The Tribuo - 53. Part V, chapter 7

- VII -

Then Coleen moved out, and Jess got her new roommate. When I saw him for the first time, I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I haven’t felt this way since Jordan. Then he glanced at me, and suddenly, he looked like he was about to die from a heart attack. Well, I thought, it was probably a good thing that he reacted that way. I mean, it was obvious that for some reason, he couldn’t stand looking at me. How was that a good thing, you may ask? It was a good thing because if I ended up falling for someone, it would probably turn out bad again, and this time, I would end up doing something drastic. So I left and tried putting every thought of that guy out of my head.

I was pretty successful with that until Jamie’s birthday party. I knew that Jess was around there somewhere, and then I spotted her. I almost called her name, but then realized that she was caught up in conversation with Paul Landley, the guy from our school. He looked like one of those laid-back types who was about to start saying, 'Peace, man,' any minute. I decided to let them be and went outside for a smoke. I sat down on the steps, lit a cigarette, and then someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and almost choked on my own tongue. It was Jess’ new roommate. Russell whatever his last name was.

“Hey,” he said, and he looked like a definition of 'uncomfortable.'

“Hey,” I answered carefully.

“Mind if I sit down?”

“Go ahead,” I scooted to the left a little.

He sat down and pulled a lighter out of his pocket. He was fiddling with it for a minute or so without saying anything. Finally, I asked him if he needed a cigarette. He shook his head no, and fished a pack of Parliaments out of his pocket.

“Look,” he said finally. “I am sorry for acting the way I did on Sunday… It’s just…”

“It’s okay,” I shrugged. “I do look frightening. I got it from my mother.”

He laughed at that and looked at me. I almost gritted my teeth when his light-green eyes made my heart to skip a beat.

“No,” he said. “You don’t look frightening. But you do look like someone I knew. I didn’t expect that…” he started fiddling with his lighter again. “I’m sorry for acting like a rude asshole.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I muttered.

He looked at me again, and this time, he grinned.

“So your name is Lex, huh?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. I knew what he was going to ask next.

“Luthor?” he said.

Yup, that’s exactly what I thought he would ask.

“I wish,” I grinned back. “But no. Mitchell. Pretty ordinary.”

“I wouldn’t call you ordinary,” he said and immediately pressed his lips tightly, as if he couldn’t believe he just said that.

“If you say so,” I said as lightly as I possibly could. “So if you don’t mind me asking… Who did I remind you of?”

“My friend,” he said after several seconds.

“Ah,” I replied, thinking that I should be proud of my conversational skills. “So, Jess dragged you here tonight, didn’t she?” I finally came up with a semi-decent question.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I am glad she did. It’s been a while since I was around more than two people at a time. Feels refreshing.”

Someone immediately puked in the bushes not too far away from us, as if they had their cue. I snorted.

“If you say so,” I muttered and he laughed. “I’ll have to go soon.”

“Oh, yeah? How come?” he asked quickly, and once again, pressed his lips tightly.

“I have an early class tomorrow morning,” I said, trying to ignore the fact that my heart was beating in some really bizarre rhythm. Sounded like it was trying to do salsa dancing.

“Seven-forty?” he asked without looking at me this time.

“No, that’s Jess. Mine is at eight-forty, but it’s still early in my book. I am not much of a morning person.”

“Yeah, me neither… I don’t even remember what time I have to be there tomorrow. Will have to check my schedule when I get home.”

I was out of questions again. Talking about school didn’t seem appealing at all, and I had no inspirational ideas about any other conversation topics.

“Can’t wait to finally get my car,” Russell said thoughtfully.

“You buying it or…?” Car was a good topic.

“No,” he shook his head. “A friend of mine is going to drive it here. She is going to Pennsylvania in three weeks. She said she’d drive here, and then she would get on a plane.”

“Oh, I see,” I nodded. “So now you are walking everywhere?”

“Pretty much,” he said with a shrug. “It’s all right though. The weather is not that bad, and the school is not too far.”

“Well, let me know if you ever need a ride,” I said, and now it was my turn to press my lips into a tight line. “I mean… If Jess isn’t around…”

“Yeah, sure…” he muttered.

