The College Years, part 7 By Corbin, nex_xus@hotmail.com The amazing true story of a girl that's me who simply refuses to conform. Corbin INTRODUCTION: The College Years, Part 7 (Some of the feedback that I have gotten requests that I break this down into smaller ramblings ... no problem ... glad to :) So, here is the start of my College life; As the quote goes "It was the best of times, it was the ... " blah blah blah blah ... .just read on and enjoy this story of little ol' me; The Quiet Rebel I guess). Both Sharon and Corbin headed of to Duke University that fall, each excited, yet for very different reasons. The big Collage Campus unnerved Corbin a bit, where as Sharon was constantly trying to get involved in new things and thrived on the bustle of activity. Corbin was athletically and academically good enough that she almost got a full scholarship. On the positive side, it wasn't difficult to makes friends, Corbin was inundated by other people who were just as nervous and eager to make friends, yet her primary focus was on studying and nixed the offers to attend several social activities for the first few weeks. "You're not going into one of your 'quiet', 'rebellious' phases again are you?" Sharon asked while raising her fingers into the air to put quotes around the words quiet and rebellious. It was a somewhat direct question and Sharon was probably the only one that Corbin allowed to talk to her that way without her getting defensive, well most of the time. "No ... what?...wait, what are you talking about?" Corbin turned away from her desk. Their dorm room was one they shared, having requested that the two of them room together. "Well, you've turned down several invites, and I'm not talking about pledging a sorority either, I know that's not 'Your Thing'!" Sharon made an exaggerated roll of her eyes. Corbin smiled at Sharon's teasing, "No, just getting adjusted to the class schedule and all that stuff" Corbin shrugged. "All that stuff? What stuff? We're four weeks into the semester, you're still adjusting?" Sharon leaned forward with both elbows resting on her thighs. Corbin turned to her right a little more to get a better view of where Sharon was sitting and placed her pen down on the desk; "Oh, I'm sorry, am I not keeping up with your time table of events?" Corbin smiled as she rested her left elbow on the desk. "My time table, as you like to refer to it, is nothing more then genuine concern ... smart ass!" Sharon paused purposefully and gave Corbin a serious, dead-on look before continuing, "Concern, which comes by the way, as your best friend". Corbin looked away as her face tensed uncomfortably, her jaw flexing at the way Sharon manipulated words. She suspected that Sharon was really just being nosey as Corbin had indeed become very introverted the past couple of weeks, sharing none of her reasons with Sharon ... nor anyone else for that matter. Clearing her throat, Corbin put on her best face and looked back up at Sharon and smiled with a faint trace of blush in her cheeks. "I'm sorry, but I was just teasing you, you know?" Corbin sighed. "Okay, but teasing aside, is everything okay? Sometimes I don't really know what's up with you unless I pry a little bit" Sharon raised her eyebrows emphatically. She watched Corbin relax a little and her soft lips smile, barely, but it was still a discernable smile. "Things are fine Sharon, really. You and I are just different when it comes to assessing a situation and deciding what we want. As much as it frustrates you, I have to do things in my own pace" Corbin gave a humble shrug as if it was no big deal. "'Assessing a situation'?" Sharon grinned in amusement and sat up straight, "You make it sound so serious ... " Sharon teased Corbin's choice of words. "Call it whatever you want" Corbin's brow tensed indicating she was no longer in any mood for Sharon's teasing. Her expression could quickly go from calm ... to dark ... to down right menacing, which would catch most people off guard. At this point she was definitely in no mood for teasing or bantering; Corbin couldn't make the smooth transition from being serious, to flirty, to teasing, back to serious as quickly as Sharon could during the course of a conversation. "Corbin!" Sharon snapped, but not in anger, more out of concern, "What's wrong? I'm just talking here" Sharon pouted and shrugged innocently, something that Corbin hated because it then became extremely difficult to stay angry with Sharon when she went into her 'I'm just trying to innocently