The Institution

Chapter 1: A Most Unpleasant Meeting

The Institution (1st Draft)

by

Sam Malone

©Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved

I don't know how I manage to land myself in these situations. I swear I'm not the type of person who intentionally goes looking for trouble. Rather, trouble seems to have developed an unfortunate habit of finding me at the most inopportune moments. And though it might not seem like it, I really didn't mean to trip and knock my new roommate headfirst down the staircase.

"-the HELL is wrong with you?!" the boy was currently shouting in my face as he struggled to disentangle his legs from my torso.

Arthur seems to do that a lot- shout, I mean. Not tumble down staircases. I opened my mouth so I could explain myself but all the air had inconveniently been knocked out of my lungs.

"I'm here on football scholarship and you came this close-" Arthur held up two fingers an inch from my nose, "to ruining my career!"

I managed to take a breath then and wanted to tell him to stop being a drama queen, but the only syllable to come out of my mouth was "Bah..."

Arthur wasn't pleased. He gave me another shove and his legs came free.

"I didn't do it on purpose," I finally managed to groan. "You think I wanted to fall down the stairs?"

Of course I didn't. Tumbling down a flight of stairs hardly sounds like fun, though it is infinitely worse when you're tumbling down said stairs with someone who has recently become the bane of your existence.

Arthur had made it to his feet. He glared down at me, eyes narrowed and jaw clenched furiously. I hadn't made any effort to move and was still sprawled across the floor, looking foolish. But then I spotted Arthur's hair and couldn't help but suppress a slightly hysterical giggle. He looked like he'd just stuck his head into a tornado.

Arthur's face darkened and I honestly feared for my life then. He reached out and I cringed. But all he did was seize the collar of my shirt and haul me up into a sitting position so that we were face to face.

"If you know what's good for you, you'd better stay out of my way from now on," he growled. "And for God's sake, stop following me!"

Then he unceremoniously dropped me on the floor again and darted out of the stairwell. I groaned, cradling the back of my head. There would be a painful lump there tomorrow.

I'd like to point out here that I don't think of myself as a stupid person. Sure, I do stupid things occasionally, but then again so does everybody else. I will acknowledge that I'm dead clumsy and probably should watch where I put my feet. You would think I'd have learned that by now, being an eighteen year old freshman in college.

But even I'll admit that what I did this time was pretty stupid. I made the mistake of thinking that I could actually get away with following him again. Don't ask me why, because honestly I have no idea. It's the middle of the night. I was already on the guy's bad side, but now he probably isn't going to speak to me for the rest of the year.

I struggled to rise, and managed to sit up with a groan of pain. My left shoulder felt like it had been dislocated, but then I tried to rotate it and was able to move it just fine. Bumps and bruises, that's all. It seemed I would survive this latest escapade.

I leaned against the wall with a sigh and reflected on how I'd come to be in this awkward position.

Yesterday had been freshman move in day at the University of Kentucky. People sometimes ask me why I chose to attend the University of Kentucky, and I honestly don't have a good answer to that question. I'm a North Carolina native myself, and had never actually visited the state of Kentucky before I applied. I wanted to study History and the History program here is just as good as at any other school in this country. But then I got in, and what was more, they offered me an academic scholarship. I didn't know a single soul in the entire state, but college is supposed to be an adventure. I don't normally embark on adventures, but it's never too late to try something new I suppose.