I woke up at 10 to my alarm, and rubbed my eyes. Now I had to face the unavoidable bathroom. I wasn’t sure how, I just knew that I had to face it. I also needed to shower but that was even worse than the thought of using the bathroom. I walked out of my room and to the bathroom, but instead of making the same rookie mistake that I had the day before, I simply stood outside the door. However, my problem was still unsolved, what was I going to do, put a sign on the door- Scarlette is in the bathroom, stay out. I don’t think so; I didn’t want to make a huge spectacle out of the bathroom situation. Just then Nick came out of the room next to the bathroom and saw me standing there.
“What are you doing?”
“Thinking about what I should do about the whole bathroom thing. This is definitely going to be the hardest thing to deal with in the dorm.”
“Go ahead, I’ll tell everyone that comes by not to go in.”
“That would be embarrassing!” I whined.
He shrugged, “You could claim a bathroom to yourself.”
“I am not going to claim one of four bathrooms to myself in a dorm with 50 people, that’s selfish.”
“The fourth bathroom is really small; it’s only a stall, a urinal, a shower, and a sink. I don’t think the guys would mind. It’s not really used because it’s in the old wing anyways. Here I’ll show you the way.” He beckoned for me to follow.
In a hallway that was covered up in plastic and signs that said 'due for renovation', there was an old wooden door with a small crystal handle. He opened it and led me inside. The tile was green and chipped, and the sink quite yellow. The room was small and somewhat musty smelling, but overall just looked like an out of date bathroom.
“Don’t worry, the water runs totally fine and there is light.” Nick pointed to the light switch.
“Are you sure it’s fine if I claim this?”
He nodded, “Absolutely, we can just say that no one should use it because it’s for you. Like I said, no one really uses it anyways because it’s old and kinda far away from most of the guys’ rooms. The other bathrooms have enough stalls and stuff that we never have to wait anyway.”
I smiled at him, “Thanks Nick.”
“Yep, no problem. Thanks for being our dorm momma!” He smiled warmly, his brown eyes lighting up.
“Well I didn’t have a choice, but I’m glad that I accepted.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dorm is free for dorm managers and my family is totally broke, so it was the only way I could stay in the dorm.”
“Oh, well thanks anyways, it’s better than the other one,” he said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
“Wait, what year are you?”
“I’m a freshman.”
“Why do you know the old dorm manager then?” I tilted my head to the side in confusion.
“There was already a different one this year but he chickened out before the school year even started.”
“Oh. Huh that’s weird, why?”
“I’m not really sure, but it sounds like this dorm goes through dorm managers really fast.”
I shrugged, “Well whatever, I plan on being here for a long time, you’re gonna have a hard time getting rid of me.”
Nick smiled again, widely this time, “I hope so!” He gave me a thumbs-up and turned to leave. “I have to go to tennis, catch you later.” I nodded at him as he left. I looked around the bathroom, noticing areas that needed to be cleaned. I loathe cleaning, but for something this dirty, it was slightly unavoidable. I couldn’t see anything in the mirror, the floor was full of water rings, and the sink was covered in a notable layer of dust. But, like Nick said, the water ran fine and the light worked just as well as the next. My first class today started at 2, so I still had a while before I needed to go anywhere, so I made my task for the day cleaning the bathroom.