help' mode. Corbin's left hand came up and rubbed her brow in frustration, trying to figure out how to explain herself. Thankfully, Sharon had stopped talking, which was a miracle, the girl could seemingly go forever when on a roll. "Okay ... look ... " Corbin sighed and rested her left forearm back onto the desk as she looked back to where her friend sat patiently waiting. " ... I'm not trying to keep you in the dark Sharon, there is no troubling secret here, I'm just trying to stay focused on keeping up with my studying. Once I feel that I am academically on solid ground then I can begin to relax and look into getting a social life". "Academically on solid ground? Corbin, you've made A's on all of your assignments thus far, what are you talking about?" "And that's all the more reason to buckle down and stay focused, maybe in a couple of more weeks I'll relax, but right now I like having my routine that I can concentrate on" Corbin stared long and hard at her brunette friend, as if trying to burn her conviction and sincerity into the girl's brain. But Sharon simply shrugged in a nonchalant way. "Okay ... okay ... I'll leave you alone, I just wanted us to hang out some more you know" Sharon looked away, tilting her head towards the ground. Corbin just stared in bewilderment at how Sharon was really playing up the whole 'poor me' routine. Cautiously, Corbin began to turn back around to her desk hoping this was the end of it, but in a final sigh she added, "Well, that's really nice Sharon and sorry if I snapped at you, I really look forward to getting out soon ... I'm going a little stir crazy ... " "Great, 'cause so many guys are asking about you, there's one I want you to think about too, cause he ... ." "See I knew it!" Corbin jerked around in her seat, her face a little tense now, "The truth comes out ... all that junk about, 'Oh Corbin I'm so concerned about you' when all you really wanted to do was meddle in my dating life" Corbin was leaning forward a little bit, excited a little at having caught Sharon in one of her little manipulations. "Dating life?" Sharon sneered with contempt, "What dating life? You have no dating life to meddle with, and I was ... .excuse me ... I AM! ... very concerned about what goes on with you!" Sharon huffed defensively. "Oh yeah ... " Corbin quipped right back. But a knock at their door startled both girls and Sharon instantly perked up, and then looked back at Corbin with frustration at the interruption, "We're going to finish this conversation later!" Sharon leaned forward and growled in a low voice. "No we won't" Corbin snapped and turned around. "Oh yes we are" Sharon replied. "Oh ... " Corbin started out with her reply, when Sharon interrupted and called out "Come in!" to the person waiting outside. "Hey! What's up!" Claire came bursting into the room. Claire was an energetic girl, standing about 5'5" with short multicolored hair which had a mix of blonde, brown and black. Even with all of that, she was pretty with her piercing light green eyes and a nice athletic build. "Hey Claire" Corbin forced a smile, still fuming over her argument with Sharon. "Check it out!" Claire said and then stuck her tongue out at both girls, a shiny round tongue stud protruded proudly. "Holy Shit" Sharon laughed and stood up to take a closer look, but Sharon always took stuff like that in stride, nothing seemed to faze her. Corbin on the other hand gawked with her eyes bugged out as she leaned forward, like she was watching a car wreck unfold. "Why did you do that?" Corbin said, not even thinking about it. Claire recoiled her tongue and put her hands on her hips, looking at Corbin as if she was clueless, "Why do you think?" Claire shook her head and smiled. "You were bored? Pure shock value?" Corbin sighed. Sharon just smirked at Corbin's smart ass reply. "Ha ha ... ho ho ... " Claire replied. "Come'on, take a guess" Claire said. "I just did" Corbin cocked her left eyebrow showing her impatience with the guessing game. "You really don't know?" Claire looked at her with bewilderment. Corbin reached up with her right hand and ran her fingers thru her long blonde hair with frustration several times, shaking her head 'no'. "Oh, she's serious alright" Sharon said. "Well ... " Claire turned back to Corbin, a pleasurable sneer forming on her face as she began, " ... besides 'shock value', there are certain oral benefits to it". Corbin's face went blank, "I don't understand...never mind, I don't want to know" Corbin raised her right hand as if signaling Claire not