Please forgive me a small introduction. However, I assume that some people might find the main character a bit pathetic. Sadly enough, everything that happened to him in his childhood are things that I have taken from my own childhood and manipulated. It wasn't roadkill in my case, however, it was a dead quail. Enjoy!

Joseph opened the heavy wooden door that lead to the room he had been assigned to in his new college dormitory. It was the fifth day of classes and after a tremendous amount of unpacking, he had finished moving in and was beginning to become quite settled. The idea of going away to university had worried him at first. He assumed that he would somehow screw up the entire process. Basically, by this point in his life, Joseph was pretty certain that he would fail at ever finding a comfortable place in the world.

In high school, he had been targeted by the bullies. Well, they could not really be labeled as bullies. They were just those who fit in – the jocks, the members of student government, and even the A. V. club members. He was targeted by everyone for not belonging, even those who were considered to be at the bottom rung of the high school social ladder. At least there was a group of them and there was only one of him. This was mostly due to the fact that he had found a way to completely set himself apart from all potential friends by the age of ten.

Exactly what he had done to separate himself, he could never quite figure out. Of course, there were a few instances of his committing some sort of strange act that would cause the other boys his age to cringe with embarrassment just by witnessing his social ineptitude. Once, he had decided it would be a good idea to wear one of his mother’s blouses to school. By the end of the day, the flowery patterned top was completely unrecognizable after Joseph had been shoved into the mud repeatedly. Then, there was the time he was persuaded by the other boys to pull down the pants of another girl who happened to grow up and become the ideal of all females attending high school in his grade. The other boys had swiftly declared themselves void of any blame for that act as Joseph was attacked by all the little girls on the playground that day. Of course, the one act that really drove the nail home was when he befriended a dead rabbit he found on his way to school. He had scooped the little furry corpse up off the sidewalk and into his arms, carrying it with him all the way to St. Edwards Middle School. Baxter, as he had so lovingly named the little creature, was swiftly removed from his possession by a faculty member of his grade school. It was too late, however, for the act to go unnoticed by the other students and from that day on, he would never live down the title of “that creepy kid who brought the road-kill to school.”

Of course, there were more minor social fau pax’s. He once had trailed toilet paper after him from the boys’ room, through the cafeteria lunch line, and to his seat at the empty table in the corner of the room with uneven legs. After dragging it around with him for so long, someone had finally conspicuously hinted at the toilet paper hanging, not from his shoe but from his boxers, when they screamed, “Joseph has some shit tickets for a tail!” He had also accidentally touched the breast of an upper classman, Amber Jennings during a group presentation which warranted a slap across the face and sniggers from his audience of fellow classmates. He had gotten contacts after having a basketball smash the glasses he had worn since eighth grade, causing a lens to break out and cut his cheek. For some reason, this was considered incredibly funny by the boy who had thrown the basketball at him even though a game was not in progress.

But college had proven different. Joseph had quickly made friends with some of the boys living in his hall. He was already invited to go to a party the next day and a smile crept across his face every time he thought of attending an actual frat party like the ones shown in movies such as Animal House and Van Wilder.

Joseph walked into the dorm room, scanning the walls and bed and desk, admiring his completely normal set up. Joseph had stacked his textbooks next to one another from largest to smallest in an orderly fashion. The bed was covered in his new plaid green comforter that was specifically advertised for college students at the store. There was a Jack Daniels poster taped to the wall next to a calendar of half naked super models. Of course, the closest Joseph had ever come to tasting whisky was when he smelled it on the breath of his drunk uncle at family reunions. Also, the closest that Joseph had ever come to seeing an actual half naked girl was when he had once walked in on his mother as she was getting into the shower. However, those facts along with the realization that those neatly stacked textbooks held information far more confusing than anything he had yet encountered, and the fact that his bed sheets were incredibly itchy and uncomfortable were easily ignored when Joseph allowed himself to imagine just how great his new life in this new world was turning out to be.

As Joseph let his eyes drift around the room, he suddenly realized that stacked atop the bed opposite his were crisp, white sheets and a pair of pillows. At the foot of that bed was a box holding contents which Joseph had not brought into the room. Up until that point, Joseph had conjured up beautiful images of having a room to himself. The residential assistant at the end of the hall had told him he might go without a roommate all year since new housing had recently gone up on campus. His plans for turning that bed into a couch to face the small television he had brought with him were suddenly dashed to pieces.

With a sigh, Joseph shrugged off his disappointment as the image of a new person to befriend entered his mind. Maybe his new roommate would end up being Mr. Perfect, Mr. Popular, Mr. Athletic, Mr. Everyone’s-dream-of-an-awesome-best-friend. Joseph could ride on the coattails of his roommate’s popularity and finally find a place for himself. Of course, the thought of ever being the image of awesomeness that he dreamed up for his new roommate would never enter his mind. Joseph knew that he could always hope to live vicariously through him, though.

Suddenly engulfed in feelings of curiosity, Joseph shifted from his side of the room to the other and touched the sheets. They were rough to the touch and as bland as sheets could be. He tipped the edge of the box at the end of the bed over in order to peer at the contents. Inside Joseph found plain, brown pencils, standard notebooks, post-it pads, and other objects one could safely assume any college student would own. About the only thing of even slight interest within the plain cardboard box was a pastel pink pencil sharpener.

