'How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?'
before
One hundred and twenty-seven days before
Going back to the Creek is like coming home. Not that I have a home. Ever since my mother died, I decided that home doesn't exist anymore. The father I still have, lives in the house that I used to call home. Sometimes I think about how it could have been, if my mother hadn't died. But now I have the Creek. Not that the Creek will ever be a real home, because there are too many rules I broke. Actually, I'm a bit afraid of going back. I'm afraid that the Weekday Warriors will find out. However, I'm terrified that my friends will find out. I don't want to think about what they would do to me, if they ever found out. I would almost literally be dead.
"I can't believe I will have to miss you. It's a shame that…"
"Could you shut up!"
Jake is annoying. I love him, but now he's being annoying. I'm not the type of girl that wants to hear how much he's going to miss me for 5 minutes straight. I am glad that we're almost at my house.
"Is there something wrong?" Jake asks quietly.
He puts his hand on my leg, keeping his other hand at the steering wheel.
"Nothing," I murmur.
He knows that is not true, but he doesn't go on. He knows he has to leave me with my thoughts now.
I light up a cigarette and roll the window down.
"Really?"
"I just need it. Will blow the smoke out of the window, don't worry."
He sighs.
I know I am not being a good girlfriend. But well, he should be happy, I haven't cheated on him yet.
One hundred and twenty-eight days before
Only one mile left. I am getting more nervous every minute. Will I have a new roommate? What if they already know? What if Marya and Paul have told everything to the Weekday Warriors and the Weekday Warriors told it to the Colonel?
Finally, I arrive at the parking lot. It's hard to find a free spot, but eventually I find some free space where I can park Blue Citrus. I get out and start taking all my stuff out of the trunk. I go to room 48, which has been my room since I first got here. While I am walking, some people see hello or they nod. Everyone is being friendly, maybe they all don't know. As I arrive at my room, I look at the paper hanging on the door. And yes, I have a single! No new roommate for me! Hopefully, the Colonel has a single too. I go inside and take my dry-erase board. With my blue marker I write Alaska has a single! on it and tape it to the door. I just have to brag a bit about it. I am feeling so happy at the moment. Everything is going perfect. I have a single room and nobody has yelled at me so far.
Suddenly, I hear one loud knock on my door. I know it is the Colonel so I scream: "Oh my God come in you short little man because I have the best story."
He enters and I immediately start telling him my story: "So first day of summer, I'm in grand old Vine Station with this boy named Justin and we're at his house watching TV on the couch – and mind you, I'm already dating Jake – actually I'm still dating him, miraculously enough, but Justin is a friend of mine from when I was a kid and so we're watching TV and literally chatting about the SATs or something, and Justin puts his arm around me and I think, Oh that's nice, we've been friends for so long and this is totally comfortable, and we're just chatting and then I'm in the middle of a sentence about analogies or something and like a hawk he reaches down and he honks my boob. HONK. A much-too-firm, two- to three-second HONK. And the first thing I thought was Okay, how do I extricate his claw from my boob before it leaves permanent marks? And the second thing I thought was God, I can't wait to tell Takumi and the Colonel."
While the Colonel is laughing, I realise that there is someone with him. Probably he doesn't have a single and got a new roommate.
"Who's the guy that's not laughing at my very funny story?" I ask the Colonel.
"Oh, right. Alaska, this is Pudge. Pudge memorizes people's last words. Pudge, this is Alaska. She got her boob honked over the summer."