Chapter 18

Mpov

It was 9:00 am as I nervously walked to the front desk in my dorm. There was a guy sitting there with sunglasses on and a baseball cap on backwards.

"Hey, I am Masen Cullen, I'm here to check into my dorm room."

He didn't respond, I looked back at my Dad who just shrugged. Thanks for your help!

"Hey, Bro?" I said I bit louder. Still, he didn't budge. "Excuse me!" nothing.

I shrugged and waved to my dad to come to the room I was assigned to from my dorm assignment paper.

We went up to the third floor, sixth door on the right. I knocked lightly and walked in. My eyes went wide in shock!

The room was very small with two twin sized beds against either wall. Next to the beds were small desks with closets attached to them. There was a big window facing the parking lot, which I found redundant because freshmen weren't allowed to have cars.

On the side to the right, there was already stuff set up. My roommate had his bed made and decorative items on the small desk. On the wall above his pillow was some photos of a pretty girl and a guy that I guess was him.

My dad was opening my boxes of stuff we had shipped here in last week. He was talking but I was barley paying him any attention.

As I was looking at my roommate's stuff, the guy from downstairs appeared at the door.

"Shit, I'm sorry! I was up until about 6 this morning." He said as he shook our hands. My Dad eyed him skeptically." I'm Zach, your RA. Jack told me someone had come up. You are the last person on this floor to check in so knew it would be you."

He was friendly enough, at least for me." Hey, I'm Masen, this is my Dad."

"Yeah, Again I am so sorry! If you could come back downstairs I gotta give you a bunch of paperwork."

I dropped my overnight bag from our travels on my bed and we went downstairs. When we got to his desk he pulled out some papers.

"OK, so here are the dorm rules, the most important parts are: no smoking, no drinking, or use of any illegal substance. That includes all meds not prescribed to you. No pets, except those that live in tanks with lids or unless approved to be a service animal. No candles or hotplates allowed in the rooms but can be used in the common area. After 11:00pm the dorm has volume restriction to personal headphones until 7:00am. Please report all missing items especially keys as soon as you notice they are gone. Do you have any question?"

"Ahh, can I have girls in my room?" I asked for when Angela came to visit. I didn't want to have to find a hotel. My Dad gave me a side eye but whatever.

"Yes, it a co-ed dorm so we don't have any room restrictions when it comes to that. If there is nothing else can you sign here stating that I went over this with you." I signed it and he pulled out another paper and the keys.

"Ok these are your keys this one goes to your room, only you, me, and your roommate have these keys. One goes to the main doors; there is one in the front and one in the back, they are to remain locked after 9:00pm. The other goes to your mailbox. The number matches your room number. Please keep them safe. If you misplace them or if you just get locked out, you can come to get me to be let in but I can only let it happen but so many times. Be responsible. If you lose them, we will have to rekey the door." He said seriously. I nodded as he passed me that paper as well.

The other forms where for the dinning accounts, medical suite, campus police, ways you could lose your housing or get kicked out school all together, a campus map, and the parking/car rules and regulations.

As we were saying our thanks and goodbyes to Zach when my Dad pulled me towards the front door.

"So, what you thinking man?"

"It's cool." I shrugged

"Ok, well I think I should head out, I still have to turn in the rental before my flight." I nodded.

If I was being honest I wanted him to stay a while longer but we talked about him only staying to make sure I was 'in the right place'; whatever that means.

"You got it man. If things start to go left, I will be right back here to help." I nodded" Seriously, I trust you! You'll be fine." We embraced and he let me go without looking at me.

"Let me know when you've landed." I yelled at him and he just waved at me without turning back.

I sighed I went back up my room. I finished unpacking and tacked some photos to the area above my desk.

As I was making my bed I realized I was cutting it close to the orientation time. So I grabbed my new keys, cell phone, the campus Map and rushed down the stairs.

I took a look at the map and realized it would only take me about ten minutes to walk to the lecture hall.

When I went in the room was already almost full. I found a seat at the back of the room and pulled out my phone while I waited for it to start.

Had a shitload of missed notifications from my social media's, Emails, and text messages.

"-How's it going? - Goldilocks"

"-Good I guess, My Dad left a while back. :/ I am at orientation now. - M"

"That's going to be fun! Lol call me when you get out. - Goldilocks"

"Welcome everyone! Can you all hear me clearly?"

"- I will, I miss you! 3 TTYL- M" I put my phone away and paid attention to the speaker.

