Superposition (Starting Position Sequel)

Chapter 35

Finals were right around the corner. With their impending doom, everyone in both mine and Elliot's apartments were cramming like mad.

Dev managed to talk with his parents about his major and came clean about how he expected to fail all of his computer science classes. His parents, after hearing the news, let Dev change his major, and, starting this summer,  he would be a proud history student – not to be shipped off to India after graduation.

    Ian spent most of his time studying with Samara. He would typically go to her dorm after classes and then come home, giddy and mouth swollen, hours later, and I always wondered who he thought he was fooling. Apparently, he was going to break the news to his parents about Samara when they came to take him home at the end of the semester, and I sincerely wished his parents would see how happy they were and look past their differences in religion.

              Justin was usually found downstairs in the living room, and although his books and papers were scattered around the couch, he was usually glued to some game he was playing on the TV. This was how he got by, and he somehow still managed to pass his classes. Who was I to judge?

              Each of us had the choice to live the way we wanted.

After traipsing down the stairs and taking in the littering of papers surrounding Justin, I barely fought back a laugh as I said, "See you later."

    "You better be going to Elliot's!" he called as I opened the door. "I know that roommate is gone – the crazy one."

    I was, in fact, heading to Elliot's. Elaine had gone home for the weekend after claiming she was on the verge of suffering a mental breakdown from the sheer amount of classwork and studying she had to do  before finals. I'd have felt bad if it were anyone else, but it was Elaine, and Elliot explained to me the trove of stories she kept secret once we got back together.

    Elaine wasn't just a pessimist, Elliot had said, she was also a meddler who had apparently been telling Elliot since they first met that she needed to end things with me because of my CP. Elaine thought the condition was hereditary and constantly warned Elliot of what a life with someone who has CP would be like. "Do you really want kids with CP?" Elliot repeated Elaine's words with a tight mouth and voice. "What if they can't walk or talk? What about potty training? Think of all the medical and therapeutic appointments. Think of the struggle both you and them would go through. Is that really fair?"

Though Elliot always corrected Elaine and explained that CP wasn't genetic, but a condition that appears at birth, Elaine proved relentless. It was the reason Elliot kept Elaine away from me, for fear Elaine would say something inappropriate.

After divulging the entire story to me, Elliot explained how terrible she felt, because she believed if she had been honest with me up front about Elaine, we could have avoided some of the struggles we faced. While Elliot's confession did bother me, I didn't think it was in the way she thought. What upset me was that I had let Elaine's words get to me. I knew the truth about my CP, and her opinions shouldn't have mattered.

    All that aside, though, I was grateful for Elaine at this moment. She was away at home, which meant the 'no boys after seven' rule was void, and Elliot also told me that her other roommates were at an end-of-semester party for the evening.

    We were going to have the place to ourselves.

    I knocked on the door, and it swung open a second later.

    "Hi," Elliot said. Her expression was easy and bright. "You're early."

    "Am I?" I said, walking through the door. "I can leave. Come back in" – I glanced at my watch – "ten minutes."