Chapter 5: Diaries and Dildos

Once in a while our RA Cheyenne scheduled a floor meeting to discuss some matter or another — noise after hours, leaving huge messes in the bathrooms — etcetera. Of course I attended the first floor meeting, which happened that very first evening after we’d all moved in, because it seemed the natural thing to do, but the whole thing felt a little — nanny-ish to me — so I’d avoided the other floor meetings. I’d come to college to get away from my mother, not gain a different one. But Siren had seen the posters in the hall: Let’s Talk About Sex! This Sunday in the Common Area with Cheyenne, 4 p.m., with its cutesy graphics and thought it’d be fun to go. The one thing I did not want to talk with my RA about was sex. I liked Cheyenne, but it wasn’t like she was my mother, either. Still, Siren was insisting we attend.

“Do we have to?” I groaned. What I really wanted to do was take a break from studying and stare at my bugs for a while. We were right in the middle of the semester, and I was crazy-busy with tests and papers and projects. Now I had a little bit of free time, and I wanted to lie around the room and do nothing. Besides that, I needed to find a cricket or something for Caroline to eat. She was starting to look a little thin.

“C’mon you antisocial weirdo,” Siren said. “We live here. Let’s act like it.”