Know You're Not Alone

After class, I walked out of the building and was battling the decision between going back to my dorm, or go to Kris’ house. When I reached the sidewalk, I saw Maria walking with one of her friends. She gave me a look and walked up to me.

“Are you coming back to the dorm tonight?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not sure yet, why?”

“Oh. Well, I got some friends coming over and a lot of your stuff is all over the place. You may want to clean it up.”

I scoffed. “Why is my stuff all over the place?”

“Well, I was trying to be a nice roommate and did your laundry. I just had to..y’know, look around to see where all your dirty laundry was.”

I rolled my eyes. Well, I guess I know where I’m going. “I’m going back to the dorm.”

Maria nodded. “Alright. I’ll see you there, then.”

I watched her walk away, laughing with her friend. I shook my head and waited for a few minutes to continue walking towards the dorm. I knew that I would get there before her because she would take some time and talk to every one she knew on the way there. I began walking and heard my phone ring in my pocket. I saw the caller ID and a huge grin broke out.

“Hello, boyfriend.”

I heard him chuckle. “Hey, how was school?” [/]b

I looked around, at all of the other students walking with their friends. “It was alright. Had a small run in with Maria, y’know. The usual. You back home now?”

“Yeah, I was a little shocked that you weren’t here, to be honest. Is that sad?”

I chuckled lightly. “Well, you did tell me not to leave. Guess I kinda broke the rule, huh?”

“Well, I wouldn’t keep you from school.” I heard him chuckle. “But I would like some company tonight.”

I smiled. “I’m just gonna go back to the dorm quickly and grab some things. Can you pick me up in a half hour?”

He agreed and I made my way into my dorm building, hanging up the phone. When I reached my room, I sighed not knowing what to expect when I opened the door. Turns out, it was worse than I thought. My stuff was everywhere. Maria didn’t look just for my laundry, she looked through everything just for shits and giggles. I could feel the anger rise in me and began to clean up her “mess.”

“What are you doing?”

I turned and saw Maria standing in the doorway. I stood up and raised my eyebrow at her. “Are you serious? I’m cleaning up my things.”

She pointed to a pile of my stuff on the floor. “That’s mine. It’s on my side of the room.”

“I don’t think so. It’s mine. Just because you threw it over there, doesn’t make it yours.”

She shook her head. “You clearly haven’t been around enough, have you?”

“What are you talking about?”

She put her hands on her hips. “I made some rules while you were gone.” She walked over to her desk and picked up a piece of paper and gestured it in front of me. I grabbed it from her and looked at it.

“What the hell is this? You can’t make rules like this without me. This is our room, not just yours. You do know that, right?”

“Well, you haven’t been staying here too much, so it kinda has become my room, actually.”

“Fine, if you want it that way, I’m gone. But you do know, that as soon as I tell the RA, you’ll have to move, right?”

I saw her tense up. “Well, I’m not kicking you out, I’m just enforcing the rules.”

I shoved her rules back in her hand. “Listen here, you stupid bitch. I’m sick of your shit. You don’t control me. I have my own rights in this room.” I picked up the pile of my stuff on “her side” of the room. “As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t discussed any rules and this stuff is still mine. Would you like to discuss the rules after I clean up?”

She shook her head. “You really think you can use your ‘witchy-woo, holier than thou’ shit on me? This is my room. I stay here, you run off to your less-than-average hockey player boyfriend’s house. I can make whatever rules I like. If you don’t like them, I can consider changing them.”

I scoffed. “You are unbelievable, you know that?”

“I’m just trying to survive in this school, just like everyone else. Everyone, that is, except you, who has a professional hockey player to fall back on.”

“Stop using Kris in all of this! Is this about him? Is this about the fact that I have a boyfriend who just happens to have his life in order and you’re still stuck in your rut of one night stands and lonely nights? I’m not going to apologize for being happy, but I do feel sorry for you.”

I began to pack up all of my stuff. “I’m going to Kris’ tonight. By the morning, I’ll have a decision as to whether or not I want to live here anymore.”

“What about paying to live here? Or is your boyfriend going to give you the money back?”

I walked over to her and slapped her straight across the face. “I got a scholarship, you bitch. As a matter of fact, I already made my decision. I’ll be back in the morning to move out. Have a nice life, Maria.”

I zipped up my luggage bag and stormed out of the room. I made a note to myself in my phone to remind myself to talk to my RA in the morning. When I reached the front door of the building, I saw Kris parked right out front.

I jumped into the car and threw my bag in the backseat.

“Are you okay, babe?”

I sighed. “I will be. Let’s just go home.”

I heard him swallow and he coughed lightly. “H-h-home?”

