Nick & Finn

Scene 2

Over the next few days, I got to know my new roommates a little better, and they all seemed like decent people.

Belv was the one who had addressed me when I walked in the first night. That's what everyone called him; I didn't learn exactly what his name was until he introduced himself the next day.

"Bedford William Belvedere the third, at your service," he said with a wide smile, extending his hand.

"I'd need a nickname, too," I quipped as we shook hands.

He chuckled good-naturedly. It took me a while to decide whether his general jolly demeanor was genuine or passive-aggressive; but if it was the latter, I never saw him break character.

Belv was from a well-to-do family and owned most of the nice things in the apartment. He was always very particular about how things were arranged in the kitchen, and was generally the one who did the dishes. I once asked him why he chose to live in a place like Blue Arms and he said, "Because it's cheap," as though it were utterly self-evident.

Belv was a political science major and had an opinion about everything, most of which I disagreed with, but I was out of the business of disagreeing with people out loud after my last roommate experience. When he would ask me what I thought about something, I would usually just shrug and say something like, "You seem to have it figured out, I guess." He never did get an honest opinion about anything political out of me that whole summer.

Belv could be very snide, but I liked his jokes even when I disagreed with his opinion, so we got along pretty well.

Cameron, on the other hand, was very quiet and passive; he rarely shared his opinions about things and he rarely took the lead in making decisions. But he always had an eager-to-please, puppy-dog look in his eyes and he was always willing to go along with whatever ideas the rest of us had. Pretty much everything he ever said or did was good-natured, for which I was very grateful.

Cameron was studying psychology and intended to make a career of it, as far as I could tell. Sometimes when the rest of us were talking I felt like he was analyzing us; when he did finally speak up, it was often a brilliant summation of a subtext we hadn't yet figured out was lingering beneath the conversation.

Finn was the one who had shown me where to put my things the first night. I liked him as soon as I met him. He was lithe and full of energy, always seeming like he was ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. He had a snarky face but a ready smile, and laughed as hard as anyone when the joke was about him. He was my room-roommate, and as soon as we got to talking I knew we would get along famously. Finn was the only one in the apartment who was in class: he was pre-med and was taking organic chemistry over the summer, which meant that there were few nights when he didn't spend at least some time crouched over the kitchen table with a pile of notes and textbooks. Even from the table, though, he would often insert a scathingly funny remark into a conversation we were having across the room.

And then there was Nick. The first night, I had assumed that Nick lived in the apartment as well, since he had been standing there staring at me with the other three; the second night I learned that Nick actually lived in a different apartment in the same building. He and Finn were great friends, apparently―whenever Finn was home, Nick would be over; even if Finn was only doing homework, Nick would sit at the table and play on his phone, or sit and chat with the rest of us. Nick and Finn cooked together, ate together, went places together. Nick would stay over every night until at least 11:00, at which point he would get up and say, "Goodnight, all."

"Goodnight, Nick," we would all intone in unison.

A few nights in, I asked Cameron why Nick didn't live in the same apartment if he and Finn were such close friends.

Cameron shrugged, "I dunno; it's kind of a long story. I think Nick should probably tell you."

I figured there was some kind of personal difference, probably with Belv, keeping Nick from living in the apartment with the rest of us. I sincerely hoped there would be no drama there, but I had to admit that my current roommate situation was much better than the previous one, so far . . .