LJ Idol Exhibit A, Week 3: "Shenanigans"
Behind Closed Doors
(*Names have been changed.)
For my sophomore year of college, the roommate-matching machine paired me with Pete*, a laid-back Southern California guy with a wry sense of humor and an ability to quickly make friends, especially female ones. This was fine by me, as it helped me accomplish two of my primary non-academic goals: namely, not having to deal with major roommate issues, and meeting women.
One of the first girls I met through Pete was Brenda*, a fellow Southern Californian he had met during orientation weekend. The two of them fit the stereotype pretty well--Pete the cool, hang-loose surfer dude (although he wasn't the movie-star blonde, and I don't think he actually surfed), and Brenda the slightly ditzy valley girl with whiplash-inducing curves (although she didn't really have the full accent). We were never short of females in the room, though that didn't necessarily translate to me, you know, actually dating any of them.
However, knowing a lot of Pete's friends made certain things really easy. For instance, once a quarter we did "Roomies," an event where we would plan a large group date (in this case, to the zoo). Then each of us had to find a date for our roommate--without telling them what the date would entail. I asked Sara*, one of Brenda's friends, to be Pete's date, and my date turned out to be...Brenda. Since we ended up pairing off in double-date groups by room, I suspect Pete was really just trying to spend more time with Brenda.
Little did I know. Pete and Brenda ended up spending a lot of time together those first six months, including taking the liberty to rearrange the furniture in our room. While I liked the new arrangement, which included more of a space for our TV and gaming stuff, I kinda wish they'd asked me first.
One night, a couple of weeks after spring break, Brenda came over. Now, from what I understood, she had been arguing with Pete over...something, and the two of them weren't really on good terms at the moment. I thought it best, as they popped in a movie, to head down the hall and see if anyone wanted to get a poker game going.
Two hours and ten cents of profit later, I wandered back to my room. It was about ten o'clock, and I had some reading I needed to get done. Reaching for the door, I found it locked. Strange. Could've sworn I left it unlocked. I found my key and opened the door...to find the couch turned around from its normal position, Pete sitting on the couch, and Brenda sitting on Pete, kissing him.
Well. That puts a different spin on things. I mean, I'd suspected that they might be doing something like that, but Pete being a good guy, he wasn't going to say anything about it. Staying as calm as I could, I put the pack of cards down on my desk, grabbed my jacket, muttered something about "perfect timing" and left to visit one of my classmates in another dorm.
I figured I'd give them another hour or so, then head back. At this fairly conservative Christian college, women had to be off of men's floors (and vice versa) by eleven anyway (midnight on Fridays and Saturdays), so I reasoned that if she was still there, they deserved to get walked in on again. As it turns out, I walked past them on my way back, Pete and Brenda, old friends, just walking side by side, not being affectionate or giving off any indications that anything untoward had happened.
I went back to the room and started on my reading. Pete returned about twenty minutes later and sat down at his desk, signing on to AIM and promptly having ten conversations going at once. I waited a minute to see if he'd say anything, while also trying to figure out how to start the conversation. I finally settled on, "I thought you two were broken up."
His response? "Technically, we were never together."
Okay, that explains a lot. I eventually got the full story from him (way too complicated to explain), and we settled on ways to deal with the situation in the future--namely, if one of us needed some privacy, just say so. He did mention, as an aside, that he'd said to Brenda as they started making out, "You do realize Mike's going to walk in on us, right?" To which she simply responded by shrugging.
A few minutes later, Larry*, our floor's designated spiritual adviser, came over to play some video games. As he and Pete went back and forth on Mario Tennis, the discussion turned to spiritual gifts. Hmmm. Here was my chance to get back at Pete for inconveniencing me. "Well, Pete here demonstrated the gift of prophecy earlier this evening."
"How so?" Larry asked, as a forehand went into the net.
"Well, he was here with Brenda, and he prophesied that I would walk in on them. And yea, verily, it came to pass."
Larry paused the game and turned to Pete. "Walked in on you...doing what?"
Pete, now realizing what was going on, stammered for a bit, gesturing with his hands as though searching for the perfect word. Finally, he turned to our mutual counselor and shrugged. "Uh...praying?"
