Dorm Room 210 [Rewrite]

Chapter 11

In hindsight, we should've turned around.

I sit next to Noah with our plate of fettuccine and salad. My eyes roam around the glass table as I sip on a champagne glass with lemonade and they fall on Aaron, rocking what I call a dad jumper over a white collar shirt, then over to Veronica, twirling pasta on her fork, and finally his brother, Vincent.

The tension in the room has double-folded in the past five minutes of being seated and the slight pounding headache is the only comfort. Veronica chats the entire time, filling up what should've been dense silence into a false pretence of enjoyable conversation. I do my best to play along, but I have no remembrance of the general topic. My focus on Noah's emotional stability outweighs that.

Aaron clears his throat and sips his glass of dark red wine. Noah scrapes his fork hard against the plate. I hiss at the pulsing at my temples.

"Shit, sorry," he says. "I didn't mean that."

"I know," I say, rubbing my head.

"Are you all right, dear?" Veronica asks, stopping midway in her conversation. Her green eyes are full of worry. "Do you have a headache?"

"Uh, kind of."

"Some Panadol can fix that." Veronica turns to Aaron. "In the kitchen cabinet, the first drawer."

Vincent wipes his mouth with a napkin and stands. "I'll retrieve it, mother."

"No, I got it." Noah scrapes his chair against the floorboards. I squeeze the phone into my lap to hide my irritation. "I live in this house, too; I know exactly where it is."

Vincent raises his hands. "By all means."

Noah disappears before I get a chance to look back at him, leaving me with his family for another round of quietness.

I catch my eyes with Vincent's, grinning. I force one out.

"How did you end up sharing the dorm with Noah? When Dad told me he was coming with you, I was under the impression he meant a girlfriend." He takes a sip from his champaign glass. "Didn't think co-ed dorms were common."

"They're common," Aaron says, gathering pasta on his fork. "There's at least one dorm building on each campus. Perhaps you would take an interest—"

"Pretty sure I was told Noah had wanted to room alone," Vincent said, not batting an eyelash towards his father. Aaron just takes a hefty sip of his beverage. "Unless I was mistaken, mother."

"Of course not, dearest." Veronica squeezes her son's shoulder. "But you know Noah. He likes his privacy."

It doesn't occur to me that Vincent is still waiting until he faces me again. "Well?"

I sit up straighter. "Oh, um, it just happened that way."

"Must've been startling."

"At first," I agree, "but it grew on me."

Vincent raises his brows. "Living with my brother?"

Where is Noah? "Yeah. We fell into a routine after a while and it... and things grew to be normal."

Veronica's smile is charming. "I hope so. Noah's very easy to live with. He's such a good boy."

"And respectful," I add.

"Weren't you assigned to another dorm previously?" Vincent asks, sitting forward in his chair. There's a spark in his eyes that is starting to make my head uncomfortable as if it's stuff in an itchy hat.

"I was."

"Don't you find it odd? You were supposed to live in a dormitory, and yet you're here. You're not supposed to be here."