A New Perspective

After calling up his handful of numbers, Rowan comes running up behind me and smacks
me in the ass. I turn around and glare at him, he's always doing that, especially when
we're in public, he can be such a little douche.

"Well someone is a mister grumpy pants!" he exclaims poking me teasingly in the ribs.
And I realize he's right. I'm usually not this moody.

"Sorry, you know how I am when I wake up, I just haven't had time to adjust to being
conscious yet" I apologize sincerely. It always takes me about a half hour or more to sit
and do absolutely nothing before my brain to actually connects to the rest of my body.

"Apology accepted!" he responds as I swipe my card and we enter the dorm, taking two
steps at a time as always. "But only because your ass looks really nice in those jeans" he
chuckles.

I reach the top of the stairs before he does and wait for him, "you know, you tell me that
a lot, I may actually start to believe you soon, which would be bad" I raise and eyebrow
at him and smirk.

"aaaannddd why would that be a bad thing?!" Rowan asks with a confused look on his
face as we enter our room.

" Because then I might start walking around campus with a big ASS ego!" I laugh at my
own joke. "Pun intended!" I jab him in the chest with my finger. I love puns. Rowan's
trying his hardest not to laugh, and he's doing a pretty good job of it. He's a fantastic
bull-shitter, but I also have an uncanny ability to read people, so it seems he has met his
match.

"It's okay you can laugh, it won't kill ya" I tease grabbing him into a headlock and
ruffling up his dark-almost-black-but-purple hair.

"You are such a dork! I can't believe you actually said that out loud!" he yells, unaware
the volume of his voice, instead he's focused on slipping out from underneath my elbow.
He succeeds and flops his small frame down on his bed. I rub my belly realizing I'm
hungry.

" MMM, All that napping made me hungryÉ"

"Everything makes you hungry" Rowan states.

"Yeah well everything makes you hungry too" I throw back.

"Okay I'll tell you what. I will go get you one of those gyros you love, the one with the
lamb, chicken AND falafel, extra spicy, with all the veggies the guy can fit in itÉ. If you
go buy the beer?" he looks up at me cute and innocent. Shit why did he make that
sandwich sound so good, and he remembered exactly how I order it. I should've known
this was coming.

"Fineeeee" I say exasperated, I hate buying beer but I know Rowan can't get away with
it.

"I LOVE YOU!!!!" he screams jumping of his bed and flinging himself around my neck
and squeezing the shit out of me. I can't help but laugh and hug him back. He gives me a
quick kiss on the neck before letting go. He always does that. He's the most touchy-feely
kid I've ever met. I blame it on the fact that he must not have gotten many hugs when he
was little or something. Maybe that's why everyone just lets him do the things he does.
Plus he's not exactly tall enough to kiss me on the cheek unless I bent down, which I
would never do. He hands me a twenty and I head out the door.

I brace myself for a chill that doesn't come as I step outside again. Its weird that its still
light out and I still can't get over the fact I'm actually wearing a t-shirt. I don't realize
I'm smiling until a girl walking past smiles back at me. Oops. Oh well. I slip my hands in
my pockets and cut through the woods in back of the dorm towards the convenient store.
I found this little short cut a few months ago and I take it every time I need to pick
something up at Tedeschi. Not many people know about it, so it's basically the only time
I'm not around people while on this campus. I don't mind being around people, I actually
quite like it, I find the human race as a whole quite interesting. However, I also think
some alone time is a very healthy thing.

I enter the store with a jingle bells over my head, and walk back to stand in the cold air
diffusing from the glowing coolers in front of me. I realize I have no idea how many
people are invited, Rowan just always assumes I'll know these things. I decide two
eighteen packs will be good. That way we ill probably have enough beer to provide
everyone with a buzz, and we will also have variety. Pleased with my decision I grab a
pack of Rolling Rock and then decide what beer the girls would likeÉ. Bud Light lime. I
may secretly like having an excuse to buy that for my own pleasure. I look at the girl at
the register; she's young, younger than me, probably nineteen. She has her nose pierced
and a scattering of freckles across her face. She has her laptop set up next to her and is
giggling at whatever movie she has playing on the screen. She's cute and when she
laughs, a little dimple forms at the corner of her mouth. This should be easy.

