The suitcase slammed shut with a sense of finality. Ian stood by the bed for a moment and stared at it, lost in his thoughts. As he stared, contemplating the possibility that he had forgotten something his mother poked her head around the door frame.
“Hey!” She shouted. Ian flinched, knocking the suitcase off the mattress. His clothes strewn across the floor seemed to punch holes in the feeling of finality he had experienced.
She made a sheepish face as he scowled. “Sorry…”
“It’s fine, I think I forgot my toothbrush anyway.” He leaned down and started packing his shirts back in.
“Well, your dad just wanted me to see if you were ready to head out so uh, I guess I’ll tell him you need a couple of minutes.” She fled. Ian finished packing his clothes back up, adding his toothbrush that time around, and headed out the door. The noonday sun made his scalp itch as he threw the suitcase into the trunk before ducking into the backseat.
“There you are.” His dad mumbled from the front seat. He was a pretty punctual guy and didn’t really appreciate being held up. Ian’s mom put her hand on his fathers’ arm.
“let’s head out!” She said happily, she never seemed to be in a bad mood.
Tires crunched over gravel as their SUV rolled out of the driveway of their rural house. Ian turned around briefly to wave goodbye to the home he had grown up in. Considering how far away his new college was, he wouldn’t be able to visit much. His parents didn’t seem like they would try to talk to him, so he pulled out his earbuds and played music, settling in for a very long car ride.
Ian must have fallen asleep because it was suddenly dark outside and raindrops pounded on the windows of the car. He pushed up from his slouched position and leaned his head side to side, stretching his neck. In the front seat he could see his mom sleeping against her seatbelt and his dad drove, silently staring into the darkness.
“How far away are we?” He asked sleepily. The coarseness of his voice made him reach into his backpack for water.
“Still a few hours. There’s some melatonin in my bag if you want to try and sleep the rest of the way.” Ian reached into his fathers bag and pulled out the pill bottle. He tapped it on his palm, trying to only knock out one pill. “I can’t believe you’re going to college kid. Seems like yesterday when your mom gave birth to this huge baby with a little tuft of brown hair.” He chuckled. “Now look at you, you’re taller than I am.” It was true, Ian had passed both of his parents in height before he entered his senior year of high school. He still had the dark brown hair though. He didn’t know how to respond to his dad so he decided to change the subject.
“Where did you guys go to college again?” He realized with a start that he had never actually asked his parents where they graduated from.
“Uh… We actually went to South Wisconsin University too.” Ian leaned back in his seat. They had gone to the same college that he decided on?
“What? Why didn’t you tell me that when I told you about my acceptance?”
“I don’t know I guess it just slipped my mind” His excuse seemed like bullshit.
“How does that slip your mind?”
“I don’t know, I guess I was just excited that you had chosen to go there instead of the other universities that accepted you. I didn’t really think to let you know why I was excited.”
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Ian lost focus on the conversation a little bit at that. The truth was that SWU had been the only school to accept him. He had lied to his parents because he was embarrassed.
“Ok, I guess that makes sense. Just weird.”
“Yeah, sorry. My bad I guess.” That felt like the end of the conversation to Ian so he leaned back against the window and closed his eyes.
He dreamt that he was in heaven. His family was there, smiling and happy. He sat down at a feast with them and ate. He had never felt happier. Then he looked down.
Below him there was no floor, nothing below him holding him up. He looked at his family in fear and realized that they were all held up in their heaven by bungee cords. Ian reached up and swiped their air above his head, his hand found the cord that was holding him up.
They were no longer happy. Screams of fear pierced the air as the danger of their situation was realized. People began walking among them holding scissors. Stepping on air
They began cutting the cords of his family and one by one they fell. He watched in horror as everyone he loved perished one by one. Each pleading for their life. The Cutters crept towards him last. They reached above his head.
He woke suddenly. For a moment he felt the fear and weightlessness of his dream. Then his feet pressed against the floor of the backseat and he came out of it. The dream began to fade from his mind.
“Are we here?” He asked hopefully.
“Yeah, we are hon.” His mother chimed in from the front. This time she was awake and tapping on her phone.
His father turned around in his seat. “We got here an hour or so ago but they don’t open your dorms to move in for a few more minutes so we’re waiting”
“Oh, ok.”
He used the time to drink some water and brush his teeth, spitting the toothpaste out onto the blacktop. Soon they were unloading his luggage from the trunk and walking it into the east wing of the dorms.
He had looked into the university before coming but was still a bit surprised by the bluntness of the architecture. It sat in a field deep into rural Wisconsin, the entirety of the college was two U shapes, one smaller and sitting inside the other. The inside U contained the dormitories, and the outside U housed the classrooms and cafeteria. In a word, it was ugly. Ian had hated it since the moment he’d seen it, but he had no other options in the end.
Inside his wing of the dorms Ian found a cramped hallway filled with parents and students. The floor was carpeted in a rusty red color and the walls were painted blue. It felt like a prison and preschool had collaborated to make his experience worse. He wondered why there only seemed to be freshmen in his wing.
His parents led him into his assigned dorm room and began unloading his stuff. Posters went up, lamps were plugged in, and all the time they reminisced to him about his life up to that point. There was an empty half of the room that he supposed belonged to roommate who hadn’t moved in yet.
His area was set up and his parents sat on the bed with him. They reminisced some more. His mom leaned forward to speak directly to his father.
“This place hasn’t changed a bit since we went here hon.”
“Yeah no, it really hasn’t.”
They sat in silence for a bit after that. Ian wasn’t really sure what had made the conversation stop so awkwardly but he took the silence as a blessing. Eventually his parents hugged him and said their goodbyes. The University had some strange rules, one of which was that only students were allowed to attend the welcoming speech. He walked them back outside and waved goodbye as they pulled off and entered the long line of parents driving away on the small road that connected SWU to civilization. When he reentered his room there was a kid sitting on the previously empty bed and reading a book.
“Hey, I’m Ian. I guess we’re roommates.” He held out his hand.
“Nice to meetcha, my name’s Peter but people call me Pete.” Pete took his hand and shook it vigorously. He stood up and Ian found the first one of his peers that was taller than him. He was six feet tall and Pete had to be at least 6’2”. He was lanky and tan, his shirt was plain black, and he wore blue jeans with tears down the legs. The only possessions he had brought in resided in a small duffel bag. “I see you already got all unloaded there.” He stated, pointing at Ian’s furnished side of the room as he sat back down.
He lied. “Yeah, my parents insisted I pack a lot of this.”
“ah.”
Pete smiled and then pulled his book back out. He wasn’t the most talkative, but Ian supposed it could be worse. At least he seemed cool. He walked over to his bed and took off his shoes before lying down. He would just wait here until the speech.