The Dorm

Chapter Three

I have to admit, I'm... not really the best partner. Don't get me wrong! I love my girlfriend with my whole heart and she means the world to me, but it's really hard to be a good partner sometimes. Sure, I'll make her tea and hug her when she's upset, but that's just stuff I should do. Whenever she's clearly in a bad mood but is trying to force it down... I don't really ever try to figure out what's wrong. Mainly because I never know how to help.

So, I ignore the problem.

Listen, I might not be a mind reader, but I'm not stupid. I could tell Susie was off. She doesn't really practice much unless she's trying to get away from her own brain. And when dinner conversations were solely focused on me and my day, it didn't take too many brain cells to figure out that Susie was avoiding the topic of "well-what-about-you-darling-precious-smoopsy-pie-of-mine?".

Instead of asking about it, I just ignored it. It's all I know how to do. I've never known how to help her. Some things are easy. Like when the Dreemurrs took her to the doctor for the first time and Susie was scared out of her mind of everything there, that I could help with. Who hasn't been afraid of the doctor's office? But her mental health issues... I've never dealt with the things she goes through in her own mind every day. The abuse she faced. The years of torture and neglect. I don't know which words will help and which will hurt. So I don't say anything.

But hey! It was Thursday. That meant Friday was just around the corner, and then the weekend! There's always that. And I'd just gotten a new book from the library I'd been itching to read all day, so I chose to focus on that.

"Noe," Susie grumbled, slightly stirring from her sleep and sure to not remember this in the morning, "turn off the... fuckin' damn light... 'ts bright as balls..." She was back asleep before she'd even finished chewing me out.

Classic Susie. I smiled to myself and kissed the back of Susie's neck (she's a stomach sleeper) before going back to my book. The movie adaptation of it was my favorite thing to watch growing up, so I was excited to finally read The Somewhat Ending Tale by Micheal Beginninge.

By midnight, I was only a few chapters in. I couldn't even say if I preferred the book or the movie because they were just... so different. They were incomparable. The movie was much more aimed at children and meant to feel like a compelling adventure linking the real world and the fantastic one, but the book felt much more somber. It's very difficult to explain, but each had its own vibe and I liked them both for different reasons.

Alas, I had to stop for the night. Morning classes still existed, whether I wanted them to or not. So I had to say goodnight to Atrayoo and his mute horse monster Arxet and go to bed.

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Every morning was the same for me. Wake up. Make coffee. Shower. Throw my shit in my bag. Leave. Jog to class. Wait for Noelle to wake up and send me her "Good morning" text. Etcetera. 

I don't know if you've guessed, but I'm not naturally a morning person. I forced myself to become one so I didn't lose my goddamn mind. Never ever would I have jogged so early in the morning even a year before. But it's a good way to get my muscles moving and blood flowing to start the day.

Friday. The end of the school week. It was also my last day off from work. So life was about to get a whole lot harder.

But Fridays also meant starting with a new class I'd picked up for the second semester. It was weirdly fun so far? I took it to hopefully help myself understand some of the weird words used in law. Like, the fuck is a subpoena? Apparently, it's a thing to make people go to court or whatever. But knowing the root words, sub "under" poena "punishment", makes it easier to figure out.

So I took a Latin class.

It's not nearly as boring as it sounds. Learning the language also means you have to learn a bit about the culture to understand some shit. Like, there was no word for "volcano", so in texts about Pompeii, there's a shit ton of confusion because what the hell is happening!!! I mean, imagine if some random town got hit by a knife tornado. Nobody has ever heard of that before! Now imagine that in the future, some class is translating news stories about this "knife tornado". They might be confused because it's actually super common now so they have a word for it. But since we've never seen it before, it will always be called a "knife tornado".

I'm rambling about stupid shit nobody cares about again, aren't I. Well, um, let's just move on.

Yeah, so, Latin. Noelle took private Latin classes growing up so she's been able to help me when I get super confused, which is a lot. Why are there so many tenses? But honestly that class was my favorite. Maybe it was the teacher. Professor Overtree. He was a youngish dude, maybe in his early 30's, and he was the most eccentric man I've ever met.

He made what should have been another boring class into the most fun I have during the week. Even though it's another lecture, it's a lecture that doesn't make me want to scratch my eyes out. The videos he makes for us to watch for homework to take notes on are hilarious, too. His daughter was in a couple because she just... crawled into his lap while he was recording. Cute kid. Shit name. Gertalyn. He called her "The Gert". Poor kid.

"Salve! Good morning! It's a great day for learning!" Overtree was greeting people with wayyyy too much enthusiasm for 8 in the morning.

I dropped my body into a seat close to the front. My vision was starting to go a little fuzzy, but not enough to get glasses. Yet. So I just chose to try to get front row seats in all my classes.

Latin was one of the few classes I had that wasn't in a giant lecture hall. It was actually a pretty small class, all things considered. It was only 30ish kids in a highschool looking classroom. The tile floor was always scuffed from something Overwood called "Circle of Sacrifice". Latin 1 students hadn't gotten to experience it yet, but lord knows what the fuck that means.

"Salvete discipuli!"

Overtree got a few grumbles in response. He screeched. Literally.

"Augh!!! Eheu! It's a beautiful day for learning! Rise and shine! Get ready to learn about masculine nouns!"

The kangaroo monster leapt up and landed on his desk.

"Us! I! O! Um! O! I! Orum! Is! Os! Is! Chant it! Chant it!"

What a way to wake up, huh?

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I know it's stupid, but starting the day with... whatever the fuck that was, just instantly made my day better. The assignments weren't needlessly tedious, the teacher was fun as shit, and best of all... no law.

Maybe this makes me a geek but who am I to give a flying shit. I'm looking forward to getting into actual translations. We can't with only feminine and masculine nouns and literally no verbs, but in two weeks we are supposed to translate a passage.

I never would have thought that Latin would be the thing keeping me alive in college.

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Word Count: 1290

Author's Note: Oops. This took... a long time. I'm a senior in high school now. I started The Closet when I was a freshman. That's weird as shit. And I'm in AP Latin. Deadass considering going to school to be a Latin teacher. Why the hell not? Latin is pretty fucking gay. Not many straight people vibe with it. My girlfriend and I also had our two year anniversary this month. Also weird as shit. AND!!! No more shitty Art Major! I'm in sculpture instead. My first project... jesus christ I'm sculpting a urinal. Some of y'all might be familiar with "The Fountain". If not... Google is free lol. Anyway, sorry this took so long to get out. Most of the chapter was literally written over a month ago but I just never finished it. Well, it's here now lol. OH!!! Chapter 2 is out! Y'all, The Closet has been getting so much more traction lately. My phone has been blowing up with notifications and it took me so long to figure out why. Duh. Chapter 2 just came out. And Noelle is a main character (NO SPOILERS I HAVEN'T FINISHED THE CHAPTER YET ANY SPOILERS WILL BE DELETED AND I WILL NOT BE HAPPY WITH YOU IF IT WAS INTENTIONAL THANK YOU) so duh of course people are going to look up Suselle fanfics. Anyway, it's getting late and I have school tomorrow so I should go to bed. Keep on keeping on y'all.