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Author's note: I'm going to try a story. Purely fictional from my point of view. Part of a series.

The Strange Little Boy: Part 1

'Packing and moving isn't that hard.' That’s what the 19 year old Caucasian thought as he moved the last box from the moving truck into the master bedroom. His name was Gregory Ericcson. He was moving out of his parent’s house and, thanks to a friend of his, was able to scrounge up enough money to rent the house he had looked for and found. "2500 a month," said the landlord. He was somehow able to convince her that he could make the payments on time. She and he then finalized all the necessary paperwork. That was last week. This week he had to finish up the moving process and start looking for extra room mates.

'Because I don't want to be completely lonely,' he thought, 'I'll let almost anyone apply.'

With this in mind, he created a poster. NEED ROOM AND BOARD? 500 A MONTH! CALL 951-536-6705. Almost a week later he had six hopefuls; five girls and one boy. The boy immediately accepted the terms and conditions. The girls had more questions that needed to be answered. Gregory patiently took his time answering all their questions, quite aware of the fact that money was needed if he was going to be able to stay in that house. Four of the five girls accepted. The fifth girl had applied for colleges the year before and was accepted at the University of California at Berkley. His friend was going to stay there as well in order to help out with the payments.

After a few months, the seven roommates got used to each other’s life and schedules and such. His friend's name was Stanley. The other boy's name was Christopher. The four girls who were quickly moving in as well were Stephanie, Tasha, Abby, and Alexis. After a while, they all became settled down in the new house, and inhibitions began to fall away slowly. Christopher wasn't usually there because he was usually smoking pot with his friends in front of the local bowling alley. But he held down a job at the movie rental place so Gregory couldn't complain about finances. Stanley was always away as he had to work two different jobs to maintain his part of the rent, his school, and his social life, which he thought was very important. He only came home to sleep and to eat breakfast if he had time in the morning. Stephanie worked at a ranch as a trainer. She came home around three in the afternoon so she usually took a nap then spent the rest of the day watching TV in the living room. Tasha and Alexis both worked in the same department store at the mall. Every once in a while, they even got the same department. So they often came home together around eight or so. They usually changed into their pajamas after they took their showers and came downstairs at around nine. Abby, who was the youngest of everybody who lived there, worked as a gymnastics coach. She didn't get paid much, but it was enough to pay for room and board and enough that she could spend on herself.
Tonight, they joined Stephanie and watched TV on the couch in the living room while eating popcorn out of a huge yellow container that was sitting between the three of them. Right after the four girls settled down in front of the TV at around ten, Gregory came through the door. He looked beat this evening and just wanted to take a shower and go to bed. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen. Abby stood up and gave him a hug really squeezing his guts.

"Hi. Welcome back," she said in a mocking voice.

Usually that bothered him but tonight he just wasn’t in the mood. He wanted to sleep, so this time, he just looked at her briefly, removed himself from her grasp and grunted as he tried to head up the stairs. Abby, being upset that her tone failed to illicit an expected response from him and seeing how tired he was, stopped him from making it to the stairs and took him by the hand to a quieter place around the corner out of earshot and eye sight of the other girls.

"Hey," she said with a quiet voice of concern, "you okay?"

"Yeah," he replied, "I'm just really tired."

She looked deep into his eyes. "You're lying," she said with a slight smile on her face.

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

"I am not, I just need to relax," he replied with the sound of annoyance growing in his voice.

"Ok," she quipped, and looking dejected, walked back towards the couch where the other girls were noisily fighting over the last few pieces of popcorn.

He went up to his room that he shared with Stanley and Christopher. '******** the shower,' he thought, 'I'm just gonna take it in the morning.' He sat on the edge of his bed and pondered whether he should even get undressed for bed or if he should just sleep in his clothes. He didn’t want to think about it too long so he decided to go with the former. He struggled with finding the willpower to even take off his shoes but managed the feat. He tossed them in the direction of the closet followed shortly by his socks. He didn’t care where they landed. He then stood up and took off his pants and shirt and tossed them in the slowly growing pile of dirty laundry in the corner of the room

*Sigh* Why Tammy, Why?” he asked himself aloud.

Tammy was a girl from school that was introduced to him by a couple of his friends, including Christopher. She was kind of nice and was a joy to have around so after a month or so, he asked her if she wanted to be his girlfriend. She said, "Sure." And that was the beginning of their relationship. As was quickly discovered, this relationship couldn't develop too much though because she was only seventeen. He was also aware of accusations that could be brought against him if he didn't protect his a**. It’s not that he knew that it’s what would have happened; he just didn’t want to worry about it.

What he didn’t know was someone else he knew was rather enamored with him and that was his roommate, Abby. Abby thought she liked him but wasn't sure if it was only because of his looks or if it was because of who he really was. She wanted to know more about him but didn’t want to ask the others so as to avoid any questions as to why she was curious. She also didn’t want Gregory to know about her interest in him so five minutes after he went upstairs; she headed up there as well. She walked quietly to his door and gently knocked a few times.
He answered groggily, "Who is it?"

“It’s Abby.”

“Oh, come on in.”

He was surprised that she came up, because when they were downstairs, she looked like she didn’t want to talk to him the rest of the night because he didn’t want to play her game. As she walked in, he sat back down on the edge of his bed and motioned her to sit next to him. She debated this for half a second before ultimately accepting his unspoken offer. She slowly moved towards the bed and sat down next to him, keeping her distance but close enough to give him a hug should he need or want one.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, not wanting to discuss the night's events.

"Please tell me," she answered back, "Lying about it isn't going to help you. I know when you're lying and when you're just tired, and you're not just tired."

“I just don’t really want to talk about it right now, I just want to sleep on it and make decisions and talk about it in the morning.”

Oh, c’mon! Tell me already. I don’t know if I’m gonna be this nice tomorrow, plus you have to get it off your chest sooner or later and I’m right here. Please tell me?”

He sighed, not really wanting to tell her but knowing that even though she has a gentle disposition, she can and usually does get what she wants.

"Alright," he said, "but if I hear this coming out of the other girls mouths, then you're going to be in some big trouble..."

Next: Gregory talks to Abby.

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