The More Boys I Meet

There was a knock on my door Monday afternoon as I lounged around, watching hockey highlights and doodling suns and beaches in my notebook.

I got up, wondering who could be at my door on Thanksgiving break. Maybe Joshua here to help save me on my Chemistry lab.

I threw open the door and immediately I was engulfed by a familiar blonde bestie. “Bitch, I told you I would make this happen!”

I struggled for air, but I couldn’t reach any. “Pat. Air!”

“Oh!” he let me go and I sucked in air. “Jesus Patty. Take it down a notch, yeah?”

“Sorry. Anyways we’ve got food and people. Everything you need for a college Thanksgiving!”

Pat, Johnny, Crow, Viktor, Leds, and Marcus piled into my extremely small dorm room. “Hi guys,” I waved awkwardly. “Welcome to my really small dorm room. It really is made for like two people.”

“Bitch please,” Pat waved me off. “We’ll make this work.”

“Uh. . . okay. . .” I said slowly.

Marcus pulled me out into the hall as they rearranged my entire half of the room. “What the. . .” I trailed off.

“Surprise?” the little Swede shrugged.

“Definitely,” I agreed.

“Everyone thought you could use some company,” Viktor stepped out with us.

“Well thanks guys. I appreciate it, I think,” I shook my head. “Did not expect this.”

“We should have done this for her birthday party,” Viktor sighed. “Oh well. There’s always next year.”

I sighed. “His birthday is closer than mine,” I jerked my thumb at the other Swede. “Hey, how did Pat’s birthday go? Was he surprised?”

They both cracked similar grins. “Oh yeah. He really thought everyone forgot his birthday. Man, his face when he came into the locker room was priceless!” Viktor laughed. “Good idea Ells. Probably your best yet.”

“Actually, I think my best idea was going to the beach all summer,” I contradicted him. “This was probably my second best idea.”

“It’s still only November,” Marcus reminded me.

“Thanks Captain Negativity Pants. Way to rub it in.”

“All done!” Pat opened my door and I was quite impressed by how much extra space they created just by moving all my stuff onto Rachel’s bed.

I sat down with Pat and Corey on my futon while the rest of the guys sat on my bed, the few chairs we had in here and on the floor. “So, what do we do now?” I asked awkwardly.

“Can we eat?” Leds asked. “The mashed potatoes smell really good and they’ve been taunting me the past four hours.”

“Let’s eat!” everyone shouted in unison.

We all crammed into the communal kitchen on my floor and heated everything up before parading back to my room to chow it all down.

Afterwards, some of the guys wanted to take a look around. I sent them back to the nature trail with a frisbee to keep them occupied while I cleaned up our Thanksgiving extravaganza.

“Here,” Marcus held out his hand and I gave him some of the dirty dishes I had piled up in my hands.

“Why aren’t you outside playing with the rest of the boys?” I asked, taking the dishes back to the kitchen to wash them.

“Thought you could use a hand,” Marcus shrugged.

The guys were still playing outside when we were done so we just kind of sat on my futon and sighed. “You all crammed into one car?” I asked.

He nodded. “It was absolutely great,” the sarcasm dripped from his voice.

“Great team bonding I bet,” I snickered.

He shoved me playfully before standing up and going over to the picture collage that Viktor set up when he first dropped me off here for the new year.

“This must be the famous Stalberg Collage we’ve all heard so much about,” he murmured to himself, looking at all of the photos.

“Yup,” I nodded. “He worked a good five minutes tacking all of them to my now overflowing bulletin board. I don’t even have enough room for my lists of things I need to do.”

He laughed, looking at one in particular. “I remember this,” he pointed at the one of us sleeping on the beach. “You almost got me killed that day.”

“You almost drowned me that day!” I countered.

He shrugged. “I didn’t realize they all were taking pictures,” he mused.

“I didn’t know it either,” I admitted.

He nodded and came back to sit with me. “It sucks that you’re here all break,” he finally said.

“It sucks that you guys can’t go home.”

“Yeah.”

“I guess it means we’re stuck in the same boat.”

“So we are.”

“I just hope they don’t bring it down,” I gestured outside where they were somewhere back there, throwing around a frisbee at each other.

He smiled. “I guess that just means we’ll go down in this boat of ours then.”

“You make it sound like it’s a good thing we’re sinking.”

He shrugged again. “It’s okay if it’s shallow water.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” I shrugged that time.

He laughed and pushed me off the futon. “I definitely miss your humor,” he told me, helping me back onto the futon after five minutes of not allowing me to.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” I told him.