When I was in college I had many friends, but the ones I always hung out with I actually went to high school with. I never got into the Greek life, and neither did my friends, so every weekend we did our own thing. Every Monday we would hear about some frat guys talking about how hammered they got, threw up, and don't really remember much after that. It was always the same thing. My friends and I, on the other hand, we try to vary our activities. I mean, we drank, even before we were 21, it was after all college, but we would do other things as well. And then, when we were all legally able to drink we would hit up the bars. One of my buddies was the last to turn 21 a week before spring break, so for spring break we all went to Las Vegas, but that's a whole other story.
The story I'm going to tell you about took place a few months before Vegas; in fact it was our first weekend back from Christmas break. Actually, that weekend won't really make too much sense, come to think of it, kind of like one of those incidents that people talk about that are hilarious, except to anyone that wasn't there they just kind of stare at you, maybe put on an awkward smile as you turn to them and say, "you had to be there." Instead, let me tell you about the weekend that basically leads up to all the others, including Vegas and the one my friends and I have dubbed 'bonding'. But before I tell you about that weekend, let me first tell you about my friends. There were six of us, including me. The most outgoing of us was John. John was also our tallest. In high school he played basketball and was pretty well fit. He usually kept his dark brown hair fairly short but when he got to college he refused to get a haircut so now he looked like Colin Farrell in Miami Vice. He wasn't overly tall, he was about 6'2" which is why he was probably the backup center, that and the fact he usually skipped out on practice.
The oldest in the group was Jason, whom we called Jay, as if Jason was too long to say, which ironic because we also had an Alex, who we didn't call Al for short, we called him Alexander. But Jay was the spitting image of Matthew Fox, who played Jack on LOST. As ironic it would have been for him to not like LOST, instead he was kind of an insane genius and never really watched TV at all. At one point, non us believed he didn't watch TV because right around the end of season three of LOST Jay started to grow out a beard and looked just like the 'flash forward' Jack ( for those who have never seen Lost, Jack ends up growing this Grisly Adams style beard, and he ends up looking kind of crazy). Why Jay grew out a beard we never knew, but he did, kept it for a couple months, then one day shaved it off, never giving a reason. I suppose you don't need a reason, but with Jay you couldn't even get him to talk about it. Not that he was a difficult person, or that he had no social skills, in fact he was quite the opposite. In high school all the teachers thought he was the quite type that the kids would pick on and then later shoot up the school. In reality all the kids talked to him because he ran an underground network and was the most popular kid.
The underground network he ran was really quite interesting. When he was young he moved around a lot, as a result of his father's job, until he was about ten when his father one the lottery and suddenly came into a couple million. His father worked at some chain store and was a supplier, but once he got the money he bought a car dealership and began to earn similar income when he was a regional manager, but now he was able to stay put. However, as a result his parents held him back from entering school when he was young because his father told his relocation would only be temporary, and they thought it would be best for Jay to introduce him into a school and keep him there. Little did they know they would be moving again, and again. Finally, they had no choice but to enter him into school, regardless of how much they would be moving. Fortunately Jay turned out to be a complete genius with a 200+ IQ. Anyway, the point was that he was already 18 when he was junior in high school. Funny thing is that he could have graduated early because of how smart he was and been with people his own age, but he instead chose to take a lessened school schedule so he could stay with his friends. As a result he had a lot of free time and when you give a genius a lot of free time he does some crazy things. First thing he did when he turned 18 was start his own software company. He made a few cheap computer games he sold online, a few programs for teachers at school, and then one day decided to hack Windows. When he cracked it he told Microsoft of it and told them how to fix it. They in turn bought his company, and paid for his "services" (basically told him to not tell anyone and when the new Windows came out, if he would try again and they would pay him. Sure enough, within two weeks of Vista's launch he broke the code and Microsoft once again improved where he was able to get into the code). He made a little over a million dollars without is parents even noticing. He then started his own real estate business, began rolling in some serious cash, bought his own house, his own Aston Martin, the works. Truth be told, he had no business being in college. Not only was he smarter than most professors, he also already had several businesses and was well off. With his own house in high school he started making large amounts of moonshine, real high quality stuff, too, which in turn he sold to other kids at school. Naturally, when he got to college he bought his own house off campus and took with him all his equipment to produce his signature quadruple distilled vodka. If the cops ever found out he would have gone away for a long time. Despite his ability to make his own alcohol, when he turned 21 he was our ticket for booze, as he turned 21 at the end of our freshman year. I suppose it gave him a thrill to break the law.