She was a small, middle aged woman with a heavy accent. Her roots were purple but her hair was black. Her voice was pitched and nasaled, I had a hard time paying attention as she spoke.

"I just want to start by saying you will do amazing!" I kind of tuned out, although I kept my eyes on her, she was boring.

The guy next to me had his phone out and a meme of three whales in the Ocean with the captain that said 'WHALE,WHALE, WHALE what do we have here' on it. I laughed inappropriately loud and it got his attention.

He laughed at the side eye a couple girls that were sitting near me gave. Then laughed harder when he listened to the topic the facilitator was on, consent. I had, like an asshole, laughed out loud during the sexual conduct part.

My face was bright red and I tried to duck down a bit, as he continued to snicker at me. Fucker…

Once the hour long presentation was over, they offered a campus tour. As we lined up to leave he came and stood next to me with his hand out for me to shake.

I shook his hand as he pulled me in for a bro hug. We moved along with the group but stayed to back as we conversed.

"Thank you so much! That was awesome bro! Your face was so funny when you realized what you did!" The bastard was crying because he was laughing so hard. I rolled my eyes and laughed a little at myself as well. "Demetri, man, what's your name?"

"Masen. I felt like an idiot." I said as my face got red again.

"You looked like one as well." He laughed. I shook my head at his antics. He was brown skinned but I couldn't place his ethnicity. He was tall like me with long hair past his shoulders. His lanky frame held his shorts and flip flops and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. "I'm sorry man! I know I'm making a bad first impression but the chick that was in front of us was so mad. If looks breathed fire you'd be dead from smoke inflation." What? This guy was strange.

"Yeah, that's why I got so embarrassed. Where are you from?" I tried to change the subject.

"Oh, Nànàkuli, bro!" he said proudly, then laughed again at my face that must have told him I had no idea where that was. "Oa'hu?" I still looked confused but I guessed it was a Polynesian island of some sort. "Honolulu?"

There we go! "Hawii?" I yelled like I won some dumbass prize and guess what happened. Everyone turned and looked at me like I was crazy. Fuck! And here he goes.

He laughed like a quite hyena, "Get away from me bro." I said with a smile. I wondered how he could be so quite but laugh so hard.

"If it matters any you were right." He laughed. "I am from the island Oa'hu, my town is about 45 minutes from Honolulu. Since everyone on the mainland only cares about it"

At this point, although we were walking along with the group, we'd missed all of what was going on. I knew I had to catch this tour again later without him.

We finished the tour learning very little about the campus and went into the Commons. To both of our dismay at frist glance it looked like it sucked ass. Basic cafeteria food burgers, hot dogs, French fires and daily specials.

"I have to go to the card office and get my card." I nodded because I forgot I had to go there as well.

"Give me a minute, I got to call my girl then we can walk up." He nodded as we stood awkwardly in the hall as people walked by.

The phone barley rang before she picked up.

"Hey! How did it go? Did you fall asleep? Tell me everything!"

"Hey Goldi, I am about to go get my school ID so I can eat. I'm starving! I just wanted to call so you knew I didn't forget about you. "

She huffed. "Ok, don't forget to call me when you get to your room. I miss you…"

"I won't babe. Talk to you later."

I hung up and we began to walk but Demetri was as quite as he'd been since I met him two hours ago.

"What's up bro?" I asked, concerned about the sudden mood change.

"Nothing man, just thinking about home. I'm good."

We got our ID's and signed up for dinning plans. I am blessed to be able to afford the plan with the most meals and my dad said he'll add cash if need be. Well that was before I got into trouble and he said I had to get a job during the off season.

I agreed with him. I was going to bring it up at my advisor during my appointment this week.

We eat and the food was better than we thought. Demetri spend half the time telling me how good the food was on the island. The way he described it did make it sound amazing.

We realized we were in the same dorms and that was awesome. I was happy we made such fast friends. His room was on the first floor so we went there first. The layout was the same but in front of their window was a large TV and a Xbox.

"What the?" I was in shock. First because I didn't even think to bring a gaming system and second because I didn't think to bring a TV.

"Yes bro! my roommate is the best!"

At that moment I noticed movement on the bed to the left. I jumped at the sudden movement, which caused Demetri to snicker at me.

"What the?"

"Sorry, I was taking a quick nap while, oh hey." She waved to me. Shit!

It's the girl from the diner...