"so does she like clean environments?" morgan asks as she surveys my dorm room, "because this isn't cute."
"her dorm is way worse," I explain, though her comment causes me to start neurotically arranging the pillows on the couch.
"hopefully she doesn't get curious and look into this mr. noodle cup," says morgan, a disgusted look in her face as she leans on the counter, "because I just made that mistake."
I might have made plans with carolyn to have her come over to watch my favourite movie, which was a good idea in theory but the complex layers of inviting a girl over to watch a movie have surfaced leaving me a neurotic train wreck of frayed nerves.
"what if she doesn't want to watch a movie? what if she wants to, you know," I rearrange the pillows on the couch again. it's hard to make pillows that are dehydrated piss yellow look aesthetically pleasing.
morgan raises an eyebrow, "and that's a bad thing because?"
"because," I adjust my glasses nervously, "I don't think I'm ready for.. um, to do that with her."
"you're like the dictionary definition of friend zone material," morgan says after a pause, "also it's time to burn those pillows."
"They were on sale," I object, it's a source of pride for me that I've always been good at saving money and using it responsibly.
"anyway, moving on," morgan says her voice losing its lightness, "remember the tips I told you?"
"yes," I say in annoyance, "I remember."
morgan spent almost an hour after carolyn had hung up educating me on how to woo her properly.
"good," morgan says in satisfaction, she hops onto the couch and leans against one of the pillows that she had regarded in disdain seconds before, "why don't you watch something romantic or sexy?"
"you listened in on the phone conversation," I say, seating myself next to her, "I promised her avengers."
"whatever," morgan says, "I still think you should watch something less nerdy."
"stop making me nervous," I throw a pillow at her head which she expertly dodges, her bright purple lips pulled back into a maniacal smile.
"I had 5 siblings," she says threateningly, "I can fucking end you in a pillow fight."
as she says this, I remember how many pillow fights me and kirk had. we used to get into silly fights over the littlest things as kids, until he deemed himself above such childishness and started living his new, middle school life.
there's a knock at the door and morgan's eyes widen in excitement.
"my little syd is becoming a man," she laughs following me to the door, "having his first girl over."
"shut up," I silence her before opening the door.
carolyn smiles on the other end, her cheeks are flushed from the cold and she holds a translucent green plastic bag which contains a bag of chips, her eyes narrow unexpectedly though when she looks past me at morgan.
"are you joining us?" she says simply, her mouth is smiling but her words and the look in her eyes hint at a more menacing sentiment towards morgan.
"oh, um, no," morgan says caught off-guard, judging by her reaction I'm not the only one who made the error of forgetting about their bad blood, "just visiting."
carolyn looks away, her expression shifts to expectant as she looks at me.
"invite her inside," hisses morgan under her breath.
the urgency in her voice snaps me out of my daze and I step out of the doorway giving carolyn room to enter.
carolyn smiles graciously and enters, placing the green plastic bag on the couch.
"ok, bye guys," morgan says her gaze focused on carolyn who keeps her back turned. she leaves quickly, closing the door softy behind her.
the silence descends upon us before carolyn clears her throat, "your dorm is nice."
"thanks," I say.
"so," carolyn starts her voice bordering on annoyed, "do you want to start the movie?"
"yes!" I say relieved to have task. I set everything up beforehand and simply turn on the tv and press play.
carolyn sits comfortably on the couch while I sit stiffly, which strikes me as ridiculous since it is my room.
she grabs the bag of barbecue chips from her bag and opens it, placing it in the space between us.
"where do I recognize her from?" carolyn inquires as agent hills ducks away from loki's attack, "she looks familiar."
"she's in how I met your mother."
"yes that's it," she falls silent again.
the rest of the movie goes by in silence, broken only by the occasional laugh from carolyn.
the movie ends with thanos' maniacal smiling face.
"that was good," says carolyn after I turn the tv off, "not as good as you made it sound but pretty good."
"just admit it," I say while picking up the empty chip bag and placing it in the wastebasket, "it was amazing."
"whatever you say," carolyn responds. she pauses while staring at me thoughtfully, I shift uncomfortably, still standing by the wastebasket, "I never thanked you properly."
"for what?" I ask feeling stupid.
"for comforting me," she explains still staring at me thoughtfully, "I was a bit a train wreck."
"just a bit," I say as an attempt to lighten the mood.
"yeah," she says slowly turning her gaze away from me, "anyway, I have some homework. see you around?"
"see you," I agree. I watch her as she leaves. she opens the door and looks at me again with the same quizzical look on her face and smiles then leaves.
the door opens again and theo, my roommate and epitome of a broseph enters.
"are you banging carolyn summers?" he questions, "because her boyfriend is-"
"no," I say a little too forcefully, "and they broke up."
theo grins, "about time. she was crazy clingy."
"oh," I say in disinterest while returning the avengers dvd to its case.
"I always thought that that weird girl was into you," theo says as a sad attempt to make conversation.
"her name is morgan," I snap.
"whatever," theo says with a deliberate eye roll, "morgan."
something about him saying her name makes a strange angry feeling fill my gut.
