I Can't Stand Alone Anymore.

I woke up with a start. I had been having a nightmare… I just couldn’t remember what it was about. Whatever. I stood up and stretched while I looked around for the time. My eyes landed on Alekzander’s bedside table which happened to have an alarm clock on it. The red neon numbers read 12:45, so I decided that I should probably get something done in the course of a day. I walked around to my suitcases so that I could start to unpack them.

Back home, my dresser was organized in a particular way where each of my drawers held a particular clothing item; jeans in one drawer, t-shirts in another, long-sleeves in a different one altogether and so on. However, I quickly came to the realization that all of my stuff wouldn’t fit in the three drawers that were provided by the dresser. Using my deduction skills, I figured the door on my side of the room must be a closet as rich girls would throw a tantrum if they had to give up seven eighths of their wardrobe for school and Alekzander had taken a shower in through the other door earlier. I stood and walked to the door. I turned the knob and peeked inside.

It was definitely a huge walk-in closet. Half of it was definitely stocked with men’s clothing. The other half was definitely empty and awaiting my clothes. And there was definitely a half-naked man staring at me, frozen in the process of putting on his shirt.

I looked at Alekzander for a second. He was attractive. No doubt about that. His dark brown hair, while not long, was shaggy and almost hanging in his eyes which were the most amazing forest green. His well-toned body only helped him, pushing him up from just good-looking to gorgeous. But I couldn't care less and my eyes didn’t stay on him long as I looked around the closet. When my eyes got back to him, he was openly glaring at me again. He threw his shirt on and stormed past me.

I dragged my suitcases into the closet and Alekzander flopped onto his bed, took out a book and started to read. We were both stuck in our own little worlds until I finished putting away my clothes. I put away the suitcases and looked at my side of the room. It looked even plainer than before. The only thing to show that someone was even living there was the messy bed.

I felt the need to take a shower so I walked over to the bathroom and shut and locked the door. Well, I was going to. Because that was when I noticed that there was no lock on the door. Let me repeat that. There was NO. LOCK. ON. THE. DOOR! I swung the door back open and looked at Alekzander.

“Hey. Why is there no lock on the door?” He was so engrossed with his book that he didn’t even look up. “Alekzander? Why won’t the door lock?” Still, he made no answer. “Alekzander!” I could make out the faintest smirk on his lips. Which could only mean one of two things: one, he found his book amusing or two, he found ignoring me amusing. And seeing as he held a copy of King Lear in his hands, I was guessing it was the latter. “HEY! ASSHOLE!”

That certainly got his attention. He flicked his forest green eyes up to mine in irritation. “What do you want?”

“I want to know why this door doesn’t have a lock.”

“Because that’s the way they do it at Crestion. It’s their way of ‘having us deal with possible encounters with the opposite sex.’ Honestly, didn’t you even read the brochure?”

“You mean to tell me they do this on purpose?” He gave me a curt nod. “That’s just sick and wrong. ‘Kay, want to know what we’re going to do? The knocking system. One of us knocks – you have to knock if you want through a door – and the other will shout out if they’re in there.” I finished with a triumphant smile.

“Obviously.” He stood up. “I’m out of here.” He picked up his wallet and walked out the door. Well, that left me free to have my shower with no worries. Not wanting to get caught in just a towel, I grabbed some clothes and started the shower up. I stuck my hand in to check the temperature, stepped in and let the hot water beat down on my skin.

Half an hour later, I stepped out of the tub and wrapped a towel tightly around my body. I walked up to the mirror and wiped it off to look at my reflection. My brown hair laid dripping against my head and my hazel eyes shined through the steam. I always thought I had pretty features. My parents and sister never agreed though. I was always the ugly duckling of the family, the outcast, the dirt on their impeccable lapel. So they ignored me and showered my sister with whatever she wanted. But I couldn't care less. I was away from them now and I was free to be whoever I wanted to be.

I quickly dressed and stepped out of the bathroom. I was putting my dirty clothing into a hamper when the door started shaking from the impact of a fist.

“Open the door, Knight! Don’t pretend you’re not there! Face me like a man!” A masculine voice penetrated through the door. I walked up and opened it to reveal a guy standing there, fist high ready to pound again and his face contorted in anger. His mouth was open to yell but I guess he recognized I was not Alekzander and lowered his hand and closed his mouth. His anger dimmed a little bit, but he still seemed furious. “Is Alekzander Knight in there?”

“No, he’s not. He left.”

“Where is he?” His voice quavered as tried to stifle the hostility in his voice.

“I don’t know.” I was about to close the door when he slammed his fist against the wall.

“Don’t screw with me! And don’t protect him!” Fire blazed in my eyes. He would not talk to me like that.

“And you don’t speak to me like that. I am not protecting him. I don’t know what the hell this is about but I will not be dragged into it! So you will check your tone when you speak to me because I have done nothing wrong!” He opened his eyes wide at my outburst then he settled down.

“I’m sorry.” He said after he had taken a big breath. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He hung his head.

“That’s okay. Come in and sit down. You can wait for Alekzander here. He has to come back some time.” He smiled a little at that and stepped into the room. We both sat on my bed, me against the headboard with my legs pulled against my chest and him at the foot of the bed, back ridged and sitting tensely. I looked at him and took in his features. He was very handsome. He had short dirty blonde hair and sky blue eyes. His was skin was darkly tanned from the summer sun and he was built like a football player with broad, strong shoulders and chest. He turned his head to look at me.

“What’s your name?”

I smiled. “I’m Kaylee! What’s yours?”

“I’m Aaron. Aaron Cain.” He extended his hand out for me to shake. I obliged.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you.” He smiled back at me. “So… why are you banging on my door?”

