Dorm Room 213

A short story based on Elizabeths Strout's "Olive Kitteridge"

Olive Monet is a spunky young twenty year old. Henry Kitteridge is a simple nineteen year old trying to get by in the world. Both are student at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Olive in studying to be a teacher and Henry is studying to be a pharmacist. Olive is 5’6” with brown hair and big deep brown eyes. Henry is 6’3” with dark brown hair almost black and eyes bluer and brighter than the mediterranean sea.

Olive is walking along a trail in the woods to Julia Rochelle’s dorm room number 213. Julia is a very skinny, 5’4” redhead, who loves to dance. On her way to Julia’s Olive remembers the day she met Julia, she was sitting on a blanket by johnson pond eating a fruit salad and reading, Dearly Beloved by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, when someone suddenly runs into her. Olives fruit salad flies everywhere, getting all over her new baby blue dress, and she loses her place in her book. “Hey! What’s wrong with you?” Olive shouts. The girl who was running turns around “ I’m so sorry I was practicing my dancing when I saw a butterfly, then I chased it. I am very sorry for ruining you picnic. Can I make it up to you?” Julia said. Olive thought for a minute, then she remembered she needed a car so she could go to this new diner in town. “Do you have a car?” Olive asked. “I do” replied Julia. “I been dying to go to the new diner that opened up in town, do you want to go?” Julia thought for a minute, she didn’t have any friends maybe this was a chance to make one. “I’d love to” Julia answered. Olive followed Julia to her car and they drove into town. They spent the rest of the afternoon at the diner eating good food and talking about everything and anything.

Olive arrives at Julia’s door, and walks in. Upon arrival she sees Joey, Richard, and Henry sitting on the couch arguing over sports. Olive rolls her eyes and heads back to julia’s room. “Why do they always come here to hang out” Olive groaned. “Because I said they could” Julia is dating Richard, a 6’6” football player, who spends most of his time at her place and brings his friends with him. Julia has a dorm to herself, so everyone always hangs out there, her door is always open.

When you first walk through the front door there is a small hallway, with pictures hanging along the wall. On the left here is an opening leading to the living room, with the kitchen attached on the right. Julia’s living room is fairly simple, there is a couch, a glass coffee table, a vase that always has flowers in it, ugly green curtains, and a pink shaggy rug. If you turn to the right there's the kitchen. The kitchen had a bright sky light with mustard yellow walls, the cabinets are white, like the fridge and the stove, there is a table in the corner, with five chairs, and another vase full on flowers sitting upon the table. At the end of the hallway is Julia’s bedroom. Julia’s bedroom is purple, just about everything in the room is purple, the bed, the bedding, the walls, the carpet, the curtains, the storage containers, the dresser, the lampshades, and the desk chair are all different shades of purple.

Several days later Olive was walking to her Education class when she bumped into Joey. “Sorry” Joey yelled as he kept running. Strange boy Olive thought to herself as she kept walking to class. On her way to class she always stops at the Dunkin Donuts in campus and gets 2 glazed donuts. At Dunkin she spotted Henry in the corner sitting with his girlfriend Makayla, who is a dancer just like Julia. Henry and Makayla have been dating for 2 years, and are currently looking for an apartment together. Olive notices Makayla is yelling at Henry, she then storm out of Dunkin Donuts leaving behind a stressed looking Henry. Olive debates going over to Henry but instead leaves for class. When she gets to the classroom she notices, the door is already open. She peeks inside and sees Makayla talking to her teacher, Mr.Foley. That weird she doesn’t have him as a teacher why would she need to talk to him Olive thought to herself. She continues to wait outside until she hears a door slam shut on the other side. She looks inside and the room is now completely empty. She walks to her seat in the third row and pulls out her yellow notebook and black ballpoint pen.

She can’t help but remember what she just over heard, “I want to tell him” Makayla shouts toward Mr.Foley. “Shhh, someone will hear you. Why would you tell Henry I have him in class?” Mr. Foley replies in a whisper. “Because I love henry and I can't lie to him anymore, I told him the child was his.”  Olive upon hearing this knows she has to tell Henry the truth. After class, Olive runs to Julia house to tell her. When Olive opens Julia’s door she starts to yell Julia, when she sees Makayla sitting at the table with Julia.

“Hey Olive” Julia says looking up from the notebook she was reading. Olive replies “ Hi, What are you guys doing?” Makayla then looks up with a giant smile on her faces and tells Olive, her and Henry are going to have a baby. “Congratulations!” Olive gives Makayla a hug and then sits with them at the table. Two hours past and Makayla finally leaves. Julia walks Makayla to the door as Olive starts to clean up the table. “I’m so excited for Makayla and Henry, aren’t you?” Julia asks Olive, noticing shes been quiet ever since Makayla announced her pregnancy. “I would be happy, except the baby is not Henry’s.” “What do you mean the baby isn’t Henry’s?” Julia yelled at Olive. Olive calmed Julia down and told her what she had overheard before class today. “I’m sure there is an explanation for this.” Julia tried to reason with Olive. Julia was always one to see the good in everyone, until proven wrong.

