Madelyne

MADELYNE

My name is Marcus Veovin. I find it quite refreshing to sometimes just sit back and reminisce about days gone by because when I was younger, I had plenty of good times that I took for granted back when they originally occurred. When I think about them now, I can't help but wish that I could relive those "glory days" due to how incredible they actually were before my life irrevocably changed forever.

I really do sound like an old man when I start a story out this way. I make it sound like I didn't appreciate what I had at the time, and that's the furthest thing from the truth since I loved each and every moment of those wonderful experiences. I think what I meant was that if I could go back and live some of my favorite moments all over again, I would be more obliged than I had been at the time since I've lived so many extra years and didn't know what I truly had at the time.

Before I become a complete babbling fool, I'd like to first say that college wasn't something I had ever looked forward to. Yup, this is a college story. Unlike most people who dredge up the past and go back to their college days, I'm going to be rather blunt and say that I was never a typical college student. First of all, I really didn't want to go...and I was lucky enough to have parents who never pushed me toward it or even forced me into going. They supported me when I finally made the decision after taking a year off following my graduation, but never once did they believe that I "wouldn't make it in the real world" without a college education. Also, I think I should point out that the whole "frat boy" mentality was always something I found to be downright stupid. I wasn't going to school to party...I legitimately wanted to learn a few things.

I was really into writing and wanted to go to college in order to further pursue a career in the written word. The funny thing is, I wasn't really going for the actual classes and what they offered, but instead for the genuine experience. I wanted to see if college was similar to how it was portrayed in television and the movies. Pretty goofy to spend money for something like that, huh? Any way you look at it, it probably doesn't seem like the brightest idea, but I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about by actually living it.

Unlike most first year students, I was determined to not live in the dorms. I had a few friends who had attended the university a year prior that I would be enrolling in, so we had decided to get a house together just off campus. It was only a couple of blocks away from the school, and if I wanted to, I could easily walk to class and save money on gas. Oh, and if I didn't mention it, the school I had chosen was only about fifty miles from my hometown, so I could keep a job back home and work on weekends. It was a decent setup.

My first semester was pretty typical. I had signed up for five classes: Three days a week, I had three classes, and two days a week, I had two. It wasn't too overwhelming and allowed me time to hang out with my friends and goof around here and there. The two guys I had rented a house with loved to play games, so in our spare time, we would have a few friends over and spend time gaming when we should've been studying. Video games, board games, card games...we had a good time.

Throughout the semester, some of the older students would throw parties and invite a bunch of us over, but rarely did I attend such social gatherings. It wasn't that I was snobby or felt like I was better than any of them, but most of the parties were keggers...and I didn't drink. I had better things to do with my time. One of my roommates would often attend such parties, but my other buddy was a lot like me when it came to alcohol...and he was also probably the quietest guy around. I had never met someone as shy as he was, and I could hardly believe he had come out of his shell long enough to get to know me and our other roommate.

But this isn't a story about the guys I bunked with. This is a tale about a young woman I met while attending school. I actually didn't meet her until the second semester of my first year there, and the circumstances involving our first encounter are quite different than how most people happen upon each other.

It was the middle of winter when the new semester started, and it was the first month of a brand-new year. I had set up my schedule to reflect what I had done during my first semester, so I felt that I certainly wasn't overdoing things and would still have time to hang out with my friends while getting some writing done on the side. So far, I didn't find college to be nearly as challenging as people had warned me of beforehand. Maybe doing five classes per semester was a little too easy, but I wasn't exactly taking things seriously to begin with.

During the second day of classes when I only had two courses, I had a class at one o'clock in the afternoon known as "Introduction to Creative Writing." For one such as myself, the course was set to be a walk in the park and wouldn't take a whole lot of effort. I felt like it would be the kind of class I could sit back in and relax while slacking my way through it. I'm not trying to sound arrogant by any means, but writing came naturally to me. Had this been math or something of the like, I would definitely need to pay closer attention, but anything revolving around the written word wouldn't be a problem for me.

Right off the bat, I could tell that the professor came off as something of a smartass. He looked to be in his mid-fifties and wore the kind of sweater a man of his age would usually be found in, and he had his hair slicked back by those male products that would be advertised in old magazines from a bygone era. He had thin spectacles sitting on the bridge of his birdlike nose, and I could easily tell that he felt like he was the smartest person in the room. He quickly proved that he was indeed not.

After a brief introduction - in which he even acted like an arrogant ass - he decided it was time to go around the room and let each of us make a short introduction. There were only about twenty students in the class, so it certainly wouldn't take long. He started in the front and worked his way to the left. I was sitting at a desk in the second row and was probably the sixth person to speak, and when I finished on the note of how I wanted to one day become a writer, I instantly noticed his scoffing remarks as he moved along to the next person in line.

I let it slide but knew that I would be dealing with a conceited prick for the next four and a half months. It was going to take a little extra work to impress this guy...but at the same time, I figured there was nothing I'd be able to do in order to score decent marks in his class. Due to what I had said, he was probably going to be extra harsh on my work. I knew that unlike my Creative Writing teacher from a year and a half earlier, this guy wasn't about to appreciate my work.

