Just wanted to know if you wanted to hang out tonight?” She seemed very surprised but also happy.
“Sure” I smiled at her.
I stayed for a few more minutes taking in her room and trying to figure out what made her tick. Her room was almost as bare as mine, the only difference being the collages of friends and family that lined her walls.
“Hey Nick”
“Yeah?”
“I am glad you came today, thanks” She came over and hugged me. I made sure I hugged her really tight and didn’t pull away first.
Never pull away from a hug first, you’ll seem uninterested. Probably the best lesson my sister ever taught me.
“See you tonight” She said walking me to her door.
“Yuppers”
As I left I was kind of surprised at what I had done. Did she remind me of my sister that much? And if she did how wrong of me was it to find myself falling for her?
