Chapter 1
It was early in the morning in Chicago, Illinois at the University of Illinois (UIC)…
Joey Austin was a twenty-one years old, black hair, blue eyes, and one and forty pounds of one hundred percent pure American skinny geek.
He slept in his dorm room bed.
While he slept, he drooled on his pillow where a huge wet spot formed. A bad habit he’s had since he was eight years old.
Joey had an exciting night, as he and his six fellow geek buddies graduated from UIC. Wally Spencer was his roommate, and they’ve been best friends since the first day they entered UIC. But at the moment, Wally was at the cafeteria for his last breakfast on campus.
They lived in a standard nine-foot by twelve-foot dorm room that had two beds each with a bedside table, dresser and a desk. The white walls have discolored spots where numerous science fiction and posters of sexy girls hung for the past four years – except over Wally’s bed where a Beatles poster remained.
The closet by Wally’s bed was empty, and a packed suitcase sat on the floor. He’s ready to go back home.
Joey’s closet had numerous cheap twenty-dollar Target khaki pants with light powder blue, pink, green and yellow shirts and light blue suit jacket hung inside with an opened empty suitcase on the floor by the closet door.
An alarm clock on Joey’s bedside table blared that awful irritating noise we loathe, as it almost always interrupts a great dream. The type of dream you wish you could go back to.
Joey woke up, looked around his room in a daze.
He squinted his eyes and focused on the clock. He reached overturned the alarm off.
He lay there for a few seconds to wake up.
He looked down at his pillow and hated to see his drool habit.
Joey got out of bed and slowly walked to the bathroom and yawned a few times.
Twenty minutes later in the shower, Joey rinsed the shampoo out of his hair. He turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Joey grabbed his towel off the rack and dried off. He wrapped the towel around his waist.
He stepped in front of the mirror sink and squeaked away the moisture with his hand.
Joey studied his body in the mirror. I should bulk up. Big time! He thought while he examined his flat, almost non-existent chest muscles.
Joey noticed a substantial white head pimple on his chin. He started to pop it but pulled his hand away when he remembered if he popped it, it could leave an acne scar. He removed a tube of Clearasil from the medicine cabinet. He opened it up and smeared Clearasil on the unsightly pimple.
Joey walked out of the bathroom with the tube of Clearasil in hand and stepped into his dorm room. He threw the tube of Clearasil, and it landed in his open suitcase.
Joey glanced around the room where for the past four years he studied, played practical jokes, had the flu, played video games, and had numerous discussions about the hot chicks on campus with Wally, Sidney, Ricky, Lenny, and Sammy.
Those memories replayed in his mind. His eyes welled up a little, as they were the best four years of his life. But it was time to move on, as they all received their Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science – Summa cum laude.
Joey walked to a years-old faded stain on the carpet near his bed. He reminisced.
It happened during his first two months of freedom here on campus. He got shit faced when he drank two six-packs of Coors beers - a first for him. His stomach couldn’t handle it. He never made it to the toilet and barfed by his bed – then passed out on the floor. Joey swore he would never drink that much again. A promise he kept for the rest of his time at UIC.
Joey walked over to the dresser, dropped his towel just as Wally, twenty-one years old, head full of red curly hair, face full of freckles with a short and stout frame entered the dorm room.
“You slept in again and missed breakfast,” Wally reminded Joey, as he closed the door.
“I know,” Joey replied as he opened up the top dresser drawer.
He eyed Joey naked at his dresser. “You’ll never get a babe being hung like a squirrel,” Wally teased.
Joey looked down at his pecker with disappointment. “I know. But the good Lord gave me something bigger - an IQ!”
Wally looked down at his crotch. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Big dick and the small brain isn’t for me,” they both chuckled then looked hopeful.
“But I want a hot babe,” Joey prayed out loud.
“Me too, Joey. Me too.”
Wally walked over to his bed, stepped on it, and removed the Beatles poster off the wall. He rolled it up, placed a rubber band around it, and dropped by his suitcase.
“Sidney, Ricky, Lenny, and Sammy are waiting for us in the parking lot.”
“Okay, let me finish packing,” Joey replied while he removed some tighty whiteys out of the drawer and slipped them on.
On the UIC campus, it had been a beehive of activity all morning where college kids moved out of their dorms where an occasional parent assisted – proud their loved ones finally graduated.
Joey, in Khaki pants with a pink shirt and Wally, in cheap brown beltless pants and lime green shirt, walked with their suitcases, through the dorm parking lot.
They walked upon some parked cars to fellow geeks who are also dressed in dorky mismatched clothes; Sidney Watson, African American with a jovial face, Ricky Adamson, tall and lanky with a southern accent, Lenny Roth, Jewish, and Sammy Goddard, crew cut hairstyle, thick glasses and chubby. They also were twenty-one years old.
Joey looked at his other four friends, “Well, guys, I guess this is it.”
“Hard to believe we finally graduated. It seems like yesterday we first arrived here,” Sammy commented while he took one last glance of the campus.
“Now it’s time to pay off that huge financial loan after we get those high paying jobs,” Ricky replied.
Joey, Wally, Sidney, and Sammy all nodded in agreement. But Lenny didn’t worry about money, as his parents were filthy rich.
