Dead End Dive
Noel pulled up to the huge building he will be living in for the next four years. He went to find a parking spot with the added struggle of trying to squeeze into a parking spot inches away from cars on either side of him. He scoffed at the circumstances he was under but continued his plan anyways. Noel always made plans. No matter what it was. Today was no exception. He carefully opened the driver's door and made his way to the trunk of his small vehicle, unlocking it on the way. Noel proceeded to haul anything he could into his arms and walked towards the dormitory's doors.
Noel looked around while trying to find his room, maybe out of curiosity? He wasn't sure. He soon located the door of his soon-to-be "home". Noel struggled to pull the room key out of his back pocket-which in hindsight was not a very safe place to put those-to unlock the door. The door creaked open as Noel's eyes locked on an individual a few feet away from the door, who was staring right back at him. To Noel's surprise, this figure waved at him.
Noel started walking towards the figure, closing the door behind him to the best of his abilities, considering he was holding about 3 or 4 very heavy boxes. In the main space of the small dorm, there was a light brown coffee table, with a tan couch on one side-which this person was sprawled out onto-and two cushioned grey armchairs on the other. Noel decided to sit on one of the grey armchairs and put the boxes down beside the chair. "I wonder if me and this other roommate will get along throughout the semester."He thought. "I'm curious what he majors in, seems like a science major type of person."
"Hello, I'm Ricky. And you are?"
Noel was suddenly snapped out of his train of thought by the oddly robotic voice came from a tablet-like contraption on the person to noel's opposite side, who was now sitting up and looking back at him. Suddenly, nerves built up in Noel's body. "come on, it's just some stupid introduction, all you have to do is say your name." His brain was trying to trick him again, wasn't it? After going back and forth with his brain for a minute or two, which felt like centuries for Noel, he felt a hand tap his shoulder. The robotic voice emerged from the electronic's speakers.
"Are you okay?"
"Ye-yes, I'm fine. Just a little spacey from all of this," gesturing to the dorm room, "So I guess that just makes stuff hard to process. I don't know.." Noel exasperated with a defeated sigh. He heard the clicking of the other person's fingertips on the tablet in front of him, which did ground him back to reality if just for a moment. Noel watched as Ricky's fingers glided across the tablet in a satisfying succession of motion.
"No worries, this entire situation can be pretty overwhelming, I must admit." The tabled emerged from it's speakers. Noel nodded in response, not exactly sure how to respond to that. "A nod is appropriate here, right?" He pondered, hoping he had made the right choice.
"I can help you get all of your stuff set up, if you would like. Hopefully you don't have anything too heavy in those boxes." Ricky grinned as the last part was emerged in that signature robotic voice of his text-to-speech machine. Noel pondered this offer for a bit. He could use the extra help, but he really didn't want to bother anyone because of it. Yet, this boy does seem nice enough that he does not have to worry about that kind of stuff.
"Sure, if you don't mind." Noel responded sheepishly. He could see the other boy's face light up in response to Noel's words, and in return this made Noel smile at Ricky. He watched as Ricky hastily typed out a message for Noel.
"Wonderful! Is there more stuff you need to grab other than this?" Ricky gestured to the boxes laying on the floor next to the grey armchair. Noel nodded and proceeded to stand up to find his car keys in his pockets. A moment of digging later, he finally found them.
"You can probably bring those boxes into whichever one is my room and then I'm gonna get the other boxes so we can carry those into my room as well!" Noel grinned as he grabbed his dorm and car keys as he caught a glimpse of Ricky nodding at him before he slid out the door to get the other boxes of somewhat disorganized belongings in his car.