It's like riding a bike( part II)

I woke up the following morning with a blaring sound julting me from the warm exilirating dream I was having. I answered the phone in a sleepy voice, "Hello?" "Becca! Hey , how are you? Why havn't you called me ? How is school?", Mike said. It took me a minute to figure out that it was him on the other end of the phone. I sort of figured that once I came here to Cranbrook , Mike would forget about me. He had his own life back in Brooklyn and I never bothered calling him. I missed him misreablly. Especially here in this nowhere town with these nobodies. We spoke for a few minutes and I told him about the issues I was having. That because I did not have a passport or American birth certificate the school was kicking me out until I gave them proof of citizenship and that once they kicked me out I had nowhere to go. A homlesss mutt.
" We can get an apartment together, just for a while till you find something more permanent.", he said. The thought was tempting, but I was hopeful that I would talk myslef out of it. "I will think about it. How is your family treating you?" "Fine I guess", he said, "I just stay in my room or hang out with Allan". "Don't pay attention to them, Mike, just be a strong man, you will be out of there soon enough", I said. We said that we loved each other without too much emotion and hung up.

The room was so quiet, cluttered, cold. I had a sudden overwhelming feeling of lonliness. Jaimie and Jennifer were in class. I walked over to the overflowing chest of drawers and fed Travel. His water was filthy, I hadn't changed it since I came to Cranbrook a week ago. I took the red bowl and walked through the basment hallway to the co-ed bathroom. The tile was from the 70's and the shower curtians were once white but now were a muddy grey. It smelled like pine and sewege. I put Turtle onto the edge of the sink and started to clean his bowl. A couple of girls came in talking loudly about the last episode of Friends they saw on the community T.V. When they saw me cleaning the bowl , they looked at each other as if to say," what a freak". As ussual I didn't pay them much mind , but rather concentrated more intentley on the bowl and cleaning off the slime that had covered the entirety of the inside of the bowl. "Ewww", moaned one of the girls when she say the turtle on the edge of the sink, "That's just gross", she said, and left. I stopped myself from smiling. It was just too perfect of a stereotype. I bet she is majoring inLiberal Arts.

I put on my jeans and old Gap sweater and headed to Angela's room across campus. Angela was one of the only girl's that I could sort of relate to here. She was from the Bronx and understood my turmoil over bening stuck in such a small town. She also let me use her meal card to eat. Since I was expecting the school to pay for all my meals and expenses while I was up here I had only brought $50 with me and there was just $10 left. When Angela found this out she offered to pay for all my meals. A stray puppy.

We sat in the cafeteria and made small talk about our majors and where we came from. Then I heard a deep silky voice right behind me say, "Is there enough space for me to join you , ladies?". He had beautiful brown hair that he brushed back in a very casual way, liek as though he just woke up and ran his fingers through it. He smelled liek Aqua De Gio calogne and had asneaky smile. He was looking straight at me an said" How do you like the food here Becca?""How do youknow my name?", I said. "Oh, Angela and I have class together, she told me a little bit about your situation. That must suck. Where are you gonna go if they kick you out?", he said cautiosly while eying Angela the whole time. " I don't knwo, it hasn't been settled yet. What's your name?", I siad. "Josh", and he smirked at me. I smiled a little, trying to compose msyelf and switched the converstaion over to Angela, feeling my face getting warmer.

That night Jaimie invited me to go out with her and Liz to a friend's house in town. I was nervous about seeing Liz again. The last I saw her was teh day before at breakkfast where we both seemed to avoid direct conversations with each other. Or I might have just been paranoid. It isn't liek Liz and I really knew each other and had much to talk about. I didn't have anything else todo and the thought of just sitting in this crammed dorm room with Jennifer while she moans herself to sleep wasnot appealing in the slightest.

When Jaimie and I stepped out of the dorm building I saw a big black van standing at the end of the path. It looke dlike one of those van's you would hear about on the evening news. The kind that would be involved in kidnapping, murder, rape. I looked over at Jaimie and said" Is that our ride?". "Ye, my friend has a band and he uses this van for gig's. He is going to the same place as us so he offered to give us a ride. Don't be afraid city girl." she said with a smirk. I climbed into the van and sat in the back seat. The van had three rows of seating and Jaimie and her friend Dan were sitting in the second row. I noticed Dan putting an arm around Jaimie and her shrugging it off and giving Dan a sharp look. In the front seat sat two guys. The driver had hair half-way past his back and the passanger was sitting quietly. All I could tell that the passanger was male and had brown hair. "The guys put in the back seat especially for you, Becca. They were excited you were coming along. I don't knwo why. I mean they don't knwo you . But they were excited. " Jaimie said. I never know what to say in those situations. Thank you sounds too short and you shouldn't have sounds too formal. "Thanks", I said. I heard the passanger in the front seat giggle a bit and then turn up the radio. The radio was playing Metallica, and the whole van seemed to enjoy it. It was a nice cohesive vibe, and I felt a bit disattached. We pulled into an alley and turned right behind the Chinese Restraunt. We parked and Jaimie and Dangot out first. I shuffled my way to the doors and before I could begin my decent from this huge van a hand reached ot to help me. I held onto it while I climbed out. When I got out I could smell the Aqua De Gio. Josh smirked at me and said, " Are you stalking me lady?" "Hey, what are you doing here? Who is stalking whome? Are you in the band"?, I said, blushing no doubt. "No, I am just a groupy. Your Jaimie's roommate right?" "Ye, you seem to know a lot about me."