I kind of phased out for a few minutes as I pondered my future in the class. I stewed for a few minutes and dreaded coming back in two days...and the first day wasn't even over yet. I tried to tell myself that things would go accordingly...until I realized that some of the other students were nervously laughing. The forced humor brought me out of my trancelike state as I glanced over and saw what was going on.

A girl sitting in the middle of the third row was trying to take her turn at introducing herself...and "Professor Prick" was having a load of fun at her expense.

As it turned out, the young woman who was trying to speak was a beautiful girl named Madelyne...and the instructor of our class couldn't get over the fact that Madelyne was only four feet, two inches tall.

I watched in dismay and could tell that most of the other students in the small classroom were just as uncomfortable with the situation as I was. The few who had joined in with our teacher's laughter were only doing so to please him, and as Madelyne tried to speak, he just wouldn't let her. He kept cutting her off and making comments like, "When you trip, at least you don't have far to fall!" He was laying it on way too thick, and even though Madelyne had tried to laugh it off at first, it became obvious that the words were becoming quite hurtful to her. She was doing her best to hold back tears so the others didn't see them.

After the professor made a comment about her possibly "getting short with him" if he continued to push her, something inside of me snapped. By nature, I wasn't a confrontational person, but when people I cared about were pushed around, I pushed back. Sure, I had never met Madelyne before this moment and had never actually seen her around the school until the start of that class, but I couldn't take the ridicule being directed at her in such a malicious manner. Without changing my tone in the slightest, I suddenly spoke up, "So, she's short and you've pointed it out...now, should she maybe point out how much of a jackass you are?"

A hush fell over the class as the instructor glared in my direction with a look of absolute indignation on his face. I don't even think what I had referred to him as upset him as much as the fact that I had openly challenged him. "What did you just say?"

"I think you heard me loud and clear," I said without so much as blinking. I could feel the eyes of the other students moving from him to me, and vice versa. They knew they were in for a show.

"Do you realize that this kind of insubordination can result in expulsion from my class?"

"Sure do," I said as I gathered my things off my desk and stood up. I started making my way toward the door as I stared directly at him while saying, "So, I'll see myself out since there's no way I could sit through an entire semester with Professor Dipshit." I couldn't help but smile as I exited the room and heard him absolutely losing it behind me. I almost thought he might follow me into the hall and try to physically strike me, but I was fairly certain he wouldn't put his job on the line for such petty revenge.

Well, I said to myself, I won't be able to go back to that class. Good work, Marcus. Maybe if I head to the dean's office, I can see about changing classes or getting some kind of refund.

I probably should've been more concerned as I made my way to the staircase that would take me down to the first floor, but I was just happy to have stood up for that poor girl back in the classroom. I only hoped that my snappy repartee didn't place a larger target on her. I instantly felt foolish and nearly stopped in my tracks. I thought about returning to the room and maybe even apologizing to the prick of a professor if it meant taking the heat off Madelyne...

"Marcus?"

I actually did come to a halt as I turned around. I had been half expecting to hear my name from a burly male voice, but was instead pleased to hear something sweet and refined. When my eyes fell upon the frame of Madelyne, my heart nearly skipped a beat. "Madelyne? What are you doing out here?"

The young woman held her textbook and a few notebooks over her pelvic area almost like she was a little shy to be standing in the empty hallway with me. She stood on her tiptoes and searched for the words to speak next as she finally said, "I didn't exactly want to stick around in Professor Dipshit's class any longer than I had to."

I cracked a smile and laughed at her comment. My doing so caused her to giggle in glee. She had the most inviting laugh I had ever heard.

"I don't think I'll be going back to his class," Madelyne then told me after a brief moment of silence. "There's no way I could endure an entire semester of that guy."

"Agreed," I told her while taking in her beauty. She was unlike any girl I had ever seen before.

As previously mentioned, she was all of four feet, two inches tall. I couldn't be sure what her natural hair color was, but her locks were dyed silver and were dark at the roots. She had the rosiest lips I had ever seen, and they made her light-green eyes all the more beguiling. Her eyelashes were full, and her cheekbones were in what some people would describe as a "heart" shape. I know a lot of people would label Madelyne as a "dwarf" or even a "midget" due to her small build, but those people would be both wrong and ignorant. The fact of the matter was that Madelyne was over four feet tall, so she couldn't be described in such a way. Also, while she may have been short, she had an amazing frame. She looked nothing like the "shorter" people I had seen in my life.

"I don't know about you," the pretty girl's words broke into my thoughts, "But I think we should maybe go to the dean and explain our situation. It's probably not too late to be placed in a different class."

I curtly smiled and replied, "I was thinking more on the lines of asking for a refund: Call me lazy, but I wouldn't mind having a couple of free afternoons during the week!"

Madelyne laughed in response before saying, "What would you do with all that extra free time, Mister Veovin?"

She remembered my name. Color me impressed. "Oh, I'd find something to do," I told the beautiful girl as I continued to stare at her. I then told her she could call me Marcus since my old man was Mister Veovin. While looking her over and telling her that, I hoped she hadn't felt like I was coming off like a hound. I always did my best to make a member of the fairer sex feel comfortable around me since I respected them so much. In a way, it was almost a little ironic: Had this been a couple years earlier, I probably would've been too shy to even look in Madelyne's direction. It was amazing how far my confidence had come in such a short time thanks to some of my past interactions.