to proceed any further with an explanation. "It feels good on a man's dick when you give him a blow job and I bet it would probably feel good going down on a girl too, might have to try that one day" Claire blurted out in a very matter-of-fact-like style as she stepped in closer, sticking her tongue out, rolling it back and forth in the air playfully. Corbin's mouth parted in shock and she leaned back in her chair, "You're joking right, that's not true" "Here, you want to touch it!" Claire stepped in and leaned closer to Corbin's face. "NO! Get away!" the blonde spun her chair around and hunched over her desk, "I'm busy, leave me alone, that's disgusting ... sick ... gross". Claire just laughed and Sharon leaned over pulling Claire back by her shoulders, "Okay let's go" Sharon laughed. "Come on my little blonde friend" Sharon said to Corbin. "Yeah, come on" Claire said. "Hello you two, I am studying" Corbin sighed. "Oh she is SO coming this time" Claire said looking at Sharon as they both smiled at one another. Claire and Sharon each made a grab for one of Corbin's arms to try and pull her from the desk. "Hey, hey, stop, wait ... I ... I don't think ... ok ... ok! ... " Corbin finally gave in and stood up. "You're not wearing that! Are you?" Sharon pointed at Corbin's baggy jeans and grey t-shirt. Corbin looked down and moaned, "Uhm" as she studied her outfit, but again caved in. Sharon may have phrased her comment in a question, but she was definitely insinuating that she needed to change. Quickly, Corbin pulled upon a drawer from her dresser, "Fine, give me a second" she huffed and pulled a pair of black slacks and a white short sleeve shirt from her dresser. Sharon had taken a seat on her bed next to Claire while they waited on their friend. Looking over at Claire Sharon winked, "She cleans up real nice" she softly spoke. "I heard that" Corbin complained. They watched Corbin turn around and pull the tee off her top, her toned back and arms flexed as she slipped her right, then left, into her white linen shirt. Next, off came her jeans; Sharon and Claire shook their heads at the definition in Corbin's legs, her firm round buns flexed behind the cotton white panties as she pulled her slacks onto each leg gracefully. Turning around, she leaned over the makeup counter and slicked some gel thru her hair, turning her head to the left and right admiring her handy work. Her straight hair now had a little wave to it and was pulled back on the sides, "Looks nice" Corbin nodded. "Okay now?" Corbin spun around and stood up straight, her hands out to her sides. "Damn" Sharon stood up and walked over to her, "One more thing" and she reached up to unbutton one more button. Corbin placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes, "I don't know if I am in the mood to show off any cleavage tonight?" Corbin sighed. "Trust me, you've got it, so show it off" Sharon said stepping back. Claire's head poked around Sharon's to check things out, "Damn woman, hot stuff! Took me damn near an hour to get ready, took you only five minutes". "Yeah, but your hair is about five different colors" Sharon quipped and quickly turned back to her blonde friend, "This is going to be so great, you're first big college bash" Sharon said, walking with her right arm around Corbin's waist proudly. Corbin didn't feel so nervous being with Claire and Sharon, she wasn't really friends with Claire all that well, but they both were on the gymnastics team so they had gotten to know one another. But Claire and Sharon were pledging for the same sorority so they had become friends also. Even with Corbin's quiet demeanor, she couldn't help but draw attention to herself; her even, solid, muscular definition from years of gymnastics and track, the long blonde hair and amazing good looks instantly gravitated guys to her at the party. She was not at all used to this 'forward' type of behavior, 'Totally different from the guys in High School' she thought. Most of the conversation-starters came in the attempt to offer Corbin a drink, refill her drink or talk about sports. Allot of the guys were shocked she was drinking ice water, often pressuring her into something more alcoholic to try and loosen her up some, maybe get her to act a little more uninhibited and flirty. But being one of her first big parties, Corbin wanted to take in all the sites and sounds, totally sober. Unfortunately, when your one of the only sober person in a party full of 'drunks', things can feel a bit on the obnoxious side when the