The Four Years: Year One Ch. 03

'Damn it Jake,' I thought when I dropped off my books between classes on Thursday afternoon. Today was the first time I had seen Becky since we were about to grab some coffee, but I ended up asking for rain check because Jake and Amy had a pretty bad date which ended with both of them covered in marinara sauce. Jake had told me that I was an idiot for blowing Becky off to find out what happened, and turns out that he had been right.

"Hey Becky," I said when I sat down next to her in class.

"Hey," she said, not bothering to look up from the book she was reading.

"So," I said after a moment. "I was wondering if you wanted to go and get that coffee later."

"Can't," she said. "I'm busy."

"Oh, ok," I said. "Maybe some other time."

"Doubtful," she said, closing her book and putting it away as the teacher walked into the room. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be busy then as well."

"I told you so," Jake said later that night as he and I headed down to the cafeteria for something to eat.

"How the hell was I supposed to know," I said.

"Signals," Jake said. "Women always give out signals."

"And just what exactly was the signal Amy gave you to dump pasta all over her?" I asked.

"Not cool," Jake said, and I could help but laugh. We got in the small line of other students who were hungry, and grabbed ourselves a couple burgers, small bags of chips, and sodas. After paying, we went and sat outside to eat. Being September, it was still warm enough at night to be able to.

"What the hell do I do now?" I asked with a mouthful of what tasted like microwave rubber covered in grease. Still, it was cheep and I could afford it. I really didn't want to blow through the monthly allowance my parents gave me and have to call them for more. It had taken me almost an hour to convince my mom that I was actually at college when I talked to her the day before, and not just out of the house for the day.

"I don't know if there's anything you can do," Jake said. "I guess the best thing is to try and be friends with her and hope that she forgives you."

That was easier said than done. Over the next two weeks, every time I saw her and tried to talk to her, she either ignored me or told me she was busy before running off. Jake wasn't any help since he rarely seemed to be around, and Andy... He knew even less about women than I did. Finally, after the third week, I had had enough.

I went to her room and knocked on the door. When it opened, I was greeted by a girl with jet black hair, black eye liner, black lipstick, and wearing all black clothes.

"Hey, is Becky here?" I asked.

"Who cares," the girl said as she looked me up and down, licking her lips. "If you're not busy, you want to come in and fool around?"

"That's okay," I said. "If you see Becky, just let her know that Marc came by and said that once again, I'm sorry. I had no fucking idea that we were going out on a date. I thought it was just coffee. She never said it was a date, and I'm a fucking idiot when it comes to signals so I had no clue. If I could go back and change what happened, I would. But I can't. So she can either accept that I'm an idiot when it comes to women and forgive me, or she can go on acting the way she is and lose a really good friend in the process."

The girl stared at me for a moment before saying, "Yeah, you're gonna have to write that down. I smoked this really good weed, and there is no way I can memorize something like that."

"Never mind," I said. "I'll tell her myself."

"Whatever," the girl said, closing the door. I turned around and was about to head back to my room when I saw Becky standing there.

"Becky," I said, a little surprised to see her there. "How long have you been..."

"I heard everything," she said.

"So did we," said the two girls who lived in the room across the hall. Their door had been open the whole time.

"Look," I started to say.

"No," Becky said. "Let me say something. Yes, I was kind of hurt and upset when you ditched me that night. But you're right. I never did say it was date, though I did drop a lot of hints and I guess I thought you had picked up on that since you agreed to go out with me."

"Honestly," I said. "I really didn't know. I thought you wanted to go out as just friends, and I had hoped that maybe I could get to know you better and maybe we'd click or something and then go out on a real date."

"Really?" she asked, smiling a little.

"Yeah," I said. "Call me old fashioned, but I kind of like the whole slow romance kind of thing. I spent eighteen years watching my parents in a loveless marriage, and I swore to myself that no mater what, I would never be like that when it comes to women. Be it a relationship, or even just going out on one date."

Becky was quiet as we stared at each other.

"Just kiss him already," one of the girls in the room across the hall said, causing Becky and me to laugh.

"So," I said. "How about we go get a cup of coffee and get to know each other a little better?"

"I'd like that," she said. "Let me just put my bag in my room."

"Okay," I said. Becky went into her room, dropped her bag on her bed, and she and I went out for coffee. We ended up getting a cup at a small cart outside the campus library, which turned out to be surprisingly good. She and I sat down at a table and talked for almost three hours. She told me about her family, and I about mine.

"You're pulling my leg," she said and I shook my head. "No ones parents can be that inattentive."

"I know it sounds like bullshit," I said, "but it's all true. Next time you see Andy, ask him. He's witnessed it firsthand."

"Damn," she said. "I can't imagine growing up with parents like that."

"I learned to deal with and accept it," I said, drinking the last bit of my now cold coffee.

"So," Becky said. "Obvious subject change to brighten the mood. That book you were telling me about. The Walking Dead."

"What about it?" I asked.

"You said I could borrow it."

"Yeah."

Becky looked at me for a moment. "Oh," I said. "You wanna borrow it now?"

"Sure," she said. "It's Friday, and I only have a small reading assignment for the weekend, which I can finish in about thirty minutes, so why not. Give me something else to do, and for us to talk about."

"Alright," I said. We got up, tossed our cups into the trash, and headed back to the dorms.

"Just give me a second," I said as I opened the door. "It's somewhere in the pile of books I, OH MY GOD."

As I looked into the room, there was a blond girl on top of Jake, fucking him. She gasped when I said that, and rolled off my roommate as Jake pulled the covers up over them.

"Hey guys," Jake said, nervously when he saw me and Becky looking at them. "I didn't know you'd be back this soon."

"I came to get a book for her to borrow," I said, arching an eyebrow. The girl looked familiar to me.

"Hi," she said, blushing a few dozen different shades of red.

"Marc, this is Lisa," Jake said. "Lisa, this is my roommate."

"Yeah, we met before," she said.

"We did?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. "First day of classes. We were waiting in line for the showers."

That's why she looked familiar to me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't recognize you with the..." I waved my hand around a bit. "You know, all the nakedness."

I guess I should go back and explain just how the two of them met and hooked up, as Jake told it to me later that night.

Turns out the cute little blond that had been flirting with him before he went out with Amy was actually Lisa. And after his disastrous date, he figured he didn't have a chance with her. The next time they had class together, she asked him about his date and he told her. She thought it was funny and told him it was a sign that he should've gone out with her instead. Feeling bold, Jake asked her, and she agreed on the condition that he try not to spill any food on her. They spent the next few minutes laughing about it.

A couple days later, they went out and had a great time. Since then, they had been going out a lot and spending quite a bit of time together. That explained why he barely seemed to be around. He was with Lisa. Then, a couple nights ago when I was at the library working on a paper, he and Lisa took that next step in their relationship. She had even spent the night. I must have been more tired than I though when I got back that night, because I had no idea, and she had left before I woke up.

Since then, they had been trying to find some alone time to be together, and when I quickly texted Jake while Becky dropped her bag in her room to let him know what was up, they took advantage of it. Time got away from them, and the next thing they knew... Well, you already know what happened next.

"Wow," I said the next morning as Jake and I got breakfast. "So it's that serious between you two?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "It's weird. When I left to come to college, I expected to have a few hook ups. A few bouts of random sex. Definitely at least one drunk and questionable one night stand that I'd look back on and wonder just what the hell was I thinking."

"Oh, of course," I jokingly said.

"But this," Jake continued. "I don't know... I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her."

"While I'm glad to hear that," I said. "I need you to do me a favor."

"What?" Jake asked.

"Next time you guys go at it," I said. "Lock the door."