"Well, for the time being," the silver-haired fox said to me, "Would you consider going to the dean with me and reporting this incident? I think it would sound better coming from two of us."

"Of course," I kindly responded. I was still ticked by the way the coldhearted professor had treated her.

"Thank you!" Madelyne exclaimed as she brightly smiled at me. We started to make our way toward the staircase that was only a few feet away until she stopped me once more and said, "Oh, and Marcus...?"

"Yes?" I responded as I turned to look in her direction once more.

"Thanks for standing up for me. That was really nice of you. No one's ever done something like that for me before."

"No problem, Madelyne," I told her with a warm smile. We then walked side by side as we made our way out of the building.

* * *

After spending forty-five minutes telling the dean what had occurred in our Introduction to Creative Writing class, we both decided that our day deserved to get better, so I told Madelyne I would love to take her somewhere for lunch. She had suggested going to the cafeteria area so we could save some money due to the fact that we were "poor college students," but I wasn't about to take my first "college date" to such a mundane place. Even a fast-food joint would've been classier.

As it turned out, we ended up back at my place and had macaroni and cheese. Yeah, I know...classy. If Madelyne hadn't helped me make it, I'm sure I would've overcooked it. We had a lot of fun joking around in the kitchen while my quiet roomie sat on his computer in the living room.

"His name is Jerrod," I told Madelyne in a whisper after she asked about him, "But we call him J-Bone.'"

Madelyne's face crinkled up. "J-Bone?" She asked as a smile lit her face. "Sounds like a rapper...and kind of dirty at the same time!"

I laughed in response since I agreed that the nickname was a little odd before telling her, "I assure you, it's not either! J-Bone's the quietest guy on the planet! I love the guy to death, but the day he hooks up with a girl..."

"Too much milk!" Madelyne cut me short as she reached over and tried to stop me from pouring too much into the measuring cup. She giggled since she could see that I was having trouble cooking the most elementary of lunches.

"Oops!" I called out as she continued to laugh. I realized that after she had prevented me from making a mistake, she had placed her left hand on my lower back...and she hadn't removed it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little excited. I tried not to let her notice how much I was enjoying it as I said, "Thanks, Maddie!"

"Don't mention it!" She exclaimed, and gave me a pat before finally taking her hand off me. I could tell that she approved of her new nickname.

Call me a pig, but while we had a blast making lunch together in that kitchen, I couldn't help but notice the size of Maddie's hands. Since she was a smaller woman, her hands were quite tiny also...and I couldn't help but think about how big they'd make a certain part of my body look if she ever had a chance to handle it. I tried to shake the dirty thought from my mind, but Madelyne was a gorgeous woman...and I hadn't been sexually active in months. I told myself that she wasn't over for that, though. We were just two friends who had met under peculiar circumstances. We both deserved to have a good afternoon after what we had been through.

I don't mean to change topics so abruptly, but the house my buddies and I lived in was really quite weird while being rather awesome at the same time. It had a very strange layout and was unlike anything I had ever seen before. From the kitchen, one could either go out to the backyard, down to an unfinished basement that looked more like a dungeon than anything, or head into a den. That den had a staircase on the north end leading upstairs to two bedrooms and a large bathroom, and on the south end it led into the living room. From the living room, one could get to the bathroom on the main floor or my bedroom. We opted to take our lunch into the living room where we had a couple of TV trays set up.

After the two of us took a seat on the couch, I asked J-Bone if he would be okay with me putting a movie in. From the corner where he sat with his face buried in his computer, he simply nodded without looking away. I was fairly certain that I wouldn't be able to get a word out of him until Madelyne left.

Maddie thanked my silent roommate for his collaboration as I started holding up videotapes for her to choose from. It was nearing four o'clock in the afternoon, and with the sun going down in less than two hours, it would be getting dark out shortly. This apparently made her opt for something on the scary side since we would be sitting in close quarters on the couch. I wondered if she was the type to get spooked easily. I was kind of hoping she was because I would've welcomed her grabbing on to me.

After popping the tape into the VCR, I made my way back over to the couch and sat down next to the vibrant young woman. What I wanted more than anything was to turn my attention to her so I could study her obvious beauty a little more, but I certainly didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Instead, I focused on eating my late lunch like a human being since I didn't want to scarf it down like an animal the way I usually did.

I wondered how long Maddie planned on staying over. We both had class in the morning, and while my first one wasn't until ten o'clock, I had no idea when hers would be. I would gladly stay up all night hanging out with the silver-haired stunner if she wanted to, but I didn't want to keep her from getting her rest.

Before the movie started, a thought occurred to me and I asked J-Bone, "Is Justin over at Deonna's?"

He answered with a shrug.

"Who's Justin?" Madelyne asked.

"He's our other roommate," I answered the young woman. "He spends a lot of time over at his girlfriend's place."

"Do you have a girlfriend, Marcus?"