Floor Dinner
After a couple of hours of browsing social media and a few inspired moments of studying, Christen closes her laptop and looks at the electric clock on her desk. 5:22 pm. She lets out a sigh as she runs her hands over her face. So I guess I’m really doing this then… Alone.
Kelley had left the room about an hour earlier, wishing Christen luck. Christen’s only response was an unenthusiastic ‘thanks’ and a scowl that said otherwise. Reading her roommate’s mood, Kelley made a prompt exit.
Now Christen rises from the seat at her desk and stands before the body-length mirror hung on the back of the door. She immediately becomes self-conscious upon seeing her reflection. I need to make a good impression. If I have to live around these people all year, I don’t want them to think I’m a slob. For a girl as beautiful as Christen, she sure was plagued with insecurities about her appearance.
After running her fingers through her hair, touching up her makeup, and brushing some of the wrinkles from her tank-top, Christen takes in her form once more. She sighs. It’ll have to do.
Christen glances at the clock again. 5:27 pm. I should probably walk down now.
She grabs her lanyard from its place on her desk, stuffs her phone in her back pocket, and opens the door. Christen walks out into the hallway and closes the door behind her. She rattles the doorknob a few times to make sure it’s locked. Good to go she thinks as she begins to make her way down the poster-riddled hallway.
When she makes it to the middle of the corridor, Christen opts to take the stairs. People always get pissed if someone takes the elevator down from any floor below 4. She pulls open the door to the stairwell and begins her descent.
On her way down, Christen can’t help but get caught up in the thoughts that start flooding into her head. So there are a lot of people who live on my floor, right? Will most of them be there? Ugh, I hope not, large amounts of people overwhelm me. I mean I love meeting new people, just not all at once. And don’t even get me started on remembering names, I’m lucky if I remember my own sometimes. Life would be so much easier if you could just walk up to someone and say ‘Hi there girl in the red shirt, wanna go grab some coffee like we did three weeks ago?’ Or what if we all just wore nametags all the time? That would probably help…
Christen continues to brainstorm inventive new ways to remember people’s names all the way down the stairs and to the Main Lobby.
As she approaches the front desk, Christen spots a group of about 15-20 people hanging out around the front doors. She squints her eyes as she scans the crowd. Becky did say to meet at 5:30 in the Main Lobby, right? Christen draws her phone from her pocket and clicks open the lock screen. 5:31 pm. Alright, I’m on time so then where’s –
“Hey, I’m glad you made it!” a voice sounds from behind Christen. She turns around only to be met by a friendly blonde walking her way. Becky waves and smiles in Christen’s direction.
“Yep, here I am” Christen awkwardly replies as she returns the wave. Wow, I am so cringe-worthy right now. Act like you know to interact with others, Christen. Becky seems to be able to pick up on Christen’s nerves because she immediately offers her an encouraging smile. It’s almost as if she’s trying to communicate to Christen that she’ll be just fine.
“Ready to go eat?” Becky asks. Christen nods, her spirits already lifted at the thought of food. “Alright, let’s go rally the troops.” Becky starts walking over to the group by the door with Christen following close behind.
“Ok gang, who’s hungry?” Becky projects once she arrives in front of the doors. The mob of students let out of wave of cheers in response to Becky’s question. “That’s what I thought, let’s go!” Becky leads the group through the doors as Christen joins the back of the pack. Here we go.
Christen finally emerges from the buffet area of the dining hall after what felt like ages of standing in line for food. That guy in the blue polo spent like five years standing in front of the potato salad. If there’s anything Christen hates, it’s standing in line.
She makes her way back to the seating area where she spots the five tables the group pushed together for floor dinner. With a deep breath, Christen hesitantly approaches. The table is only half filled at this point so she decides to take a seat right in the middle. Preferably, Christen would’ve selected a seat near the end, but considering no one else was sitting down there at the moment, she decides the middle is best. I don’t want anyone to think I’m antisocial.
She places her plate of food on the table in front of her and the lays a napkin on her lap. As she scoots her chair closer to the table, the legs of it create a brief screeching sound against the tile floor. This gains the attention of the short-haired brunette sitting to her left. The girl turns her head and looks at Christen as if she’s trying to recognize her. Her eyes narrow as she seems determined to figure Christen out.