alcohol isn't there to dull your senses. Several times, Corbin found herself having to lean away from several guys, that were either just close talkers or perhaps just trying to put 'the moves' on her. And putting the moves on Corbin was exactly what Steve had in mind, a decision bolstered by the successful way he had monopolized her time with off-and-on chit chat for the past couple of hours. But now, he was getting a sense of urgency due to his perception that there were just too many guys maneuvering for her attention. Looking down into his cup of beer, he considered what his options were and how successful his move would be; 'I know I'm good looking enough, so no worries in that department and she seems to be interested in me ... all good signs' he thought in an attempt to boost his confidence. Yet Corbin was being so standoffish with her body language and eye contact that he couldn't read if she was the type that would prefer a guy to be bold ... 'very bold?' he considered. Corbin marveled at the way Sharon seemed to flow in and out of conversation with guys and girls, being touchy-flirty one minute while slipping free when their embraces got to greedy. She watched how Sharon liked to show off her long, athletically lean legs ... smooth and tan which caught every man's attention she came in contact with. What happened next didn't initially register with Corbin as she felt the palm of someone's hand come to rest on her right hip. She looked down and then up, unsure of what was happening as she felt the warm touch track around to the front of her belly; "Are you sure I can't get you something else to drink?" His voice floated into her left ear canal in such a casual manner that Corbin half way thought she should have expected it. But the way this guy was pulling her in close, against the front of his body set off her 'personal-space' alarms instead; "What the fuck?!" Corbin spat, not loud but definitely above that of a normal speaking tone as her left arm shot up and was then quickly retracted. At this point, Corbin wasn't even thinking but reacting and probably not in the most logical manner possible, yet she had never been put in this position before and assumed this person had the worst of intentions. Her elbow drove down and into Steve's gut with all of her strength, causing his body to almost catapult back several feet knocking into and knocking down several other people behind him. "FUCK!" Was the only tangible word he could muster, the rest was a incoherent babble of moaning curses as he writhed on the floor, his arms cradling his torso. The music continued to blare, but the entire house had ceased it's partying as a disjointed circle formed around Corbin and the fallen guy. The eerie silence was broken when the Fraternity president bolted forward to help Steve up, "What the fuck happened?" he yelled down at Steve and then looked up at Corbin. "He touched me! He grabbed me!" Corbin stammered as she took a step back, her right foot feeling Steve's plastic cup crush under her shoe. The level of chatter started to rise as a few other friends of Steve steeped forward to help asses the situation. "What happened?" a tall, sandy haired Frat brother asked. "I was standing and he just came up and grabbed me from behind, I didn't know who it was or ... " Corbin was literally shaking now; totally embarrassed and feeling tongue tied, she felt fortunate to be able to get that much out as her voice trembled. Frank, the Frat President had just finished helping Steve up when he glared over at Corbin, "Touched you? Where? How?" He asked, but it definitely sounded like a challenge. "Like here" Corbin said and placed her hand over her stomach. "Are you fucking kidding me!" Frank yelled, "That's it? That's no reason to pile drive your elbow into his gut!" Frank's sentiments were echoed by several other guys and girls that immediately began to question and insult Corbin's analysis of the situation and most importantly her reaction. Corbin was nothing more then a deer in headlights at the moment, hoping she would vanish into thin air. "Shut the fuck up!" Sharon yelled and stepped between the crowd and her blonde friend, "Don't blame her because your inebriated friend decided to cop a feel. What the fuck do you expect, Corbin to just act like that shit is okay?" Sharon then quickly decided to diffuse the situation by taking Corbin by the hand, quickly leading her out of the house. Corbin couldn't help but detect a few glares of detest from some of the guys and girls as she was led