April Hale Learns About the Human Male

1. we don't know each other

My whole family agree that I have a tendency to be annoying (and they say it with as much love as possible) and that's why I get my own private room in my dorm near the university.

As far as I can tell, all rooms in the dorm have the same size and they're all identically square. As square as a chocolate block. I should have known: I've measured it with the ruler app on my phone.

My twin brother Quentin said that having no roommate is the best privilege that I could score. He's stuck with a 'brainy kid who can't seem to speak english'. A few days later, 'brainy kid who can't seem to speak english' also got a new upgrade, which is 'brainy kid who can't seem to speak english or see without his glasses'. Apparently, he walked into Quentin changing clothes and didn't even bat an eye or ask anything about my brother's fitness routine and that's the most impossible thing that could ever happen.

Quentin got into the same university as me because of athlete's scholarship so he has to be on a different tower than me. Which means my room-neighbors are practically strangers.

I wish I can still say that they're strangers. But I'm disheartened to report that I'm room neighbor with my ex-neighbor from my family house, Ryder Black. I guess whoever up there haven't cut me and Ryder's red string of fate and still keep us as neighbors.

Fun trivia. I'm very familiar with his routine.

At 11.21PM, which is incidentally when I'm supposed to prep my mind for sleep, Ryder will start having a screaming match with his girlfriend.

It will start with something like this:

Girlfriend: "Why am I subjecting myself to this?!"

Ryder: "Well, you were the one who wanted me!"

My personal note: he is a little bit on the arrogant side.

Girlfriend: *starts screeching*

Additional note: this is the reason why I bought earplugs and practiced guided breathing meditation. Her screeching is something akin to a banshee. In fact, he seems to take a liking towards girls who can scream like they're on national screaming competition.

Anyway, I should mention that Ryder's roommate is basically an older student who rarely stays in his room. Ergo: he's in the same category of lucky as me. Unlike me, though, he makes full use of the privacy of his room differently.

Girlfriend: "You're the worst boyfriend I've ever had!"

Ryder: "Still doesn't stop you from coming back to me, though!"

It's the third girl in this semester that has seen him, tried her best to seduce him, and once she got into a relationship with him, can't wait to get out of it ASAP. It's like Ryder is a rebooted movie franchise that fails to recoup its budget.

And now they've moved on to throwing things.

This is usually where I hide under my bed and sing songs to myself. I have a bad reaction to loud noises. Loud noises combined with the knowledge that there are stuff flying, ready to hit people on the head? I'm dead. And by dead I mean my heart literally stop in random moments.

To be honest, I should have known that I must immediately ask to transfer rooms once I realize that Ryder My Home Neighbor is going to be Ryder My Dorm Neighbor. The fighting and the crashing things routine didn't start when he got to college, which was 5 months ago.

It started at his home.

'Ryder isn't an easy person to deal with'. My mother said this because Ryder's mother told her so.