Wyatt Klinker Section 5

What is is about weekends? You would think that they would offer great opportunity to let me catch up. Well, they don't. This weekend was pretty bad as far as writing goes. Friday night Russ and Carol came over (bringing Balin home who if you remember was supposedly sick and stayed home from the sitter's on Friday) and stayed for pizza. When they finally left around 8:30pm I managed to knock out a few words (less than 500) before giving in and playing games on the computer until midnight.

Saturday I managed to write a few hundred words in the morning. It was pretty slow going. In the afternoon I went to the grocery store and bought Angie a birthday present. When I got home a wrote a few hundred more words then gave up to get ready to go out to dinner. As a family we went to Smokey Bones to celebrate Angie's 42nd. When we got home a watched a movie with Megan and Ang before getting back on the computer at 10:00. I was able to write a good 1000 words in that sitting.

Yesterday I worked. I had no energy to write, so Wyatt and friends just sat, waiting for me to show up to work this morning. Hopefully I'll find time later to do some writing. If not, I should be able to get an hour or so in tonight. At least I hope I can.

Current word count: 24,308
Target word count: 28,339 (by day's end)
Words behind pace: 4,031

Okay, back to the story. Here is the next chapter...

CHAPTER 6: DAVE

It had taken Wyatt a couple of weeks to get his feet on the ground after moving into the dorms but he had finally decided on a routine and it seemed to be working for him. It started with getting to know his roommate, a guy named David Kaczmarek.
Dave was a sophomore from Birmingham, Michigan who admittedly didn’t want a roommate and was pretty excited about having a single right up until the time that the school sent him a letter telling him that he had been assigned a freshman named Wyatt Klinker as a roomie. Dave was quick to point this out to Wyatt, in fact he did so within a half hour of him moving in. Dave hadn’t cared for his roommate his freshman year (a feeling Wyatt assumed was mutual based on his first impression) and couldn’t find anyone to room with him. He had assumed he would just have a single considering there was never any indication that a roommate was being assigned. This suited Dave just fine, but now here was Wyatt, moving his stuff in.
Dave could best be described as slovenly. He had moved in the previous day (a perk offered to returning students) and Wyatt was surprised by the sheer lack of progress Dave had made. Rather than making his bed, he had simply slept on the mattress pad and covered himself up with an old blanket. His clothes were still in suitcases and stacks of stuff were piled on the desk and dresser. These remained there for at least a week until in an explosion of productivity Dave had moved everything to various drawers or thrown stuff into his closet. His bed however remained the bare mattress and blanket.
Wyatt had shown an incredible amount of patience with his older roommate. Dave was loud, obnoxious and generally disliked by everyone on the floor. He stayed up late, playing video games on his laptop or reading, not caring if Wyatt was trying to sleep. There were many times that Wyatt simply resolved himself to sleeping on a couch in the study room at the end of the hall until he snuck back in at four or five in the morning, well after Dave had went to bed.
Dave was a slob, throwing clothes all over, leaving food and garbage in the trash or on his desk until it stunk up the entire room. Through it all Wyatt didn’t say anything, he just allowed Dave to do his thing. Wyatt was patient and didn’t want to make waves, especially with the sophomore whom he’d been assigned to live. Wyatt had come from living with his aunt and uncle and frankly, even with all his faults, Wyatt decided that Dave was an upgrade.
The first week or so Wyatt had just spent time watching his roommate. He learned a lot about him in that short amount of time. Dave was always quick to talk about himself, rarely giving Wyatt the opportunity to speak. That suited the younger student just fine.
During this time Wyatt learned that Dave was an accounting major and didn’t really need to study very hard to get good grades. He went to class when he wanted and studied less than most. He had roomed with a guy named Charles the year before, but “Chuck” was a real problem; always bitching about Dave and they had never seen eye to eye. Wyatt was pretty sure who the real problem was, but didn’t say anything.
Dave was a big guy and generally didn’t practice exceptional hygiene. He showered every other day but other than that did not put much effort into his appearance. He typically wore the same clothes for days at a time, only changing them when he thought about it. His wardrobe consisted of baggy jeans and various t-shirts with different sayings on them, all of them attempting some degree of humor, with many of them vulgar.
In the end Wyatt was fine with just letting Dave do his thing. This of course suited Dave just fine and the two of them reached a point of quiet coexistence.
Wyatt started having issues when Dave began going through his things. If there was one thing Wyatt was guilty of, it was being introverted and private. When Wyatt had walked in and found his roommate sitting at his desk, reading Wyatt’s journal, he had simply cracked.
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.
Dave just looked up and with a smile answered, “Your cousin Lindsey sounds hot, you should bring her by so I can meet her.”
Wyatt snatched the book from the older man’s hand, slamming it shut. Dave initially looked indifferent then smiled broadly.
“Dude, lighten up, its not like I’m serious or anything. I wouldn’t try to steal your girlfriend, even if she is your cousin,” he laughed at his joke, right up until the time Wyatt grabbed a hold of him.
“Listen here you prick,” Wyatt growled, pulling the bigger student out of the chair and on to his feet. “You get into my stuff one more time and I will hurt you. Do you get me?”
Dave didn’t know what to say, he just looked at Wyatt and laughed, “What you going to do, call your dad so he can beat me up?”
Whether Dave knew about Wyatt’s dad and mother or not, he wasn’t going to put up with it anymore. He reeled back and punched Dave right in the gut. Immediately the smile erased itself from the other man’s face, replaced by an audible “ooof”. Wyatt drew back and hit him again, hitting Dave this time square on the chin.
An explosion of pain erupted from Wyatt’s knuckles, but he allowed his rage to take over. He continued to pummel the larger man until Dave had collapsed to the floor, his arms up to protect his face while he curled in a ball in order to avoid any more punches to the mid section.
Wyatt panted, “Now, I’ll tell you again, stay out of my stuff, do you understand?”
Dave just nodded, his face bruised, his eyes full of fear. To his surprise however, Wyatt stuck out his hand offering to help the other student up off the floor.
Afraid that Wyatt would hit him again, Dave struggled on his own to his feet, collapsing into his chair, at his desk.
“I’m sorry,” he finally mumbled, much to Wyatt’s surprise.
“What,” Wyatt had to ask, not sure if he had heard him correctly.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have read your diary,” he repeated, his eyes down.
“Dave, I’ve put up with your bullshit for two weeks now. I haven’t asked you to do anything. All I want is for you to leave me alone, you understand?” Wyatt asked.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.”
“It isn’t my fault that they stuck me in this room with you and you didn’t get your single. I’m just here to go to school. They stuck me with you and as much as I would like to change rooms, I know it isn’t going to happen until the semester is over.” Wyatt felt strangely superior to Dave and the sensation invigorated him. “You can’t count on me moving out at the first chance I get. That should make you happy.”
“You want to move out? I didn’t mean to go through your diary.” Dave seemed clueless.
“Dave, it’s not just that,” and for the next few minutes Wyatt described to him all the things that bothered him about the other man. In the end, Dave just sat there and nodded his headed, a dumbfounded look on his face, as if all this information was being conveyed to him for the first time. When he was done, Wyatt stood, went over to Dave and patted him on the shoulder.
Dave looked up and smiled at his roommate, “Dude, I hope you don’t move out.”
The next day when Wyatt woke up to get ready for class, Dave’s bed was made.

