College Roommates meet up their sophomore year while COVID and Monkeypox hits their campus hard causing a lockdown
Straight Roomies During COVID | Part 1
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Me: today is the day bro! I should get on campus by 10:30 if my mom will let me leave
Chase: Monty! My parents are coming with me, I couldn't talk them out of it
Me: shit, Im sorry man I won't hold it against you, but I will make fun of you
Chase: they just wont stop, they are worried about me living on campus
Me: moms love me, esp the hot ones
Me: don't worry, Ill make sure to take care of her baby boy
Chase: dude. Not cool.
Chase: We will all be there by noon, please help me bro
Me: i got you man
I felt bad for Chase, his parents wouldn't let him move into the dorms earlier this year when the campus reopened. He and I had a lot of the same classes together and we appear to share the same sense of humor so even on Zooms we got along. We became friends when we were assigned to a group project for our Biology course. Though we never met in person.
Chase was scared to death to catch COVID. He lost both his grandmother and grandfather in the early days of COVID and so his family clamped down; they barely left their home - both his mom and dad worked from home. Chase was torn; he wanted to socialize but at the same time he didn't want to catch COVID. I understand that and so I agreed to room with him and to test for everything before I came to college.
I think he was a bit of a hypochondriac. Not that it was uncalled for, as we have seen two classmates die of COVID. So we both fully supported the vaccination protocols and both of us got fully tested for everything before we came to campus. We also agreed in advance that we would mask while anywhere outside of our dorm room to protect each other.
I was only a few minutes away from campus. I picked up my parking pass last week and pre-registered so I knew my room and the hall we were assigned to - Magnolia Hall. We lucked out, we got the brand new dorm which had doubles with their own bathroom. It was built during COVID so they seemed to take that into consideration in building it. But, we had no idea what the rooms looked like other than they were new.
I rolled up and pulled into the unloading area. My Ford Escape was packed full. It was a high school graduation gift. It was a few years older, but my mom wanted a new car and this was paid for so they gave it to me. It worked. It gave me the freedom to do what I wanted, but at the same time it was during the worst of COVID so what did it really matter.
I made it up to Room 514 which was all the way down at the end of the hall. That should hopefully be good and a bit quieter. I unlocked the room, and wow! It was very sterile. Concrete walls. Walking in the door you walked right into the bathroom. A shower with only a clear shower curtain was to the right, and to the left was the sink with shelves on each side of the mirror. Beside it was a big closet that we must share.
The toilet was in a very small closet-like structure opposite the closet. At least we will have some privacy when we crap. Not much else though.
Once fully in the room, there was a small desk with a desk chair and our beds. The beds sat atop 4 drawers, stacked two high. Not a bad setup. Smelled new. Wow, we are not going to have much privacy. There was only about 2 feet separating our beds. Above the sink area there was a bracket that I could hang my TV from. That was a nice touch. So I decided to take that side of the room.
I piled my boxes on my bed, which was nothing more than two by fours and a foam mattress and then I headed back down to my car to get the rest.
After I had brought everything up and parked my car in our private parking lot, I started getting settled. I started with setting up my desk area and unpacking my toiletries. I got a ping on my phone from Chase. He had made it onto campus. Since he didn't have a parking pass, his folks had to pull into the unloading area. I decided to keep putting stuff away until they made it up. I told him to come right up to 514, and we could go and get him checked in after he got all his stuff settled - not coincidentally, this would also have the benefit of pushing his folks to leave campus.
SHIT! I just realized that I left the case of Crown Royal that I got from my uncle sitting on my bed. That would certainly not impress his parents so I quickly shoved that under my desk and pushed the chair in front of it to cover it up. This was perhaps the single best gift I had ever received and I will be damned if some bible thumpers turn me in for having this on campus!
Just as I tucked my chair in under the desk, Chase came walking into the room with a thud, setting his apparently heavy boxes right in front of our closet.
"Hey, roomie! It's so good to finally see you, bro!" Chase said as he walked into the room and pulled me into a bro hug which felt nice. Man, I kinda forgot what human contact felt like. Damn, this kid was huge, I knew he was tall but, man 6'2" looks different when you are being crushed in a bear hug. Not used to hugging guys, frankly but this felt right. Hell, the first time meeting this guy face to face after a year of virtual classes together, more than a few class projects and the last 4 months planning on rooming together. It was nice. It felt, well it felt warm. Familiar.
"SO good to see you man! Where are your mom and dad?" I said, wondering if I could let down my guard yet or if I had to remain on my best behavior.
"Right behind me, help me get rid of them. Car has to be moved!" he said.
"Got you bro!" I said and winked at him.
"Mom, Dad. This is Monty. My roommate. He is the guy I told you about. He is Pre-med too!" Chase was clearly a bit nervous. I decided to take over and turn on my charm.
"Mr. and Mrs. Robicheaux, it is a pleasure to finally meet you! I am so glad it worked out for Chase and I to room together. We didn't have to worry about getting some rowdy roommate," I said as I offered his dad my hand to shake. I figured since he was rather old fashioned, he would respond well to this gesture.
Mrs. Robicheaux grinned ear to ear as she said, "Monty, it is a pleasure to meet you! You are from New Iberia, right?"
"Yes, that's right," I said. "Born and raised. Had my eye set on coming to college here before going to med school. Glad to see you guys made it in from Alexandria. I wish I could have gotten you a guest parking pass when I was on campus last week, but with everyone moving in right now, they just didn't have any available."
"That's all right son, we know you tried. Mother, we need to get going before they tow us, besides, I want to get home before dinnertime," Mr. Robicheaux said as he made a beeline to the door, seemingly uncomfortable.
"OK honey, let's pray really quick!" They all huddled up and held hands. Chase was standing right across from me and they all bowed their heads. Chase looked up at me and rolled his eyes. His mom said a short prayer asking for God to watch over her one and only son. Then they all said Amen in unison (which was kinda creepy.)
"OK, mother, let's go!" Chase's dad said. Wow, Mother, he called her mother. Sheez that is weird, if my dad called my mom "mother" she would deck him. I sure don't understand these religious folks, man no wonder Chase has been so pent up.