My first day at MSU was one of the most bitter sweet moments in my life... at the time. It was before 'The Let Down' (see label for old posts of 'The Let Down') actually let me down. I woke up at 7 AM that morning, although I'm pretty sure I never really slept the night prior. The car was already packed from the night before because my Dad couldn't move me in, so his job was to make sure we were completely ready to leave in the morning. I was stressed, like really stressed. The last thing I wanted to do was to go to school and leave behind the bar I was working at that summer and, of course, I didn't want to put distance between me and The Let Down (lets just call him LD). I drove my little red cutlass while my mom followed me to LD's house. He came outside and I got out of the car. It was pretty much ritual that whenever we drove together in my car I would make him drive and I'd play ipod DJ.
The whole car ride there we talked about everything, as always. About college, about his past, about his trashy girlfriend; everything. LD said, "I was thinking, you know, I'm no good with talking on the phone, so I thought, maybe we could write to each other?" It was like he read my mind. There was one thing I specifically remember asking him as we were driving to East Lansing. I looked at him (as always, with admiration) and said, "LD, can we just run away to California? Fuck MSU, lets just go." He just looked at me and said, "EB, you need to get away to College, you need MSU. You'll be fine." Little did I know that he was foreshadowing the fact that only about a month later he was going to end our friendship.
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When I got to school I checked in while my mother and LD parked the cars. We unpacked all of my stuff. LD set up my printer, and then my roommate finally showed up. Oh man. Her first impression was great. I thought we were going to be best of friends because we were so similar. Later, it turned out our similarities were the biggest weakness in our friendship, but this isn't about that, it's about my first day. After I unpacked everything LD, my mother, and I went to lunch. It was quite lovely, really. LD got up to go to the bathroom and my mother told me that in their short car ride/walk from parking the cars LD raved about me, about how special I was to him, what a good friend I was. This still makes no sense to me.
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I was dreading what was to come next after our lunch. It was time for them to drop me off and say goodbye. I went with them to pick up the other car and LD and I drove my car to drop me off at the dorm. Tears filled my eyes and I had a large lump in my throat, preventing me from doing any speaking. I remember swallowing hard and catching my breath in order to say goodbye. LD looked at me and told me, "Don't even worry, you'll be home on most weekends! And we're going to write to each other." He gave me one last hug goodbye. I told him I'd be home in two weeks and we'd have to hang out. I got out of the car, and as I walked to the door of my dorm I turned my head over my right shoulder and took one last look at LD. Right as I did this he yelled, as loud as he could, out my window, "I love you! Have fun!" I smiled, and responded, "I will." He drove off, and I walked inside.
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