"Adam has been very good to me."
The room continues to watch. Chris isn't good at this kind of thing, and the eyes make him nervous. The eyes in the front row are unfamiliar, which does help out. People on Adam's side of the wedding are scattered through the reception hall. Every person he recognizes is a bump on the path of a good speech delivery. Some of the faces they made signal like they're waiting for a typical, terrible, best man speech.
That was the speech he wrote on a napkin at the rehearsal dinner. They were giving him the option to talk though it, but he refused. He didn't need to make himself sick two days in a row. Even that crowd, immediate friends and family, made him dry heave a bit. Brenda looked so beautiful, and Adam is so happy. It makes me think why I'm here.
"I don't deserve a friend like him." Chris hears a sigh in the back. "I'm sorry, I'm not that good at this."
"This is...more emotional than I expected." It's the exact level of emotions he was expected. "But this isn't about me. This is a about, spoiler alert, two people find each other and falling in love." He smiles at his first laugh of the night.
"Adam met me in college."
#
You have to understand, I had no idea Adam existed in the first three months of my freshmen year. Yes, it was a big campus, and yes, they're were thousands of students there, but we were roommates. I'm the apex of the terrible, freshmen roommate story. At the height of my immaturity, I was drinking and partying every night. Class was show I didn't watch, and girls were the reason I went to college. What made it worse was the smell.
My side of the room had things living in it. That's how bad it smelled.
I didn't pick up my stuff. I didn't clean. I didn't wash my clothes. I brought food back to the room but never brought any of it out. There was some type of goop that was under my bed that neither of us could identify. I have since learned the errors of my ways, and I'm proud of the cleaning supply held in my home.
Who am I kidding? I have a cleaning service.
The night I met Adam I wasn't in the room. I wasn't even at the campus. I woke up in the hospital, with a doctor standing at the foot of my bed, shaking his head in disappointment. It was a familiar feeling if you ask anyone in my family. It was just a way of life. The doctor gave me a status report.
"I think the alcohol poisoning is pretty evident. Do you ever remember drinking?"
I shake my head.
"Well, you almost won a slot on the waiting list for a new liver, but when the damage is self-inflicting, the chances are slim. I would call that a winning lotto ticket, but let's hope you realize that."
He turns, walks to the hallway, but stops.
"Also, you need to thank that man right there." He points to Adam, who's sleeping in the chair by the window. "I wish I had a guardian angel like that in college."
I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to think. My first thought was this guy was creeping on me, watching me throughout the night. I checked to make sure my kidneys were still intact. He looked tired so I didn't even bother to wake him up. To be honest, I was exhausted, so I slept too.
When I woke up, he was reading something on this phone.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"The guy that got your stomach pumped."
He is quick, isn't he?
"I'm also your roommate. You know, the guy who cleans up your smells."
"My room doesn't smell."
