Theories of Insanity

3 | Six

3 | Six

Thursday, August 31, 2017

><

Insanity:

Treating a week-long relationship like a five-year one.

><

            Everyone had moved in, so there were now six girls living in the apartment. Christina and Paige had both moved in on Wednesday and seemed to be perfectly nice people, although it hadn't really been enough time to tell completely. Samantha had returned from whatever freshman retreat thing she had been attending when I moved in, and she seemed nice as well. We hadn't talked as a whole apartment about much, but the one thing that everyone knew was the only thing I cared about: Peter was going to be at the NSO party tonight. (1)

            Then entire apartment was going with me for support, just in case things were awkward—and so that I could look like I actually had friends when he showed up. Going to school 2,000 miles away from home didn't really allow for knowing people at your new university.

            I was a little worried, overall—none of these girls except for Madison seemed to have any interest in guys, and had given me some strange looks when I got excited over seeing Peter at this party. I could get along with a lot of people, and I wasn't boy-crazy by any means...but at the same time, I had pictured myself having college roommates that I could talk about boys with. Wasn't that the stereotypical expectation? That you would stay up until midnight gossiping about cute boys and exchanging makeup tips? (2)

            Greg was coming with us to the NSO party, so there was some sort of relief there: it wouldn't look like I was showing up with losers. Was that a rude thing to think of people I had barely met? If so, I was probably going to be a rude roommate.

            That makes me laugh now. Me, being the rude roommate.

            Moving on. This is only Chapter 3, there's so much more to get through before we get to that.

            Before we went to the party, Ashley had showed us something that made everyone laugh: a bright pink whiteboard that she had labeled "Boy Magnet" (get it? It was a magnetic board) before explaining to us why she was putting it up on the refrigerator. It was evidently a freshman dorm tradition at Legered University to keep a running tally of how many different guys you had done stuff with during your freshman year: one tally per boy. The tallies started the day you moved in and ended the day you moved out.

            Ashley had labeled the board with our initials running down vertically: MA for Madison, MK for me, AR for Ashley, SA for Samantha, PA for Paige, and CE for Christina. No one had a tally yet, including Madison—which was odd, considering the fact that I had walked in on her and Greg in our bedroom two days earlier.

            We started to walk out of our apartment together, all of us walking in a big group. I was honestly excited—my first college party and I was heading there to meet a hot guy who seemed interested in me, at least a little bit. I walked beside Christina, who I hadn't quite gotten to know yet, and the two of us talked a bit.

            "So where are you from again?" I asked initially, trying to break the ice. People came to Legered from all over the United States, and I was sure that none of my roommates would overlap states.

            "Idaho." Christina replied, "Land of the potatoes." She shook her head, laughing slightly. "This is honestly the first time I've ever really been out of state, except for a camp a few years back. That's actually how I met Paige: at a camp here in Utah."