I don't own anything associated with the book Looking for Alaska.
It's the first semester of our senior year. I lucked out and got to be roommates with the Colonel again, and Takumi was right beside us. When we met again while my parents helped me move in, he came down from our room and walked up to my car.
"How long does it take, Pudge? You're going to school, not Europe."
"Sorry; it just takes some time because you know." I nodded my head towards my mother who was sobbing uncontrollably beside the car. The Colonel mouthed 'gotcha' and walked up to my parents.
"You two must be Miles' parents; it's nice meeting you, Mr. and Mrs. Halter, I'm Chip Martin, your son's roommate. I was his roommate last year, so he's not around anyone new." He introduced himself like I've never seen him do. He was polite and patient, not common characteristics of Chip "The Colonel" Martin. He spoke with his voice that was too deep for someone of his size. He hadn't changed much, except he looked a little less stocky.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Chip."
"I'll take good care of him, and make sure he doesn't get into any trouble, Mrs. Halter." This was funny, because he was quite possibly the worst influence on me at this school, besides she who shall remain nameless for the time being.
"How long have you been going to Culver?"
"Since Freshman year, sir; full ride."
"Ohhh, so you're a smarty; see, honey, Miles is in good hands. We'll leave you and Chip to do what you have to." My mom came and kissed me on the cheek, before choking me in her embrace.
"Bye, mom, I'll see you later." She nodded and went to the car. Once they drove away, The Colonel hit my shoulder and laughed.
"Nice folks, sad to see them go."
"Believe me, you wouldn't be." He smirked.
"Well, take your stuff up to our room and we can go get all the stuff."
"Can you help me out a bit?"
"Uh, I'll pull those cute little suitcases of yours, but the rest is up to you, man." He grabbed two suitcases with wheels and headed to the dorm. He left me with two duffels bags, and a carrying suitcase to carry by myself.
"Why can't you carry these? You're stronger than I am."
"Doctors orders; I'm not allowed to do any lifting, or anything strenuous."
"Strenuous?"
"Nine letter word meaning 'requiring physical effort, energy, stamina, or strength'."
"I know that, smart ass."
He smiled. "It's really stupid. Do you know how much shit I can't do? A lot of shit, that's how much."
I trudged up and down those stairs three times just to get all my stuff to the room. Now, we had to go get the couch and the COFFEE TABLE and everything else we needed. "So, why can't you lift things?"
"I got really sick over the summer. It started out as a chest cold, which happens sometimes, I get them every so often, but this went away after about eight days of hell, and then a day and a half later, I started coughing again, but it was worse, so I went to the doctor, and they told me I had pneumonia; try having that for 2 months."
"Two months, holy shit, that's terrible."
"I know it was terrible; my summer sucked."
"So, you can't lift anything?"
"I can, but I shouldn't." We went to find our stuff and asked Takumi for help. He helped me haul the couch and coffee table up to our room, while the Colonel took some smaller stuff. He opened the door, and we put everything into place. Once that was all done, he fell onto the couch and sighed heavily, coughing afterwards.
"What classes are you taking?"
"Government… AP Calculus… Advanced Latin… a geography class" He started drifting off to sleep before he finished his schedule. Damn, he must've been sick if it's affecting him now.
"Colonel?"
"Hm?"
"What else?"
"Oh yeah," he mumbled. "Uhh… oh, religion again. I also took a new class they're offering here."
"What is it?"
"Alabama history."
"Sounds boring."
"I had a spot to fill." I could tell he wasn't up for much conversation. He was exhausted and he wasn't trying to hide it.
"Well, I'm taking government, and religion, but I have French 3, and Calculus."
The Colonel smirked when I said Calculus. "Hey, not everyone can be a genius like you, with your smartboy AP math classes."
"Yeah, I know." He sat up and sighed, running his fingers through his sweaty, brown hair, which was longer than it was last year. The sweat made it stand up, but it slowly fell back down over his forehead.
"Damn, it's hot."
"Good ole Alabama," he said standing up. "What're you gonna do for the rest of the weekend?" This year was a year I had to come early to the dorms, since my parents had to go somewhere else for "business".
