College Boy : A Novel (9781416586500) Read Free Page A

seriously. He effectively stopped all the silliness that had been going on.
    â€œHey, guy, that’s my room! You must be my roommate, then!” yelled a tall, green-eyed White fellow with light brown hair. He stepped toward Troy for a handshake.
    â€œDo you see what we have here? You two buckaroos are roommates,” Charles said. “Now isn’t that special?”
    â€œYeah?” Troy responded, wishing that Charles would shut up and get on with business.
    The wavy-headed roommate was still excited. “I saw you running ball at the gym, Troy. You’re pretty good. By the way, my name is Simon Osenberg,” he said.
    After more discussion, the ordeal was finally done with. All of the students were released to their rooms.
    â€œSo you was up at the gym, hunh, Simon?” Troy asked to start things off.
    â€œYeah, I was there. But the guys I was playing ball with were bums, a bunch of Italians,” Simon told him. “They couldn’t run ball for shit, I tell ya. Your team was doing all right against those big guys, though.”
    â€œDig, cuz. You see how big them suckas were? And we still hung in there!” They chuckled as Troy felt proud of himself.
    â€œMaybe we can go run ball sometime, Troy,” Simon offered.
    â€œWhenever you down, man. I’ll go.”
    â€œGreat, but Troy, I have some more stuff in my car, if you could give me a hand.”
    â€œAw’ight, man. Let’s go get it,” Troy responded. He left the room immediately and headed for the floor’s elevators. Simon quickly followed him.
    They jumped onto the elevator, conversing while riding down eighteen floors and stopping to pick up other students. Lots of freshmen, as well as returning students, crowded the large freshman dormitory lobby. The college hype was stirring, and classes did not begin for another two days.
    Entering the refreshing night air, Simon showed Troy to a dark gray, up-to-date Cadillac Coupe de Ville parked inside the student car lot.
    â€œDamn, cuz! This is your car?” Troy exclaimed, shocked.
    â€œYeah, I just got it a couple months ago,” Simon said with a grin.
    â€œIs it brand new?” Troy asked. He looked at the shiny outside coat and the clean, gray, velour-looking interior.
    â€œWell, it’s not exactly new,” Simon hinted. “See, my father had gotten it from some guy who wanted to trade it in.”
    Troy nodded. “Y’all Jewish dudes get all kinds of deals.”
    Simon looked at him, surprised. “Wow! Get out of town! How did you know I was Jewish?” he shouted.
    Troy searched the parking lot to see who had heard before answering. Simon had a loud mouth. “Because of the name, man,” he explained. “All names I’ve ever heard of with ‘Bergs’ and ‘Steins’ in it, I just thought were Jewish.”
    â€œYeah, I forgot all about that. You’re right,” Simon agreed.
    They grabbed two handfuls of items to take back to the dorm. Troy quickly realized that Simon had a lot more stuff than he. He began to wonder if his roommate was rich. He thought that not only would he have a so-far-cool White roommate, but a wealthy one as well. Troy didn’t plan to be a leech, he was simply interested in experiencing how wealthy Jewish people really lived.
    After they returned to the room and put the items on Simon’s side, they began to discuss their separate plans for the night.
    â€œSo, Troy, what are you going to do tonight?” Simon asked, as though he was interested in tagging along.
    â€œI’m goin’ to that freshman party in the student game room. They’re supposed to have a reggae band over there too. Why, you wanna go?” Troy offered. He would feel guilty if he did not at least invite Simon.
    â€œYeah, I like reggae,” Simon said. “Then again, I still have a lot of unpacking to do, and I’m the type of person that has to do something