Hey everyone! Nancy asked me to post for her for the next few weeks because...
drum roll please
baby is coming today
.
She had a doc appointment yesterday and is scheduled for a C-section sometime today - she wasn't sure when last time I heard from her. She is taking her laptop with her but isn't sure if/when she'll be online so... I'm going to post for her until she's ready to do so but she's going to try to get online to read/respond to FDK as she's able.
I'm just posting the files she sent me, not doing any last minute editing or anything like that so there may be missing commas or... whatever.
Anyway - here we go
.
Carol
Chapter 21 I tried to block the sound out. It wasn’t really a good time for this. Why couldn’t I have a more considerate roommate? I didn’t understand.
After our dinner at EOW, Maddie and I had gone off campus to find a place to buy some disinfectant and then come back to my room. Steve, of course, was long gone. We had changed the sheets (I had thrown the ones I had been using away and vowed to make Steve buy me a new set), and I had sprayed the mattress liberally with disinfectant. Then, even though the November weather was more than a little chilly outside, I had opened the windows to help expedite the airing out of the bed and rid the room of the smell of the spray.
My feeling was that the cold wasn’t going to bother me, Maddie had teasingly told me it wouldn’t bother her as long as I held her close, and I didn’t really care if it bothered Steve.
Then we left for one of the small lounges down the hall to study for the night. We had come back to the room two hours ago to head to sleep. Steve was still out, so closing the windows, we had quickly gotten into bed.
Maddie had fallen asleep before me. She had been sleeping well the two nights she’d been here. She admitted that she had been sort of tired. She had not been sleeping well since she realized she was not going to win the argument with her father about seeing Dave, but staying in my room, she felt safer and had been sleeping easily.
I had fallen asleep shortly after she had, the rhythmic sound of her heartbeat lulling me to sleep. Steve had come in about five minutes earlier, and as he often did, pretended we were not in the room, let alone asleep.
I could tell from her heartbeat that Maddie was awake, but like me was pretending to still be asleep. I just couldn’t deal with Steve right now. It was not the time to talk about boundaries with him yet again – explaining that I considered my bed off limits for his extra curricular activities, and I didn’t want to be disingenuine by having a polite conversation with him now only to lay this on him in the morning.
Maddie had burrowed her head under the covers and I could tell that she was trying to fall back to sleep. I had been about to when someone upstairs turned the radio on. I probably would have slept right through it if Steve hadn’t woken me up, but now that I was awake, I could hear the radio upstairs loud and clear. Apparently, Hurricane Mitchell, which had been in the Atlantic Ocean for a few weeks and appeared to be dying down to a tropical storm, had picked up some speed and intensity and was expected to hit the Miami area in the next couple of hours. Evacuation efforts were under way.
If I went, this was the type of thing where I could really make a difference. I had done it before, like with the wildfire in California. By offering my help to families in the area, I could usually help them pack much faster. Just having the extra hands helped and in those cases where I was left alone, I would pack at something approaching super-speed.
How could I leave though? What would I say to Maddie? Could I use the bathroom excuse I usually used with Steve? Would she be asleep before I could get back from the bathroom?
I had decided to quit the Boy in Black duties for the week. Maddie needed me more. Still, that was a much easier decision in the abstract than it was now when I was actually faced with the decision. What if some family refused to leave without packing some item with sentimental value and died? Even if no one died, wasn’t my time better spent helping them pack than here with Maddie? She would be asleep in a few minutes, I was sure. She wouldn’t even really notice I was gone. Would she?
I sighed. I couldn’t just stay here. I was just using Maddie as an excuse. I clearly had to go.
I moved to get out bed.
“Where are you going?” Maddie mumbled, clearly half asleep.
“I just need to go to the bathroom,” I said as slipped out from under the covers.
“It’s freezing in here, man,” Steve said when he realized I was awake. I shook my head as I walked out the door. I wasn’t in the mood to explain to him that the temperature was a direct result of his actions earlier today.
