Dirty Laundry

Two.

Hi, I'm Nial.

 I laugh as I return his small smile and  awkward wave. "Emily"

        I say as Niall closes his laptop and carries it over the desk next to mine. I turn my chair out towards his watching as he takes the seat next to me. Now up close I can see his features in more detail. He has these cute little freckles here and there and a set of amazing blue eyes. His hair is a mess over his forehead in that way that boys can pull off messy hair. He has slight scruff on his chin. Clearly not trying to look his best for the laundry room but then again neither am I. Which makes me take note and regret  my choice of leggings and old ratty t-shirt that used to be my dad's.

"So Emily, how'd your first week go?" He asks leaning his elbow on the desk at his side.

"Not as bad as I thought but then again it's only the first week"

"Good point." He laughs, a laugh that makes me laugh in return.

"And your first week?"

"Not too bad either! Maybe communicative disorders won't be as hard as people say it is." He says as I try not to act surprised.

        A communicative disorders major is an extremely heavy and difficult work load and frankly he looks a like a frat boy who would pick communications as his major because it has a rep of being an "easy major". 

"Oh! What kind of disorders?" I ask now genuinely curious.

"Speech disorders, impediments that kind of stuff." He tells me proudly and then continues the typical college freshman introductions. "And whats your major?"

"History and Secondary Education so like middle and high school grades." I say equally proud of my life's plan.

"Why teach history?"He asks.

        I'm almost taken aback. Most people despise history and tell me I'm crazy and that I'll never get a job out of college but he seems to really want to know my answer.

"History has always come easy to me, I'm pretty good at remembering things in general. Also history is really fucking cool. I actually enjoy reading my history books they're like epic non-fictions novels!" I cheer and start to feel embarrassed when I realize what I just said, "Sorry I let my History nerd get the best of me there..."

"No! Don't apologize! It's cool that you really love what you're doing. It's gonna make you a really cool teacher." He says and I can hear the sincerity in his voice and the smile on his face even though I'm not staring at my flip flops.

"So why did you choose speech disorders?" I ask getting the focus off of myself.

        Now he is the one to look at his shoes as he tells me he use to have a lisp when he spoke and had to go to speech therapy when he was little and how it comes back sometimes when he's really nervous.  Niall's face lights up when he tells me how therapy helped him so much that that's what he wants to do for someone else. We have that in common, wanting to share our love of something with others. It hits me that this is what i find most attractive about him. His motivation.

        We spend the rest of our laundry cycles, which are really long!, chatting about where we're from and just about everything else.

"I'm from Connecticut a little less than an hour from here", I say as I turn away trying to hide the underwear I'm unloading from the machine. 

"No way! Me too!" He says like I just told him the best news in the world.

"Really what town?" I ask equally excited

"Watertown, up more north about two hours from here"

"Ha! I'm from Waterford!," I say putting emphasis on the "water" part thinking I'm some comedic genius. Although I may be right because Niall laughs but I can kind of tell from our conversation that he laughs a lot so I'm probably not as funny as I think I am.

        We hold the conversation out a little longer even though my laundry is now done and his still has a few more minutes left to dry.

"Well it was nice meetin' ya Emily! Maybe I'll see ya around, being in the same building an all?" Niall says as he stands up with me as a haul my basket in my arms. 

        I smile and agree with him as I start to walk out the door. When I reach my room I drop my basket and just put my hand over a smile that feels like it's splitting my face in half. Did I really just hold a two hour long conversation with a stranger. A really attractive male stranger?! Holy crap! But then it sinks in that there was no exchange of phone numbers and my hopes are crushed a little bit. What if I don't see him again? This is a big state school there are 7,000 plus freshman alone!

        After I'm done panicking and squealing with my roommate Kelly about Niall. I start to fold and put away my clothes with that same damn smile on my face.

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Sorry about all the possibly confusing dialogue formatting. I'm new at this!

I realize I didn't mention what school this is but it's going to be the University Of Rhode Island in the USA. I didn't know how to fit it in the dialogue because this is actual dialogue that I've had with a boy so....  YEAH I'd love some nice feedback or helpful suggestions, please don't be mean! 

~LZ