I walk casually up to the register and place the beer down on the counter with assurance. I
smile brightly at her before asking, "Watchya watching? Sounds pretty entertaining" she
blushes a little realizing I had seen her laughing.

She fumbles with the scanner and takes a minute to gather her thoughts while she finds
the two barcodes on either box. "Well this is sort of embarrassing but it's theÉ. Hannah
Montana movie." She mumbles quietly still flushed. This is working perfectly, I see the
beer total spring up on the little screen and hand over the money.

" That's not embarrassing, I've secretly seen it myself" I whisper leaning over the
counter a little. I really hate when people are uncomfortable or embarrassed. It's the only
time I'm ever willing to talk about myself.

"No way!" she laughs, handing me over my change, her dimple forming again.

" Yeahhh, I took my little sister to see it when it was in the theaters, but to be honest I
actually really enjoyed it. What part are you at?" I ask peering around the counter at the
screen. I don't know why I'm talking this much. I never do small talk, but I feel sort of
bad that I just took advantage of her.

" Oh well Jackson just fell off the latter into the squash patch!" she laughs again, and I
chuckle in response.

"That was hysterical!" I exclaim honestly and lift the two packs off the counter "well I'll
let you get back to your movie, have an nice night!" I smile and head out the door. I sigh
once I am outside again. I hate lying to people, but in my defense I do turn twenty-one in
about just over two months. People never usually ask for my I.D. anyways, its not that I
look incredibly old, rather that usually carry myself with an easy confidence, which does
not provoke suspicion. Also the fact that I am 6'3" probably helps a little.

* * * * * * * *

It's a few hours later and the party is in full swing. I can't believe how many people are
shoved into our tiny room. Thank god Rowan actually managed to clean his side of the
room. And by clean, I mean kick everything that had been cluttering the floor underneath
his bed. I'm sitting back on my bed leaning against the wall, working on my third Bud
Light Lime, and feeling pretty buzzed. I don't drink often, and I'm hypoglycemic so that
means I'm a pretty cheap drunk, something that Rowan finds hysterical for a person of
my size. Rowan on the other hand is a tank. You would never guess since he's only 5'8"
and about 110 pounds. He's flitting around the room, a sloppy grin plastered to his face,
and a bottle of Jameson in his hand. Where the hell did he even find that?

"Yeah Julie is an awesome professor, I really feel like I've learned a lot from her so far
this semester." The girl sitting next to me is telling me, she's also an art major, but I
haven't been in any of her classes because her concentration is photography. Also she is a
year below me. She's pretty cool, I keep staring at her sleeve tattoo, I cant tell exactly
what it is because my eyes aren't focusing easily, and she uses a lot of hand gestures
while she talks, but its got some awesome colors. Her hair is also bright red. I like that
she's not hitting on my either, just having a casual conversation, without any excess
eyelash fluttering or arm grabbing. I hate flirting.

"Julie is awesome. You can tell she really cares about the students too, she would do
anything for us" I add. Which is true Julie is one of my favorite professors at the
university and she's good at what she does.

The conversation travels from Julie to our favorite artists, to the upcoming BFA
exhibition in the gallery. I think agreed to meet up with her for opening night, but I can
quite remember. I just finished my fourth beer and I'm getting rather tired. A lot of
people have left, and the girl beside me yawns and says she's going to head out since she
has to be up early the next day. I'm relieved. I tell her it was nice meeting her and then
sprawl out on my bed lazily as soon as she exits the door. Good thing the RA on our floor
has a huge crush on Rowan or we would have been in so much trouble tonight.

I sit up a tad to locate my roommate and the room spins. But I see him sitting in the
corner next to a girl and talking really animatedly, I really don't know where his bouts of
energy come from. His friend Kevin is looking up shit on the computer at Rowan's desk,
other than that the room is empty. I lean back and slowly drift in an out of sleep.