After leaving Julia’s house Olive knew she needed to tell Henry. So she headed over to Henry’s dorm room, that was across campus. She knocked on the door twice and tried the doorknob, it was unlocked so she just walked in. As she walked in she noticed a bible sitting on the table by the couch, and papers thrown everywhere. There were clothes hanging all over the furniture, and empty dishes placed on every surface. “Henry!” Olive yelled “Henry!” she kept yelling as she moved back towards his room. The door to his room was ajar, she peered in and saw Henry passed out in his bad with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand. Olive took the bottle out of his hands, put a blanket around him and started to clean up.

Olive didn’t remember falling asleep until, the next morning when she was woken up by the sound of someone groaning. She got up from the couch that she must had fallen asleep on  and walked into Henry’s room to see him grab the rusted metal trash can next to his bed and hurl. She went into the bathroom grabbed the blue washcloth on the side of the sink and wetted it with warm water. She placed the cloth on Henry’s forehead and went to get medicine and a glass of water. Henry fell back asleep after taking the medicine, so Olive left a note beside him on the bed and went to class.

Dear Henry,

I hope this letter finds you well. I had to leave for class,

but I still wanted to talk to you. If you want to reach me I’ll

be at Julia’s house, or Dunkin Donuts. Sleep well Henry.

-Olive <3

The next day Olive spent the whole morning at Julia’s house, until she had to go to class at 2:30. She started to walk back to Julia’s at 4:00 when an arm snatched her behind a tree. She was about to scream when a hand clamped over her mouth. She was spun around to see Makayla. “Listen to me, Henry is mine. I love him, and he and I will be together forever. I saw your little note, don’t even think about it.” Makayla sneered at Olive. She went to walk away, when Olive grabbed her hand, “he deserves to know the truth.” Olive states. Makayla pulled her arm from Olives grasp, rolled her eyes, and walked away.

After that encounter with Makayla, Olive decided to go to the library and get work done, instead of going to Julia’s house. When she got to the Library it was very quiet. The library itself is little, it is one floor with bookcases and tables hidden behind them. In the middle there is a wooden desk where Mrs.Walter sits. Mrs.Walter is a seventy year old woman, with bad hearing and glasses. She always wears her hair in a bun and her glasses connected on a chain. Olive walked into the library and went to her usual table behind the bookshelf with books about cooking, and sat in the creaky wooden chair. She pulled out her book and started to read. As she was reading she wondered to herself, what she was going to do about Henry. She knew she had to do something to help Henry but she had no idea what to do. Even Julia didn’t believe her, and Makayla threatened her. Olive continued pondering about Henry when she remembered the other day when Joey bumped into her. She thought Joey might be able to help her so she left the library in search of Joey. She thought to herself where would Joey be and after walking around campus for five minutes she headed over to Julia’s to look for him there.

When Olive got to Julia’s dorm she noticed the door was already open. When she walked in she noticed piles of dirt beside the door, like someone stomped their feet a bunch of times. As she continued to walk she noticed the pictures along the wall were crooked, and some were shattered. She turned toward the living room and gasped, the couch was turned upside down, the glass coffee table was shattered, there were papers all over the place, the ugly green curtains were pulled off the rod, the vase that is always filled with flowers, was cracked laying on the wet rug with no flowers in sight, and there was dirt everywhere. Olive went in the kitchen and it looked perfectly fine, except there were no flowers in the vase, she then headed to Julia’s room and on the purple bed laid Julia. “Julia what-” Olive started to ask, when Julia turned her head, with tears running down her face. “He broke up with me” Julia said and bursted into tears. Olive ran over to Julia and pulled her into a hug. Olive stayed at Julia’s that night comforting her. Julia cried herself to sleep around 1am and Olive started to close her eyes at 3. The next morning Julia had class at 9 am, so Olive stayed at her house and cleaned up the living room. The cleaning took about an hour. After she finished Olive started to read.

Around 10:15 that same day Olive heard a knock on Julia’s door. Olive opened the door to reveal a disheveled looking Henry. Olive opened her mouth to say something when Henry ran into the room. Olive shut the door and followed Henry into the kitchen. He sat down with his hands folded, his right leg bouncing up and down like he was nervous. “I saw your note” Henry said, Olive was surprised she thought Makayla had thrown it out. “I overheard you and Makayla talking the other day, I know I’m not the father. After you left I confronted her and broke up with her.” he said in a amused tone of voice. “You’re not angry or sad?” Olive asked, “no I’m actually happy, I didn’t truly love Makayla anymore, I haven’t for a long time.” Henry stated, looking up with his deep blue eyes and smiled at Olive. Olive couldn’t help but smile back, she was about to say something, when the door slammed open. An angry Julia  came running in followed by a stressed looking Richard. “Julia stop and listen to me” Richard yelled, as they disappeared into her room. “Well that sure was interesting” Olive said. “Donuts?” Henry asked Olive holding out his hand, “Sure” Olive replied, she grabbed his hand and with silly smiles on their face they went to go get donuts.