Pink?

Suddenly, Joseph felt a presence behind him which caused him to jump and completely tip the items of his interest onto the floor, spilling school supplies across the room.

“Jesus Christ!” Joseph exclaimed as he spun around to face the object of his surprise.

Standing behind him was a thin boy with dark hair that he seemed to hide his soft face behind. The boy was the type of person that would quickly be lost in a crowd, his face forgotten before it was even registered. The fact that he was wearing a bland colored t-shirt and a basic pair of blue jeans did not aid his cause. There was one thing that was striking about this boy, however. Staring out through his bangs were the most remarkably sad eyes that Joseph had ever seen, arousing a sense of pity for this new person who had not yet spoken a word.

Instead of saying anything, the boy just looked at Joseph for a moment before bending over to start picking up his things.

“Uh…real sorry. I wasn’t trying to be snoopy or anything.”

Joseph stammered this sentence out as he bent over to begin picking up school supplies as well. Just as he was leaning over, the newcomer glanced up at him, apparently about to say something before Joseph head butted him in the mouth.

“Fuck!” Joseph said as he crashed to the floor, his hand covering his forehead.

The other boy just looked down with his hand over his mouth.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

The quiet voice was hardly registered by Joseph who was just happy that this boy had finally said something. Peering at him from under his hand, Joseph saw his new roommate look up and remove his hand from his mouth. After giving that area of his body a little thought and realizing that all was still where it should be, he suddenly began to laugh. Joseph watched as the eyebrows hovering above those pathetic eyes suddenly arched up while light flooded into the soft face that was only moments ago so expressionless.

Joseph smiled back and waited for his roommate to catch his breath before standing up and offering him his hand.

“Joseph Banning.”

“Heh…Like Race Banning?” came the reply as his roommate lifted himself off the floor.

The response was lost on him as Joseph tried to understand the question.

“You know. Like Johnny Quest?”

Joseph stared some more.

“Didn’t you watch cartoons as a kid?”

Blood began rushing to his face as Joseph recalled his mother’s ban on television as a kid. The little bits of cartoons that he ever watched now were the ones he saw in the mornings while he devoured his breakfast. To be honest, he never minded much about not having television himself. He only owned one in an attempt to fit in. Joseph would take a good book over a movie or sitcom any day. However, that was just another barrier between himself and others his age and he knew it. For that reason, Joseph became embarrassed anytime he heard someone discussing Friends or House or whatever. Why couldn’t he find someone else who was more interested in the satires of Kurt Vonnegut over the tits of Autumn Reeser…whoever that was.

Joseph could feel the eyes of his roommate boring into him, waiting for an answer. Instead of offering one, however, he just moved to his side of the room and started shuffling through his own belongings.

Expecting to be goaded into responding that no, he did not watch cartoons as a kid, Joseph tried to look busy, stalling so he could come up with an adequate lie to explain his cultural detachment from the rest of the world. However, surprisingly, no further conversation was pursued. Joseph was allowed to fake preoccupation while his new roommate began picking up the notebooks and post-its and placing them on the desk.

A loud bang from behind let Joseph know that his new friends from the other rooms on the wing had arrived. Trent and Kyle came barreling through the door without knocking as they entered the room.

Kyle threw himself onto Joseph’s neatly made bed, ruffling the blankets. Waltzing over to Joseph’s side, Trent threw an arm around his shoulders before wrenching the books he was holding out of his hand.

“What do we have here? An Elementary Understanding of Chemistry? The Lost Art of the Great Speech? What the hell is this?”

Joseph attempted to grab the books back from Trent but failed miserably. Throwing them down on the desk Trent became distracted with something else and it suddenly appeared that the stranger in the room had been discovered.

With his back still turned to the rest of the boys, Joseph’s new roommate continued to unpack. He picked the pencil sharpener off the ground, the final item from his box to be put into its place, and set it down on his desk.

“Who’s this, Joey? Your new boyfriend?”

Trent walked across the room and picked the pencil sharpener up before it hardly had a chance to leave the hand of the quiet newcomer. As Trent examined it, Joseph spoke up, trying to play it cool; attempting to avoid any chance that sharing a room with this person would scar his own chances of reaching the peak of his popularity here.

“No, I think this is my new roommate, right?”

“Right,” the boy responded while glaring at the object held in Trent’s hand.

Suddenly, Trent turned to meet the gaze of this intruder and tossed the pencil sharpener, causing it to plunk off the chest of Joseph’s new roommate.

“Well, I hate to be the one to inform you, Joey. But you’re rooming with a fairy. Who the fuck buys pink school supplies? Or did Mommy pick them out for you?”

Joseph cringed as he watched Trent snarl at his roommate who barely responded at all. No matter how embarrassed he was for him, however, Joseph would never dream of speaking up in his defense.

“Let’s get out of here man. We’re going to have a Madden Tournament in Kyle’s room.”

As he said this, Trent threw his arm around Joseph again and marched him out of the room with Kyle tailing behind. As he walked out the door, Joseph watched the face of his roommate as his gaze followed them out. For some reason, regardless of the fact that he did not look upset, angry or sad, Joseph still felt sorry for his roommate and wished he could apologize.

Joseph heard the words, “Later, fag,” being hollered from the person next to him as the door slammed on the bedroom.