“Have I met you before?” the girl finally asks, coming to the conclusion that she is unfamiliar with Christen.
“I don’t think so. I haven’t really met a ton of people from the floor yet” Christen shyly admits. The girl nods her head in understanding.
“That explains why I didn’t recognize you!” the girl lets out as she seems to be relieved of her prior state of confusion. Christen can’t help but smile, it was actually quite amusing how bothered the girl was when she couldn’t peg Christen’s identity.
“I’m Christen, I live in 318” Christen finally clears the air.
“Meghan Klingenberg” the girl responds. “Most people just call me Kling. But you” the girl continues with a grin growing on her lips, “Can call me Ms. Kling.” Christen laughs. This girl is funny.
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Ms. Kling” Christen warmly states.
“You as well” Kling returns. She takes a bite of her potato salad before she speaks again. “Wait, did you say you’re in room 318?” Christen nods to confirm. “No way, I’m in 317!” The girl exclaims. 317? So Kling is Tobin’s roommate! I wonder if she’s coming to dinner too…
“That means you’re right – ”
“Across the hall” Christen interrupts, “Yeah, I know. I met your roommate earlier.” Your roommate. Your charming, good-looking roommate. Kling’s eyebrow raises in surprise.
“You’ve met Tobin?”
“Yeah we, uh, we kind of bumped into each other on Move-In Day” Christen explains. More like I almost ran into her and she generously saved the box I was carrying from plummeting to the ground.
“That’s strange, she never mentioned meeting you before,” Kling thinks aloud. Christen’s heart drops at the sudden statement. Oh…
“She must have been trying to keep you all to herself” Kling concludes with a wink. Oh? Christen’s heart perks back up again.
Before Kling can say another word, her eyes move to focus on something beyond Christen. Her face immediately breaks out into a wild grin. Curious as to what has suddenly caught Kling’s attention, Christen follows her gaze and turns around in her seat to get a better look. Her eyes fall on a small group of girls approaching the table.
“Hey guys, over here!” Kling yells as she waves the group over to the area of the table where she and Christen are sitting. A few of them nod and as they get closer. When they arrive, two of them sit directly across the table from Kling and Christen, and one with her curly brown hair pulled up into a bun sits in the seat to Christen’s right.
“Hey Kling, thanks for saving us some seats” the brunette with piercing blue eyes and a pink head band says from across the table.
“No biggie” Kling replies with a dismissive wave of her hand, “Just buy me a snack after practice tomorrow and we’ll call it even,” Did she just say practice? Is Kling on the soccer team too? Are they all on the soccer team?
“Alright fine” the girl laughs, “But nothing too expensive, I’m a broke college kid, remember?” Kling just gives the girl a thumbs up as she takes a chomp out of her dinner roll.
“Hey Kling, whose your friend?” the girl with a pearly white smile sitting directly opposite of Christen questions. Instantly the eyes of the four other girls land on Christen. She feels her pulse speed up and her temperature rise as she sits under their gazes, uncomfortable with the sudden attention. Christen almost forgot she was a part of the conversation before the girl pointed her out.
“Oh shit, my bad” Klings sputters out as she sets down her roll. “This is Christen, she lives in 318.” Christen nods her head in confirmation as she offers the group a tentative smile. “Christen these are some of the other people from the floor” Kling explains.
“Over here is Alex, she has some of the best finishing skills on the soccer team” Kling introduces as she gestures to the blue-eyed girl. Alex offers Christen a polite smile.
“Then next to Alex is Ali” Kling informs as she points to the girl across from Christen. She has a friendly face that already makes Christen feel a little less out of place. “She’s a saint and basically a gift from heaven above.” Ali laughs with such sincerity that it reaches her eyes.
“It’s nice to meet you, Christen” she proclaims with a smile that could give Tobin’s a serious run for its money on a scale of radiance.
“You too” Christen returns, feeling a little less intimidated.
“And on your right” Kling continues, “Is Sarah. Sometimes we call her Apple. It’s a long story. Anyways, she’s super nice and completely obsessed with the Green Bay Packers.” Apple? Like the name of Gwyneth Paltrow’s kid?
