Long Distance is a Bitch by shiprat

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"What is this?" one of my roommates said, standing at the door of their bedroom. The other was standing next to her, both staring in horror at Dustin.

"A friend of mine. He isn't feeling well. I asked him to sleep on the couch tonight."

"Are you mad?" the other one hissed. "Some strange man in our apartment with the three of us?"

"I told you, he's a friend of mine. It'll be fine." I said walking towards my room.

"This is not acceptable, Anar." she said.

"Yeah, well, then you wake him up and kick him out." I said and slammed the door behind me. I was not going to let those stuck-up bitches ruin my high. I opened my laptop, started a playlist of my favorite songs, and lay down on the bed. I am not sure when exactly I fell asleep.

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The next day, there was an almighty row. Quite unwarranted, I felt. Dustin woke up well before dawn and was gone before either me or my roommates woke up. But that didn;t stop them from bitching and moaning to me about it all morning until I left for school.

"How dare you bring a man into the house without asking us?"

"What if he had bangd you? What if he had bangd us?"

"What will other people say?"

"We were so scared we couldn't sleep all night."

"Is he your boyfriend? We thought you had a boyfriend in North Carolina?"

"Only characterless women bring guys home like this."

"We put up with your smoking and your eating meat, but this is too much."

All this is just a small sample of what my roommates bombarded me with. I argued back, reminding them that I pay half the rent, and I had as much right to this apartment as they did. I also reminded them that this wasn't small town India, so they had better stop behaving like two fuddy duddies. And I said a lot of things, throwing their insults back at them in equal measure. But by the time I left the apartment for school, I was regretting the whole thing. I still knew I was right in inviting Dustin to sleep on the couch instead of his car. But I didn't need this extra aggravation.

I got to school and immersed myself in my coursework and research. It was a particularly busy day for me, and even when I ran into Dustin, I just made small talk and left. He thanked me for letting me spend the night on the couch, and I told him it was no bother.

That night, Parag called. He started off by apologizing about the way he had behaved. He assured me he was proud of my achievements and admitted that he felt jealous that he couldn't keep up. But, he said, he would work on it, and work harder. And he promised me that he would absolutely come visit me the coming weekend. Pretty soon, we were professing our renewed love to each other. That out of the way, I thought of telling him about the previous night.

"By the way, last night, I smoked weed." I started, making sure there was no one around in the corridor of our department.

"What!!!?? How?" Parag asked in an excited voice.

"You know that guy Dustin I told you about?"

"Your janitor rock star friend?"

"Yeah, him. He got it for me."

"Nice! You're lucky to know such people. I must make friends like that here so I can smoke weed too!"

"It was really strong and smooth. In just 5 hits, I was over the moon!"

"Great! Can he get some for us this weekend when I visit?"

"I am sure he can! I'll ask him when I meet him." I said. "But it led to a fight."

Then I told Parag about how Dustin was in no shape to drive home so I invited him to sleep on the couch. And how my roommates gave me hell for it. Parag was very understanding, and agred that my roommates had been total bitches.

"This weekend, when I come, we should totally make out in front of them to make them angrier." Parag suggested.

"Oooh, great idea!"

With that, we ended our conversation. And I got back to studying, relieved that all was well with my boyfriend.

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The next day, I spent some time with Dustin, smoking outside the building. Just cigarettes, not weed. He did offer me weed, but I told him to save it for the weekend when Parag visited. He told me that Vicky was coming over on Saturday as well, so maybe we could go on a couple of double dates over the weekend. I told him that sounded like a great idea.

The day after, I got back another midterm. In this one, I did quite badly, a C. I was distraught, because I had spent hours and hours studying for it. Worked really hard. And yet, I had scored a C. Even worse, I felt the course was getting harder, so I dreaded what might happen in the final exam. I tried calling Parag to vent about it, but he told me he was busy. He was working extra hard to finish his studying and research so he could come meet me, so I did not mind. I tried to seek out Dustin instead, but he was busy helping the crew wax the floors, so he did not get time to talk to me.