I looked at my watch. It was after midnight.

“If Jess wants to be able to function in the morning, she'd better move it,” I said and Russell shrugged.

“I’ll go find her in a couple of minutes.”

“The last time I saw her, she was on the couch talking to Landley,” I said for no apparent reason.

“Who is Landley?” he asked with mild interest.

“A guy from our school. I am not really sure about his major… I don’t even know if he has one yet…”

Russell snorted at that.

“Seriously,” I nodded. “He is one of those who change their minds every semester. I think he used to be a programmer, but then he switched to something else…” I shrugged. “He’s an all right guy though.”

I had no idea why I was going to such great lengths to describe Landley.

“What’s your major?” Russell asked when I stopped talking.

“Computer science,” I said, and he muttered something like, 'huh.'

“I suck when it comes to computers,” he said seriously. “I mean, I know how to mess one up pretty well… But that’s about it.”

“How well?” I asked with a small smile.

“I managed to fry a motherboard once,” he said solemnly.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “You have skills, all right… What did you do?”

“I don’t even know,” he grimaced. “It was fine, and then it just died. I didn’t spill anything on it, never unplugged anything, and I didn’t use a sledgehammer.”

“Yeah, those would be my first three questions,” I nodded seriously.

He laughed again.

“And one time I managed to stick a floppy disc into Mac,” he said and I blinked at that.

“Umm, how was that bad?” I asked carefully.

“I was in the computer lab one day, and I needed to print something off a floppy I had with me…” he paused and dragged on his cigarette. “All the PCs were taken, so I went to a Mac. Now, I don’t know anything about Macs, okay? There was something that looked like a floppy drive, so I shoved my disc in there. It wouldn’t go in at first, but I managed. Well, nothing happened, so I tried to get it out and couldn’t. Had to go get a tech. When I told him that I shoved a floppy in there…” he sighed. “Turns out it wasn’t a floppy drive, it was something else…”

I imagined myself in place of that tech and blinked again.

“Yeah,” Russell nodded energetically. “He looked pretty much like you look now.”

I couldn’t help it -- I laughed.

“Did he get it out?” I asked finally.

“He did,” Russell sighed. “Screwdrivers do wonders. I am pretty sure, I was the main topic of that tech’s jokes for a while after that.”

And then we just kept talking. When I glanced at my watch again, it was 1:40 in the morning.

“Oh, crap! I gotta go,” I laughed. “It’s one-forty.”

“Seriously?” he blinked. “Wow… I better go find Jess.”

We got up and he stretched his hand.

“Hey, I enjoyed our talk,” he said when I shook his palm. “I really did. If I manage to mess up my laptop…”

“Let me know,” I nodded. “I might be able to fix it. Unless you shove something in there that can’t be removed with a screwdriver…”

“I am careful with shoving lately,” he said solemnly. “I try not to go anywhere near floppies now.”

“Meh,” I shrugged. “Floppies are in the past, anyway.”

“Yeah,” he said without letting go of my hand.

I just looked at him when he kept squeezing my fingers. Finally, he blinked and let go of my hand, and I could've sworn, he blushed. Or maybe it was just my imagination.

“Night,” I said uncomfortably.

“Yeah,” he nodded quickly. “Later!”

I went inside Jamie’s house to get my jacket that I left in there. I looked for Jess, and finally saw her and Landley in the kitchen. They looked like they were starring in some bizarre soft-porn flick. I left them alone and decided to take off.

I was driving to my apartment when I decided to call Jess and see if Russell was able to get her out of that kitchen. She sounded a little out of breath, but apparently, she was on her way home. I was really tempted to ask about her roommate, but I bit my tongue and silently told myself to stop being stupid. I mean, really… You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why he was acting this way with me -- I reminded him of someone he knew pretty well, go figure!

By the time I got home, I made several promises to myself. All of them meant pretty much the same thing -- I am not going to be an idiot, and I am not going to let myself fall for a guy who thinks I am someone else. That would be beyond stupid. By the time I fell asleep, I was able to achieve very shaky inner peace.