Never Meant To Be
By Unknown
Chapter 3
The lounge he was studying in was slowly emptying as the night drew on. He picked up his phone and glanced at the time; it was nearing 3am. He had been working the homework for the classes that he was so far behind in. Near midnight, there had been around seven or so people hanging around, watching television or just relaxing. There was even a group playing World of Warcraft, huddled around their laptops and mumbling words about orcs or something under their breath as they played. But now, three hours later, there was only two people left; him, and another student who had dozed off on the couch in front of the television.
He was sitting on the floor, papers scattered all around him in various stacks according to what class they corresponded to. After finishing the chapter he was reading out of his psychology book, he slapped it closed and let his eyes take a break. He always did this to himself. He’d spend the majority of the week procrastinating, then would have to spend an entire night working to catch up on the momentous amounts of work he’d skipped. It was something that he was used to though, so spending his entire Friday evening down in the common room wasn’t a total downer.
He did, however, need to take breaks once in a while, and he figured now would be a good time.
He contemplated packing his papers up, but he assumed that no one would bother them, mostly because everyone was already asleep, but also, who would want a bunch of scribbled notes and diagrams? He decided to leave the mess on the floor and take a quick walk outside.
Standing up, his back popped a number of times before moving completely upright. He cracked his neck as well, his body complaining about how long it had sat on the uncomfortable floor. Deciding against going outside without a jacket, he started up the stairs to his room to grab a coat.
He arrived at his door, and reached into his pocket for his keys. He hoped his roommate was asleep; it wasn’t exactly pleasant to talk to him. Then again, he didn’t really enjoy conversing with anyone at any given time. He figured his life would be much better if he didn’t have to talk to anyone.
He slid the key into the door, but before turning to open the lock, he thought he heard something from inside the room. He leaned his head closer to the door, the key still in the lock. Putting his ear against the cold, metal door, he heard breathing, soft, like it was being muffled. Actually, he noticed there were two voices, both sounding frantic and breathing heavily.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or that the oxygen had been cut off to his brain after all those hours of sitting downstairs, but for some reason, his brain didn’t register what he was hearing from inside the room. Oblivious, he finally turned the key, and swung the door wide open.
It was pitch black, except for the moonlight shining into the room and the light from the hallway quickly covered the room. The first thing he noticed as the light from the hallway reached the far corners of the room was that his roommate was, indeed, not asleep, but upright, in the middle of the room. The second thing he noticed was that he was currently straddled over another another dark figure, also in the middle of the room.
Instantly, the two in the room stopped what they were doing and looked up at the silhouette standing in the door. The three all stopped moving completely, and stared at each other.
Even the crickets outside were quieted.
Finally, his roommate broke the silence.
“Get the hell out of here!”
Startled, and still not registering exactly what was going on, he covered his eyes with one hand and quickly plucked his jacket off of the hook on the back of the door before turning, leaving the room, and slamming the door behind him.
He briskly walked down the hall and into the stairwell, returning to the downstairs lobby. He rushed over to where he had left his papers and books. But, to his dismay, only a few stray papers were sitting where he had left them. The rest of his work and books were nowhere to be seen. He peeked over at the couch; the person sitting there was also nowhere to be seen.
He clenched his fists, and bursting through the doors in the lobby, entered the cold, damp outside air. He walked to the nearest bench and sat down, ignoring the puddle of water that was already soaking into his jeans from the rain that had fallen earlier and had pooled on the bench.
He stared at the ground, his eyes completely vacant. His mind had turned into mush, understandably. It took him a few minutes to regain any sort of consciousness.
When he did finally come around, he chuckled under his breath.
Soon, the chuckle turned into a soft laugh, which slowly grew louder and louder until he was laughing so hard, he was crying. He buried his fists into his face, and tried to hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes.
As the laughter and crying died down, he peeled his hands from his face and noticed a drop of water on his pants leg. It seemed he let something as stupid as walking in on his roommate having sex or his homework getting stolen get the better of him. All the stress had made him so incredibly high strung, that even the slightest thing could send him spiraling back into a crying fit of depression.
A heavy sigh escaped his lips.
There was only one cure.
Still sitting on the bench, he pulled out his phone and opened up his video list. He started the very first episode of My Little Pony he could find. He laid out on the bench, the water soaking into his shirt and pants, and rested his head on one of his hands while the other held the phone up to his eyes. As he watched the little ponies jumping around on the screen, the night seemed to disappear and his nerves completely left him.
Hours passed, and he continued to watch the show. Eventually, his eyes grew tired and sore from the crying, and they slowly closed, still glued to the screen. When he finally drifted off to sleep, the phone slipped out of his hands and landed with a *thud* on the ground, face up.
Minutes past, and he was slightly drawn out of his slumber by a couple of raindrops hitting his head. The drops turned into handfuls, which turned into piles. Too tired to care, he shut his eyes once more and let the torrents of rain fall down onto him as he drifted off to sleep below the night sky.