Emily, the girl who’s here with a guy

The girl with the clipboard calls out, “Eliza, you will be with Emily.”

The girl with the guy who’s been embracing her and placing kisses all across her face here and there turns her head to the sound of her name being called. She gestures to the guy to wait, and she steps up and greets me, reaching a hand for me to shake. “Hi, I’m Emily. I’m going to be your mentor this year. I’m from Denver originally. But I doubt that’s where we will move after we graduate.” I raise an eyebrow hearing her statement, clearly confused by it. “Oh, by ‘we’, I mean my boyfriend and me.” She turns her head at the guy waiting towards the back of the room. He gives a smile, but given she is right in front of me, I don’t know whether the smile is for her or me. Emily turns her head back towards me and continues. “We’ve been dating since freshman year, and we’re practically inseparable. When we graduate next year, we’ll be moving in together. We just haven’t decided on the city yet.” My guess is it isn’t Denver. “But we won't have to wait until then! He will be in the room right next door to us all year. I’m so excited!”

One of the girls clearly wasn’t assigned and so she has tasked herself with telling the other girls, “Your mentor will also have a gift card provided by the folks at the X-Change Corporation. She’ll take you out and buy some basic hygiene and beauty products for you, along with some clothes she’ll help you pick out. And maybe even your first trip to the jewelry store at the end! Of course, you’ll probably be buying lots more for yourself once you settle in and have a bit of money. This is just a gift to get you started.”

The girls and their mentors separate to get to know each other. When Emily and I separate, the guy joins us, but his attention is all on Emily. I get it. They are lovebirds, soulmates. Inseparable, she stated. When we try to get to know each other, I find that I’m only getting to know her and the relationship she has to the guy, whose name she fails time and time again to mention. My mind wanders and imagines how this circumstance is going to go. For the next week or two, I’ll try to manage sharing a room with her, but every night, her boyfriend will visit and never leave. If they love each other as much as they are publicly displaying right now, they would probably be in her bed, making love like how they do behind closed doors, much more than what they do out in the open.

I imagine I’d be in the next bed, trying to quietly pleasure myself, once I figure out how to do so. Just hearing their moans and the creaks of the bed frame would turn from peculiar to annoying, potentially preventing me from sleeping or studying. I eventually will have to switch rooms with him to give them their privacy. I just hope sleeping in his room with his roommate in the other bed doesn’t get weird.

Emily finally realizes that she has been talking all about herself and her boyfriend and apologizes, “Oh god, I’m sorry, today is supposed to be about getting you started, not me going on and on about my boyfriend. Let’s go choose our other neighbor. Since I got to pick one, my boyfriend obviously, I'll let you choose the other one. That sounds fair, right? After that we can head to the mall and get you set up.” From her bag, she fishes out a crumpled piece of paper, which appears to have a list of names on them. “"Most of the dorm rooms on campus are assigned randomly, but there are a few sets that haven't been assigned yet. They said we could pick which guys would be in the room next door to us if we wanted. “If you want, you can pick the other one out. But it's not like we are at the animal shelter picking out kittens or something. There's just a list of names. I did ask around and get a little info on a few of them though. Here are the ones I know."

She hands me the piece of paper with names on them and she details what she has found out about them. “Barry. One of the other mentors knew him. She seemed to like him, but from the way she described him, he sounded like a bit of an ass. But it's your choice. Second one is James: A couple of the girls I talked with have fooled around with James. They all sounded like they had a good time though. Next is Josh. He seemed alright from what I heard. Nothing really stood out, so he's probably a safe choice. Peter was another one. I heard he tutored a few of the girls I talked with. He seems nice. And smart, I guess. Could be a good study partner. Last on the list is Zack. It sounds like he's into rock climbing and skydiving and stuff. He might be fun to hang out with if you're the adventurous type.” She pauses to look at her boyfriend. "Then again, if you can't pick one, I guess my boyfriend can pick someone out, either from the list or from other guys he knows that will be staying in the dorms."