Well, 4,020 Words Down

“You will travel to many exotic places”
Of all the fortunes in all the fortune cookies, I got that one on the day I was to be released from the hospital. Right. The only exotic place I was going to be going was college. And let’s face it, nothing is exotic about Langston University. I was wheeled out to my mother’s car, because they don’t let you simply walk out of the hospital, and I thought about that fortune.
“Do you think people believe these things?” I asked my sister, Jen. She looked back at me from the front seat and shrugged.
“I don’t know, Gabby,” she said, “people believe plenty of stupid things.” I rolled my eyes. For some reason Jen was always able to answer my questions in ways in which the question still remained unanswered.
“Don’t call me Gabby,” I reminded her. “I hate it when you call me that.” Mom turned the radio volume up, a signal which meant she didn’t want to hear us anymore. She never wanted to hear us. I tried to talk over the radio. “You know, Mom, this is what my doctor calls ‘avoiding the situation’”. She turned the volume down then and looked at me hard through the rearview mirror.
“Are you trying to blame me for what happened?” She questioned. “Are you trying to make me feel guilty? I will not take responsibility for YOUR actions, Gabrielle Renee Miller.” Of course she wouldn’t.
“I’m not blaming you,” I informed her. “I’m just telling you what my doctor would call it.” She heaved a sigh and turned the radio back up. It was a folk song, and the tune was pretty catchy. Jen was humming along, I could tell by the way her lips were pursed.
I sat quietly in the back seat of Mom’s jeep until we reached my dorm building. It was in Tent house, on the third floor. It was a little known fact that the third floor was for students who needed extra supervision. Students like me. There were cameras in the halls and supervisors came around to check on the students every once and a while. Mom wouldn’t have let me live on campus if it weren’t for this little feature.
As I stepped out of the car and we began to unload my stuff, a boy came to help out. He was a bit on the shorter side, but he was nice enough looking to make up for it. He introduced himself as Tito and he was a really big help. He didn’t even mind walking up the stairs in order to get to the room. I don’t think he noticed the cameras, or knew about the third floor so he didn’t ask what was wrong with me. Either that, or he was too polite to ask. I hoped it was the former.
Mom and Jen helped me unpack and as soon as everything was in place they took their leave. I walked downstairs, on my way to the dining hall when I bumped into the only friend I had at school, Vienna. Vienna and I played volleyball together in high school, and were both recruited for the university’s team, but I got taken out in the middle of the summer.
“Oh, Gabrielle, hi,” she said. She didn’t look right at me and I noticed she was shifting from foot to foot. I bet she had practice. I missed practicing.
“Hey, Vienna. I’ll see you around,” I said, walking past her. She didn’t say anything and I just continued to walk.
As I entered the dining hall I heard someone calling my name. I turned towards the direction in which the voice was coming, and sure enough, it was Tito. I grabbed a plate and put a piece of pizza on it before heading over to sit with him and his group of friends. I took a small bite of pizza, choked it down, and introduced myself.
“These are, Tara, John, Nelson, and Max,” Tito said as he pointed from one person to the next. I noticed immediately that Tara and John were dating. It was a hard thing to miss with them making out as though they were alone.
“Don’t you guys need oxygen?” Max asked them. They broke apart and John slapped Max in the arm. These weren’t exactly my sort of people, but I figured Tito was friendly enough.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Nelson asked, pointing to the pizza on my plate. I bit my lip before bringing the greasy, cheesy food towards my lips. I was going to have to get used to this. Cafeteria food was definitely not something a person could successfully diet on. Especially not with all of that grease.
“Is it really all that bad?” Tara asked me seriously. I took a bite. No. I wanted to say. It actually tasted really good. But I nodded.
“How can there be so much grease on something?” I asked, hoping to get a few laughs. Instead, Tara took my slice of pizza and bit into it.
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” she said. “It’s just pizza.” Everyone laughed and I got up. This wasn’t something I had to deal with. College wasn’t going to be like high school, I was positive about that.
I didn’t realize Tito was following me until I started walking up the stairs.
“Gabrielle, wait,” Tito said. I stopped and looked at him. “I don’t think she really meant that. She just likes to show off for John. She’s actually a nice person.” I rolled my eyes. Anyone can be “actually a nice person” when their friend is talking about them.
“Oh sure,” I said unenthusiastically.
“She really is, it’s just John that makes her a bitch.” And there it is. If her friend can say she’s a bitch certain times, then she was probably a nice person in other instances.