I shook my head. “Oh, my god. I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask you if it was okay. I got in a huge fight with Maria. And I just…”

“You can move in. You know you’re always welcome in my house.”

I smiled at him and reached for his hand, giving it a light squeeze. “I love you, you know that?”

He nodded. “I do, but you can keep telling me.”

We drove in a comfortable silence to his house, which in a short time, I would hopefully be able to call our house.

Pulling up to Kris’ house, I still felt a little jittery about jumping the gun on calling it “home.” We walked in and I placed my bag on the floor.

“You know that can go in the bedroom, right?”

I smiled at him as he slipped his jacket off. “Yeah, I know. I was just putting it there for now.”

He nodded and took my hand after we removed our shoes. He walked me to the couch and gestured me to sit down. I sat on the couch, facing him and crossed my legs. He gave me a stern, but soft look.

“Talk to me.”

I sighed. “God, this seems like how all of our conversations go. Drama with Maria. I just wish it could end.”

“So, make it end. You know that you can move in here. What did she do this time?”

“Well,” I reached over and placed my hand in his, interlacing our fingers. “When I stayed here while you were gone, she decided to make up rules. On top of that, she decided to look through all of my things, claiming she was looking for dirty laundry.”

Kris scoffed. “So, she’s trying to be nice now?”

I shook my head with a dry chuckle. “No, no, no. It was a set up. I went back to the dorm and saw that my stuff was everywhere. I went to pick up a pile of my stuff that was by her bed and she claimed it was hers. There’s a rule now, apparently, that if something is left on the other person’s side of the room, it becomes theirs.”

“Wow.” Kris ran a hand through his hair. “She’s nuts. How could you agree to those rules when you weren’t even there?”

“That’s what I told her!” I exclaimed. “She tried to make it all about you. Everything came back to me having you as my backbone. I lost it.”

“That’s my girl.” He smirked and cupped my cheek. “So, what now?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, I told her I would go back tomorrow to get the rest of my things, but I have to talk to the RA about moving out first. I don’t know how that’s going to go.”

“Well, they can’t tell you that you have to live in the dorms, can they?”

“I don’t know. I would think not, but I’m not sure. If they do, I’ll just ask for another room, hopefully a single.”

Kris raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. “Are you leaning more towards that then living here?”

My eyes widened. “No! Why would you think that?”

“Well, I saw your face when you said that Maria said I was your backbone. Do you think that?”

I looked down and tried to find my words before I spoke. “No, I don’t think that. I just don’t want any rumours to start. I know that I shouldn’t think that, but Maria’s got some gossipy friends.” I moved my gaze up to meet his. “I do want to live here, I just don’t want it mess this up.”

“We survived the summer, didn’t we?”

I nodded with a smile. “We did, but we barely left the bedroom.”

“So, what’s the problem with that?” I saw that cheeky grin appear on his face.

“Nothing,” I laughed. “I just don’t want to be known as the girl who got her way because her boyfriend is a professional hockey player.”

His face softened a little and he nodded. “I understand that. You know that truth though and ultimately, this is your decision. Whatever you decide, I’ll be here for you.”

I leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you. I’m still processing everything. There is a lot of positives to moving in here, y’know.”

He pulled me closer to him and placed his shoulder on mine. “Oh yeah? Care to mention a couple of them?”

He began to place kisses on my neck, travelling down to my collarbone. I felt shivers right down my spine.

“Okay, this may be a negative.” Kris pulled away, trying to pull off the puppy dog eyes. I couldn’t help but hold it in. I jumped off the couch, picked up my bag and turned back to look at him. “Care to prove me wrong?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking up the next morning, I dragged myself out of bed. I looked over and saw the crumpled sheets on the other side of the bed. A smile spread across my face as the memories from the night before came rushing back. After closing my eyes and keeping the memories fresh in my mind for a few seconds, I finally pushed myself off the bed and made my way into the shower.

After getting dressed, I found myself doing every little thing I possibly could to distract me before leaving for the dorm building. The conversation I had to have with my RA, Don, was not one I was looking forward to. I called Steph, but she didn’t answer. I knew that she had classes, but couldn’t remember the times they were at. I left her a message, and continued on. Kris, thankfully, came home just before I started to get on my hands and knees and begin to scrub the floors. I was going bat shit crazy just thinking about what decisions could be made on this day.

“What are you doing?” He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. I just…I don’t want to go today.”

He sighed and walked over to me. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he pulled me into him and placed a soft kiss on my forehead.

“You know you have to do this. The sooner you get it done, the sooner it will be over.”

I nodded. “But what if they tell me I have to stay?”