Then there was Alexander. He was an interesting fellow. He was the smallest one of us, barely stood 5'6" and looked a little like Seth Green. He was probably also the funniest. What he said wasn't hilarious, but he was always so straight faced and his humor was so dark and sarcastic. He rarely cracks a smile at his own stuff, but would laugh at the slightest bit of humor from someone else. He also had one of the quickest wits around and could probably prove to you that you in reality didn't exist. He was dangerous that way, in which he could get anyone to do anything without them really knowing; he actually talked a professor into giving him an A on a paper he plagiarized after the teacher threatened to get him expelled, now that takes balls. It's no wonder he was majoring in political science.
There was also Sean White, which is funny because while he shares a name, sort of, with a famous person he actually didn't look like anyone famous, but he did snowboard. He was average in every way you can be average. He was about 5'9", average build, average in school, average looks, had medium length brown hair and brown eyes, wasn't too funny, wasn't boring, and didn't have too many friends. One thing he was, though, was a good friend. He would also help you if he could and was always there if you needed him. Which is why, as average as he was, why he probably was the only one to have a stable, long standing relationship, and on top of it was with arguably one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen. He was the only one to not have gone to high school with us and we met him because he was roommates with Alex. His girlfriend didn't go to college with us because she had a full scholarship to play golf down in Florida. She said that she'd like to go pro once she graduated but until then she wanted to get a proper education.
Lastly, there was the center focus of the story, Ashley. Throughout high school we were a group of four good friends. Then one day sophomore year, John decided to get a girlfriend, Jessica, who just happened to be Ashley's best friend. So, naturally because John and Jessica were always together, Ashley tagged alone. Then, Jessica dumped John for the starting QB, at the same time alienating Ashley. Jessica and Ashley had their own group of friends, but they all turned on Ashley once Jessica started dating the QB because she spent so much time with us. Ashley was a really cute girl. Actually, cute doesn't suite her; hot is better. She was drop dead gorgeous. Problem is she had become one of us, one of the guys. We never realized what kind of body she had until college. Throughout high school she always wore loose, baggy hoodies and cargo pants, especially after Jessica alienated her. She was cool; she really was just like one of the guys. We weren't rebellious but we never went to any of the school dances, so we never saw her in a dress. We did plan to go to prom, but it was cancelled after half the football team and cheerleaders had gotten arrested at a party for drinking none other than Jay's moonshine (surprising was not one of the 80 or so kids so much as came close to ratting out Jay). Instead of going to the dances we did other things, like instead of home coming in the fall we would play paint ball. In the place of the winter turnabout we went skiing for five days out west in Utah. And in the spring we would plan a trip into Chicago. It was great, and every time Ashley not only joined us, but was eager to do the activities with us. Ashley also wore little makeup, which also played down her looks, but looking back, even without makeup she looked great. When we got to college she continued to dress the same way. We never questioned why she never dated, and it never occurred to us to date her, I mean, after all, back then it would have been the same as me dating Alex of John... well, maybe not quite the same, but you get the point.
However, over the summer after freshman year she decided to take some extra classes so she could be a teaching assistant as a sophomore. I had moved in with Jay at his place and the rest of the guys got their own apartment, while Ashley had to stay on campus as she had a scholarship which covered her housing so she decided to make the best of it by being a resident hall assistant and was in charge of a whole dorm floor. She basically had a one bedroom condo, it was the nicest dorm I had ever seen, complete with a living room, small kitchen and breakfast area, and a rather large bedroom area; it was more like a hotel suite than a college dorm room.
