The Drill
I glared at the ceiling. My dorm was dark regardless of my alarm clock's soft green glow and the light peeking through the cracks in the door. My body was warm, but my face was frozen, as it was the only part of me not under my fuzzy heap of blankets. I heard my roommate groan with annoyance. The pile of covers rustled slightly and rose with her as she sat up. I did not move. You've got to be joking, I wrinkled my nose as the fire alarm continued to blast from the hall. Hurried footsteps passed my door but I stayed in my bundle of warmth.
Judging by how absolutely freezing it had been when the sun was actually out, I figured it must've been ten times colder by that point. I tilted my head towards the green glow. 3:12. You are fucking kidding me. A full day of tests, lectures, and classes and this is how they repay us? With a fire drill at three in the morning? They better give us extra time to sleep. I gritted my teeth and tossed the covers off me.
The warm air was sucked away with the blankets as a blast of cold air engulfed me. Goosebumps rose on my arms and my teeth began to chatter like an eleven year old car starting up on a freezing winter morning. My charity fundraiser tee-shirt and pajama shorts were doing absolutely nothing to shield me from the cold. I was debating whether or not I should grab my winter coat when someone banged on the door.
"C'mon, ladies!" a gruff voice shouted, giving away that is was Ms. Lawrence, the head of the science department, "If this was a real fire, you'd be burning away!"
"Coming," my roommate grunted. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and shuffled towards the door. Looking back at me she stated, "Do not make me drag your lazy ass out of bed or so help me God."
I stood up and tried to ignore my wobbly legs. The two of us opened the door and absorbed into the flow of students lazily bumping their way through the narrow hallways. The bright white lights danced across everyone's sleepy faces and the loud neaap, neaap, neaap, was a constant and aggravating factor through the exiting of the building. I did my best to fight the rush of bone chilling wind as it smacked me in the face as the door in front of me opened. My cheeks grew red from the cold.
I'd long lost sight of my roommate. She was lost somewhere in the crowd by the time I was outside. Small pools of students were in front of each sorority and fraternity house, shoving each other and complaining about the cold. I spotted several students laying down in the snow, trying to fit in as many hours of sleep as possible.
"Hey, Char!" a much too cheerful voice for three a.m. caused me to turn around.
"Oh," I tried not to sound disappointed, "Hello, Janelle."
"Crazy thing having a fire drill so late at night!" she rambled, "Or should I say morning? God, I can't even remember the last time I was up this late. I think it was in tenth grade at my best friend's birthday party. Well, best friend at the time I mean, you know how friends work."
I stopped listening and let her jumble of words slip through my brain without being processed. I was more focused on the fact that my feet were most likely being frostbitten at the time. The thin layer of snow on the side walk burned my feet and numbed them. The ice crept up my legs and paralyzed me. My ears began to ache from the cold.
"Role call, everybody line up!" Ms. Lawrence shouted.
I effaced myself from Janelle and sped as far down the forming line as I could to get away from her. If I heard one more story, I would've exploded. I nudged myself into line and waited with my arms crossed and legs pressed together to conserve as much heat as possible. The winter wind sliced into my shirt and hugged my legs with hatred. I was about to turn to the person next to me and complain about how cold I was when I realized that that person had it worse than me. I also realized that that person wasn't a girl. That same person was only wearing purple boxers.
I must've made some strangled, inhumane noise because his deep brown eyes looked down at me with concern. You alright? they seemed to say, Fucking weirdo.
At least now he was actually looking at me. For the three whole years I'd been seeing him walk from class to class at this college, this was the first time he'd made any recognition that I existed. I'd watched him drink until he passed out, hit unsuspecting girls with frisbees, study last minute from across the room, and hook up with freshmen behind the library, where he thought no one was watching.
Now he was next to me, in only boxers in the middle of winter at three in the morning. Not the way I wanted to introduce myself to him. I was about to start a conversation when he cleared his throat.
"Cold out?" his voice was thick, "Isn't it?"
I was breathless. Steam curled out of my lips as I processed.
"Yeah," I said a little too late, "Sure is."
He surprised me again by simply speaking again, "Fucking dumb idea, having a drill so early."
This wasn't right. Why was he talking to me? No one talked to me. Especially the super hot frat boy who every girl, and some guys, were after. He's too cool for this. Ugh, unnecessary puns.
I agreed with him and nodded my head.
"Are you new here?" he questioned. Of course.
"Nope," I sighed, "I've been a student here for three years."
"That's weird. I've never seen you."
"Yeah, weird."
"I'm Jake Dowrey."
"Mmhmm, I know."
His face pulled taught with slight confusion as he straightened up.
I was about to feel sorry for myself that the cute boy never noticed me when I stopped myself. I cleared my head and reevaluated. Sure, he was attractive, but he was a dick. A big pile of dicks that was way out of my league and too popular for my liking. Did I mention that he was a dick?
A muffled voice called out with urgency to my right. As the voice got clearer I raised my hand and blinked.
"Charlotte Radley?" Ms. Lawrence yelled for the third time.
"Here!" a few snickers sounded from the crowd but I ignored them.
Jake leaned towards me and spoke yet again.
"Charlotte," he tested out the name, "Very pretty name."
No, I thought, No. This is what he does. He does this to every girl. He'll forget about me in a week. Don't fall for it . . .
I gave him my sweetest smile and looked him dead in the eyes.
"Shove it up your ass."
The bell rang and we filed back into our dorms. I didn't stick around to see his reaction.