KISS Kollege

Ch 12: Room Check (Paul)

Ace stumbled into the room, out of breath. "Sorry, sorry I'm late, has he gotten here yet?" he asked, panting. "No, not yet," I said, not bothering to look up from shoving clothes into my dresser. "Okay good. I'd be pissed if I sprinted all the way here for nothing," he said, running  a hand through his hair before starting to dig White Claw cans out of the recycling bin. "Get any beer cans too. Anything that'll get us in trouble," I said, and he nodded, stuffing all the cans into his dresser beneath his clothes. 

Before we could finish cleaning up the rest of our room, there was a knock on the door. We froze, exchanging panicked glances. "Get the door?" he suggested, and I sighed, rising to my feet and pulling open the door. Tommy was standing there, giving me a thin smile. "Paul, Ace. You guys mind if I do a quick check to make sure your room is up to standard?" he asked. I very much did mind but there was nothing I could really do to stop him, so I just shrugged, letting him walk into the room. 

Ace was standing nervously in front of his dresser, fidgeting as his eyes darted around in a panic, and I tried to bite back a smile as I realized Peter was right, Ace was the worst person I could ask to try and use a fake ID. Tommy frowned, looking at the clipboard in his hand as he moved through the room. "You can't leave dirty dishes out like this. That's how we get ants," he said, making a check on the list. "Same with the opened food." "I was eating that before I had to deal with this bullshit," I muttered under my breath as he nudged my plate with a half eaten hot pocket on it. 

Tommy either didn't listen or didn't care and nudged the carpet with his foot. "A lot of crumbs on the floor. Another issue there too," he said, making two more checks and moving over to Ace's desk. "And watch the papers. Those can be a fire hazard." "A fire hazard?! Fucking how?!" Ace cried. Tommy arched an eyebrow. "Because if they catch on fire, they'll burn fast." "Well what's gonna catch them on fire?!" Ace protested as I motioned for him to just shut up so this would end faster. "It's a risk that we're not supposed to take in the dorms," Tommy said, mouth pressing into a thin line as he avoided answering the question.

Ace held up his hands in defeat, grumbling angrily to himself as Tommy kept moving through our room, marking us down for the pettiest shit, like having two things plugged into an outlet with two plugs. Finally, he ripped the paper off the clipboard, handing it to me. "You two passed, but barely. Try and look over this and review it for next time," he said, walking out of the room. The instant the door closed behind him, Ace and I turned to each other, mouths agape. I crumpled up the piece of paper Tommy had given us. "What the hell was that?!" I cried. 

"Give me that," he said, taking the paper from my hand and scanning it. "I mean come on! You were very clearly eating the stupid hot pocket! And what the fuck is gonna catch my notes on fire?! I was using them to study! Am I not allowed to have notebooks in my room?! Should I tell my professors their worksheets are a fire hazard?!" "This sucks. He sucks. He gave us a 3 out of 5. 'Too many things in the outlet' like what?! There are two plugs! For two devices! Why the fuck would I not plug in two things?!" I snapped, crumpling up the paper again. "Can't believe I got out of my boyfriend's arms and sprinted a quarter mile back here for this shit," Ace growled. 

"I know. Speaking of boyfriends though, Gene's gonna come over and help me study, are you good with that?" I asked. Ace's eyebrows shot up. "Ooh you're dating him?!" he asked with a grin, and I shook my head, face going red. "No! No why would you think that?!" I cried. "Because you said 'speaking of boyfriends' and then talked about Gene? Implying he's your boyfriend?" he said slowly. My face was scarlet at this point. "Oh. Sorry. Well no, he's not my boyfriend," I said, wishing immensely he was. 

Ace gave me a smile and a shrug. "Whatever. Anyway no I don't mind because I think I'm gonna go back over to my boyfriend's room. Let me call him," he said, pulling out his phone. "Hey babe! Hey you know how you were talking about how great your RA is? Yeah can I come over and bitch about how much mine sucks?" There was a pause before a smile spread across his face. "Well obviously to see you too. Alright bye!" he said, hanging up. "Yeah, I'm gonna go over to his dorm. Have fun "studying" with Gene!" he said with a wink. 

"I will be studying! That's all we're gonna do!" I protested as he walked out of the room with a parting wave. Once he had left, I finished my hot pocket while waiting for Gene, staring angrily at the paper Tommy had left us. "That's so stupid. He's so stupid. Why does he suck so much?" I muttered, before a knock on my door pulled me out of my thoughts. Running a hand through my hair and shooting a glance at my reflection in the mirror on the back of the door, I pulled it open, giving Gene a smile. 

"Hey! You're a lifesaver, you know that?" I asked, and he grinned, shifting his backpack to his other shoulder. "I do know that. What math are you in again?" he asked, walking into the room. "I'm in 17A, so just like precalculus stuff. Mainly like junior year algebra but I was really bad at that class. And I didn't even take math senior year, so it's been awhile." Rolling his eyes, he set down his backpack, pulling out his notes. "Well lucky for you I went all the way through calculus BC, so I know how to math." 

Heart melting, I sat next to him on the edge of my bed. "That's very lucky for me. Oh, random question, what's your RA like?" I asked casually. "Oh, Eric? Oh he's great! Eric Singer, not Eric Carr, my roommate, although he's great too. No yeah I love Eric, he's a really chill RA. He's super friendly and a total sweetheart, he likes to write little positive messages on the whiteboards we all have outside our rooms. And he leaves restaurant recommendations too. Yeah, he's great! Why do you ask?" 

"Oh, no reason," I muttered, pulling out my math textbook with a sigh.