They think they would become free when they enter college. Everyday will be a different kind of fun - so much that no string of words will be able to perfectly illustrate how it feels. Rowdy friends, every night parties, overflowing alcoholic drinks. They are young adults with the mindset of immature kids.
That is exactly how she sees the world at that moment.
Normally, she does not care, but when she's dragged into anyone's mess because of irresponsible drinking, it just ticks her off the wrong way. She dislikes how, despite a 7 am class the next day, one of her roommates even dares to drink to her heart's content that Thursday night, and comes back home in the wee hours of the following Friday, drunk to the point of passing out with an unknown boy in tow.
She has resolved herself to thinking, "I will not care if she comes home and unable to even open the front door. I will not take care of her. I will not babysit her."
Her two other roommates do not care, anyway. Why should she? Granted, they sleep like a log and sleep through their drunk roommate banging loudly on the front door and yelling everyone's names for the sleeping neighborhood to hear. She doesn't like how she is the kind to sleep very lightly. Or how she's just a little too kind for her own good, that her conscience won't allow her to sleep with the knowledge that someone needs taking care of.
"Hey, are you uuup?" yells drunk roommate from outside the front door.
She flinches, hearing everything but wanting nothing to do with said roommate. So she sandwiches her head between the mattress and her pillow, willing the banging and the yelling to subside.
They don't.
Instead, the drunk roommate's companion - a boy she has seen before but has never formally met - joins her roommate's yelling. He calls out to her name, as if he knows her, too.
"Are you uuuup?" The two sound like idiots. But their constant calling of her name, and the possibility that their neighbors will awake, embarrass her. Despite her sleepiness and grogginess, she finally gets up, shuffles to the front door, and opens it.
The pair is leaning on each other. At the sight of her, the roommate lunges forward and clings to her. Drunk roommate is much taller and bigger compared to her own tiny physique, and she thinks it is purely by adrenaline rush that she is even able able to still stand up despite the dead weight.
She smiles at her roommate's companion and says, "Thank you for bringing her home."
The boy grins back drunkenly and salutes. She doesn't wait for whatever he has to say and supports her drunk roommate to her room.
"I'm sorryyy," the drunk roommate mumbles. And when the hypocrite in her loudly says, "It's OK" the roommate just goes on even more.
It irks her that the roommate can't even drag her own feet any more. It feels like forever before she is able to haul her roommate into the bed. The roommate passes out almost immediately. When she's sure that the roommate is comfortable, she remembers that she hasn't closed the front door just yet.
She checks the time on her roommate's digital clock that sits on the study table. It reads some time between 2 and 3 am. She grimaces. She hates it when she wakes up in that hour.
When she reaches the front door once again, an unwelcome sight greets her. It is the equally drunk companion of her roommate, sleeping on the dirt floor in the front porch. She crouches beside him and shoves him non-too-gently.
"Hey, wake up," she says. If she could, she would scream to his ear. But this guy and her roommate have already done enough commotion. "You need to go home."
He won't budge. She tries to assess everything and realizes that he is much bigger than her - probably twice her size. She can't possibly carry him inside. So she leaves him. She goes inside the apartment, closes the door, and locks it. However, she cannot move or leave.
Her conscience is nagging at her.
"Are you sure you will leave him there?"
"Yep. He's more problem than he's worth."
"Really?"
"..."
"It's cold outside. And the floor's dirty and cold, too. And -"
"I get it. Stop."
She sighs and opens the door again.
She tries to wake him up once again, but he won't. He's dead drunk. So she pulls on his hand. It seems that adrenaline rush won't fail her yet again, and she's finally able to drag him like a sack of rice into the apartment. It has taken much longer than she has anticipated, but he's at least inside.
She is more annoyed this time, because sleep has left her. But still, she can't leave him sleeping uncomfortably on the floor. So she grabs the sofa's hard-as-heck throw pillow and puts it under his head (his head weighs heavy, too!).
The next day, as she leaves for her 7 am class, she doesn't bother to wake her drunk roommate or the boy who accompanied her. When she returns home later that day, the roommate is embarrassed and promises her it will never happen again.
Of course, that is a lie.
It happens again, only the next time, the roommate has two other people that come home with her.
Later on, when she's already graduated from college, she keeps surprising her mom with her strength. She is able to carry heavy gallons of water, packages, and grocery. She just can't say she used to carry people twice her size back in college. That will be a lot of explaining to do.
