Across The Hall

Throughout the rest of the morning and afternoon, the Press family hits every event, booth, and silly carnival game there is to stop at. There was the home football game, which counter to Christen’s initial disinterest, actually turned out to be an entertaining enough time. Then there were the long rows of informational booths that Christen’s mom eagerly took the time to collect pamphlets, free pens, and mini hand-sanitizers from. And finally the games in which despite Channing’s best efforts, Christen always emerged victorious. It’s just an older sister thing.

Now as the day is winding down, the Presses exit the campus book store with an excessive amount of university apparel and memorabilia that will be completely irrelevant when Christen graduates in the next four years or so. The family heads back to Christen’s residence hall with the intent of picking up Christen’s jacket before they go out for a family dinner. The day started off fairly warm but the sun is now lower in the sky and the breeze has picked up ever so slightly. The fact that Christen’s mother insisted that she wear her fancy blue sheer blouse that perfectly complements her white Ralph Lauren shorts is not helping Christen’s body temperature either.

Upon arriving to the Main Lobby, Christen turns to face her family as she brings the group to a halt.

“Alright, I’ll just run upstairs and grab my jacket. You guys can wait here, I promise I’ll be quick” Christen explains as she turns to walk in the direction of the elevators.

“Nonsense!” her mom exclaims as Christen takes her first few steps away, “We’ll come with you!” Christen stops in her tracks and turns to face her family once again.

“Oh, you really don’t have to, it’ll only take me like two minutes” Christen nervously tries to convince her family not to come with her. “Plus the elevators are almost never available and I’m sure you guys don’t want to take the stairs. So I’ll just be back in a moment and then we can go…” Christen turns again and tries to drag along her sentence before anyone has a chance to get another word in.

“Sweetie, we don’t mind!” her mom chimes as she follows after her fleeing daughter, “We want to see your room!” Damnit.

“But you’ve already seen my room” Christen points out as Christen’s father and sister begin to trail the two bickering Press women. “It’s nothing glamorous, I assure you.”

“I’m sure it’s just wonderful” Christen’s mother counters as Christen scans her ID card and presses the button for the elevator. The doors open immediately. Are you kidding me? “And look, the elevator is here so it’s really no inconvenience at all!” For you, maybe. Christen reluctantly sighs knowing that she’s already lost the battle.

“Fine but it’s only going to be a quick stop, people don’t like it when there are too many people crowding the hallway” Christen lies. Her family files into the elevator and begin their ascent. Within seconds the doors open again and the group steps out onto the third floor. Christen jumps to the front of the pack and sneaks a brief glance down the corridor. Empty. Thank goodness. A few of her nerves settle at the desolate sight in front of her. Christen picks up her pace as the family passes the doors of her floormates, desperately trying to get them hidden in her room as soon as possible.

When they approach room 313, however, the door unexpectedly opens and Alex and presumably Alex’s family enter the hallway. Instantly Alex’s eyes land on Christen. Uh-Oh.

“Christen!” Alex excitedly acknowledges with a bright smile on her face.

“Hey Alex” Christen shyly returns, conscious of the fact that several pairs of eyes are on her at this very moment. Out of the corner of her eye, Christen swears she sees her mother visibly deflate a bit at the mention of Alex’s name. It’s strange, but whenever they have run into one of Christen’s friends throughout the day, Christen’s mom always seems disappointed after learning their names.

“Is this your family?” Alex asks while gesturing to Christen’s relatives who stand directly behind her.

“Yeah” Christen politely replies, “And I’m guessing this is yours?” Alex nods as she looks back to the man and three women behind her. Each of the group members exchange pleasantries in the cramped space of the hallway.

“Are you two friends?” Alex’s mom questions as she looks fondly between the two young women.

“Yep!” Alex happily confirms, “I met Christen here at floor dinner a while back. She’s super sweet and kind of funny when she wants to be” Alex sends a wink Christen’s way. Christen laughs.

“You’ve got me pegged” Christen shrugs, “But we both know you’re only saying those nice things because my family is here and you don’t want them to feel bad for me.” This time Alex chuckles.

