Memories of My College Days

Author's Note: What you are about to read is a wholly non-traditional piece. It doesn't fit any of the requirements I set myself up with when I write a story, so I'm not certain if I could even consider it that. Originally, this was a short scene that I wrote for a creative writing class, and that version didn't have an ending as...spectacular as this story does. But I liked the idea that I had initially of the quiet girl having a single moment of ravenous hunger, and I rewrote the whole thing from memory so I could set up a similar ending. The spectacular element I added was, I think, my attempt at horror or surrealism. Overall, this piece is essentially an inside joke with myself, and for that I am sorry.

My Freshman year of college, I didn't really have that many friends. I was on my shit, trying to be a studious ass nigga. It worked for the most part, and I wound up finishing both semesters with a 4.0. In that time, I managed to meet Yusef, who would become my roommate and impromptu best friend in Sophomore year, and his then-lab partner, Tiana. Yusef wasn't the popular dude, but he was pretty well known throughout campus, and during our sophomore year, he introduced me to a lot of his friends. 

First there was Mike, the classical pianist and male stripper who lived in the adjoining suite to ours. Mike looked like an angry mountain but the dude was the Jolly Black Giant once you got to know him. His roommate was this fast-talking dude named Tyrel, who was trying to create his own major, Confidence Studies, through combining Philosophy, Communications, and Psychology. Now, Tyrel had somehow managed to snag these two fine-ass chicks into a polyamorous relationship. Their names were Kenya, who was this calm and collected Africana Studies and Gender Studies double major, and Diana, who was a party-girl math prodigy that got famous at fifteen for doing something I could never understand. We were a pretty odd, mix-matched group, and I think we all knew that our friendship was largely based on the small number of Black students in our year and proximity to each other. But we were tight no matter what. Me, Tyrel, Yusef, Kenya, Diana, Mike, and Tiana were inseparable all throughout undergrad.

That said, I could never really shake the feeling that me and Tiana stood out in the group. I'm an introvert for the most part, and so is Tiana, but Yusef wasn't. He was the biggest extrovert anyone had ever met. The dude radiated some special energy that vibed with everyone and lifted them up, Tiana and I reacted to the vibe differently. We liked him, sure, but we could never get up to the level he seemed permanently set to. When Yusef was dancing around and singing and being the life of the party, Tiana and I would share a telepathic conversation about how annoying he could be sometimes. Everyone else would dance with him or laugh or film him for the gram while me and Tiana would sit in the back and maybe occasionally glance at each other. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't completely antisocial, I knew how to join in the fun every once in a while, and I had many spirited conversations with my crew about whether Kim Possible could beat up Sakura Haruno (my friends wrongly said that she could). But the high-energy party thing wasn't me, and it definitely wasn't Tiana either.

The strangest thing about Tiana was that the chick almost never talked. I'd never heard her say more than two words at a time, and no one else really had either (Diana claimed she had, but no one believed her). Her responses to anything were either one-worded or non-verbal entirely. You'd think that would make communication with her impossible, but that was the other weird thing about Tiana. No matter what the context, she could always manage to condense as much nuance and information as necessary in a single word. Or two.

One time, Yusef and Tyrel had the brilliant idea to see how many questions they could ask her before she'd have to say more than two words. They went on for nearly an hour until eventually she just looked at them and said, "Stop." There was almost no emotion in her voice, and she wasn't obviously angry or sad or anything. Despite that, they felt immediately guilty after she said it and promised never to do it again. I kind of hated them at that moment, because Tiana was the nicest girl in the world and here they were having fun with her. It wasn't right.

Tiana's kindness was the other strange thing about her. She was always doing things for us, helping us with our problems and listening to our rants, and she never judged us or asked for anything in return. When Yusef's car got a flat tire and transportation for our entire group was put in jeopardy, Tiana immediately ordered him a new one. When Kenya put off a final paper until the weekend before, Tiana stayed up with her for two nights so they could finish it in time. She even coordinated with Tyrel to write a speech for Mike to read when he broke the news to his family that he was stripping to pay for school. And when Diana got into a huge fight with Tyrel and Kenya and was thinking of breaking up with them, Tiana served as a mediator and helped them rebuild their relationship into an even stronger one. No one ever asked for her help, and she never asked for thanks even though we showered her with praise for every act of saint-like generosity.

There was only one instance where Tiana actually came to me, or anyone else, for help. It was around 2:30 am on a Friday night. I was awoken by a knock on my front door. Nine times out of ten, I'd have gone off on whoever was on the otherside. But the second I opened my eyes, I knew that I couldn't get mad. I hadn't heard her voice, she didn't text me, and I wasn't expecting her. But I still knew, before I even opened the door, that Tiana was on the other side.

"What's wrong, Ti..." I didn't finish my thought. Shy, quiet, Tiana was standing on the other side of my door in a bathrobe, Hello Kitty slippers, and not much else that I could see..it was an awkward moment for me, to say the least. 

"Iron," was all she said. She held out a hand expectantly, and my groggy mind only stared at it for a moment. I didn't ask any follow up questions, though. I just shrugged, grabbed my iron off the top of my desk, and gave it to her. 

"Thanks," she said as she hurried away. I didn't see her or the iron again until the following Monday.

