The Best Days

Chapter 4

"I'm afraid that you guys are going to be stuck rooming together for quite some time."

What did that even mean?! Quite some time? My mind couldn't even process what the lady at the front desk of the Resident Life office was saying to me. She might as well have been speaking pig Latin.

We couldn't be stuck together. This just couldn't be. She must have heard me incorrectly when I'd explained the situation. When I told her that I'd been placed in the same room as Jerkface Strauss. I glanced at the desk plate where her name was engraved and read it over in my head.

Cindy Greenwood.

This Cindy Greenwood person sure didn't seem like the brightest bulb in the bunch sitting behind that desk chomping on a wad of bubbalicious chewing gum. Her blue eye shadow covered the entirety of her eyelid and I could see that flecks of her mascara had started to run at the sides.

Her bulbs were most definitely almost out so I thought maybe I'd give it another go at explaining my circumstances.

"Cindy," I began using my sweetest tone of voice, hoping to get on her good side.

"Miss Greenwood." She corrected me. The look she gave pretty much made it clear I would never be on her good side.

I blinked twice before continuing, "There just seems to be a misunderstanding. The school has me and Ashley here living in the same room." I waved my hand off handedly in the Jerkface's direction.

He nodded his head a bit at the mention of his name. He was leaned casually against the doorframe of the office's entrance. He was just too cool to take a seat in a chair like the civilized people. What a rebel.

"Yes, Miss Jameson, I am well aware of your situation." Smack, smack, smack, "But as I have said before I cannot just simply pluck you out of your room-"

I held up a finger to stop her. "I would actually like to stay in my room. He would be the one doing the moving."

"And what if I want to stay in the room?" He asked raising his dark eyebrows at me.

I gave him a look of disdain. "Don't be silly, Ashley. I already have my things packed out. My whole side is set up."

"The name is Gavin." He moved from the doorway and sat down in the chair beside me. "I have equal claim to the room despite what you have allegedly set up in there." He said allegedly as though he hadn't seen my posters and cork board and bedspread. There was nothing alleged about it!

"Like seriously, Gavin, you're just being difficult. You know you don't care either way."

He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back into his chair. "I happen to like the view."

The view? He had to be kidding me. What view could he possibly be talking about?

"Oh, you mean the view of the Saturnus Parking Lot? Cracked concrete and old cars, I mean who would want to give that up?" I said a bit snidely.

"My sentiments exactly." He had an air of indifference about him and it was driving me crazy.

I ran a hand over my hair and rolled my eyes. "Whatever, I don't even care anymore. I just want to be as far away from you as physically possible. You can have the room."

Gavin smiled sweetly at me. I wasn't fooled. "No, it's okay, Jenny, you can have it. I think I kinda want the handi-capped room anyway."

He wasn't even handicapped! From what I could see anyway, unless being totally oblivious of someone's utter dislike for you can be considered a handicap. If it wasn't it totally should be.

Cindy was watching our exchange with growing contempt. She was obviously over it.

"If you both are done now I have some room change forms that you can fill out. When you're done leave them on my desk. It should take one to two weeks to process. Then one of you, and honestly I don't care who, will be out of there and a new roommate of your gender preference will be moved in."

I groaned. Two weeks was a long time. "What are we supposed to do in the mean time?"

Cindy handed us our forms and gave me a pointed look. "Just try and get along. I'm afraid this happens from time to time since SFSU allows coed living. However usually we only assign students that way if it's been requested. Sometimes cases like yours slip through the crack. But it will all get sorted out eventually."

These kinds of things shouldn't happen at all!

"Then that's it?" I questioned. That couldn't be it...

...It was.

"If at any time either of you feel uncomfortable or threatened by any means please be sure to report it to us and we'll make further arrangements."

I let out a sigh as I stood to my feet and grabbed my form.

"Thank you, anyway." Gavin said, flashing the older woman a charming smile and taking up his form.

"You're very welcome, Mr. Strauss. I apologize that I couldn't have been more help. It was a pleasure to meet you...both."

The last part hadn't sounded so convincing.

I usually wasn't that rude to people. But there was something about Jerkface Strauss that just got under my skin. I quickly stalked ahead of him back to our dorm. I loathed that look of amusement he always had on his face when he looked at me. What was I, a monkey? I wasn't there for his entertainment.

When we got to our room, I hated that I had to call it that....for now, I made a show of huffing and puffing about getting the things for my shower together.

Gavin silently pulled some black cotton sheets from his bag and spread his bed. He made sure the sheets were tucked in tightly before jumping up onto the lofted mattress.

I could feel him watching me.

"Jenny."

"What?" I snapped looking around from where I was trying to stealthily grab some underwear out of my drawer.

"Whoa! Calm down." He held his hands up in mock surrender, "I was just thinking that we should probably lay down some ground rules."

"Oh." I had thought he wanted to make an unsolicited observation about my choice of underwear. "Can we talk about this later? I know I smell. I can totally smell myself and I have somewhere I'm supposed to be."

He shrugged, "Whatever, I'm heading out anyway." He was? He jumped down from off of his bed. "I guess I'll see you later." He pulled on a black hoodie he'd had on earlier and headed out the door not bothering to wait for a reply.

Jerk.

Whatever, at least I had the room to myself when I got out the shower. I was able to get dressed without worrying about some random guy watching me.

I pulled on a pink velour jump suit and headed back out to Venus where Haley lived. It was where we would be meeting up to watch a movie though I doubted we'd really be doing any movie watching. The last two hours had been such a tailspin. I had so much to tell them.