6. Roommate

Ethan's POV

The blue-eyed boy's face continuously flickered in my mind as I made my way towards the Hostel office to get my luggage and key, evening after class. His teary eyes and nervous looks made me feel vexed. I slapped the poor boy in the face just for staring at me.

I can't get that expression of his out of my mind. His vulnerable state, the way he bit his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut. The way he stammered in lose of words. Everything is making me totally reprehensible. This is the first time I am feeling this much guilty for bullying someone.

I have bullied many people. Mostly girls. Every time I feel guilty. But that's nothing compared to the guilt I feel today. I was thinking about him the whole afternoon. It's rare I think about a person I bullied for that long.

There's of course something special about the boy, Nate. I feel like I have some kind of connection with him. Because when I stood so close to him, caging him in between my arms, I could get a sweet smell from his body and that fragrance felt so familiar.

And looking at his baby blue eyes made me think about my Mom. My mom has the same beautiful blue irises. Neither me nor Eve got it.

And then when he stammered uncontrollably and breathed heavily not able to say his name, I suddenly thought about Eve. Because my sister has a slight speech disability. She stammers while speaking. Once she cried over a dead rabbit and she couldn't say anything for quite some time. She stammered and breathed heavily just like him. I really suspect the boy has a stammering problem. I don't think he stammered just because he got nervous.

Oh! I didn't mention the important thing yet. Why was he staring at me? Does he have a crush on me? But does anyone suddenly feel interested in a person who comes and throws them out of the seat they were sitting in? That's ridiculous. Then why was he staring? And he wasn't just stealing glances but was directly staring at me the whole second hour.

And all the time he stared, I was praying in my mind for him to turn his head and stop looking at me. Because I clearly knew, I'd have to deal with him. Amelia and Kevin wouldn't let it slide if I let him go like that after staring at me for a whole hour. And I really didn't want to hurt him.

As expected both of them, especially Amelia was furious. I already mentioned that Amelia has something for me. That's true. She doesn't like other girls looking at me though she sleeps with new guys every single day. And now when it's a boy who is staring at me, she was beyond furious.

I had actually tried a lot to convince them to let it slide for once. But they wouldn't agree. If I don't do anything, they themselves would manhandle the boy. So it's better, I ended it with a slap. I don't understand why those creatures love hurting people so much. Whatever, that's their divertissement. They feed off of others' pain.

I was snapped out of my train of thoughts as I reached in front of the Dorm office. Miss Rose was still sitting there, now sipping on a cup of her special cardamom tea. She smiled looking up from her cup on seeing me. Then she placed the cup down and turned around on the chair, rummaging in a drawer nearby.

“Here's your key,” she handed me the key with a smug smile. I wonder why she is smiling like that now. But I understood the reason once I looked at the key.

Ah Great! 69!

“It's just a number,” Miss Rose chuckled, probably on seeing my expression.

“Hmm..,” I sighed. “Do I have a roommate?”

“Yeah. A senior itself, but a new admission. He arrived yesterday evening,” Miss Rose said and took her teacup back from the table.

“Okay then Bye. Let me go find my room. Thanks for keeping my bags safe, whole day,” I chirped and she smiled whilst gulping down her tea. I then took my luggage and walked in direction of my new dorm room.

75....73.....71

Here we go 69.

I quickly shrugged my bag off of my shoulder as my back was aching badly. I twisted the key in the hole and pushed open the door to see a guy sitting on the desk chair, resting his head on the table.

I couldn't see his face as he was facing the opposite direction from the door. He didn't sit up even after I took steps inside the room and closed the door behind after pulling my luggage inside. Seems like he is sleeping

I walked to him, excited to see my new roommate's face. Last year it was a girl called Sharon. I was in Dorm D last year and it was co-ed. But she lasted for only a week. Because Amelia and Sophia together bullied her demanding her to leave the room. She left and I remained single the whole year as no new admission came.

 This year I strictly told Miss Rose to not put me in co-ed dorm. I hope my roommate is someone with a football scholarship or some other sports scholarship-except basketball, cause we are not on good terms with the basketballers- so that he can get along with my so called friends. 

“Hey,” I called him tapping on his shoulder. He squirmed a little in discomfort before slowly sitting up and opening his eyes.

My mouth hung open on seeing his face. Great! There's nothing worse to happen. It’s him, Nate. He is dead. Fuck!

His expression revealed one of utter shock, so was mine. No, I wasn't as shocked as him. Because his face was scrunched up as if he was seeing a ghost and his lips were shivering. He rubbed his eyes and again looked at me with a half-open mouth.

“It's me itself,” I told him.

“E..Ethan?” he stammered in shock. “You..you are..my r..room mate?” he asked looking at my luggage.

“Yeah,” I sighed in disdain and rubbed on my forehead, not knowing what to do about this situation. Either I or he should change the room. Or it would become really really bad for him.