September 16th – Dear Starlog

I still feel terrible about what I did to Dave, but you really can’t argue the results. I don’t think Dave will ever be a neat freak, but he does clean up after himself now, and he’s stopped using my bath towel to soak up whatever drink he inevitably spills. I think the real change has to do with the way he listens to me. He is willing to at least be receptive of what I have to say. Truthfully, that’s all I ever wanted. He’s still really loud when he comes in, and while he tries to be quiet, more often than not he wakes me up at night. On a positive note, I haven’t had to sleep in the study room since our misunderstanding.
I’m not a violent person. In fact, that little outburst of mine was the first time I had actually come unglued. I remember one time I got in a fight when I was in third grade and rather than try to hit the other kid, I basically just let him beat on me. I can’t even remember what the whole thing was about, but I do remember just standing there. I guess I’m a bit of a pacifist.
I think Dave was pretty spoiled as a kid. Matter of fact, I’m sure of it. He still gets care packages, one every week, from his mom. It is like a holiday when it comes because he tears through; sampling each of the treats his mom has packed. The last one he offered me a cookie but I passed, noting to him that I would rather not eat something that other people had already handled. Again, I think Dave learns a new lesson every day. I’m really starting to think he’s going to be an okay roommate.
We had a discussion about Lindsey the other day. After he profusely apologized again for reading my Starlog (I still don’t like calling it a diary) he asked me what happened with her anyway. I explained it to him and was taken aback by his perspective. He thought that maybe Lindsey was projecting on me the attention she felt she should be receiving from her dad. Now he didn’t go so far as to say that she was lusting after her dad. He just pointed out that he had read that people can become insecure, particularly if they don’t get the attention they feel from one of their parents. Made sense to me I guess and it sure helped explain some things. I think I’ll go with that explanation for now.
Now I suppose Dave and I have a bond. We certainly have an agreement. He promised he would never tell my secret if I promised to never beat him up again (or tell anybody I beat him up). I’m cool with that.
I’m doing pretty good in class. I like geography and literature isn’t too bad. I like to read so it makes it a bit easier. I would sooner be reading something a little less “classic” than Catcher in the Rye or breaking down Thoreau’s Walden, but overall it isn’t bad. For the first time in awhile I feel comfortable where I’m at. Maybe this whole going away to college thing isn’t so bad.