Larry narrowed his eyes. "Riiiight. Your serve."
(*Names have been changed.)
For my sophomore year of college, the roommate-matching machine paired me with Pete*, a laid-back Southern California guy with a wry sense of humor and an ability to quickly make friends, especially female ones. This was fine by me, as it helped me accomplish two of my primary non-academic goals: namely, not having to deal with major roommate issues, and meeting women.
One of the first girls I met through Pete was Brenda*, a fellow Southern Californian he had met during orientation weekend. The two of them fit the stereotype pretty well--Pete the cool, hang-loose surfer dude (although he wasn't the movie-star blonde, and I don't think he actually surfed), and Brenda the slightly ditzy valley girl with whiplash-inducing curves (although she didn't really have the full accent). We were never short of females in the room, though that didn't necessarily translate to me, you know, actually dating any of them.
However, knowing a lot of Pete's friends made certain things really easy. For instance, once a quarter we did "Roomies," an event where we would plan a large group date (in this case, to the zoo). Then each of us had to find a date for our roommate--without telling them what the date would entail. I asked Sara*, one of Brenda's friends, to be Pete's date, and my date turned out to be...Brenda. Since we ended up pairing off in double-date groups by room, I suspect Pete was really just trying to spend more time with Brenda.
Little did I know. Pete and Brenda ended up spending a lot of time together those first six months, including taking the liberty to rearrange the furniture in our room. While I liked the new arrangement, which included more of a space for our TV and gaming stuff, I kinda wish they'd asked me first.
One night, a couple of weeks after spring break, Brenda came over. Now, from what I understood, she had been arguing with Pete over...something, and the two of them weren't really on good terms at the moment. I thought it best, as they popped in a movie, to head down the hall and see if anyone wanted to get a poker game going.
Two hours and ten cents of profit later, I wandered back to my room. It was about ten o'clock, and I had some reading I needed to get done. Reaching for the door, I found it locked. Strange. Could've sworn I left it unlocked. I found my key and opened the door...to find the couch turned around from its normal position, Pete sitting on the couch, and Brenda sitting on Pete, kissing him.
Well. That puts a different spin on things. I mean, I'd suspected that they might be doing something like that, but Pete being a good guy, he wasn't going to say anything about it. Staying as calm as I could, I put the pack of cards down on my desk, grabbed my jacket, muttered something about "perfect timing" and left to visit one of my classmates in another dorm.
I figured I'd give them another hour or so, then head back. At this fairly conservative Christian college, women had to be off of men's floors (and vice versa) by eleven anyway (midnight on Fridays and Saturdays), so I reasoned that if she was still there, they deserved to get walked in on again. As it turns out, I walked past them on my way back, Pete and Brenda, old friends, just walking side by side, not being affectionate or giving off any indications that anything untoward had happened.
I went back to the room and started on my reading. Pete returned about twenty minutes later and sat down at his desk, signing on to AIM and promptly having ten conversations going at once. I waited a minute to see if he'd say anything, while also trying to figure out how to start the conversation. I finally settled on, "I thought you two were broken up."
His response? "Technically, we were never together."
Okay, that explains a lot. I eventually got the full story from him (way too complicated to explain), and we settled on ways to deal with the situation in the future--namely, if one of us needed some privacy, just say so. He did mention, as an aside, that he'd said to Brenda as they started making out, "You do realize Mike's going to walk in on us, right?" To which she simply responded by shrugging.
A few minutes later, Larry*, our floor's designated spiritual adviser, came over to play some video games. As he and Pete went back and forth on Mario Tennis, the discussion turned to spiritual gifts. Hmmm. Here was my chance to get back at Pete for inconveniencing me. "Well, Pete here demonstrated the gift of prophecy earlier this evening."
"How so?" Larry asked, as a forehand went into the net.
"Well, he was here with Brenda, and he prophesied that I would walk in on them. And yea, verily, it came to pass."
Larry paused the game and turned to Pete. "Walked in on you...doing what?"
Pete, now realizing what was going on, stammered for a bit, gesturing with his hands as though searching for the perfect word. Finally, he turned to our mutual counselor and shrugged. "Uh...praying?"
Larry narrowed his eyes. "Riiiight. Your serve."