7

The knocks persisted so I got up, looked at the girls and told them I'd be back. I walked to the door and opened it. There was a lady at the door. She was chewing a bubble gum so loudly.

"Hi, may I help you?" I asked politely.

"I'm looking for room number 40," she said, rudely.

"Uhm, it's next door," I answered.

"No it isn't. I think you're in my room," the lady said.

"Uhh, no Miss. I'm positive this is room 41," I said, trying not to be rude.

"Miss? Who are you calling Miss, Nerdy? I'm a young lady. I'm just 20 years old," the lady said raising her voice.

Before I could reply her, Beth and Gloria walked to the door and stood in front of me, shielding me from the weird lady in front of me.

"Who are you calling Nerdy, Miss?" Gloria asked.

There was anger evidently written all over her face.

"I SAID I'M NOT A MISS," the lady yelled.

"I know; I was just trying to anger you," Gloria said, a smirk on her face.

"She told you this is room 41 and your damn room is next door. Are you blind or what? The room numbers are boldly written on the doors, foolish," Beth said.

Her calm face was now filled with anger and she looked like she was going to beat up the strange lady.

"I mean, this is stupid. I can't believe there are also bullies in colleges too," Gloria said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"Now, before I count to three, I want you to get the hell out of here. The next time I see you disturbing my best friend here, I'm going to show you the stuff I'm made of," Gloria threatened.

I peeked through the space between my best friends and I could see that all the color had drained from the strange lady's face. She was obviously scared. She quickly turned around and began to walk away. But just when I thought my friends were done talking, Gloria said,

"Hey loser, next time watch your tongue. My best friend isn't just any nerd; she is obviously more brilliant than you are. But don't ever call her that. Now GET OUT."

The lady scurried away, even running past room 40, which she claimed was her room. Suddenly we began to hear applauds. We looked around and realized that people had actually come out of their rooms to watch what was happening. My dramatic best friends curtsied and bowed at their 'audience'.

When the claps died down, we went back into the room. I looked at my friends and gave them a hug.

"It's a good thing we all got admitted into the same university. I didn't know we'd have to fight off bullies here too," Beth said.

"Yeah; but Cam, you should work on your boldness. You can't continue to allow people trample on you like you are nothing. Imagine if we didn't get admitted into the same school or if we weren't here at this moment, would you just have allowed that girl insult you? I'm not saying I'm tired of fighting for you. No, you're my best friend and I could kill for you but you have to know how to be able to fight off bullies like that bitch. If you want, we can teach you," Gloria said.

I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose and smiled,

"Okay, I'll accept your teachings, O great teacher," I playfully mocked but Gloria was not having it.

She still looked pretty upset. One look at her face and all the playfulness disappeared. Now, I knew she was serious.

"Okay, I'm serious now," I said.

"Good now let's go back to our meal. That bitch made me leave half way; I bet it'd be cold now," Gloria said.

We went by to our meal and it wasn't as cold as we thought it would be. We finished our meals, took care of the dirty dishes and hung out a little. Few minutes later, we heard the door open and my nameless roommate was in the room. For a second, Gloria tried to put on her flirty face but then she immediately remembered what I told her and she once again became pissed with my roommate.

"Cam, we'd head to our room now. Why don't you come to our room to hang out for now? The room suddenly became hot and I'm feeling too uncomfortable," she said.

Beth and I stifled our laughs and walked out of the room with Gloria behind us. I followed Beth and Gloria to their room where we continued to hang out and discuss how our college days would be like and what they would like to do.

"We should tour this school some day or maybe go out of town and see what the place is like," Gloria suggested.

"Yeah, we should," Beth agreed and I had no other choice but to nod in agreement.

Even if I didn't want to, the girls would drag me with them. But I was also curious about the school; I wanted to see their library and other things that may interest me.

During our chat, my family called and I told them I was okay. After dropping the call, I began to feel sleepy. I informed my friends that I was going to my room to sleep. Once again they asked,

"Will you be okay staying with that guy?"

"I'll be fine, girls. If there's any problem, I'll just come here or give you a call," I replied.

"That's my girl," Gloria said, with a smile on her face.

I got up from the floor where I sat and made my way out of the room, after convincing my friends not to bother about escorting me to my room. It was really dark outside so I brought my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and walked up the stairs to my room, which was on the top floor. As I was walking up the stairs, I heard someone say,

"Hey".

My heart began to beat faster.

Who could it be?