"I'm not sure, I've got some books-"
"Biographies?"
"Yeah; I'll probably just read a lot. I might go get some food every once in a while."
"You got a car?"
"Yeah, I did over the summer." The Colonel smiled. He was happy I had my own ride, which meant I wouldn't be begging him for rides, I could tell. I could also tell that he wasn't gonna be too much fun to be around, since he was kind of fighting off a lingering case of pneumonia. "What're you gonna do?"
"Sleep."
"That's it?"
"Yep… It's all I've wanted to do for the past two and a half months."
"And a half?"
"Oh yeah… I still kinda have it." I stared at him and hit his shoulder. I wasn't planning on getting pneumonia the day I came back to Culver Creek. "Calm down, pussy, I'm not contagious anymore."
"You sure you should even be here?"
"Yes, I'm fine, Pudge. I don't have a fever anymore, it's just lingering symptoms." Just as he said that, he ran to the bathroom, slamming the door shut. I could hear him throwing up into the toilet in the stall right next to the showers. I got up to go check on him, but he opened the door before I could do anything. He rubbed his eyes and coughed again.
"Fine, huh?"
"Like I said, asshole, lingering symptoms." He took off his shirt and climbed up onto the top bunk. "I'm going to sleep."
"You want me to wake you up to go eat?"
"Not hungry."
"Ok, just tell me when you're hungry." And he was out like a light. I turned off the light, turned on the TV, and put it on mute. There were subtitles that came up so I could at least read what they were saying, and I used that light to read the biography of Albert Einstein, which drove me up the wall at times because I remembered hearing something that said no one knew his last words, but I read that book just to make sure. I was about a third of the way through when I heard the Colonel stir up in his bed. "You alright?"
He mumbled something unclear but snored softly a few seconds later. I went back to reading when Takumi and Lara came in. "Sup, bitches?"
"Shh, Chip's sleeping."
Takumi glanced up towards the bed and saw him; he was sleeping on his stomach, so Takumi could see his back rise and fall rhythmically. His eyebrows rose and he sat beside me on the couch, Lara sat on the ground. "How was your summer?"
"Good, what about yours?"
"Awesome, Japan is fucking fantastic."
"What about you, Lara?"
"Good, eet was very good. I just stayed at home, though."
"Nothing to be ashamed of," I said. "You could've had the Summer of The Colonel."
"What's the Summer of The Colonel?"
"A month of my dad at home," he mumbled groggily. "Two and half months of pneumonia."
"That sucks ass, dude."
"Yeah it does; my dads' being home was worse than the pneumonia and the pneumonia sucked."
"It still sucks, doesn't it?"
"Not as bad." He bundled up in a blanket and turned his back to the TV.
"Aren't you hot?"
"Thanks, Pudge, that's awful kind-a you," he said with his Alabama accent that doesn't usually show itself.
"You know what I mean; you better not be getting a fever, I'm not living with someone with pneumonia."
"It's not contagious!" He kicked off the blanket and jumped down to the floor. He motioned his hands towards the door, meaning move over on the couch. We did, and he collapsed onto it. He un-muted the TV and rubbed his eyes. "I can't sleep."
"Those were James M. Barrie's last words," I thought aloud.
"Thanks, that's real comforting, Pudge." We sat and watched Family Guy for about two episodes before Lara and Takumi had fallen asleep. The Colonel was surprisingly awake, but he looked like he wasn't feeling too hot.
"Hey, you don't have to stay up. You can go lay down in your bed."
"Oh, quit your seducing, Mr. Pudge," he said, like he was a flustered Southern Belle.
"Whatever, man, just go to bed, you look like shit."
"You know, you're just so fucking nice tonight."
"Seriously, Chip, just go to bed. You've got a weekend before classes start and you're gonna start senior year off badly."
The Colonel rolled his eyes and climbed up to the top bunk. He still wasn't wearing a shirt, and I didn't blame him, it was hell in our room. I took off my shirt, and just slept in my boxers. Before I knew it, I was asleep, in a pool of my own sweat.