“Okay, I believe you.” I started walking again and he started walking with me. I stopped and looked over at him. “Where are you going?”
“Fourth floor,” he told me. “I live there.” So I would be seeing a lot of Tito. I suppose someone could have worse neighbors. I walked into my room and as I was closing the door a woman walked inside. She was a tall red head with a nametag on that said her name was Lacey.
“Hi,” she said. “My name’s Lacey. And you must be Gabrielle!” She said, extending her hand. I shook it. She was really perky and that really bugged me.
“Yeah, I’m Gabrielle,” I told her, nonplussed. “You must be a monitor.” She shook her head.
“Not only that, I’m your RA!” She said with more enthusiasm than I’d ever heard anyone use indoors. It was terrifying. It took all the energy I had not to hide under my bed from the giant perky resident monster.
“Oh, goody,” I managed. She smiled and told me that there was a hall meeting at seven and it would be a lot of fun. Twelve exclamation marks. I’m not joking, she said “It’s going to be fun, twelve exclamation marks.” It was frightening, and it made me want to gag. But I couldn’t gag, not in front of her. So I told her I wouldn’t miss it and she went on her merry way.
Yikes, she was something I would have to get used too, just like the cafeteria food. I sat down on my bed and opened my laptop. I had one new email from my dad. He wanted to make sure I got to school alright, so I messaged him back saying I was fine. I told him about the perky RA. I knew he’d understand, my dad and I are pretty close. Even though I lived with my mom for most of my life, I felt I could talk freely with my dad. Like we were pals instead of father and daughter.
I surfed the web until it was time for the hall meeting. I stepped out into the hall and there were already girls sitting around in a circle. I joined them and Lacey introduced me to everyone. I didn’t catch all of the names, but I could tell why certain people were on this floor. One of the girls looked about as pleased as I felt, and I sat down next to her. We re-introduced ourselves, which is how I found out her name was Gladys. The first thing she said after telling me her name was: “They should have pegged me for problems when they gave me the name.” I laughed, and she laughed because what else can you do in that situation?
Lacey started the meeting promptly at seven. First thing she talked about was the visiting regulations. She informed us that men were allowed to spend the night, but only Friday and Saturday nights. She also said that we should try to work out a schedule for the washer and dryer that were on our floor. I could tell what her priorities were: first were guys, then clean clothes. I laughed about this thought and Lacey turned to me.
“Gabrielle, is there something funny you would like to share?” She asked. “I love jokes.” For a moment I debated whether or not I should tell her I thought this meeting was a joke. I mean, did she really think we were going to just go through normal things like that? The one thing all of us had in common was that we WEREN’T normal.
“Nope,” I said, “just thinking about something that happened earlier.” Gladys snickered and Lacey continued talking about something else. I have to admit I didn’t pay too much attention to anything she said the rest of the meeting.
When it was all over Lacey handed us each a letter of directions specific to our conditions. This was what I was expecting. They could pretend we were normal for so long, but eventually the façade had to come down. I walked back to my room and opened the letter when I plopped down on my bed.
Gabrielle Miller,
During the week Dr. Lepolsky will come and check your weight on Thursdays. He has a copy of your schedule and will arrive at his earliest convenience. You will be expected to keep the average weight your doctor has disclosed. If this weight is not kept you will be removed from campus and returned to the treatment facility in which you spent your summer. If your weight drops to eighty-five pounds you will be taken to the nearest hospital and your parents will be notified. It is with my deepest sincerity that I inform you of these things in order for you to continue your education and to live a healthy life.
-Prof. Douglas
I stuffed the letter deep into one of my drawers. “Deepest sincerity” my ass. The only reason I agreed to these conditions was to get away from my house. I should have realized I was trading one prison for another. Although, this one seemed to have more possibilities.
I went to sleep early that night because classes started at eight for me the next day. I awoke to sirens and looked at my clock. It was five-thirty.
Obviously someone wasn’t able to keep to her schedule.
Was that a bad first thought? Of course it was, but that was the only logical explanation I could think of for there to be sirens. I opened my door and stepped out into the hallway with my pajamas on. People were evacuating the building. I barely had time to register the fire alarm as I was forced out of the building by the sheer mass of people flooding outside. There was a point, I guess it was on the last set of stairs, where I almost went flying forward when Tito grabbed my arm and walked the rest of the way with me.
