Don't Panic, It's Dorm Life

“Are you coming tonight?”

Wynnie stared at me with a look of incredulous annoyance, as though she was shocked that I dared ask her something so asinine. Her mouth stayed sealed around her fork as she silently lifted her eyebrows. On a typical day that would have been a sufficient response, but I stared back at her, not breaking from her glacial gaze until she slowly began chewing her lettuce. If she was trying to make me uncomfortable, she was succeeding- with her slow eating and large eyes trained on me. The only reason she could stare without blinking for so long was due to her contacts, but it still felt scarily unnatural.

“It’s just… all of us were planning on going bowling together, and maybe grabbing dinner afterward? Alisa was thinking Thai, but I know Jun wanted Indian you can be the tie-breaking vote for us-“

She swallowed mindfully and tapped her lower lip with the fork before aiming it at me. “Did Selene put you up to this?”

I furrowed my brows at her, trying to hide the fact that yes, her friend did beg me to force her out of the dorms tonight. “What? No. I just thought you might like to hang out with us!”

“Are you on drugs? Why would I want to hang out with you guys?” Her eyes finally ducked away, resuming blinking as she stabbed at her salad.

I scoffed at her, “Why wouldn’t you?” Relieved from her predatory gaze I inched around the table till I was next to her. Experience told me that when dealing with my roommate proceed with caution when she was acting particularly incensed.

“People don’t exactly like me.” She flicked a strand of hair away from her face, “And I don’t like them either.” She hurried to add, still focused on spearing tiny roasted corn pieces.

“Don’t be stupid, people like you. I like you!”

“You’re required to like me. We slept together that one time-”

“Please stop bringing that up.” I cut her off to watch the corner of her mouth tilt up into a smirk. I wasn’t nearly as flustered over the incident as I made it seemed, but it never failed to bring a smug smile to her face.

“Fine, you’re required to like me, we live together.” She emphasized with a glint in her eyes.

“Stop trying to change the subject.” I prodded her shoulder and leaning over the table forcing her to meet my eyes. “And please give me a real reason beyond just assuming people don’t like you because they do.”

She rolled her eyes at me, disbelieving “It’s expensive.”

“So are all those online purchases.” I countered, despite how neat she kept everything she could never hide the perpetual pile of empty boxes on her side of the room.

“It’s dirty.”

“Are you a germaphobe now? You should move out of the dorms then.” She wrinkled her nose at my teasing.

“I hate Alisa.”

I didn’t have a rebuttal for that, once Wynnie hated someone there was no changing her mind and she really hated Selene’s roommate. Wynnie was the equivalent of all working-class anger smashed into one 5’4” body and Alisa came from a wealthy family and never knew a day of work. The result of their meeting was a total clash of ideals and outlooks on life. “Alisa’s not too bad! She’s just a little…”

“Spoilt?”

“…naïve.” Her luminous eyes rolled back so severely I thought she was having a fainting spell.

“Call it whatever you want, I still haven’t forgiven her for asking Selene to wake her up at 5 A.M. because she can’t handle the responsibility of an alarm clock-“

“That was one time!”

“-Or all the times she had Selene do her dishes because she never had to do them at her parents.”

“Ok yes that's-“

“-or when Selene had finals last semester and she wasted her time to complain about well… you.” Her eyes narrowed speculatively, and she punctuated her statement with a stab of her fork into the air near my face.

“Don’t you think if she and I mended our issues you can manage to become friends with her?” I wheedled and gently aimed her fork downward, sacrificing pieces of seasoned chicken breast to her ire. “Besides she’s never done anything to you.”

“Yes well, Selene is too much of a pushover to get upset, and you, my dear Lila, are just too forgiving- so I have to be angry enough for the three of us. There. You have my reasons. Shoo.” She gracefully flicked her hand at me, waving me away. Now it was my turn to roll my eyes at her dismissal.

“Selene is just nice, unlike you.” I nudged her shoulder with mine, marking that I was teasing her- Wynnie could be nice if she wanted. Her niceness was hidden beneath layers of ice, but it existed. It existed in the way she moved near silently in the mornings to try to avoid waking me up, despite knowing I was most likely already awake across the room. It was the way she kept different teas stocked at all times on the off chance someone came over and preferred tea over her favored coffee. Her kindness peeked out between the clouds of her stoniness in shy bits and pieces.

“Push. Over.” Wynnie emphasized with jabs of her fork into the air.

“What if I promise she won’t even speak to you the whole night?” I knew I sounded desperate at this point.

“Why do you want me to come out with you so badly?” She finally pushed her food away, focusing on me entirely.

“Well…isn’t today your birthday?” Her expression shuttered and she watched me in imperious silence.

“What am I? A child? My birthday isn’t important.” She finally said, dismissing the words with another flick of her hair.

“It is to me.”

Her eyelashes made branch-like shadows against her cheeks as she blinked in shock at my statement. My chest ached a little bit, was she so sure of the insignificance of her birthday? She moved to toss the remnants of her salad, turning her rapidly softening expression away from me. “…fine. I vote we get Indian.”