I decided to actually go to the bathroom first, both as that would mean I hadn’t lied to Maddie, but also so I could listen afterwards. If her heartbeat indicated that she was asleep, I could leave without worrying about it. If she was awake… well, I wasn’t sure what, but I’d deal with that then.
She was still awake when I was finished, but I floundered outside in the hallway for ten minutes or so deciding what to do before I realized she had fallen asleep. With a sigh of relief, I took off for Florida.
************************
I crept back into my room at eight the following morning. There was still more work to be done in Florida, and honestly, I thought I might go back later. But Maddie had a ten o’clock class today and I knew she would be getting up in the next half hour or so. So, I though I might sneak back into bed and take a nap, and then head back to Florida after she left for class.
She and Steve were both fast asleep when I came in and using my floating thing, I was able to slip into bed beside her without too much disruption. She snuggled up against my side a moment later, but seemed to still be asleep, so I relaxed and fell asleep.
I awoke an hour later when I heard Maddie close the door on her way out. I considered going back to bed, but then thought again of the people in Florida and got up and headed back there.
I was only able to help for a little while this time as I had my own class at right after lunch and I didn’t want to miss lunch. This was one of the days the group of us always met up and Maddie at least would be wondering where I was if I didn’t show since I hadn’t told her I was going anywhere.
I went back to my room to pick up my books for my journalism class beforehand and bumped into Steve. I sighed. I still didn’t feel prepared to deal with him on this, but I knew I couldn’t keep putting it off.
“Hey, man,” Steve said as I stepped into the room. “What was the deal with it being so cold in here last night?”
I moved over to my desk to start getting my stuff ready as I said, “Mad and I wanted to air the room out after I disinfected my bed.”
“Disinfected your bed?” Steve asked. “What’d you do that for?”
I knew it wasn’t Steve’s fault that I hadn’t slept last night, and I knew that was making me somewhat ill tempered, but I also wasn’t sure I cared. I put my books down and turned to face him.
“I could be wrong, but I thought you were having sex in my bed yesterday,” I said to him.
He didn’t say anything at first, but did look a little flushed. “Sorry, man,” he finally said. “We just… weren’t paying attention to where we and…”
“You’re bed is ten feet away from mine. How do you make that kind of mistake?” I asked him.
“Oh, come on. Don’t make it seem like that big a deal. We didn’t do anything…”
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing as I said it that I didn’t sound or feel one bit apologetic, “but I disagree. I prefer that the only people whose naked bodies touch my sheets are people I agree to first and as much as I like you, Steve, you’re not one of them.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize it would be that big a deal. If I had known you were such a neat freak, I never would have done it.”
I didn’t want to point out that I wasn’t really that much of a neat freak, and didn’t think I was being that unreasonable. Instead, I decided to play along. “Well, I am. And honestly, I felt the need to throw out those sheets. I’m expecting you to buy me a replacement set.”
“Are you serious?” Steve asked me, his eyes wide.
“Um… yeah,” I said completely not getting it. How could he be so clueless? Really. If I hadn’t talked to Lois and Maddie yesterday, I might have thought it was me, but they had seemed equally grossed out.
“Did you really need to throw the sheets out?” Steve asked me.
“Your naked butt was on them!” I nearly exploded. “Do you want my naked butt on your sheets?”
Steve grimaced. “I guess I can kind of see your point. Can the new sheets wait till the weekend?”
“Yes,” I said, feeling myself start to relax. “That’s fine. And can you not use my bed in the future?”
“I can probably do that,” Steve said.
I didn’t say anything, not sure of the appropriate response, but turned back to packing my bag.
We were halfway towards the cafeteria before Steve spoke again. “I am sorry, Clark. I know I’m just about the worst roommate ever, but I don’t mean to be.”
I nodded. I had been about to tell him it was okay, but decided not to. The truth was that it wasn’t okay, but I did know he tried.
************************
The first weird thing I noticed when we got to the table at lunch was that Maddie was sitting between Lois and Josh. She almost always saved me a seat if she got there before me. I mean, it was really a formality since there was always room for us, but I presumed it was because she wanted to sit next to me. At least that’s why I saved a seat for her if I got there first.