A lot of people were still in their pajamas, their hair disheveled. Tito was an exception. His hair was neatly combed and he had on some running clothes. I couldn’t help but stare, my mind wasn’t fully comprehensive at the time and this image was not clicking.
“What, you never saw running clothes?” Tito asked, breaking me from my stupor. I shook my head.
“No… I mean, of course I have, but not this early. Not with everyone else in pajamas,” I said, tripping all over my words. He laughed.
“Yeah, okay,” he said. “By the way, your hair is sticking up.” I ran a hand through my hair and tried my best to force it down.
“Thanks,” I said as I made sure my hair was under control. “Do you always run early in the morning?” He nodded.
“Every day but Saturday.” Wow. That was a huge commitment. I tried to imagine the last time I ran. It was during volleyball practice. We had to run ten laps around the track at the begging of every practice. It was there that everything went downhill.
“Impressive.” I wondered what was going on in the building that set off the alarm. In answer to my question Gladys walked over and whispered in my ear.
“Someone on the top floor was trying to light fireworks to shoot out his window,” she told me. It figures it was some stupid guy.
“Genius plan,” I replied. She nodded.
“Just think, if the place would have burned down we would be free.” I laughed at this and Tito asked what was going on. I almost forgot he was here.
I was about to tell him when a voice rang out via megaphone.
“There is too much smoke in the building for anyone to go back inside now. The university has called the La Quinta Inn and there are rooms for everyone there. You will be able to return to the dorms tonight and any damaged items will be replaced by t he student responsible.” There was a loud cheer. There was definitely going to be some partying at La Quinta. And then I remembered my fortune.
“You will travel to many exotic places.”
“What?” Tito asked. I told him I had that in my fortune cookie earlier. “Well, it seems the cookie was right.”
That was when I decided something. I was going to live my life for the fortune cookies. There’s no way my own plans could work out better than those in the cookies, I mean, look at where my life was. No way did I plan starting college the way I had. I had very different things in mind. So, today was the start of something new. It was all going to be by the cookies.

“Any job, big or small; do it right or not at all.”
“How do you go about fulfilling this one?” Tito asked me the next week as we finished eating the China King. So far, Tito was the only friend I had with a car.
“I don’t fulfill them,” I said. “They predict my future.” He looked at me as though I was the craziest person he’s ever met. And I probably was, just not for the reasons he thought. He still had no idea that I wasn’t a normal student. I even ate the majority of food on my plate.
The only reason Tito knew I was going by the cookies was because he wanted an explanation for why he should take me to a Chinese restaurant. I tried to give him a lame excuse, but I eventually just told him. Well, minus the part where I was in the hospital.
“So, how do you think this one will predict your future,” he said in a mocking tone. I rolled my eyes.
“I don’t know…yet. It will become apparent.” He laughed at this and we walked out to his car. My first week of classes was filled with different obstacles. I almost missed my first class because I got lost. My language class, Spanish, was a lot more difficult than I expected it to be and then there was the cafeteria. My biggest obstacle.
Most people who sat with me thought I was picky, or they knew because they lived on my floor. Like Gladys. Gladys and I were quickly approaching best friend status and that freaked me out. I hadn’t had a real best friend since my sophomore year of high school and it didn’t end happily. I mean, we were great friends, but she died in a car accident. It was nobody’s fault, the other driver apparently had some sort of heart attack behind the wheel. It was a very difficult time.
“Elle,” Tito said, breaking me from my reverie. I looked over at him.
“What?” I asked.
“You were off somewhere. Where’d you go?” I thought about telling him about Faye, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“Nowhere important,” I said dismissively. “Any big plans for tonight?” He shook his head and told me he had nothing going on.
“Why, did you want to do something?” Tito asked with an anxious tone in his voice. This is what I was afraid of. He liked me. I could tell simply by the way he was speaking. He was waiting for me to tell him I wanted to spend more time with him.
“Not particularly,” I said. “But I don’t have a date tonight, so I suppose we could watch a movie or something.” I made sure to add the tonight bit into my explanation so he would think I had dates for other nights.
It’s not that I didn’t like Tito, he was proving to be a pretty good friend, but I wasn’t in the market for a boyfriend. I had a few of those in high school, and some of them contributed to my problems more than they helped. Right now, I felt a love interest would only hinder my recovery. I would focus more on my physical appearance than I already did and I didn’t need that. What I had to do first was accept myself no matter what I looked like. This was proving to be increasingly difficult.
“You left again,” Tito said.
