A/N: This is where it all began.
Rating: R for sensitive gender issues, swearing, alcohol and cigarettes.
 

Culture of Tolerance

 The rhythm of the rain was intoxicating. Cal reached over to her side to get a peek at her cellphone. Six fifteen in the morning, she read silently, yawning. Six fifteen on a wonderful…

 'It's a fucking Monday morning!' she cursed. She got up and shook the person sleeping on the top bunk of their double bed.

 'Leit. Leit. Leit… LEIT! Good lord, six fifteen! He'll give us the licking of our lives,' she said, practically freaking out this early in the morning, referring to their terror professor due seven am.

 Leit sat up yawning. 'Oh. Ok. You go ahead and take a shower, will follow very…' she didn't even finish the sentence. She went back to sleep.

 Cal nudged her roommate for the last time before going out for a shower.

 After a world record of seven minutes (the normal rate was ten), she practically ran into the room, panicking to get dressed and get going.

 Leit, on the other hand, slowly got down from the top bunk and quietly went out of their room to hit the shower. Cal could only shake her head.

 Of course, fully dressed and everything else, she just can't walk out on her roommate - especially not now that they've just discovered they're most likely going to spend most of the time together -- in and out of the boarding house. Not a wise thing to do, she figured. Most definitely not.

 Six forty five. And about a kilometer worth of walking in fifteen minutes, not to mention the soft drizzle. She loved the rain. Really did. But not when she's got to get to class in fifteen minutes.

 'Cal, I'm really, really sorry, I got in late last night…'

 Walking briskly and at a faster pace, Cal replied, 'No prob, roomie. Where were you last night?'

 'Well, Jonathan and I had a sort of…'

 'Jonathan?' Cal asked. She wasn't any good with names.

 'Boyfriend. New one, just a few days…'

 Cal slowed down walking. 'New one? Jonathan, you say?'

 'First one too,' Leit added. Cal muttered a faint, 'oh'.

 'Final date, sort of. We're not going to see much of each other during the semester ahead…' Leit continued.

 'Well… hope you had a great time…'

 'Sure did… which explains the early morning scandal… sorry.'

 'It's okay…' Cal reassured. At the corner of her eye, she was so sure she saw Leit smiling. The dreamy way, you know. They way you smile when you remember something… somebody.

 'What… what is he like?' Cal couldn't help asking.

 'Wonderful,' the other replied. 'Simply wonderful.'

 'I see…' she replied. 'But… how wonderful IS wonderful?'

 Leit eyed her curiously. Cal kept on walking.

 'What's wonderful for you?' Leit shot back.

 Wonderful meant thoughtfulness… calls at 2am… emails everyday. Roses on Valentines Day. Holding hands and hugging, hugging all the time. Movie dates. Gentlemen. That was what was supposed to be wonderful for Cal. But as if she knew anything at all…

 'Well… I don't know,' she just replied. To keep things simple.

 'I mean… how's your boyfriend? Surely he must be some kind of wonderful…'

 'Not if he's nonexistent, right?' Cal replied, matter-of-factly, but good-naturedly.

 'Well… I assume your ex… nah, he must be some kind of a villain now…' Leit laughed.

 'Nope,' Cal replied. 'Nonexistent, too.'

 Leit eyed her curiously. Cal silently made her way through the stairs.

 'You mean… not one, not ever?' Leit was unable to control herself anymore.

 'I came from a convent, sister,' Cal joked. 'No, seriously, I came from a school run by PRIESTS, for Christ's sake.'

 What a pathetic excuse for the seventeen loveless years of her life.

 'Ever been in love?' Leit playfully asked, as they entered the room.

 Instead of replying, she pushed her roommate quickly down a seat, and also struggled to quickly find her own, lest their prof notice that they were late. He didn't -- much to their relief.
 

 It was an hour full of sermons for trespasses they haven't even incurred yet. And, of course, class cards. But really, it was 90% sermon.

 'What a headache,' Cal muttered to Leit. 'A semester full of him?'

 'You didn't answer my question,' Leit digressed.

 Cal wasn't paying full attention. 'Uh-huh… which one?'

 'Ever been in love?'

 Cal raised a brow and closed the book she was reading as they were going out of the classroom. 'Excuse me?'

 'Love. In Love. Ever been?' Leit sarcastically repeated.

 Cal sighed. 'A couple of times,' she replied casually. 'They don't matter, really.'

 'Tell me about it,' Leit insisted.

 'I've forgotten,' was Cal's reply.

 Leit was smiling. 'You know, one of these days, I'll get you to talk about them…'

 'I don't think so,' Cal replied, placing her hand on Leit's shoulder. 'Not until I get fed up of YOUR stories about YOUR Jonathan guy…'

 Leit laughed. 'Can I start now?'

 'As I was saying, our class is not due until… uh, 11:30?'

 'Perfect,' was Leit's reply, as they both headed for the nearest canteen.
 

 'Sounds like a good man to me,' Cal said, in between fork-fuls of pasta. 'You know it's a pity all the other guys like him are taken already…'

 'Well, you'll never know…' Leit replied, sipping her iced tea.

 'And about that thing he did yesterday…'

 'Absolutely sweet! I mean, I cried myself to sleep just remembering!'

 'Which explains the eyebags… AND the early morning scandal…'

 By the end of their first hour, they were already laughing so hard they couldn't move. More about Leit's love life was revealed - when and where they met, how their relationship started out in a rather queer manner… but Leit wasn't the only one doing the talking all along. In time, Cal pitched in some of her own -- her sad background, the family, the tragedies she had with regards to her high school social life… and all that crap.

 'I can't believe I'm practically pouring out myself to you,' said Leit.

 'You're a NATURAL. Talker, I mean. I surprise myself I've talked about myself this… throughly,' Cal replied.

 Moments of silence.

 'I think we're going to get along prettyyy well here,' Cal broke the silence.

 'Well, I guess, we should. See ya later at home?'

 Cal looked at her watch. Eleven fifteen. ‘Yeah. See ya later.’