Jake comes into the common room and sniffs ostentatiously. He glares at Jose flaked out on the red sofa holding a burning roach in his hand.
Jose grins foolishly. “Hey there kid. How’s it hanging?”
Jake comes in and sits in the arm chair, attempting to stare down Jose.
Doesn’t work.
Jose says, “You look pretty rough, man. Want a hit?” pinching the stub in a roach clip he proffers it to Jake. Jake looks at the offering with dismay. Obviously subtlety has no hope of working.
“Jose, you can’t smoke pot in here. We’ll get in trouble.”
Jose shakes his head. “Doesn’t make sense man. If a man can’t smoke up at home, where can he?”
“Nowhere. Smoking pot is against the law in Canada. It’s not legal anywhere, home or not. And think about it, if you get caught you could get kicked out of school. All it would take is for a porter or the don to wander in and you’re cooked. We’d all get in trouble, too.”
“Aw, sorry Jake.” Jose puts the butt out in a portable ash tray, and snaps it shut. “I’ve just been having a crappy day, man, and I just wanted to get level, you know.”
“What do you usually do?”
“I usually go smoke up in the woods but it’s crawling with cops. And it’s fucking cold out there.” He laughs ruefully. “They warned me about Canadian winters but I didn’t really get it.”
In spite of himself Jake laughs.”I hate to tell you, but this isn’t winter, it’s fall. Winter is much colder.”
“Are you shittin’ me? That isn’t winter out there?”
“Sorry. The way it works is that once we get used to this weather, that’s when it gets really cold. But it really isn’t so bad, you might even get to like snow.”
“It gets worse? Oh man. I can’t believe it. And I have to go outside to smoke? Isn’t there anywhere warm to go?”
“Not really. It’s even illegal to smoke cigarettes indoors in public spaces, and they’re legal.” Jake thinks a minute, then says, “If it’s gonna be a problem for you maybe you ought to think about getting an off campus apartment.”
“Maybe I should. Man, I wish I’d a known.”
“Better take it outside there, Jose.”
Jake and Jose look over and see Boris padding blearily through the common room on the way to the kitchen. Suddenly Jake looks a little queasy.
“Why is the campus crawling with cops?” asks Jose.
“Because Natasha got attacked yesterday. I was out searching for her half the night.”
“Man, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Suddenly towering over Jake, the only colour in his face made by black circles around his eyes, Boris asks, “What happened to Natasha?”
“Somebody attacked her in the woods.”
“Is she OK?”
“She’s in the hospital.” Looking at the thunderous expression on Bo’s face Jake isn’t sure if it would be safer to tell him or not. He takes a deep breath and realizes there isn’t a choice. He has to tell. “She was raped, Boris.”
Boris sags, “Oh God. Did you see her? How was she?”
“She was unconscious. I came home to try and get some sleep but I couldn’t, so I tried going to class, and I couldn’t do that either. Liz and Ethan stayed at the hospital hoping to see her when she wakes up. They haven’t come back yet.”
Dropping to a sitting position on the floor Boris buries his face in his hands, shaking with heavy sobs.
Jake and Jose exchange awkward glances, wordlessly deciding the best course of action is withdrawal.