“You caught me” she jokingly concedes as she shakes her head. “Well, my family gets pretty hangry if we wait too long to eat so I’ll catch you later, Christen!”

“Bye Alex. Bye Alex’s family. It was nice meeting you all!” Christen responds. Each of the two groups wave goodbye as they make their way down opposite directions of the hallway.

Finally, the Press family arrives in front of Christen’s room. After a quick glance over her shoulder, Christen’s tense muscles relax when she sees that the door to room 317 is closed. It’s a ‘Family Weekend’ miracle. Christen wastes no time grabbing her key and unlocking the door. When she enters the room, Kelley is nowhere in sight. She must still be out with her family. That’s probably for the best.

The rest of Christen’s family follows her into the room and scan their eyes over every inch of the room. Which, admittedly, doesn’t take long because the space is hella small. Channing takes her time looking over the various posters on the walls, her mom subtly snoops near Kelley’s side of the room, and her dad stands awkwardly near the door, not sure what to do with himself. Christen reaches in her closet and pulls a cardigan from a hanger. This should work.

“Alright guys, I’m good. We can leave now” Christen announces as she tries to regain her family’s attention.

Not a moment later, there’s a knock on the door.

Everyone’s eyes shoot towards the direction of the sound. Christen walks over to the door.

“It’s probably just Kelley” Christen explains, “She’s always forgetting her key.” After she sneaks around her dad and turns the handle, she’s met with a pair of dazzling brown eyes on the other side of the door. Tobin?

Christen glances back to her family who look preoccupied with Christen’s room and don’t seem to be paying attention before she closes the door slightly, shielding Tobin from view.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Christen asks in a hushed tone. Tobin smiles at the tense brunette in front of her.

“Well I was in the neighborhood and I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner with me” Tobin effortlessly explains. Christen can’t help the smile that grows on her face as a result.

“You wanted to go to dinner with me?” Christen repeats as her body fills with the warm fuzzies that seem to be a package deal with Tobin whenever she talks to her. Or whenever Tobin talks at all, really. Tobin nods in the affirmative. Dinner? Just the two of us?...

“Christen? Who’s at the door, sweetie?” Christen’s mother’s voice sounds from behind her. Christen’s heart immediately drops as Tobin looks beyond Christen and into the room. No! No! No!

Christen’s mom approaches and pushes the door open so she can get a look at the figure outside the doorway.

“Oh hello!” she greets as Christen reluctantly makes room for the woman, “Are you Christen’s roommate?” Christen looks frantically from her mother to Tobin. How the hell do I get out of this one? Just introducing my family to Alex was awkward enough. How the hell am I supposed to introduce them to Tobin of all people?!

“No mom” Christen rapidly rambles out, “This is Tobin, my – uh –”

“I’m Christen’s friend” Tobin graciously finishes Christen’s sentence, putting the poor girl out of her misery. My friend. For some reason, the word sounds weird in Christen’s mind. “And also her neighbor. I live in 317.” Christen’s mom nods acknowledgingly and she seems to instantly perk up.

“Oh, so you’re Tobin!” her mom enthusiastically blurts out, “It’s so nice to meet you!” Wait, what? Mom knows about Tobin?! How could she? I’ve never even mentioned her before! The only three people who know about her are Kelley, Tyler, and… Christen’s eyes shoot over to her younger sister who shifts uncomfortably in her spot and refuses to make eye contact with Christen. Channing.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Press” Tobin politely greets as she flashes Christen’s mother her signature endearing smile.

“Please” her mother insists, “Call me Stacy.” Christen fills with complete and utter embarrassment. Oh god, mom. Why?

“Well then it’s nice to meet you, Stacy” Tobin corrects herself. Stacy smiles at the girl in approval and turns towards the rest of her family.

“This is my husband, Cody, and over there is my youngest daughter, Channing” Stacy introduces. The two remaining Presses wave to Tobin.

