I first met Meg at fencing. For some reason, our uni had a thriving, burgeoning fencing team. In fact, to call it a team understates it: we had an Army. All different weapons were represented. Professionals competed in tournaments all across the country. Every semester, there was a huge influx of newbies to try, train, and never catch up with again as they decided to move on.
Such was life on a college campus. Such are college freshmen.
Meg and I were the same first year freshies with completely different majors. She'd gone the biology route, while I studied history and psychology. Fencing brought us together. Fencing kept us coming back.
By coincidence, we were walking back to our dorms when we realized we lived in the same building. She was only one floor up, so it was easy to coordinate traveling to and from the gym for practice.
Over time, we lingered longer and longer outside her door. I moved my study sessions to the quiet rooms on her floor; she couldn't help but notice, and we spent even more time together. I was starting to like this girl. It seemed she started to like me too.
One night, after practice, we had cleaned up and were occupying a study room, though not really studying. Mostly just putzing about on our laptops. I would make a really corny, terrible joke, and she'd smile and quietly giggle. It was the most amazing, girly chuckle you could imagine. Her tone was soft, graceful, measured. She liked to give side-eyes as if she were blushing and wanted to judge my reaction.
I summoned my courage and asked her, "Hey, wanna head back to my room?"
She gave me one of those side-eyes. "And go down a floor? Pff, please."
"...Oh. You mean... you want to go to your room?"
She hid her giggle behind her smile. "C'mon, silly!"
We packed our things and walked to her dorm room. She and her roommate had decorated it with traditional girly trappings. Photos, Christmas lights, music posters, that sort of thing. It was weird being in a girl's bedroom; I hadn't had any sisters growing up. But it didn't bother me that much - I had other objectives on my mind.
Meg sat down in the chair at her desk. She turned on her desktop computer, booting it up out of hibernation and logging in with her password. "Can't be too safe," she said with her wide smile.
"D'you play any games?" I asked.
She nodded. "I keep up with a certain MMO. It's nice to just sit back and grind a little after a hard day's studying."
I paused before answering. "...That's what she said." We both laughed. So she wasn't averse to a little naughty humor.
"What kinda games do you play?" she asked back.
I shrugged. "Mostly FPS's. I have a lot of classics I didn't get to experience. Our computers sucked, or they were too violent according to my parents." I rolled my eyes.
"Ah yes, those 'parentals,'" Meg joked. "But they can't stop us here!" She spread her arms wide.
I laughed. "Nope... You done anything your folks wouldn't explicitly approve of?"
"What? Like smoked weed or kissed a guy?" She chuckled roguishly.
"I dunno," I said. "I've pirated a couple dozen movies."
Her grin widened. Her head bobbed forward and her eyes narrowed. "What... kind of movies?"
Oh, God, no, not like that. She was venturing into territory I did not want to admit to. "Nooo, no no no, not THOSE kinds of movies! Just action flicks, that sort of thing. Everything I couldn't watch in high school."