I opted to live in an apartment in one of the main student areas. I wasn’t sure, but Dad said I should make sure I’m in the heart of everything that’s happening, though he doesn’t really know, because he never went to college.
“Freshman?” the driver says, as he turns into a street that looks familiar from the photos on the university’s accommodation website.
“Yes.” I nod. He knows the address much better than me, and seconds later we pull up at the sidewalk. In front of us is a modern looking, three-storey building.
“You wanna come in and look around?” I ask Amber, and I can tell she wants to.
“Can you wait?” she asks the driver.
“I got the meter running.” He replies, and she screws up her nose. Amber has to watch her money too, at least until she gets her first pay check.
“Fuck it,” she tells me. “I’ll get another cab later.” So we unload everything onto the sidewalk, and pay the driver, and he drives off. Then she looks at me expectantly, and I realize I don’t actually know how I’m going to get in. I don’t have a key yet. I have to scrabble around in my bag to read the letter the university sent, and I realize I have to go to the accommodation office. Luckily there’s a map on the letter showing where it is, and obviously I have my bike, and it only takes me two minutes to get there. But then I have to show about four hundred pieces of ID, and sign my name a hundred times, but finally the receptionist gives me a set of keys, one to get into the building, and another for my room. But then, when I come back, I can’t see Amber anywhere.
A bit confused, I use one of the keys to open the outside door, and I see all Amber’s bags are lined up inside. I go up the stairs and there’s three front doors for three apartments. Number twelve, that’s mine, has the front door open. I go inside and finally find Amber, in a super-basic kitchen diner, chatting to a guy with ginger hair.
“Hey Billy,” she says. This is Guy. He’s your housemate.” She smiles, and Guy comes over to me and pumps my hand. He has a zit on his chin that looks ready to burst.
“Yo! Cool to meet you dude. This whole thing is gonna be so freaking awesome!”
We chat for a little while – well mostly Guy chats, talking a lot about all the parties we’re going to go to, and how amazing they’re going to be. Apparently he has an elder brother here, who’s told him exactly what to expect. Then Amber suggests we look at my room. I think she does it to get away from Guy, but he clearly doesn’t figure this out since he follows us. I unlock room three with my key. Inside there’s a single bed, a chest of drawers and a desk. It looks a little bit like a prison cell.
“Awesome freaking view,” Guy says – he’s already at the window. “Way better than mine.”
I have a look too, but there isn’t really much of a view at all. The trees that line the avenue are blocking most of it, and even if they weren’t it would just be buildings. It’s nothing like the view from my bedroom at home, where I can see the whole sweep of Silverlea beach. All seven miles of it. I feel a burst of homesickness.
And that gets worse when, a few minutes later, Amber says she’d better go, since she still has to find her own apartment. I tell her I’ll search for a Boston cab company – because the Lornea Island ones I have saved in my phone won’t operate here – but Guy jumps in again, telling her to get an Uber, and I think even Amber thinks this is cool because we don’t have those on Lornea Island yet. By the time we get downstairs, the car is already here, and Guy and me help to load her bags. Then she gives me a hug, and tells me she’ll see me soon. She gets in the car, and Guy and me both watch it drive away.
“Wow Billy, she is super freaking hot.” I turn to see Guy is shaking his head, like he’s pretending he can’t believe it. “Say, is she, like… I mean are you guys…? You know?”
I’m confused. “What?”
He makes one of his hands into a loose fist, and pokes a finger from the other hand in and out. “I mean are you like, fucking?”
“What? Me and Amber?” I’m not very impressed with Guy so far.
I give him a look, and turn to go back in, though I feel him following me up the stairs.
“So is there anyone you are seeing?” He persists, standing in the doorway of my room for a moment. I don’t answer him, but instead of going back to the kitchen, or to his own room, he just comes in.
“I had this girl I was dating back home. Kinda dating,” he says, then sits down on the bed. Just as I was about to put my backpack there to start unpacking. “I mean we were, you know. Just fucking really.”
“Could you get off the bed please?”
“But we kind of split up,” Guy goes on. “You know, she went to Berkley. The whole long distance thing…” He gets up when he sees I’m serious and I dump my suitcase onto the bed. “And I’m not worried. I mean like, I’ve been here a whole day and you should see the girls. They’re everywhere, and they’re freaking hot. I mean smoking.” He’s sat at my desk now, leaning back in my chair. “We’re going to have such an awesome time.”
“That’s good.” I think about telling him I need the desk, to set up my computer. Then I remember something Dad told
