Old Familiar Song

Chapter 4-1

Chapter 4

Then

When they first met, Larry didn’t mention the band to Geoff. He thought of it as Doug’s anyway, not his, and as far as he was concerned, he was looking for an excuse to leave. The more he got to know Geoff, the more he began to think maybe his new friend might turn out to be that excuse.

They weren’t trapped in the elevator for too long—some passing students had heard the alarm and called campus police, who sent an officer over to let them out. The car had stopped halfway between floors, so when the officer finally got the doors open, the floor of the elevator came to his shoulders. Because most of the power around campus was out due to the earthquake, there was no way to bring the car all the way down. So Geoff and Larry had to climb out. Before then, though, they’d compared notes on the courses they were taking, their favorite professors and the ones they hoped would keel over dead before the semester ended, the best places to eat off campus, and the times they liked to go to the caff to avoid the mealtime crowds. By the time they parted ways, Larry had Geoff’s four digit extension to his dorm room on campus and they had plans to meet up for dinner in the student union building closest to the freshman dorm.

For the rest of the day, Larry couldn’t get those stormy eyes out of his head. The next time he spoke with his parents, his mother would be pleasantly surprised he finally had an answer to her constant question, “Have you met anyone new yet?”