Bright for the Win

Chapter 3

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Win's POV

I tried not to show displeasure at the state of my room. I mean of course I cannot consider it as my room per se. I was sharing it with someone else, but since I live in it too, I wanted it to have at least a semblance of my room back home.

"Who would have thought!" my roommate declared after I explained to him that this was my room as well.

He had introduced himself as Bright and said a few things about himself. I nodded and apart from saying that my name was Win, I did not offer any other information.

I could feel his eyes on me from time to time as I tried to set up the rest of my stuff around my space in the room. I was not too happy that my closet was not big enough but I was happy that at least the mirror that served as the door of my closest was full length. I just love full length mirrors. They allow me to check my appearance completely and to my satisfaction. I mean I'm really not a vain person but I hate to go outside my room with my tie askew or a strand of hair out of place.

Bright did his own setting up and I was happy to see that he had finally gotten his open suitcase out of the way.

I opened the bigger and deeper drawer on the right hand side of my study desk and started stuffing in all the mini cans of shoe string potatoes on which I gorge whenever I am cramming for an exam.

"What the hell," I heard my roommate mutter.

I turned to look at him. He was staring wide eyed at all the cans of shoestring potatoes that I was stuffing into my drawer. Then I saw him judging my abdominal area. He was going to be in for a surprise when I come out of the shower with only my towel draped around my waist. During the summer I had been a regular visitor at our local gym. I had made sure that I kept my body in shape. I saw him smirk before turning away. Smirk all you want, I thought. I'm gonna wipe out that smirk later when I step out of the shower.

I gathered my toiletries and made my way to the bathroom. I gave a furtive glance at my roommate as I passed by his bed on the way to the bathroom. He was busy texting furiously on his phone. I wondered who he was texting with. I wondered if he had a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend... I caught myself. Dafuq was I thinking.

I took my sweet time in the shower. I liked the feel of the strong steady spray of water on my skin. I wished that I was back in my own bathroom at home. It had a large shower head that sprayed out water like strong steady rain. I love the rain. I love walking in the rain, feeling my clothes getting drenched and sticking to my skin. True I get the sniffles the following morning but the discomfort of a stuffy nose is all worth the joy of the blissful rain.

As I was lathering myself I recalled the last time that I had an enjoyable walk in the rain. It was just a few months ago. My girlfriend and I had just gotten out of the cinema after the last showing of the movie we had watched. We had not brought any umbrella with us. I had known from watching the weather forecast the day before that there was going to be rain, lots of rain, by late evening but I had not bothered to bring my umbrella with me.

"Let's make a run for the parking lot," I had suggested to my girlfriend, already anticipating to feel the rain on my body. I was actually not going to make a run for it. I was going to make a slow walk to my car.

"Are you kidding me???" I remember Lara asking me wide eyed, her voice tinged with some annoyance.

"What do you want to do then?" I had asked.

"I will wait right here on this spot and wait for you to drive your car over to me," she had said.

"Very well then," I had said, realizing for the first time that Lara was not someone who liked getting wet in the rain.

I made my way to the parking lot, savoring the feel of the steadily falling raindrops slowly wetting my hair and my clothes. I walked slowly, stopping from time to time to raise my head and feel the raindrops on my face. I even opened my mouth to drink in some of the raindrops. I started coughing when the water went down the wrong pipe. I had forgotten that sometimes whenever I swallowed any liquids with my head tilted upwards the liquid would usually go down the wrong pipe.

By the time I drove in front of the cinema building, Lara was fuming. I had kept her waiting for too long. On top of that she had looked at my bedraggled and drenched appearance in disgust.

"I'm sorry," I apologized to her. "I won't do this again."

I never had the chance to do so any way. Just one month before I was scheduled to go off to uni, Lara had taken up with another guy. I didn't get the courtesy of a formal break up.

Of course the pain of losing her is still fresh. I had good times with Lara. She was a fun person to be with. Perhaps I wasn't as fun a person as she had wanted me to be. I had caught a glimpse of the new guy she was with. He was much taller than I was and so much more good looking than I was. I knew that there was no chance of me ever being able to win her back.

I sighed as I turned off the shower knob. I needed to shake Lara off my thoughts and focus on my studies if I wanted to keep my scholarship.

I dried my hair and  draped my towel around my waist before stepping out of the bathroom.

I walked straight toward my closet and took out a pair of light grey pjs with dark blue hems from the shelf on one side of it.

"You seem to be able to keep in shape in spite of all those shoestring potatoes."

I froze in my spot. I had been so engrossed with my memories of Lara that I had forgotten all about my roommate.