If that hadn’t been enough, there was the fact that she kept giving me weird glances through lunch.
It was hard to determine what, if anything, was really wrong though, as most of our lunchtime conversation was about Alicia. She and Chris had had their first fight and she was a bit of a mess. I have to admit, I was surprised. I wouldn’t have expected Alicia to fall apart like that over a guy.
“I’m sure it will blow over,” Josh said just as I sat down.
“You don’t understand,” Alicia said. “He was so upset. I’ve never seen him like this before.”
“But if you just explain,” Maddie offered, throwing me a look I couldn’t interpret.
Alicia nodded her head. “He won’t even listen to me right now,” she said. “I tried to explain, but…”
“What happened?” I cut in, trying to infuse as much sympathy into my words as possible.
Alicia moved her fork listlessly around her plate. “We went to this party last night. And on the way over, Chris mentioned that he hadn’t seen the guys throwing the party in awhile. Apparently, they’re kind of a party crowd and Chris used to be really into that. He said he was a bit like Steve, actually.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve asked, sounding offended.
Alicia looked up, her eyes covered with tears, but her voice was firm. “I guess he used to date a lot. Or not date as the case may be.”
“Hey!” Steve replied before understanding seemed to cross his face. “Oh,” he amended his response.
“Anyway, I don’t know. I guess I got a little jealous when I realized how many girls he’d been with before. He kept telling me that he was over that, but I don’t know…”
“That’s completely understandable,” Lois said.
“And I’m sure once Chris calms down a little he’ll realize that,” Josh said.
Alicia shook her head. “No, ‘cause it meant when I got to the party, I started flirting with this other guy.”
“What’d you do that for?” Steve asked. I kicked him under the table, but that only made things worse as he added, “What? It sounds like a stupid move to me.” I shook my head in amazement at his lack of understanding.
“It was,” Alicia said, still moving her fork around.
“But it was also completely natural,” I said quietly.
“And nothing happened anyway, right?” Maddie asked her.
“No!” Alicia replied, vehemently. “Nothing. I flirted with him and I danced with him for a few minutes before I realized how stupid I was being and went to find Chris. But by that time he was already so angry at me, it was too late.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t actually too late,” Lois offered. “Like Josh said, you just need to give him time to calm down.”
“And then just let him know how sorry you are,” Maddie said, throwing another unreadable glance my way.
“Maybe,” Alicia said, sniffling. “You think he’ll really listen?”
“Definitely,” Josh said. “He really cares about you, Leesha, so he’s not going to want to let this blow up to be something bigger than it is.”
“Thanks,” Alicia said quietly. “Sorry for falling apart like this.”
Maddie smiled. “It’s allowed occasionally.”
Steve made a sound of annoyance next to me and I kicked him again.
************************
“Is everything okay?” I asked Maddie after lunch.
“Everything’s fine,” she said, but something in her tone made me unsure she was being honest. “You’re going to be late for class and Lois is waiting for you. We’ll talk later.” Yeah, she definitely wasn’t being honest.
************************
“Do you know what’s up with Maddie?” I asked Lois on the way to journalism class.
Lois gave a small laugh. “You’re asking me what’s wrong with your girlfriend? Shouldn’t you know?”
I sighed. “Well, ideally, yes. But I don’t, so I was hoping she might have said something to you.”
Lois shook her head. “No, she didn’t. Well, she started to, but then Alicia came by and…”
“So, there is something,” I said, Lois’ words confirming my thoughts from earlier.
Lois shrugged. “I don’t really know. She never really said anything. It was more that she seemed about to.”
I sighed, audibly.
“Don’t you think you should be having this conversation with Maddie?” Lois asked me as I held the humanities door open for her.
“Yes, but she wouldn’t talk to me about it now,” I said. “I just… I’m not sure what the problem is.”
“Well,” Lois said as we got our books out, “I’m sure she’ll tell you. Just give her some time to do so.”
I nodded, but I didn’t want to wait. I had this feeling I couldn’t explain. Maybe it was just paranoia, but it felt like whatever had Maddie upset was going to be pretty difficult to fix.
*****
TBC
