the Blaine incident: the taking

Chapter 2 - The beginning

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

-Walt Disney

At NYU, Finely and I made friends quickly. We lived on the 5th floor of Brittany Hall in Manhattan. Everyone on our floor was extremely friendly, so we all hit it off on the first night. One girl, Moira held a group movie night on our first night in the dorm, we all watched Rent and sang along obnoxiously loud. We even started a group chat within the first week, in which we would make all kinds of plans and talk about the craziest things. We quickly discovered there was a grouchy sophomore living on our floor who was very strict on "Quiet Hours" and would stomp around in her bathrobe making sure everyone in our wing knew she was going to sleep and we needed to be quiet. She called us all "ungrateful trolls" because we didn't have a regular sleeping and eating schedule. Her name is Georgie, and she was fun every once and awhile. One

night, we were all playing a crazy game and Georgie joined in, and seemed as though she was having fun. Living in Brittany Hall that first week almost seemed like nothing could go wrong.

Right before classes started on September 22nd, Moira's room mate had a severe anxiety attack and had to move back home. This is when Blaine moved in.

Blaine was a smooth-talking theatre major, the epitome of Oregonian hipster, and Finley's achilles heel type. Moira innocently brought Blaine to the floor lounge to introduce her to the group.

Moira walked in and said, "Hey guys! This is my new roommate: Blaine Fenster. She's from Oregon and she moved in late and took Corie's place in the theatre program." Moira meant well by introducing Blaine to the group— it would've been extremely rude if she hadn't —but if she would've known what was to come I'm not sure this moment would've played out the same. Everyone made their introductions. Finely bounces through the door and stops dead in her tracks. She immediately started to blush and said, "Hello, my name is Finely, are you Moira's new roommate?" Finely curtseyed and took a seat next to me.

Blaine cleared her throat and said, "Yes, Moira was just introducing me to the group. I'm from Portland, not Maine, and I transferred here from Portland State University to major in theater. I was hoping some of us would've ended up in the same class, so, Finely, what's your schedule, lovely?"

Finely looked at me, and looked back to Blaine, "I'm taking Women's Choral 302 at 8am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Shakespearean Plays 101 at 2pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. Finally, I'm taking English 205 at 7:30am on Fridays. I'm a vocal performance minor and a musical theatre major." She winked at me and awaited Blaine's response. After about 30 seconds Blaine said, "Incredible! Well, now I know I'll have one friend in all my classes." I coughed and interjected, "Well... two friends." Blaine smiled, but you could tell it was insincere. She wanted Finley all to herself from the start, and Fine wouldn't notice it was happening until it was over.

"Isn't that great?" Moira exclaimed, she couldn't see what was in store for us. I could see all of the disaster right in front of us, like a damn filet mignon of trouble. Looks great until you realize you hate steak.