“Hey! I’m not obsessed, I’m just from Wisconsin” Sarah/Apple argues from beside Christen.
“Same thing” Kling retorts without hesitation. Sarah responds by throwing a few grapes in Kling’s direction. Christen suddenly feels like she’s caught in the middle two feuding siblings at the dinner table.
“Alright that’s enough, children” Becky warns as she passes by on her way to her seat at the end of the make-shift dinner table. Sarah ceases pelting Kling with fruit.
“Sorry mom” she calls over her shoulder.
“You should really apologize to Christen. One bad ricochet and you could’ve taken her eye out” Ali explains as she motions towards the girl unfortunately caught in the heat of battle.
“Sorry Christen” Sarah apologizes, “But it had to be done. If I had let Kling get away with that, she would have the green light to get away with anything. Trust me, that was for the good of us all. Kling’s a feisty one.” Kling doesn’t really seem like the ‘feisty’ type to me, but then again, I’ve only known her for ten minutes.
Christen nods before she grabs her fork and aims to scoop up a bit of the green bean casserole on her plate.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” Kling abruptly cautions. Christen pauses her movement and hovers her fork above the casserole before looking expectantly in Kling’s direction. “I had work study in the kitchen last semester” Kling informs, “They pour that stuff out of a bag.”
Christen looks from Kling to her plate and back to Kling again. The seriousness on her face is unwavering. She must be telling the truth. Christen rotates her plate and starts cutting into a piece of chicken instead.
“Smart girl” Kling states with an approving grin.
Soon, the girls fall into easy conversation. The banter continues and surprisingly enough, Christen finds herself contributing every now and again. They share laughs and stories of unfortunate mishaps of the past. The dinner seems to be an overall success, not at all what Christen had expected. I could do this again.
After dinner, Kling and the others invite Christen to go with them to see the first movie the campus theatre was showing this semester. Even though a part of her wants to go, Christen declines citing the 8:00 am class she has the next morning. The girls voice their disappointment but Christen pacifies them when she promises to go another time. They accept her offer and bid her a good night.
As Christen walks back to her dorm, she can’t help but think of how silly it was of her to worry about such a small event. I actually had a good time. I’m glad Becky invited me to floor dinner. And she was right, I did meet a few cool people from my floor. They were all so nice and seriously hilarious. Who knows, I may have just met my future friends.
Christen smiles to herself as she glides through the Main Lobby doors and eventually arrives to the elevator. Her smile doesn’t even falter when she sees that the elevator is on 8 and only seems to be going up. Instead she just pulls open the door to the stairwell and ascends the steps without complaint.
When she arrives on her floor, she’s a little out of breath but doesn’t feel her usual winded sensation. Tonight she feels lighter, like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.
As she passes the doors to the rooms, she scans the name cards for the names of her new acquaintances. Soon enough, she recognizes them as they pop out in bright, glittery lettering.
308 – Sarah… 311 – Ali… 313 – Alex… 317 – Meghan & Tobin
Tobin.
A part of Christen secretly hoped that Tobin would show up to floor dinner tonight. Christen kept thinking that maybe she would suddenly walk in with some excuse for being late like class or losing track of time while studying. Something that would explain her absence.
She never did.
Christen lets out the disappointed sigh that had made its way to her lungs. Maybe she just isn’t interested in making friends with people on the floor... Maybe she just isn’t interested in me.
Christen stares at Tobin’s name card for a while before she turns to enter her own room. But right as she reaches for the doorknob, she notices a scribbled note written on the whiteboard mounted on the door.
Sorry I missed you at dinner tonight, sounds like you were a hit ;)
- T
Christen’s face erupts into a wide smile and her cheeks are set ablaze. She rereads the note over and over again before the words finally start to sink in. She wanted to be there.
After regaining her composure, Christen turns the knob and enters her room. There, she finds Kelley sitting at her desk with several textbooks laying out in front of her. Kelley turns in her seat once she hears the door close.
“So how was dinner?” she asks. Christen just shrugs.
“The chicken was good.”