“Oh, sorry. Just thinking,” I informed him. He nodded and looked at me through the corner of his eye. “Don’t you ever get lost in thought?” He nodded.
“Of course, just never that lost.”
“What do you mean?” He parked the car in the lot behind our building and turned to face me.
“I never get too caught up in my thoughts that I start saying them.” I could feel myself blush. “Nothing to be embarrassed about,” he said in answer to my unasked question.
“Okay, thanks,” I said. He turned off the car and opened his door.
“An eating disorder is nothing to ashamed about,” he said. Shit. Of course I would blurt my biggest secret.
“You can’t tell anyone about it,” I said. “Everyone who needs to know already does.” He nodded. I stepped out of the car and looked at him again.
“I promise, I won’t tell anyone,” he said in a soothing voice.
“Ok, and don’t treat me different.” I could tell he was debating that one. We walked up to my room and I looked him hard in the face. “Promise you won’t treat me different or we can’t be friends.” Ultimatums were made for this situation.
“Fine, I promise. Gosh, you really are following those cookies.”
“I’m not following the cookies, they predict the future!” I told him as we sat down on the carpeted floor. “So…what movie are we going to watch?”

It was eleven o’clock when Gladys knocked on the door. Tito and I were on our second X-Men movie and he was starting to inch closer during our breaks. I paused the movie and opened the door. Gladys looked at Tito.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you had a guy over,” she said, starting to leave. I grabbed her arm.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” I whispered in her ear. Aloud I said, “Don’t worry, it’s just my friend Tito.” Tito blushed and Gladys smiled. She sat down between the two of us and I started the movie up again.
“This is Gladys,” I told Tito. They shook hands and I could tell Gladys was checking him out. I couldn’t blame her. When I first saw Tito his attractiveness was not lost on me. It was my strong convictions that kept me from acting on my irrational impulses. Tito was a good friend and that was all I needed him to be.
The three of us watched the rest of the movie and the third one as well. We all clicked pretty well. Tito and Gladys even spent a chunk of time discussing my fortune cookie theory. Gladys thought it was interesting and Tito, of course, thought it was ridiculous.
They left at two in the morning and I looked at my email before I fell asleep. There was one from Isaac, one of my old boyfriends who were now a friend. It wasn’t anything important, just the usual “hey what’s up” sort of thing. I typed a quick reply and fell asleep.

The next day was Sunday and Gladys thought it would be a good idea to check out the local mall. I wasn’t really big into shopping, but I figured there was nothing better for me to do. I was about to point out we didn’t have a car when who should meet us at the stairs but Tito.
“You’re taking us to the mall?” I asked him. He gave me a “well isn’t it obvious?” look.
“Who else would take you?” He questioned. I shrugged.
“I don’t know, I thought we’d be taking a cab or something,” I admitted. He laughed at this. As if taking a cab was below a college student.
“That’s a waste of money,” he said. “Besides, what are friends for?” Gladys nodded in agreement. So we all piled into Tito’s car and he drove to the mall. The first thing I thought when I saw the mall was wow, this is huge. The thought that followed was that’s what she said. I knew it was a childish thought, but I laughed anyways.
“Now, what’s so funny?” Gladys asked me in her best Lacey voice. I told her about my childish thought. She and Tito both laughed at this. I supposed being childish wasn’t exactly a bad thing to be.
We walked around the mall for a while before Tito deemed it lunch time, or as he referred to it, “time to feed the pack-mule.” I walked behind the two of them as we approached the food court and I could smell the grease from two stores down. I slipped into a book store while they were talking and I tried to calm myself down. There were so many calories in food court food, I couldn’t even begin to imagine. Didn’t Tito realize how gross this food was?
It took them about ten minutes to find me and Gladys told Tito to wait while she talked to me in private. We went a few shelves over from him and Gladys touched my shoulder.
“Listen, I know it’s difficult, but we can always get you a salad from one of the healthier places,” she told me. A salad, now that seemed like something I could conquer. I nodded and thanked her for dealing with me. She waved this off and we rejoined Tito.
“Everything okay?” He asked. I nodded. We walked to the food court and I told my brain to shut off my sense of smell, it didn’t work. I followed Gladys into the line for a place called Veggie’s and Tito went to a different place. Gladys got a sandwich and I got a cob salad. We sat down at a table and Tito sat down a few minutes later with a huge burger on his plate. I took a bite of my salad and tried not to look at the thing.