I feel a nudge on my shoulder and see two figures standing over me, I squint and notice
that its Rowan and that girl he had been talking to for the last two hours. He has his arm
casually slung over her shoulders. Typical. Looks like the new flavor of the week. "yah?"
I ask tiredly.

"Tonya and I are going to head over to Kevin's room, he has something to show us, and
you look like you could use some sleep," he smiles at me.

"kay" my answer barely audible as I turn over. A second later the light turns off and I
hear the door click shut.


A few hour later while its still dark, I feel Rowan climb on my bed and squeeze himself
inbetween me and the wall, his warm body curling into me under the covers. I fall asleep
again. He always climbs into my bed when he's drunk. I'm used to it by now, alcohol
makes him even cuddlier, if that's even possible. I usually don't mind when I'm tired
anyways, I sort of like the warmth of him against my back, in a way its comforting.

* * * * * * * * * *

Water. Holy Shit I need water. I reach my hand towards my desk right behind my bed,
and blearily grab the water bottle I always keep there, drinking half of it in two gulps.

"Save some for me" Rowan whines softly from beneath the covers and reaches a hand
out. If I were more awake I may tell him to go find his own freaking water bottle.
Actually I probably wouldn't. I hand him the bottle and he finishes it. The little shit.

He throws its remnants on the ground and then closes his eyes and curls into me more.
Wait a secondÉ

"Rowan what the hell are those?!" I ask incredulously pointing at the two piercing on
either side of his bottom lip. The skin around them is still a little red.

"Snake bites" Rowan mumbles casually smiling, his eyes still closed in exhaustion. "Like
em?" he asks. As if he cares what I think. He would have asked me what I thought
before he had gotten them if he did.

"It doesn't matter if I like them, when and where did you get them?!" I demand. They
actually do look really good though, it's almost like they had been missing from his face
before.

"Kevin did them last night, he just got a piercing kit for his birthday" he explains opening
his eyes a little, the conversation bringing him back to life.

"What the hell Rowan! That is so unsanitary, what if you get some flesh eating virus or
an infection and then they have to cut your lip off?!" I ask concerned and also trying to
evoke a little fear into him. He is so irresponsible with his body.

" Well I guess instead of kissing you, I'd have to find something else to do" he smirks,
and I laugh realizing I'm being ridiculous acting as if I have any say in what he does to
himself.

"They do look good, Row" I backtrack shyly; I don't know why giving compliments
always makes me sort of embarrassed. I wish they didn't. I think in that case I would give
them more often. Maybe because if I give a compliment I really mean it, and I don't like
when people know intimate things about the way I think.

"You think so?" he asks his eyes widening in question has his pink tongue slips out from
between his lips sliding along the metal loops. He seriously can be cute without meaning
it.

"Yes I do" I say sincerely and ruffle his hair. He grabs me by the wrist and pulls my arm
around him so that I'm spooning him. I swear he's the only person on the planet that
could force someone to be big spoon.

"Plus you can't say anything Noah, you gave yourself a tattoo, with out ever picking up a
needle before," he accuses, rubbing his thumb across the patch of skin on my wrist that
states DEFINE NOTHING. in my messy scrawl.

"You're right Row, sorry" I apologize.

"S'okay"

"So want to grab breakfast?" I ask, after my stomach growls loudly.

"I can't" he states apologetically, which soon turns into an excited smile "I'm meeting up
with Tonya for breakfast"

The girl from last night. "Cool." I manage, should've seen this coming. "so you like
her?"

"yeah she's awesome! You can come if you want?! I really want you to meet her, I know
you'd approve!"

"Probably would. But I got a lot to do today so I'll probably pick up something on my
way to the studio. Thanks though" I respond before climbing out of the warm covers.

"Okay, but next time you need to come." Rowan responds before rolling over and then
curling into his own body heat, and drifting towards another hour of sleep. Looks like I'm
going to have to be in the "studio" a lot this weekÉ.


(if you have any feedback that'd be awesome! Hope you're all liking it!)