My relationship with Samantha, or Sam, was pretty typical. We were both kinda late bloomers and started dating when I was a junior in high school; being each other's first love. We had an unspoken agreement to save ourselves, maybe not until marriage, but until we knew we were going to get married. Our trust in each other was absolute; jealousy did not exist between us.
She was a bit of a guy's girl and struggled to make friends with other girls. I knew many of the guys she was close to harbored stronger feelings but I was never worried.
In the last year of school, we were deciding on schools and could not find a school that we could both attend...so we decided to try a long distance relationship. What actually ended up happening was, I accepted an offer at a school that was relatively close to her school. Unfortunately, that school sent me a letter saying that they ran out of space in the class. They offered to put me on a waiting list which I accepted. While I was waiting to hear from them, deadlines for other schools came and went. At a certain point, I needed to do something with myself for next year, so I signed up for some courses at a local community college. I was struck with the feeling that I was truly missing out on the college experience.
Sam was accepted at a school where I had been rejected. She was constantly talking about how excited she was to move to a new city, attend school, and mostly get out of her parents' house. I could only echo one of her sentiments. I got the impression she was leaving me behind, but I buried the feeling.
When she received her welcome packet we opened it together. I was interested to hear who her new best friend was going to be. Knowing her track record with other girls, I doubted they would actually get very close. I read her roommate's name: Chad? I pointed it out to her and she laughed, that's a strange name for a girl. She actually retrieved a copy of her housing application to see if she made a mistake. At the space that asked for gender, she did not fill in anything.
I pointed it out and she said "I must have missed that question."
I also noticed that listed her name as "Sam" which must have lead the housing coordinator to assume she was male.
She reassured me "Everything will be fine...after I go to the school I'll let them know the situation. They'll have to assign me to a different room. They have extra rooms just for situations like this."
