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Our dorm room door was blank in May. It was a sign of how stressed Jenna was about finals and moving home, but it was weird to see the door as blank as it had been when I arrived. The only thing on it was the small whiteboard Jenna had put there the first week of school. When I left for the last SGA meeting, I saw a message from Bobby wishing me good luck with the election. All her effort seemed to have gone into the floor's bulletin board, which was all about final exams, which I looked over as I waited for the elevator. She had made it into a beach scene for the summer. She went as far as using gold glitter for sand, and it was all over the floor below the board. Adam had told me the custodial staff was annoyed with her about it. There was no calendar of events posted, only a list of study groups going on in the Common Room and a menu of the junk food provided by Adam. The other section included information about moving out. As I walked across campus, I wondered if she would ever consider becoming an RA herself or find a way to make the crafting into a career.
"It's our final meeting of the year, people! Let's focus," Eric said, pounding his gavel for no reason, the room was already quiet.
It was like he had discovered how much fun it is to bang a gavel at the April meeting and now he was looking for an excuse to continue.
“Let’s get to the election results!” Someone in the room said.
“We have other business first.”
Eric dragged through the other business, which was minimal. Everyone seemed aware that he was trying to avoid the final announcement. The election had obviously not gone his way. Steve and I had campaigned together over the past couple weeks. Steve focused on what students needed from SGA, but Eric had gone to various organizations and groups on campus demanding they vote for him. Eventually, every other president and Vice President candidate had dropped out, putting their support behind Steve and me. Eric had been mocked openly during the past month. Each time he met with another group, he seemed to step in more shit than he had the last time. Now he was trying to claim it was homophobia since he, by dating Heath, had come out of the closet. I tried to avoid talking about Eric.
At a meeting with the campus' LGBTQ club, I had told them that mocking Eric was something I thought was unnecessarily mean. It died down a little after that, but only until Eric pissed off the members of the same club a few days later. He didn't think men could be sexually assaulted by other men. Again there were videos of the meeting on YouTube.
“Any man would fight off his attacker,” Eric insisted in the video.
A new set of memes came from this video, all showing Eric and reminding people that they could merely fight him off if they’re his next victim.
After Eric stretched out the final committee reports, Holly took over to announce the results of the elections.
“We had a very successful election. Nearly half the students on campus voted this year, our highest number according to the records I have. Steve and Amelia have won by a large majority of the vote."
She paused to let people applause before reading the rest of the winners. Bobby and Frank had both won Senator seats for their respective departments. When the meeting was over, both Eric and Heath left as quickly as they could while others stayed to offer their congratulations to Steve and me.
“We’ll wait until this summer to make plans. I don’t expect that next year will be as eventful as this one,” Steve said before we left the meeting.
***
I spent less time in my room now that Adam and I were dating. I would spend evenings studying with him and then sleep in his room to save time. The best studying happened in the floor's Common Room with huge groups of people. On Reading Day, the day after classes ended and finals began, residents invited friends, and the room was packed. I was thankful that people brought more food and shared with each other. We had pizza, subs, Chinese food, and so much coffee. Carrie Woodhouse, who I had become friends with during the semester, sent over a box full of homemade cookies and muffins from the cafe in the store. We spent the entire day in the Common Room studying and eating.
“Where are you going to be living next year?” Adam asked me after we ate lunch.
I looked up to see the panic on his face. The whole end of the semester had been endless activity, but I hadn't forgotten to apply for a room on campus.
"I applied for a private room in an Honors Dorm suite," I said.
"I thought you were thinking of moving off-campus and into an apartment?"
“Where are you living next year?” I asked in a bit of a panic.
“I’m going to be an RA again.”
“Well, then it will work out. Do you know which dorm?” I asked, relaxing again.
"I'm hoping to get the Honor's Dorm," he said. "Maybe I'll be your RA again?"
I certainly wasn't opposed to that arrangement again, but I suspected I'd be more like his roommate.
"The campus foundation office offered me a job, and the Honor's Dorm is the closest to their offices and my classes,” I said, raising an eyebrow.
"They don't offer work-study jobs."
"I didn't get work-study for next year."
“How are you going to pay for housing?” Adam said, getting panicked.
“I was awarded a scholarship from the Woodhouse family that will pay for all of my housing. They told the housing office to make sure I get what I want.”
Adam was shocked, his mouth hanging open.
“I didn’t realize they liked you that much,” he said.
I smiled, beyond pleased with the way things were working out.
“Neither did I, but I’m glad they do. Since I’m going to be the SGA Vice President, working in fundraising, and finishing classes, it’s nice to have a sort of patron.”
“So, no more dreams of being in Human Resources?”
I shrugged. “I think the Woodhouses might be grooming me to work for their foundation. Did you know they have one?”
Adam took my hand and played with my fingers.
“To give out grants and fund programs?”
“Yes! It’s not large, but they have a small staff that reviews applications, checks in with organizations, and works to maintain the fund. I never thought about doing something like that.”
“Would that keep you here after graduation?”
I shrugged, not even sure this was something I could count on just yet.
“Would it be so bad if it did?” I asked.
Our eyes met, me anxious that he would shut down the idea and him thinking about it.
"No, it would be amazing. It will be awesome if one of us has a guaranteed job after graduation,” he said with a smile.
Sally and Norma walked into the room and waved at us. Frank came in shortly after, and the three set up at a table away from us. I looked at Adam's face and realized he was still jealous of Frank.
“He’s not a bad guy,” I said, leaning in and keeping my voice low.
"I was worried that he was stalking her. I mean, she broke up with him, and he showed up anyway."
“She didn’t break up with him until it was to the point where it would have been a disaster to change everything again.”
“Yeah, but he went out of his way to make her jealous.”
“Maybe after a month or so, but he didn’t start that way.”
“She said he started going to SGA to see her.”
"That doesn't make sense. Sally never showed up to SGA things until this semester. He came with me because he wanted to be involved here."
“I thought you were friends with him because of SGA?”
"No," I said to him. "I met him when he moved in. I think Sally knew he was here and knew he would get involved in SGA, so she went out of her way to see him."
Adam stared at the table.
"Anyway," I said, touching his hand to bring his attention back to me. "She's clearly happy now, and they both have what they want."
***
Adam met me after my last exam of the year. He had one more the next day, so I was staying on campus one more night so we could drive home together. It was the perfect spring day. It was getting warmer, making Woodhouse Hall uncomfortable during the day, but at night we slept with the windows open and the fans blowing the cooler air around the room. Now the sun was shining, and there were no clouds in the sky.
After getting my food, I found Adam at a table with Gwen and Steve, talking about Adam’s living arrangements.
“So, they don’t want you to be an RA next year?” Steve said.
“They said something about not needing so many RAs this year with one less dorm.”
“But, you’ve done it for a year!” Gwen said.
“So has everyone else. I found out Mel got a job in the office, picking the RAs for next year. I think she got back at me for breaking up with her.”
"Because you're dating Amelia now?" Gwen asked, but we didn't know.
“It’s okay,” Adam said. “Really! When I learned that Mel was in the mix, I decided it was probably a good thing to stay away from her.”
I hadn't asked Adam about his break up with Mel. I didn't want to pop our little bubble of bliss, and it had happened so many weeks ago that it felt mean to bring it up. I planned on changing that later but after his final exam.
“So, what are you going to do?” Gwen asked.
“You know I think the two of you should be our roommates!” Steve said.
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to live with Adam, as easy as it would probably be.
“I think Amelia’s right,” Adam said. “We aren’t ready for that as a couple. I need to get my application in for housing.”
"You know, I can help you with that," I said, giving Adam my sweetest smile.