The Girl Across the Hall

Since Tara and I got along so well our room became the place to hang out on the floor. The girls down the hall partied to much for us, spending their weekend either drunk or giggling down the hall about who they had hooked up with that weekend. As I didn't drink and wasn't interested in being hit on by drunk frat guys who were looking to get laid, they weren't really compatible with us. In fact the only one of our little group that drank was the girl that lived in the room across the hall from us, Helene.

Helene was another girl who had a bad childhood. Though I never learned as much about Helene as I did Tara from what I learned, she had a mother who was bipolar and when she was in a bad mood abusive. Her parents had since divorced and she had a older step sister who she thought very lowly of, but then again Helene didn't like most women in general. Maybe because of her mother, I don't know, but it was easy to see that Helene got along better with men than women. The first time I met her she already had a boyfriend ready and in her room. His name was Sean and they had met during their orientation session for LU. I don't think the entire time I knew Helene she went for more than a week without a boyfriend though she never seemed to keep them very long. She was a chronic flirt, often debating between guys and always seeming absolutely sure that this was the man she was meant to be with and was going to marry. Sean didn't last long, maybe a month before he broke up with her, because of her allowing her "friend" David stay in her room, and started dating one of the girls down the hall whom, as far as I know, he's still dating. Then came the revolving door of men. A guy from her gov class, a guy she met on the quad, most of the male population at LU it seemed at times. Though she must have hated it I'm thinking it was a good thing she lived on an all girl floor or she would have dated and broken up with most of her floor.

Same with all her men, Helene seemed to have a problem keeping a roommate. Her first roommate, Debbie got homesick and moved back to Atlanta, then Sean spent a couple nights before he could get a room change (Sean and his first roommate got to being seconds away from WWIII before Sean moved). Then David moved in because he lived with two other boys in a room meant for only two people. It was doable, but cramped, and yes this is the David, Sean broke up with Helene about, and really I think he was right to do it, while they were dating David was Helene's "best friend" after they broke up David was her boyfriend, and then not her boyfriend, and then her boyfriend...all in all Helene wasn't the greatest at remaining faithful. She cheated on David more than once while drunk, he just always forgave her.

Helene was always a different person when she was drunk. She developed this thick southern accent even though she only ever said she was from northern Virgina, and was even more touchy than normal which for Helene is saying something. I always sort of felt like Helene was trying to run away from something. I suppose a lot of people change when they get to college, but she went as far as legally changing her name. Her parents named her something very southern, as soon as she could she changed that to something much more WASP and upper crust. I don't know if she had a good reason for changing her name, but she did and I'm pretty sure she just wanted to change herself.

Since even when she got a new roommate Helene didn't get along with her, Helene became sort of like a third roommate to Tara and me, but she was just the start of the refugee roommates we picked up freshman year.
-Lia