Chapter 4

Jesse awoke to the clanging of pots and pans in the kitchen of her dorm room. "Mai. Keep it down. I've got a hangover." She turned over and pulled the sheets over her head.

A tall, long-haired Japanese girl entered Jesse's room. "It's noon, Jesse. Get up already."

"It's Saturday. I can stay here if I want."

"What the hell did you do last night? I thought you just went to get some pizza."

"Kinda, yeah. Then I went to a bar."

Mai shook her head . "What would cause you to drink so much? We haven't even had midterms yet."

Jesse let out a sigh and didn't answer.

"Well, fine. I can always get lunch on campus. I won't disturb you any longer."

"No, it's OK." Jesse sat up, trying to ignore the pounding in her head. "If I don't tell someone, I'll probably explode."

"Sir? Where were you last night? We were all awaiting your appearance for our Star Wars Monopoly tournament."

"Huh?" Gimpy looked over at Mump. "Star Wars Monopoly?...Oh that! I was out having pizza with Carr...I mean Nitz. Yeah, Nitz."

Mump raised an eyebrow at him. "All night? What were you doing?"

"Um..." Gimpy quickly started typing incoherently on his computer. "I'm a little behind on attaining the whereabouts of She Prime so I can't talk now."

"She Prime? That's your big personal matter you wouldn't let me help with?"

Gimpy slapped his forehead. "Doh! Look, Mump. It's not that I think you can't help. Wait...that may be true, but I can not go on knowing a girl beat me at anything. There are some lines that should never be crossed."

"May I ask you something, sir?"

"Of course."

"What will you do when you find her? Are you going to go gaga over her again?"

"Gaga? That was...that was only a front."

"Is this all truly about revenge?"

"Yes, of course it is! What other reason would I be trying to find her again?"

"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps you're putting on a front now."

Gimpy stood up in anger. "Do you want to be demoted to Ewok status? Go! Get out of my sight, underling!"

Mump frowned at Gimpy and left his room, shutting the door behind him.

Gimpy slumped back in his chair and clutched his head. "Why am I yelling at him?" He fumbled around his room looking for his cell phone. When he found it, he frantically pushed the buttons on it.

"Nitz! Phone's for you." Zack tossed the phone toward him and Nitz had barely enough time to grab it before it hit his face.

Nitz would have scowled at him but Zack was engrossed with some assignment he was typing up. "Hi. Nitz here...Gimpy? Where did you go last night?...You mean that girl at the pizza place? Gimpy, you sly dog you...Come over? Right now? Well, no I'm not busy but...Bring Cal? Sure, I suppose...Would you stop hyperventilating. You're overreacting...Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can. Bye."

Nitz was about to put the phone back on its base when it rang again. Startled, he put the phone to his ear. "Hello?...Jay, what is it now?...Well, just tell your roommate not to use them...He doesn't have any of his own?...Look, Jay. I'm on my way out the door...Visiting Gimpy...Sure. Fine. You can come along...No, don't mention it...No I don't know what happened to Jesse last night...I'll find out...Yeah, I'll come get you. Don't worry...Bye."

Nitz raced over to put the phone down but it rang once again. He sighed and talked into the receiver. "Hello?...Kimmy!...Yeah, I had fun last night too...You're going to be gone this weekend?...No, I knew you had these obligations when we started going out...No, don't worry about me. I'll just hang out with the guys...Yeah, I'll miss you too...Bye."

Nitz nearly collapsed when he hung up the phone. Within two seconds, the phone rang again. Nitz grabbed his jacket and raced out the door shouting to Zack. "I'm not here!"

"Gimpy, what's this all about?"

"I'm telling you Nitz, you gotta help me. I don't know what's going on anymore." Gimpy grabbed at Nitz's jacket.

Nitz backed away and nearly fell over his brother, who was hovering behind him. "Just what happened last night?"

"I don't know, Nitz. But, I tell you, I didn't not enjoy it."

"So you had a fun time with a girl. What's so bad about that?"

Gimpy came up to him with a panicked look in his eye, grabbing his jacket again. "That's just it! They're the enemy! I'm not supposed to have fun with the enemy." He brought his hand out as if acknowledging someone. "We discussed Star Wars all night. We told jokes. I even...smiled."

"Gimpy. It just means you're growing out of this ridiculous phase of yours."

"Ridiculous! I'll tell you what's ridiculous. Fraternizing with the enemy. That's what's ridiculous!"

Cal walked in between the two of them. "Hey, Gimpy guy. There's a lot to like about women. They're soft. They're curvy. And they'll let you have sex with them. All the time."

Nitz rolled his eyes. "Cal. There's more to women than just their bodies."

"Hmmm...Are you sure, guy? I can't think of anything else."

The conversation stopped cold for a minute and Nitz spoke back up. "Look, Gimpy. You're a nerd. No offense."

"None taken."

"Would you call this Carrie girl a nerd?"

Gimpy thought for a minute. "Well, yeah. I suppose."

"So don't think of her as a girl. Just think of her as a fellow nerd."

Gimpy stroked at his chin, contemplating what Nitz said. "Yeah. I can go with that logic."

"Good!" Nitz patted Gimpy on the back. "Glad we could help you out."

Nitz, Cal and Jay were returning back to Chilton Hall fairly quietly until Jay spoke up. "Yeah, huh."

The other two stopped and Nitz spoke up. "Jay, what was that?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm just glad to hang out with you guys for a bit."

"Yeah, Nitz's brother guy." Cal ruffled his hair. "It's like we have another Nitz to talk to."