I never told anyone about that night, but I wasn't sure why. It was an innocent, casual experience, but it also felt like it was too special to share with anyone else. Out of all our friends, I was the one Tiana came to when she needed something, even if it was something as small as borrowing an iron (though, if you're borrowing an iron at 2:30 am, then is that really a small favor?). I knew it was dumb, but I wanted that moment to be just for the two of us. 

One night in our Junior year, Yusef and I were walking to the Student Center. On our way there, we wound up on the same path as Mike, who was just leaving. We met under a street light and wound up talking about a bunch of different topics that I can't remember. I do remember that we were laughing a lot, so whatever conversation we were having had to be good. Eventually, Tyrel was walking by and saw us under the light.

"What ya'll niggas doing standing under a street light like some niggas," he called out from a few feet away with a wide grin on his face.

I shrugged and laughed, "Being niggas."

He shook his head, "Don't ya'll know we're at college now? We're at a big ass university full of white hoes. We can't be out here with that hood shit! We could get shot."

Chuckling, Mike said, "Well, shit, you got some other ideas on how to spend a Friday night in the smallest town in the state?"

"Shit, isn't that why I was texting ya'll?"

Yusef pulled out his phone and his face widened in shock, "He's right, he's been hitting up the group chat. Six unreads, all from him."

"My lovely waifus are putting together a lil something since it's the last weekend before Hell Week begins," Tyrel began, alluding to midterms. "And for some reason, they wanted to invite ya'll uncivilized niggas. So here I am, being a good partner and retrieving you."

We followed Mike to Diana and Kenya's place, which was in an all-girl apartment on the edge of campus. They were already inside by the time that we arrived, setting a table with snacks and shuffling through Spotify looking for something worth playing. We sat around joking and talking for some time while we snacked on chips, dip, and a giant baking dish of fried chicken that the girls had delivered. It felt amazing just to be there with everyone enjoying the light and airy atmosphere before we'd all be chewed up by sadistic professors. I never had friends like them before, and I had a feeling that I probably never would again. Those days were the good old days, and at that moment, I knew it. But there was still something missing.

"Where's Tiana," I asked when I realized there was too much noise in the apartment and not enough quiet.

"She said that she'd be here," Kenya said as she shrugged. "I guess maybe she changed her mind?"

The word was barely out of her mouth before the door opened. Tiana came in with a humble smile on her face. We all said hey to her and asked if she was hungry. She did a little curtsy towards us to say hello, then shook her head, no. She began to walk towards her usual corner on the far side of the room. Right as she passed by me, she stopped dead in her tracks and stared down at my plate, transfixed by the half-eaten chicken wing that was sitting on it.

Before I or anyone else could react, she picked the piece up and swallowed the entire thing whole, bones and all.

We were horrified. Tiana was this sweet, quiet girl that always acted and dressed like someone brought a porcelain doll to life. Reaching for my chicken straight from my plate and gorging on it without permission just wasn't like her. I wasn't mad, of course, considering all the shit she'd done for me I figured the least I could do was let that slide. But that still left the issue of her swallowing the bones. I didn't know if she'd get sick or what, and based on how the crew stared at her with eyes as wide as mine, I knew none of them knew either. None of us had ever seen her or anyone else swallow the bones of a chicken. Yet she seemed so sure of herself at that moment, I became convinced that it had to be okay and she knew they wouldn't hurt her.

I chuckled. I began to say that it was alright and that I wasn't upset at her. I didn't get a chance to complete my thought, though. Tiana's eyes immediately darted to the baking dish, then widened in childlike glee. She ran over to it and raised the dish into the air with one hand while she unbuttoned her sweater.

"I must apologize for my transgression, friends," Tiana said. She continued to hold the dish aloft in one hand while she raised her shirt with the other. Yusef cried out in horror when he saw what was beneath.

Tiana's stomach wasn't a cute, brown belly full of candy and fairy dust like we all would have expected. There was a large, vertical slit going down the middle, with a strange, red flesh peeking out from beneath the fold. Slowly, the slit began to open, and we saw that the red flesh were the gums of the largest, sharpest, bluest teeth any of us had ever seen. The teeth glistened in the fluorescent light of the apartment, and I felt the strangest suspicion that it was smiling at us. The teeth opened up but the inside of the second mouth was so dark that we couldn't tell what, if anything, was inside.

I expected Tiana to pour the contents of the tray into her stomach/mouth and then delicately place the tray back on the table. She didn't do that. She placed the entire tray into her second mouth, and we all watched in horror as it closed and chomped down on the flesh, bone, and aluminum.

"I'm sorry," she continued, "but, you see, I couldn't help myself. Chickens are such horrid, evil creatures that I take no guilt in devouring them any opportunity that I get."

The stomach/mouth continued chewing for a few more seconds, then it suddenly stopped. She pulled her shirt back down and rebuttoned her cardigan sweater. Taking a seat next to me at the table, she very delicately and properly poured herself a glass of twenty-dollar wine that the girls had secured for us.

For half an hour, no one spoke. We all just looked at each other while Tiana sat sipping her wine and flipping through a book, occasionally looking up at us all and flashing an apologetic smile.

Finally, Diana couldn't take it anymore. She slammed her fist on the table and made us all jump. "Are we really about to act like shit didn't happen? Really? And here I thought this bitch was a vegan!"