Corked
I couldn't get my mind off of Jenna. The first couple of weeks were really strained with my new roommate, Abby. I was really bothered by what happened, but what could I say to a person I barely knew? Abby was kind of sweet and mousy--she told me that she had been transferred from a partying roommate that she hated.
I could tell she was going to fit well with my new moping and sleeping schedule. She never had friends over, and I basically stopped talking to everyone I hung out with when Jenna was still around. Every night and weekend it was Abby and I watching movies in my dorm room.
It was nice to have someone that wasn't going to pry into my personal affairs, but it also made it really easy for me to keep everything inside. Abby didn't find it strange when I slept for 12 or 14 hours a day...she did the same thing, and sharing a dorm room with a recluse probably made the girl ecstatic.
She could sit at her computer for hours and never do anything else. I just stewed in my misery, saying as little as possible. What was funny about all this was that there was this silent understanding between us. We were each inside our self-loathing, but we weren't alone. Miserable as I was, something about the situation was sort of nice.
This balance lasted for as long as the situation did. Once in a while Abby would bring over this guy from one of her literature classes. He spent his time sputtering nonsense about European philosophy, and Abby would respond by practically swooning. It was nothing but a mild irritation at first, but then they started dating.
The only thing more pitiful than a recluse is a former recluse who gets her first boyfriend. Apparently he had a roommate he hated--which, of course, meant that he would be in my room as much as possible.
One thing I require more than anything else is quiet time. If I don't get it, I get cranky. About two or three weeks after Abby and Dan started dating, the bitch inside was about ready to let loose. I could feel it. He disrupted my little microcosm. He was the enemy.
With everything thrown out of balance, things started happening again. One day Abby left the door open a crack so that Dan could get in. We were both sitting at our computers and I got this odd impulse. It was like a shudder. Right after it happened, the door slammed shut.
"What was that?" Abby jumped up. I turned around, looked at the door indifferently and shrugged.
"Breeze," I responded. "It was only open a little." We heard a knock--it was Dan. I found it interesting that the door locked just before he got here.
"Hi Amy," he said, slithering by me. I didn't like him for some reason. I felt like there was something sinister about him and I didn't know why. Maybe I was just really protective of Abby and I hated the idea of her having him as her first boyfriend.
"Hi Dan," I responded. The door swung open again, and one of Dan's friends entered.
"Hey ladies." It was Scott, the loudmouth asshole. Now I was tensing up. I was hoping they were here to pick Abby up and go. I didn't want to deal with either of them. I could have ignored Dan, but I didn't want Scott in my room.
"So what are the boys up to today?" Abby Asked. Dan shrugged and looked at Scott.
"Well...we thought we'd come hang out with the misfits," Scott said, looking right at me. I ignored him and continued typing. "And how is the recluse queen?" As he went to sit on my bed, I looked up at him sharply. When I did, something snapped in me. From the base of my spine, I felt something well all the way up through my back and head and down through my arms. It almost felt like adrenaline. Whatever it was, I wasn't the only one who felt it.
Half-distracted by the odd feeling running through me, I watched as Scott landed on the bed, bounced far higher than he should have, and spun forward in mid-air, pushing his torso toward the ground face first. But it wasn't like the kid jumped on my bed or anything. From my angle it looked like he was thrown out of the bed right when he tried to sit on it.
"Sit much?" Dan howled with laugher. Abby looked concerned, but neither of them found anything strange about Scott's sudden leap off the bed and toward the floor.
"Are you okay?" Abby asked. With a pen in my mouth, I peeked around the side of my computer.
"Go back to your own room if you want to jump on a bed, Scott." He looked up at me with wild eyes--confusion to the point of feral regression. Unlike Dan and Abby, he didn't find anything funny about his fall. I could tell from that first look that he wasn't joking around. Whatever it was that happened to me, Scott felt something throw him off the bed at the same time.
"Seriously, Scotty--what the hell was that?" Dan was practically in tears now. "You like, sat down slow, and then BAM! Floor time." Dan turned to me. "You got pressure loaded springs in that thing, or what?" I winked.
"Think of it as a security system. It's like ADT for my bed." I grinned back at Scott and went back to typing. By this time he had gotten up and pushed down on a part of my bed with his hands.
"Seriously, how did that happen?" He asked. "That was some weird shit." Dan started at him again.
"Scotty, you're just looking for an excuse for your failed stunt. You tossed yourself on the ground, dude. Get over it. We've got witnesses to your hot-doggery." Scott looked at me again.
"Hey recluse queen...you sure you're not a witch?" I didn't bother to look up at him before delivering my reply.
"Sure you're not a clumsy fuck?" I smiled. There was something to that question, but I cover up worry with sarcasm very well when I need to.
"We all suspected, but I'm convinced now," Dan said, laughing again. "I wish I had a video camera." Scott faked a lunge at Dan, Dan faked a punch back, and after this little male reconciliation/bonding ritual, things were back to normal.
"Ok, this has been a blast, but I want to go eat. I haven't used up my lunch meal yet. You guys in?" Scott asked. Abby and Dan both stood up.
"I could eat," Abby said. "You want to come, Amy?"
"Uh-uh," I said. "Gotta finish this essay. Besides, I used my lunch meal up already." The three departed, and I was left alone. I immediately stood up and walked to the side of my bed, pushing down on it like Scott had.
The bed didn't have much spring at all. It was a college mattress, designed with all the comfort and style that you'd expect from a college mattress. I jumped and landed on the bed seat-first, but I stayed on. With subsequent attempts, I found it rather difficult to hop off the bed in one bounce, let alone exert enough force to throw my body face first.
I was right about that face. He couldn't have done that to himself, and I think he knew it. This was good news for me, actually. It was one more step toward me being sane. The fact that I was dealing with another strange situation didn't bother me as much this time. Now it was exciting.
The book was once again open on the cases of my haunted drawer and my hovering incident with Jenna. Things were happening again, but this time it was more interesting to me. I had no explanation, other than to say that Scott was just joking, which my critical mind still thought of as a good possibility. However, my critical mind was losing to irrational thoughts. The timing with Scott's fall and that strange feeling in me coincided too closely. I threw him out of my bed.
I laughed to myself. We're talking Jean Grey telekinesis? No way. Maybe Jenna was right. Maybe I need help.