When they hit the front of the building, Nitz waved to the other two. "Well, guys. I'll catch you later. I'm gonna visit Jesse."

"Later, guy!"

Jay grabbed Nitz's elbow. "Can I come with you?"

"You want to visit Jesse? Why?"

Jay darted his eyes around trying to think of something to say.

Nitz looked at him funny. "Well, OK then. Let's go visit Jesse."

Jesse was still lying around in bed when she heard someone knocking at the door. "Who could that be? Mai? Could you get that?"

"Sure, sure." When Mai opened the door, she didn't recognize the duo. "Um, hello?"

"Oh, hi. I'm Nitz and this is my brother Jay. Is Jesse here?"

Mai looked a bit shocked. "You're Nitz?"

"Um...yeah." Nitz looked around still awaiting a reply to his question. "Is Jesse here?"

Mai snapped back to reality. "Oh, sorry. Yeah, she's still kinda in bed."

"In bed? But it's like 1:30 in the afternoon."

"Well, she was out drinking last night."

"Drinking? Really? Is she OK?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Mai stepped aside to let Nitz by.

Nitz very carefully walked by Mai. Jay almost did too, but Mai grabbed his arm. "Hey, Jay. Come with me to the kitchen."

"What?" Jay watched as Nitz disappeared out of sight.

Jesse shouted from her bed. "Mai? Who's at the door?"

"Just me."

Jesse's eyes shot open and she sat up to find Nitz standing next to her bed with his hands in his pocket. "Nitz!" She pulled the covers over herself. "Nitz, I'm not even fully dressed. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was wondering what happened to you last night. You left almost immediately."

"I wasn't very hungry."

"Your roommate said you were out drinking."

Jesse silently cursed Mai's name and she peeked out from underneath her covers. "Maybe. So what if I was?"

"OK, OK, you don't have to give me an explanation to why you got drunk last night." Nitz sat down on the floor next to Jesse's bed. "But why did you leave Papa Joe's so early?"

"I said I wasn't very hungry."

"But you could have stuck around to talk, right?"

"With Kimmy hanging off your arm?"

Nitz knew where this was headed. "Well, she is my girlfriend."

"Yeah, I could clearly see that last night."

Nitz stood up. "Jesse, we were friends all through freshman year. Why does it have to change now that I have a girlfriend?"

"Are you listening to yourself? It's a lot more complicated than being friends now." She got up out of bed and walked over to him. "At least that's what I hoped."

Nitz noticed that Jesse may have been wearing a shirt, but she was only wearing panties down below. Trying in vain not to look down, he focused on her face. Her hair was extremely mussed up, but it still was beautiful. "Jesse, I don't know what you want me to say."

Jesse went up and wrapped her arms around Nitz. "I know. You've had a crush on Kimmy for years. I've barely been in your life for one."

Nitz looked Jesse directly in her eyes. Jesse felt a bit uncomfortable now and retreated back to her bed. "Well, whatever. Thank you for your concern, but I'm OK. Now if you don't mind, I still don't feel very good."

"Huh?...but..."

"I'm sure Kimmy's waiting for you or something."

Nitz shook his head and was about to exit her room when he stopped to say something. "She's actually out of town for the weekend." Nitz waited for her to say something, but when she didn't he turned back around to leave. "Bye, Jesse. Let's go, Jay."

"Huh? Um, OK. Bye, Mai."

"Nitz. You've gotta cheer up. And I know just the thing. Strip club."

"Rocko, I don't think I should."

"Man, you're such a wet blanket. What, there some third chick wanting to get in your pants we don't know about?"

"Um, no."

"Then we're going. Come on." Rocko was already out the door but Nitz merely laid back down on his bed.

"Nitz, let's go!" Rocko reentered the doorway. "Are you tellin' me you don't wanna see some titties?"

"Rocko, I think I'm just going to stay in tonight."

"Fine, but I'm taking someone with me." Rocko steadily walked past Nitz and grabbed Zack by the arm. "You're coming with me to a strip club, brown-noser."

Zack struggled to break free to no avail. "But I have to finish the third draft of my thesis! If I don't do it now, I won't have time to proofread it!"

As Nitz watched them disappear from sight, he laid down and stared at the ceiling. After a few minutes, he realized how bored he was becoming. "Maybe I should go do something. Keep my mind off current events." He sat at his computer and instant messaged Gimpy. "Gimpy? Are you there?"

Twenty seconds passed with no reply. "Gimpy?" Still no reply.

"He's never out. What's going on?" Nitz tried calling his phone number.

"Hi. You have reached Gimpy. Seeing as how I am not in my room, hell has apparently frozen over. Leave your message at the beep."

Nitz hung up the phone. "Wow, he must be hanging out with Carrie. I'll try Cal."

"Hi. This is Cal. I'm currently entertaining ladies. I like ladies. Leave your message at the..."

Nitz quickly hung up. "Should have known. Do I dare call Jay?" He dialed one last time.

An angry voiced accompanied the other line. "Hello? Is this Papa Joe's? Where's my pizza?"

"Um, hello?"

"Who is this?"

"It's Nitz, Jay's brother. Is he there?"

"Not until I get my pizza." The person on the other end, presumably Jay's roommate, hung up.

"What the...?" Feeling completely drained, Nitz fell onto his bed and the receiver slipped out of his hands onto the floor. "I guess I'll just stare at the ceiling for a while."

Just a side note- This is my first story ever where I incorporated original characters into the mix of my fanfic. What seemes easy enough is really tough. I'm still trying to work out the kinks of Jay, Zack and now Mai's personality traits. I hope they're believable as characters. Later, UG fans!

-KTF a.k.a. Xfox