Chapter 1

It’s been a long, hot, lonely summer for me.

My girl broke up with me right after we graduated from high school. She planned to travel and didn’t want anything or any person to hold her back. I would miss her. My parents didn’t approve of her but I enjoyed her wild ways and the uninhibited sex she provided. I guess it was too good to last and I will admit to myself that her mind was finally beginning to bore me despite her body’s appeal. She wasn’t college material and I had earned a merit scholarship to help my athletic one. I worked for the summer to earn spending money for while I was in school. I had nothing and no one to spend it upon during the summer though I spent some on my car mechanically and on the interior.

At the orientation, I met Carl and we had similar interests which boded well for rooming together. His specialty was the javelin while I was a hurdler and Decathlon participant. Carl was a bit shorter than my six foot, three inches. He was slightly heavier built, too. Both of us were fit and enjoyed the outdoors. We lined up a room during the three days of orientation.

It was an enjoyable time and I took advantage of all social opportunities as did Carl. It didn’t seem to do us any good. Neither of us found any women who were interested in us. I couldn’t decide if we were being too choosy or there just weren’t enough from who to choose. There were two different orientation sessions. I hoped it would be better once classes started.

I did see one who interested me but she was with a guy the whole time which suggested that I would be wasting my time making any effort. I didn’t waste my time. Besides, I didn’t want another Jennifer. I felt that I had learned a lesson about women from her. My next girl friend may not sexually uninhibited, but had to have brains to go with her body!

Who am I? I’m Eric McElroy Daniels. My nickname is Eric the Red or just Red. It comes naturally due to my red hair which is definitely red though not light red or bright red, just red. To go with that, I have green eyes and a pale skin that doesn’t tan so much as it reddens from my activities outside. Fortunately, it doesn’t burn. I had a lean body and liked to wear fairly tight or cut-away clothing that showed off my abs and other muscular parts. The only problem I had in attracting girls was a reputation, in high school, as a nerd though I didn’t study very much. I did make consistently good grades hence the merit scholarship.

I went back to work for the three weeks left before I would go to college where I would live for the coming school year. My old car was a tank and, if it had ever been cool, it wasn’t now. It was roomy and got me where I wanted to go. It had poor gas mileage compared to newer more currrent vehicles. It wasn’t even an SUV or even a four-door sedan but an old station wagon! It had nothing cool about it and I made no effort to make it cool. Money was better spent on other things. I would be tight for school.

I drove the two hundred miles to school with my bags loaded. Once there, I unloaded and carried my belongings to the room I would share with Carl. He had picked a bed and I took the other. I didn’t care. We busily loaded our closets and stuff. We picked up our passes for the cafeteria along with our class schedules. We would start the day after tomorrow, Monday. Carl and I spent a quiet Saturday night.

Carl asked and I agreed to go to church with him. We had gone at home so I didn’t mind going. It was Baptist and the preacher was pretty good. The Sunday school class had a number of girls in it who were local or who were staying in the dorms. It was good.

We returned for lunch in the cafeteria. Afterwards, I put on some running clothes and went for a run around the campus. The purpose was two-fold. First, I wanted some exercise and, second, it gave me a chance to review my memories of the campus for locations.

I noticed the two other girls’ dorms while I ran. A third was beside my dorm. Those first two, as I understood it, contained upper-class girls while the one close to mine had the freshman women in it. It was nice to know but otherwise was probably not useful information. I continued on at an easy pace until I had made a big circle of the campus and returned to my dorm.

As I returned, I noticed a pretty girl struggling with a large bulky case. I went up to her and said, “May I help you? You and the case seem to be fighting pretty hard.”