Aaron lowered his head in slight shame. “Sorry about that.” He gave a shy smile which was only received by my wide, accepting smile; letting him know I was teasing him. “Well, Alekzander Knight and I have never really gotten along. And this summer, well, I heard that he slept with my girlfriend.” Anger flared in his eyes again.

“Did you talk to her about it?” I kept my tone cool and impartial so that he couldn’t sway my opinion one way or the other.

“Yeah. Earlier that day, we had gotten in a fight and we were both angry at each other. Knight took advantage of the situation and convinced her to have sex with him, the bastard. When she had second guesses and tried to get him to stop, but he was so convincing and swayed her into thinking that I was a jerk and she should leave me anyway. So she did it with him and the next day, he was with some other girl.”

“Well, that was a dick move. But it was your girlfriend’s fault too.”

“Oh, I know. I guess I should have said ex-girlfriend. I couldn’t possibly forgive her. But it was Knight’s fault it all happened anyway.” I thought that was hard to believe. It takes two to tango. It also takes two to have sex. But I didn’t say as much since Aaron looked prone to random outbursts of rage so I just nodded. “What connections do you have with Knight anyway? You seem like a great girl. Don’t tell me you’re … with … him….”

I scoffed out loud. “No. Definitely not. I’m just the new roommate.” Realization dawned on his face. He smiled more broadly.

“So you’re the newbie! You’ve started a bit of an uproar at this school, you know. Everyone wants to know who the late-comer is.” He winked at me and then laughed. I found myself laughing along with him. He was just so easy to get along with. I was thoroughly enjoying the moment Aaron and I were having, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when Alekzander walked in and completely ruined it. I never got the good luck.

Alekzander froze when he saw Aaron and the two of them glared at each other for what seemed like forever. Slowly though, Alekzander shifted his eyes towards me.

“You shouldn’t bring scum into my room.” He kept his voice monotonous while speaking directly to me. Aaron stood up swiftly and very close to him. He was a couple of inches taller, which meant Alekzander had to look up at him, but neither was less intimidating than the other. I however, stretched out on my bed with my hands behind my head, feeling very comfortable.

“Excuse me Alekzander, correct me if I’m wrong, but I could have sworn you just said not to invite scum into your room. Now, I may be new but I’m pretty damn sure that this is now my room too. So I can invite whoever I damn well please. Also, the only scum I see here has been living in this room for three years already, so there’s no need to complain.” I kept my tone conversational, as if we were discussing the weather. It took everything in me to not smirk at him.

“She’s right, Knight. You are scum. Don’t think I don’t know what you did with Mona!”

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about. I just made Mona live up to her name.” He smirked.

Aaron looked confused and I scoffed. “Lame joke.” Alekzander’s smirk widened, obviously amused at the situation he was in. Suddenly Aaron got what Alekzander was implying. He drew back his fist, ready to start wailing on him. I jumped up and put my hand against Aaron’s back. “Aaron. Calm down, he’s not worth it.”

“You’re right, Kaylee.” Aaron lowered his fist.

“That’s right, Cain. Listen to the little lady. You wouldn’t want to get your ass kicked.”

“Oh, shut up Alekzander! You are honestly one of the most annoying, conceded, pompous guys I have ever met. If you don’t shut that trap, I’ll kick your ass. Just leave, Aaron. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Definitely, I’ll see you soon.” He backed out of the door never taking his eyes off Alekzander.

As soon as he was out the door, Alekzander turned to me. “Don’t do that again. Cain’s too stupid to realize who’s who when he gets angry. When he starts swinging, the ape can’t stop. I wouldn’t hang out with him if I were you either.”

“‘Kay, mom.” Sarcasm dripped from my voice as I rolled my eyes. “And why shouldn’t I hang out with him, all knowing one?”

“He’ll just wheel you. You know, lead you on.”

“Oh! Oh no! Not wheel me! I can’t believe that! It’s so unfortunate that I’m a dumb bimbo and can’t think for myself!” I went from fake worry to serious in an instant. “Really? Honestly, Alekzander. Not all girls are stupid and fall into the traps of guys.”

He threw his hands up and walked over to his bed mumbling something about trying to be nice and getting nothing in return. I spun away from him too and sat on my bed after grabbing the novel I was reading. I didn’t realize how quickly time passed with the two of us just sitting there but suddenly a pillow collided with my face. I looked up in surprise. Alekzander was standing in front of me.

“Damn, you’re a deep reader.” He smirked at me. “It’s time for dinner. And I assume you have no idea where you’re going.”

“Do too!” I stuck my tongue out at him childishly.

“Is that why you were going in the opposite direction of our room earlier?” He seemed amused at my embarrassment. I stuttered trying to find an adequate retort but one wouldn’t come. “Come on, let’s go.” He walked out of the room and, after checking that I had my keycard, I followed him. I walked down the hallway behind him, leaving the residence area and going back into the schooling part of the building. We past the office and walked down a new hallway. Alekzander took a few turns and I was completely lost. I planned to do some exploring in the week leading up to the start of class. The last thing I wanted to do was be late on the first day at a new school.

Suddenly, Alekzander stopped, which caused me to run into him for the second time that day. He turned around and said to me, without even helping me up, “wait forty-five seconds before entering. Don’t talk to me, don’t even look at me. You don’t know me and I don’t know you, so let’s keep it that way.” He spun around and walked through one of the two large double doors. I figured he was probably bi-polar or at least having PMS.

I stood up on my own and faced the doors. Well, I had to get it over and done with some time. I pushed the door open, completely disregarding Alekzander’s wishes and entered the cafeteria with confidence. The only unfortunate thing was that I didn’t know that the cafeteria was the most dangerous place on earth.