[Part 1 of the story, you can find here. ]
Warmed by the camp fire in the backyard, the tiny band of technology graduate students, older but not necessarily wiser than their undergraduate counterparts, were winding down the party. Good nights all around, hoping to rest on Sunday. “Monday’s really gonna suck,” Emily agreed. The start of the Winter trimester brings meeting with hopeful professors and new students with new stories, with the same old mucky laboratories and grueling courses.
Emily and Jennifer started cleaning up the cups and stacks of paper plates. Jeff and Rick had the jobs of moving the over-sized barbecue grill Jeff’s friend Terry loaned them for the night, collecting any donations lying around, and deciding, either douse or keep the camp fire going. The near morning air was nippy and dry for January. Emily found one bottle of wine unopened.
“Great party Rick,” Jeff huffed. It’s been less than two weeks since Jeff moved here during the trimester break, so he still thought of it as Rick’s house. Strapped for cash, none of them could afford to pay the full rent for three tenants for long, so they took on an extra “illegal” housemate, which was now Jeff.
Jeff shifted as he went down the stairs. The two struggled down the stairs to put the empty behemoth of a charcoal grill in the basement. He was carrying more of the load, or the grill was heavier than he expected. Terry had sneaked off some time ago without saying what to do with the grill. A football player and on the city volunteer fire brigade, Terry easily brought the grill to Rick’s house by himself. Snow would be coming again. Terry would not need the grill anytime soon.
“Yeah, thanks… let’s keep the fire going OK?” Rick was already onto the next step, not concentrating on what he was doing. Neither of them had time to drink much. Rick was a lightweight though, or at least he pretended to be around the girls, surmised Jeff. Catching up with old friends, making and dishing out food was more than Rick had bargained for at any rate. Rick was glad that most of the people who showed up paid the asking donation for beer and food. It would help. Rick would pay off the common house expenses. They went back up the stairs to meet up with Emily and Jen.
Comfortable and together, the four housemates sat around the fire in folding outdoor camp seats, tired and happy. Emily said she forgave Rick for throwing out her most lovely and hard-to-find vanilla tea collection last week. It did not look like “weed” at all though. She questioned Rick, whether he knew what weed looked like or smelled like. Emily knew he just couldn’t stand her stuff leaking over into his cupboard. Emily turned and asked Jeff, “How can you be allergic to vanilla tea or pods?” Emily asked Jeff, who she knew did research on allergies and immunology last year. Jeff rolled his eyes and shrugged. Emily managed to open the last bottle of wine with one great big huff.
Jeff wouldn’t touch the stuff Emily was passing around. Once you see the effects of alcohol on your liver, you don’t want anything to do with that, Jeff said. He tried to be a good role model and show off at the same time, his wisdom from his current work in pathology.
Jen broke the silence after everyone had their drinks and mused about the coming days. Rick, glad the party was over, was not looking forward to cleaning up. Emily and Jen of course, could help. Jeff, listened and observed everything, soaking up the stories from his new housemates.
“So, do you have any resolutions for this year?” Jen inquired. It was already three weeks into the New Year, and she was asking about resolutions now? Emily laughed and spilled her wine.
Rick turned to Emily and Jeff, leering like a jackal. “Well, if you must know, mine are to run more so I can do a ten minute mile, sell more of my awesome custom built computers, and try not to take advantage of my young impressionable robotics students.” Rick turned back to Jen and shook his head at her, as if he knew what she must be thinking. His current interest (well, since he couldn’t have Emily), was a just turned 18 super whiz kid girl who knew a lot about electronics, almost as much as Rick.
Emily giggled. “Aw, Rick! What about giving up that ratty Snoopy?” Rick had this big old Snoopy stuffed animal sitting in his tiny bedroom, on his single mattress bed. Rick loved Snoopy, but it was SO old and awful. It wasn’t cute or endearing at all to Emily. Jeff hadn’t noticed it yet.
“Oh yes, much better idea, your robotics class could use Snoopy as a crash test dummy in the annual Bot Wars! Wouldn’t that be cool!” Jen dreamed of the day the dirty toy, almost the size of a five year old, would leave the house and be incinerated. “Have you ever washed that thing?” Jen asked, but they all knew the answer to that.
Rick cringed while his housemates snickered and teased him about his fanaticism for Snoopy. “Don’t touch my Snoopy!!” Rick desperately tried to change the subject. “What about you, Jen? Or should I call you Lucy? Don’t you have any New Year’s Resolutions??”
“Yeah, I shouldn’t talk so much right?” Jen giggled. “I’m resolving to be a bit less crabby, also to get fit, but don’t think I’m running with either of ya,” Jen rolled her eyes at her uber-fit housemates. “And perhaps to choose better men to date, but no promises on that one okay?” The boys nervously looked at each other; Rick had to deal with Jen’s previous riff raff and quietly encouraged Jen with better prospects when ever possible. Jeff, now a housemate, was not possible. “Your turn, Em,” Jen said, after her giggles had stopped.
“Well, I don’t know if these are real resolutions or not, or what do you call ‘em?” Emily paused, scrunched up her face to think. “I guess I got to take care in the kitchen more, you know, to stop dropping jelly and loose tea on the floor, as Rick keeps telling me I’m doing, ten hours later,” Emily flashes her cutest smile at Rick, trying hard as hell not to be facetious. Emily turned to Jeff, in a sweet voice, “and you Jeff? Do you have resolutions?”
Jeff confessed he didn’t really make resolutions. He had goals of course, but he’d been working on those for some time and it wasn’t really just in January that he reviewed them. Jeff stayed quiet and mellow, while the others chatted on about the Winter semester and what they hoped to get out of it.
Emily, looked at her watch. Three-thirty am. “Guys, let’s crash, leave all this crap for tomorrow.” Jeff and Jen agreed and got up with Emily, putting three chairs away. Rick, unbelieving that it had got so late, stayed on to put out the fire. Jeff watched the girls go up stairs while getting his gear ready for tomorrow.
Rick came in half hour later, put some trash together, then called it a night. “Jeff, you are going to like living here,” said a sleepy Rick, as he trundled off with a blanket. Jeff smiled and put the seat Rick left in the hallway with the others, then turned out the downstairs lights.
Yes, once upon a time, the four housemates had good laughs, shared the load of chores, and generally helped each other out, keeping the house stable and tidy and happy.
Word Count: 1275 Go to Part 3: here.
