These Years

I slowly drifted into consciousness and rubbed at my closed eyes. I pulled up enough effort to open them, and stared confusedly at my surroundings. After a few glances around the beige walls and lack of decor things started to come back to me in pieces.

Moving.
Dorm.
Dakota.

Then it clicked in. I moved into my dorm today; I must’ve fallen asleep.

I sat up in my bed, and looked around for the time. My eyes stopped on an alarm clock sitting on a nightstand to the right of me. It read 7:00pm. Shit. I was asleep that long?

I jumped out of my bed, and my feet pattered as I ran through the small of my dorm. I searched for a hoodie -pulling it over the tank top I was wearing- and slipped on a pair of shoes that were sitting near my door.

I glanced at my appearance in a mirror hanging near the entrance for my dorm, and shrugged, deciding I was reasonable. I grabbed my room key off the counter and opened the door, making my way out. I stepped into the hall, closed the door and locked it.

I took the short walk to the elevator, and waited for a minute for it to arrive. It did, and soon I pressed the “L” button. I soon found myself on the main floor, making my way through the lobby. I exited the building thus, went outside. I walked through the campus, pausing occasionally to look at the odd thing. The cool air of the summer evening wrapped around me and I shoved my hands in the kangaroo pocket of my sweatshirt. I took a deep breath of air in and smiled.

I soon found myself in front of a building that I assumed was the cafeteria. I walked towards the door, and when I reached it, I pulled it open. Making my way into the building, I seized it up. As it was past seven, it wasn’t too busy. There were several tables occupied, but many more left empty. I walked around a little bit, seeing what this place had to offer, and I sided on a little cafe.

I stood in front of the middle-aged lady working there, and placed my order. “Can I have a bagel with a plain coffee please?”

The lady, whose name-tag read Cathy nodded and gave me a small smile. I handed her my meal card and waited for her to swipe it and get my food.

Upon returning, she gave me another smile; handing me my cup and small bag.

I took the two items and searched for a place to sit. I chose a small circular table near a wall covered with windows.

My body leaned back on the chair, slightly rocking it off the ground as I took a sip of my coffee. The warm liquid burnt my throat as I felt the high from the caffeine. I was planning on unpacking tonight, so I’d need all the help I could get. After drowning down about half of my drink, I started eating my bagel. I took a few bites out of it as I glanced through a newspaper somebody left when I felt someone sit down in front of me. I paused my reading and peaked over the newspaper. I was greeted by a familiar face smiling.

“Hi Suri,” He spoke, with his smile visible in his voice.

I set the newspaper back onto the table and looked up at him. “Hello there TJ.” I smiled back him.
“What’re you doing eating here alone? Don’t you have any gossipy little girlfriends here yet?”
I let out a little chuckle, “Can’t say I do. How about you? You and your buddies not crashing any parties tonight?”
“Hey!” He laughed, “What gives you any idea I’d be a party crasher?” I gave him a look and he returned it with a quirky smile, “Okay, okay, you got me. But naah, I had practice then just decided to head over here.” He held up a bottle of water.
I nodded, “Practice? What do you play?”
“Hockey!” He sounded like a little kid of Christmas. “Do you like hockey?”
I shook my head, “I’ve never really watched it before.”
“You will have to come to one of our games then. You’ll love it!”
I let out a laugh as he continued to make plans in his grand scheme of getting me to fall in love with the sport of hockey.

We sat and talked for quite a while in the cafeteria and then decided to go out on a walk around campus. TJ said he’d give me a little tour on the stuff he knew so far. And since it was a nice night out, why not?

We walked around the campus with TJ pointing out the occasional building. I looked at each in turn, and during time when there was silence I glanced up at the sky. I enjoyed TJ’s company, but it just made me think of what I was missing back at home; the people there and everything as a whole. Suddenly, moving halfway across the country seemed a lot scarier, and the world seemed a lot bigger.

“Hey, Suri, are you alright?” I was snapped out of my thoughts by TJ’s question. I hadn’t even noticed we stopped walking.
“Uh, yeah, why?” I responded.
Under the glow of the streetlights I saw him shrug, “I don’t know, you just seem kind of drifted.”
I shrugged wordlessly, and gave him all the smile I could muster.

TJ suggested we head back to our dorms. I agreed.

We headed back towards the tall buildings which were our dorms, and took the elevator up to our floor. As we exited it, both of us paused for a moment.

“Well, I’ll see you later TJ.” I gave him a small smile.
He nodded, “See yeah,” and gave me a little wave as we walked in separate directions.

This was nice, but there was something nagging in the back of my mind. I shrugged it off as I opened the door to my own room. Maybe some unpacking will distract me.