Kangaroo in the Bed

Nothing really exciting happened until second semester of freshman year. We had just gotten back from Winter Break and my roommate, Sarah and I wondered the halls of Andrews Hall searching for friends and meeting new faces. One room in particular caught our eye. Our R.A., Liz had told us that an Australian had moved into the room down the hall from hers; the room with the balcony. So being the noisy and out there AMerican types that we were, we headed down to meet the Aussie. I had pictured a blonde, tan and built handsome guy with a beautiful Australian accent, but we got something completely different. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't bad looking, just not what I had in mind. His name was Kieran and he had just come over from his home in Sydney. He was only a few inches taller than me (which is saying something since I am only 5'3".) He had dark hair and was fairly pale coming from such a sunny country. And he had a unibrow or what he called a monobrow I later found out. We talked that first night about the basics: home, major, classes and how he was adjusting to American life. We left that night excited by the fact that we had just met a new person and an Aussie no less. But little did we know that he would change both of our lives forever.
Every night my friend, Danielle, Sarah and I would go down to the coed floor and make our "rounds" as we liked to call them; seeing the "Boys" and just saying hi and getting away from all of the estrogen from our all girl floor. Usually we visited just five rooms: Nick James, Brian, David, Tran and Liz. But soon Kieran's room went onto our list and we visited him. This time it was only Danielle and me; Sarah was working on some Calculus homework that was due the next day. Lucky her. We said hi to Kieran and he had a tube of Vegemite next to his computer. We talked and asked how he was doing and he asked us if we had ever had Vegemite. Both of us replied no so he offered us some. His roommate laughed knowing full well how it already tested but we both proceeded to let him put some on our fingers. I was ready to test the vile stuff since I already knew that Americans were supposed to hate the stuff, but unfortunately for Danielle, she honestly believed the Aussie and thought it would be good. Danielle licked off all of the brown goo from her fingers and then almost vomited right there. She ran to the nearby water fountain and washed her mouth out as best she could. To me, the stuff tasted so salty that it burned my tounge. But being the nice guy that Kieran is, he offered us Tim Tam's (chocolate cookies). I didn't realize it then but the Vegemite was supposed to get rid of me and Danielle, so he wouldn't have to deal with the crazy, loud Americans.
A few nights later, our dorm was hosting an ice cream night. The Aussie came and joined us in the Commons and slowly inched closer to Sarah. That night he invited us to go play pool so we did and he always requested to partners with Sarah. Interesting, I thought and immediately knew what was happening. The Aussie liked Sarah but did not know that she had just gotten into an open relationship with a boy back home. But he persisted and ended up watching Finding Nemo in our room that night. Now we refer to Finding Nemo as the special movie since it basically started the relationship between the two of them. He stayed in our room until 3 since niether had to wake up early the next morning.
At first I was upset since my roommate started spending more time with him and he was always in our room, but I grew used to him and he became another friend to talk to, another older brother and a third roommate. He sleeps in Sarah's bed every night and every night feels like a sleepover with my two best friends. He tried setting my up with his friend from home who was out here, Luke, but that didn't work out. Not because Luke didn't like me; we played pool almost every night during the last month of school and had our own friendship that didn't involve anything forced. It was bad timing. Luke was headed home in a month and promised himself no relationships out here because they would eventually turn into long distance. No my Aussie boyfriend was the inflatable kangaroo Kieran had brought over and eventually moved up to our room. Since there was no place to put the 'roo during the day, he slept in my loft away from the central living area our spacious dorm room. Now second semester is almost over and Sarah and I have plans to study abroad in Australia for the entire year of 2007. Kieran is so exciting and already has stuff planned for us. Even Luke has stuff planned. But it is honestly sad to see the year go and leave the dorms where we met so many people, but maybe when I am in Australia, I will find some guy to replace the kangaroo in my bed.