“Well, then you stay. Just ask for a new room.”

“Yeah,” I pulled away from him and began walking towards the door to slip on my shoes and jacket. “I guess.”

I heard Kris lightly chuckled. “Just be firm with the guy. Tell him your roommate is a psycho and you wouldn’t wish your worst enemy to live with them. Except, I’ve come to believe she is your worst enemy.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “You got that right.”

I hated the feeling in my gut when I got out of Kris’ car and made my way into the building. I had a feeling that I just couldn’t shake that something bad was going to happen. I made my way up to my floor and my jaw dropped once I turned the corner. As I walked passed Don’s office towards my dorm room, I heard him call my name. I stopped in my tracks and turned around. He was sitting at his desk and once I walked in, I saw that he wasn’t alone.

“Kaitlyn, have a seat, please.”

I was skeptical about it, especially with Maria sitting there, but I took a seat anyways. I looked back at Don and he nodded his head.

“So, Kaitlyn, it appears that many people have been saying that you are trying to use your boyfriend’s celebrity status to bend the rules here.”

My jaw dropped and my eyes grew insanely wide. “You’re kidding me, right? The only person who knows who my boyfriend is is Maria.”

Maria shook her head. “That’s not true. She’s told tons of people.”

“Why are you lying?” I couldn’t believe Maria would stoop to this level.

“Well, Kaitlyn, regardless of whether or not you said anything, people know who your boyfriend is.”

I still didn’t see how that was a terrible thing. “Okay….? What does that have to do with all of my stuff sitting in the hallway?”

Don sighed and ran a hand over his face. “I don’t like doing this. But, it also seems that you have been missing a lot of your classes as of late. Maria here, says you have been spending most of your time at your boyfriend’s place.”

I shook my head. “My god, I’ve missed one class. One. Not a lot. And yes, I have been spending most nights at my boyfriend’s house, but that’s because Maria doesn’t want him in the dorm room anymore.”

My eyes widened. Shit.

Don swallowed hard before leaning closer to me. “I’m sorry? Your boyfriend was here? When was this? I don’t recall seeing his name on the visitors list.”

I know that I had dug myself in a hole that I didn’t know how to get out of. I began to twirl my thumbs in my lap, trying to think of what to say.

“Well, to be honest, it was after hours, but I didn’t think it would mean much harm. He wasn’t here long.”

“Kaitlyn, I’m sorry, but you are kicked out of this dormitory.”

“What?! Because I have a boyfriend and a lying roommate? That’s ridiculous.”

Don raised his hands in surrender. “You’re also banned from classes for the rest of the week. You’ll be receiving a call on your cell phone with a date and time for a meeting the Dean.”

This is not happening. This is NOT happening.

I stood up and opened my mouth to say something. Knowing that if I said anything more, that it would probably land me in more trouble than I was already in, I walked out. I made my way over to the pile of my stuff that was sitting in the hallway outside of, what I guess would now be called my old dorm room.

“Well, I guess you’ll be the perfect WAG now.”

I turned on my heel to see Maria smirking. “You must be so satisfied with yourself, huh? You know what they say about karma.”

She stepped closer to me. “Is that a threat?”

I shook my head. “Not at all. I was planning on leaving the dorm anyway. I was just hoping to stay in school. Maybe the time off will motivate me.”

“Motivate you to do what? Have Kris’ babies and be a stay-at-home slut?”

I fought the urge to slap that smirk off of her face, but held my ground. “No, to come back and be not only a better student, but be more successful than lying bitches like yourself.”

Her smirk grew. “Challenge accepted.”

I scoffed and turned once again on my heel, towards my things. I pulled out my phone and texted Kris. He was still parked outside of the building. All I told him was that I was coming downstairs. Don came out of his office to help me bring my things downstairs.

“Your boyfriend is parked out front?”

I nodded. “Yeah, he picked me up last night, so I had no other way to get here. I was coming to ask you for another dorm room, but I guess that’s out of the question now.”

He put his head down. “Kaitlyn, I really am sorry. To be honest, I can’t stand Maria, but it wasn’t just her that brought forth information about you. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“It’s fine,” I said, lifting up my laundry hamper. “You’re just doing your job.”

When Don and I arrived outside with my things, which only took one trip thanks to a luggage cart, a smile grew on Kris’ face. He stepped out of the car and helped put the stuff in the back of it. After all of my stuff was packed in, I said goodbye to Don and Kris and I got in the truck.

“Hey,” he gave my hand a light squeeze. I looked over and saw his smile reached his eyes.

“Yeah?” Not wanting to ruin this moment for him, I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Let’s go home.”

If you only knew.