out of the house, not to mention a comment or two with reference to her being a simple-minded thug, or descriptions that essentially equated to such. "Thanks Sharon" Corbin sighed and took several deep breaths of the cool night air, but suddenly Sharon stopped and spun around, standing face to face with Corbin. "What the fuck was that back there? You elbow some guy in the gut? What's wrong with you!" Sharon growled so as people walking about campus couldn't hear. "What?" Corbin leaned back in shock, "I don't understand, why are you now ... ." Corbin looked on perplexed but Sharon quickly continued, "Corbin, some guy put the moves on you and you punch him, you don't do that!" Sharon tensed her face in total perplexion. "Elbowed him" Corbin quietly corrected her. "What ... the ... fuck ... EVER!" Sharon snapped, "What the hell was that all about?" "I don't understand, back there you said ... " "Back there I was sticking up for you cause you're my friend, but I don't agree with what you did!" Sharon jabbed her left finger into Corbin's right shoulder. Sharon was pissed off all right, she felt like Corbin just might have jeopardized her chances of getting into the sorority as well as several other aspirations. But the expression on Corbin's face was very unexpected, as Corbin simply frowned and her eyes narrowed; Sharon was unable to detect if Corbin was angry, sad ... or what. "Tomorrow, you're going back over there and apologize" Sharon poked her finger into Corbin's right shoulder again with more authority. "You've lost your mind, I'm not doing that" Corbin snapped and smacked Sharon's hand away with her right, her heart pounded violently as she stepped around her brunette friend. Sharon stood motionless, like a statue at what she just heard. "I'm not apologizing to anyone" Corbin continued talking as she walked away. "What did you say to me?" Sharon seethed and Corbin heard Sharon quickly walking up behind her. "You heard me" Corbin replied. "How dare you" Sharon jerked on Corbin's left arm, pulling her around, "You had better stop and answer me, I don't deserve that after all the crap I do for you" But Sharon could tell, Corbin was putting up her walls and her eyes were staring right at her, but nothing ... "Then don't ... " Corbin jerked her arm free, " ... invite me to anymore parties, and stop doing things for me, I never asked you to and certainly don't fit into your socialite world Sharon" Corbin turned and continued her fast track to the dorm. Sharon frantically paced and glanced back at the frat house where the party was taking place, her head moving back and forth between watching her friend walk away and looking back all of her new friends. It tore her up inside, but the pull was just too great for Sharon and she didn't want to waste anymore time and stormed back towards the party. "She's just being stupid and hard headed" Sharon mumbled to herself as she walked back towards the party, trying to figure out how to patch things up, more so for her own self-interest then for Corbin's. The easiest thing for Corbin to do now was to simply bottle it all up inside, that technique had always worked well for her in the past, but what really blew her away was the sudden realization that 'Sharon and I just had a major fight' and for some reason it felt tragic but right all at the same time. Corbin didn't have a moments reservation about what she said or did and as she sat down on her bed, the realization of what Sharon had said to her began to sink in, 'After all the crap I do for you' replayed in Corbin's mind. That statement seemed to say so much to Corbin, as if Sharon valued her relationship with how much appreciation she showed Sharon, 'As if it's a privilege to be her friend'. "Were all of my friends back in High School right?" Corbin sighed to herself allowing the worst possible thoughts to enter her head, 'No, no, no' Corbin thought, 'Don't go overboard, one fight isn't the end of the world'. But as Corbin glanced around the room she shared with Sharon, her eyes began to drift casually from chair ... to desk ... to window ... the soft yellowish glow from her desk lamp gave the room a warm, cozy quality. "All alone" she mumbled at the realization that she was 18 years old, in College and still as big of a social misfit as ever. Finally, she gave a lingering stare to the door, Sharon had not followed her back to the room to talk things out ... to resolve things ... another biter realization that her 'best friend' had most likely chosen to go back to the party.