Something of interest caught Lenny’s eye. He got a huge horny grin when he looked to his left and got captivated. “Sweet!” he told his pals. They all looked where Lenny looked.
A hot babe, long blonde hair, shorts that showed off her sexy legs, a top that revealed her supple breasts, approached the guys while she towed a suitcase behind her. The guys stared as her boobs bounced and lusted after her every move.
“Hello. I’m Lenny,” he greeted her with a smile as she walked near them.
The girl immediately looked in another direction and moved away faster from the twelve eyeballs that lusted after her. I hate these creepy geeks wanting to get inside my pants! She thought, and her body shivered, as she knew those geeks watched her every move.
The guys looked rejected as they spent their entire four years at UIC and never got laid or even dated. The only dates they had were with Rosie Palm and her five sisters. Lenny held the record as he dated Rosie Palm the most.
The guys watched as the girl rushed down the parking lot. Lenny had been faced with asthma all his life. He removed his inhaler from his pants pocket and inhaled his medication as he continued to watch the girl rush away.
Then one of their old history professors, forty-five years old, who wore a Harris Tweed jacket with horn-rimmed glasses, approached the guys.
The professor took a drag on his pipe then looked at the guys, “Congratulations on graduating, gentlemen.”
“Thank you, sir,” Joey replied.
“What are your plans?” the professor asked.
“I’m going to continue my education by getting my Master’s at Full Sail University in Orlando. Then hopefully get a job designing video games,” Joey replied with a smile that indicated his future would be great.
“Some kids never grow up,” the professor chuckled then took another drag off his pipe.
“I’m moving back home to Columbus, Georgia. I got a civil service job offer with the U.S. Army at Fort Benning. That allows me to be with my kid sister and parents,” Wally commented.
“I’m heading back to Little Rock. I have a lead on a job as a software engineer,” Ricky added.
“I’m moving to Denver. My uncle can get me a job with Lockheed Martin as a computer engineer, “Lenny replied.
“I’m staying here in Chicago. Maybe get into teaching,” Sidney replied.
“I’m heading to sunny Phoenix. No job lined up yet. So I’ll stay with mom until I find one,” Sammy commented.
“Very good,” the professor commented then took a drag from his pipe. In the background, the professor eyed a campus janitor who wheeled a trash can to a dumpster. That sight brought back a memory. “I don’t know if I ever told you guys this before, but you did the right thing when you turned that other janitor into the campus police,” the professor commented.
“Smoking pot is illegal, and it’s dangerous for your health,” Ricky replied with a serious look.
“So is stealing CD players from the dorm rooms,” Joey added.
“We couldn’t get evidence, as many were scared of him, but he was also dealing pot to some of the kids in the dorm,” Sidney added.
“I thought he was going to kill us when he found out we turned him in,” Wally commented and looked a little scared as it brought back that memory.
“We’re lucky that campus police officer body-slammed him to the ground to prevent him from doing just that,” Joey said while he looked relieved.
“And old Sammy here got so scared he pissed his pants,” Lenny replied.
Sammy turned beet red with embarrassment.
“That happened two years ago, and he hasn’t been back here. I think you’re safe,” the professor reassured them.
The guys all nodded in agreement.
Joey’s eyes widen as he remembered something. He unzipped a side pocket on his suitcase, removed a digital camera, and turned it on.
Joey held up his camera to the professor, “Sir, can you take one last picture of us?”
The professor nodded with a smile that he would love to do that.
“Press here to capture this moment,” Joey showed the professor the proper button on his camera and then handed it to him.
The professor looked through the camera’s viewfinder while Joey and his pals huddled together with Joey between Lenny and Sammy.
“Get ready,” the professor told them.
Joey placed a peace sign behind the back of Lenny and Sammy’s head just as the professor snapped the picture.
The professor handed Joey his camera back. “Well, have glorious future young men.” He shook their hands.
He walked away, and puffs of pipe smoke trailed behind him.
The guys stared at each other, as they knew this is the end of one of life’s journey.
“I’ll email you all a copy of the picture when I settle down in Orlando,” Joey told them as he placed his camera back in his suitcase.
“We’ll have to have a reunion in five years,” Wally told the guys.
“We’ll all have hot wives, with big tits, by then,” Lenny replied with a horny grin.
The rest of them nodded in agreement and shook hands. A few minutes of silence passed, and they hesitated to see who would be the first to leave.
Ricky, Sidney, Sammy, and Lenny walked off in different directions with Wally and Joey left alone.
Joey and Wally looked at each other. “Well, I guess this is it, Joey.”
“Yeah Wally, we’re off to new adventures.”
Joey and Wally hugged each other.
They separated. Wally walked off with his suitcase.
Joey’s eyes welled up a bit as he watched his best friend leave.
Joey grabbed his suitcase and walked through the parking lot.
He walked up to a rusted out white 1990 Toyota Corolla.
He walked to the rear of it, unlocked the trunk and it squeaked as he opened it. He placed his suitcases inside the trunk and closed it.
He walked over and got inside.
He started up the Corolla up, and a puff of black smoke billowed from the tailpipe.
He backed up and drove off through the parking lot, leaving a trail of black smoke.