Second Lanark

Midnight Musings - Part 5

"I think I'll call you Lizzie, okay? Elizabeth just seems too stuffy." Tricia was skipping down the hall and heading up the stairs to our second floor room.

Apparently we were at the drunken confessional part of the evening. "Sure, Lizzie is fine, Trish."

"I think I need the 'a' there. Trici-a. If you're going to shorten it, it should at least kinda sound like my name." She executed a drunken twirl and almost landed on her face beside the stairs.

I didn't mention that by her rationale I should be shortened to Beth. I had no desire to have Beth as my nickname for the rest of my university career.

"Lizzie and Tricia. We'll need a marker to change the name tags on our door." I wasn't sure why I suggested that. My drunk writing was hardly legible.

"Yes! Yes. We'll do that as soon as we get up there." She grabbed my arm and began hauling me upstairs.

My stomach started to feel a little queasy, and I really regretted those last three shots just before leaving the bar. The bar was still open, so Lark had stayed behind with her roommate, Jill to protect the roommate code we'd all agreed to over drinks. I groaned at the roommate code. The list of rules had been as long as my arm by the time we'd downed shots in its honor. Too many rules were not a good idea. I really hoped that we were all too drunk to remember the final version.

As we stumbled past the common room, I peered in the door and noticed Tom and Rob sitting on the couches facing the TV. Whatever they were watching must have been gripping, they didn't even turn their heads in our direction as we wandered past.

As soon as we got to our room, Tricia rummaged through her things all over our room looking for a marker. Finally, she produced a hot pink one with a flourish. "Not just any old color. Hot pink." She ran over to the door, and we both stood staring at the name tags.

There wasn't enough room for us to re-write our names. Tricia squared off the P and the A and coloured it in, and then capitalized the T which had been declared the leader. Looking at mine, she cocked her head to the side.

"It should really be Beth, shouldn't it?" She brandished the marker and was just about to square off the letters.

"No." I snatched the marker out of her hand and proceeded to butcher my name tag myself. By the time I finished, there was more pink than black and I was in danger of no one knowing what to call me. I shrugged my shoulders and handed the marker back to Tricia. "If anyone asks, just tell them, Liz or Lizzie. Anything, anything, but Beth."

She laughed, and I turned to look at her. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "You've got a real thing about names, huh?"

I scrunched up my face. "I guess? I've never really thought about it."

"How does the name Rob, sound to you?" She wagged the pen in front of her and pointed dramatically down the hall. "I saw him on the way past the common room. Wanna go see what those British hotties are up to?"

I remembered the dark brown of his eyes and the accent. "Sure. Why not?" I could window shop for a boyfriend, even if I didn't want to buy one.

She threw the marker towards her bed, gave one more satisfied nod to our new name tags, grabbed my hand and shut our door almost all in one movement. I was so drunk, and she didn't seem nearly drunk enough.

Stopping at the common room door, she looked at me, and I realized that the world was a little fuzzy.

"Play it cool," she whispered as she opened the door, and we both walked in. Tricia's voice was overly loud in the quiet room as she called out, "What are you boys..." and then we both turned towards the TV.