“It’s nice to meet you both as well” Tobin responds as she returns the wave. Oh god. This is so awkward. There’s no way this could get any worse.

“So Tobin” Stacy continues, “Is your family here today?” A small look of disappointment washes over Tobin’s face for a brief moment.

“Well no, actually. I’m from Jersey so it’s kind of a long way for my family to have to travel” Tobin casually explains. Stacy’s eyes look at Tobin in pity. Christen’s eyes do the same. And I thought my family lived far away. That must be hard for her. As if by reading her mind, Tobin glances over to Christen and gives her a look to reassure her that she’s fine.

“Well, we were just about to leave for dinner before you stopped by” Stacy begins again. Christen’s looks at her mother skeptically. Where are you going with this, mom? “Since your family isn’t here, how about you share a meal with ours instead?” ‘There’s no way this could get any worse’ huh? You really need to stop jinxing things, Christen.

“Oh, um, I wouldn’t want to intrude on your family time or anything” Tobin replies while nervously rubbing the back of her neck.

“Not at all! We’d love to have you!” Stacy interjects. Tobin looks to Christen for permission, and by mutual understanding, they both know that no matter what either one of them says, Tobin is going to dinner with them. It’s a done deal.

“Um, alright” Tobin finally agrees, “Just let me grab my coat.” Stacy nods and Tobin crosses the hall and enters her room.

“Alright, Christen, we’ll go get the car and you and Tobin can meet us outside when you’re ready.” Stacy informs with a triumphant smile on her face. Stacy, Cody, and Channing move to leave the room, but Christen reaches out and snags her younger sister’s arm.

“You know, Chan, my eyeliner is a little smudged. How about you stay back a second and help me fix it?” Christen proposes through clenched teeth.

“It looks fine to me” Channing nervously states, “Honestly, you don’t need my help.” The girl tries to turn back towards the door but Christen tightens her death grip on her sister’s wrist. Channing lets out a barely audible yelp.

“Oh, but I insist” Christen simmers, a fire burning in her eyes. Channing looks on with pure intimidation.

“Ok, yeah, sure. I guess I can stay and help” She squeaks out. Once their mother and father have left the room and are out of ear shot, Christen releases her hold of Channing and shuts the door. Channing rubs her soon-to-be-bruised wrist and cowers as Christen slowly turns to face her once again.

“I can’t believe you told mom about Tobin!” Christen erupts.

“I’m sorry!” Channing cries out, “But it couldn’t be helped!” This seems to fuel Christen’s rage even more.

“It couldn’t be helped?!” she booms at the now grimacing younger girl, “I tell you one small, confidential secret and suddenly mom knows all about it? All you had to do was keep your mouth shut. What do you mean it couldn’t be helped?!”

“You know how mom is!” Channing defends, “She always knows if you’re keeping something from her. So when you told me about Tobin, as soon as I got off the phone mom was there, badgering me until I cracked. And I cracked. I’m sorry about that, but there was nothing I could do! The woman is relentless!”

 Christen stands completely still as she listens to her sister explain herself. She knows Channing never meant to spill Christen’s secret, but she’s still upset that her mother knows. Now she’ll really never drop this ‘finding the one’ thing. All I wanted was to go to school and finally be taken seriously for once. I wanted to be able to call my mom and tell her about all the things I’ve been learning, not the romantic endeavors I’ve encountered. It’s like she just expects me to graduate and settle down right away. Like what I want to do with my life doesn’t even matter unless I’ve got a ring on my finger when these next four years are all said and done.

“Christen, I’m sorry. Please forgive me” Channing adds as her eyes convey her genuine remorse and apology. Christen sighs. I shouldn’t be mad at her, she didn’t do anything wrong. I was a fool to think that mom would never find out. It just happened sooner than I thought it would.

“It’s ok, Chan, I get it. I’m sorry for blowing up on you like that” Christen offers the girl an apologetic smile of her own. Channing just nods as Christen picks up her cardigan once again. “Alright, well, let’s go get this dinner over with so we can each get on with our lives.”

If I even still have one left by the time the night is over.