1.

for a few months prior, the entire world had become covered in ice. a spectacle upon it's self without providing mention of the car crashes and crystallized lights making distractions across the frequently traveled freeways. i was anxious, but overconfident.
i was returning home, not that in reality my presence had ever really discontinued haunting the cobbled red-brick streets of that small town.
for the preceding months i had been in wasting away in the northern wastelands of mason city, iowa. i had been attending a community college, a small, closely gathered cluster of buildings that had felt like a siberian prison camp to me then.
however, back to the task at hand.
i had enrolled at the local liberal arts college, planning on pursing a degree in prelaw or political science, but i had a gained the arrogant habit of telling passerbys that i had been diligently pursuing both majors with persistance and fortitude all along.
i arrived in town several weeks early, being it what i had considered my home all along while i was so fearfully vanquished to the northern wastelands. with no set of parents still residing in any of the quiet neighborhoods, i relied heavily on old friends apartments and homes to seek refuge in after long nights of passing bottles and packing cigarettes.
eventually, the dormitories opened for new students midweek during the final week before classes and i was eager to assimilate myself with my new environment. with a rubbermade tote in hand full of dreary novels from a simpler time i ascended to the third floor of the pietenpol dormitory.
watching the small town descend several feet with each heavy footed step resounding on the metal stairs, i arduously ambled up the three flights and opened the door.
the hallway was dingy, littered still from finals week, even with a three week break for the christmas holiday. i heaved the hawthorne and hemmingway, as long as the others, back up into my tired arms and found my way down the hall and to my own new front door.
eagerly i fumbled my key into the door and with a hearty grasp i turned the doorknob, opening a crack in the frame.
what met my nose was the most intolerable stench i had ever encountered. upon further inspection i found the traitor to be a large metallic bowl filled with the left over sewage of chewing tobacco. that, paired with the six pack of semi emptied beers strategically placed throughout the room like candles proved to be quite the intolerable scent.
after some brief cleaning onto the sidewalk thirty feet below, i decided to allow the crisp january air to pour through the window, hopefully alleviating the smell.
i wandered off into the quickly fading late afternoon in search of some familiar faces. a few blocks away, but still across town i ambled up six snow and ice encrusted steps and woke beeze from his slumber. i rallied the rest of the troops, which consisted of daniel and fatty asleep in the basement, and we all ambled out to the garage for a quick cigarette.
as the kool wides were graciously passed out, we all stood shivering, the cold sticking in our lungs, paired with the tar.
the conversations lit like a firecracker, old friends regaling each other with recent exploits that amounted to very little other than a few minutes of conversation. as the temperature continued to drop, the conversation lagged, a silence filled the room. for a few short moments we all dragged at our quickly eroding cigarettes and tried to fill the void of null conversation with simple clouds of carcinogens.
eventually, we all raced back into the house, the silence forgotten, and the promise of hearth and heat easing our thoughts. we turned our attention to oncoming evening, a chance for the celebration of my arrival back in the city.
after several phone calls and very little luck we came upon the decision to head back to the college campus and see if the theata kappa alpha fraternity had anything to offer for the evenings activities.