Mean Girls

Underage-girls-drinking-a-001

My freshman year of college I shared a dorm room with two girls. We had connected via Facebook, but my roommates became friends very quickly and I was the third wheel before we even arrived. One night, I went to bed around midnight for an 8am class. My roommates went out and around 3am, I was half-woken by the door opening. The girls had brought three guys back to our room, despite a 1am curfew for guests and started drinking heavily. I had no problem with the underage drinking, but even asleep, my mere existence in that room could mean expulsion.

Then they started making out. Music and all the lights came on. One roommate started screaming and jumping on my bed. When they realized I was awake, the boys herded my roommates out of the room and apologized, but the girls went in and out for a half hour or more, slamming the door each time until I threatened to move one roommate’s bureau, which held up her lofted bed, to block the door. When they did return, they threw up all over the room. This wasn’t the only night like this.

I moved out at the end of the semester.

January 5th, 2010 in Dorm Disaster, Extra Guests, Irreconcilable Differences

Comments (11)

EmJanuary 5th, 2010 at 8:53 am

woooooow. Sounds like my dorm!

karenJanuary 5th, 2010 at 9:00 am

duuuude….WTH? I would have reported them. serves them right.

AndrewJanuary 5th, 2010 at 10:19 pm

I would have reported them too. Except I’d be afraid while I wasn’t in there they would trash my stuff.

MaggieJanuary 6th, 2010 at 5:02 am

Just a note – the correct phrase is “fifth wheel” (no matter how many people are involved), since a fifth wheel is almost always unnecessary and superfluous. The third wheel, on the other hand, is often very useful – other than on a bike or a unicycle. Imagine your car without its third wheel? Wheels 1, 2, and 4 would be useless.

noJanuary 6th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Ummmm, yeah, no, the correct phrase is “third wheel”.

http://www.google.com/search?q=third+wheel

vs.

http://www.google.com/search?q=fifth+wheel

plmnoJanuary 6th, 2010 at 9:40 am

Fifth wheel means you’re hanging out with 2 couples, but don’t have a date of your own. Third wheel means you’re the odd person out when there are 2 other people, Maggie.

ghgswJanuary 6th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

I’m surprised you lasted that long. I would have gotten up the very first time it happened and reported them for underage drinking. Screw that. You were lucky those guys were fairly nice.

MaggieJanuary 7th, 2010 at 5:23 am

“Fifth wheel” is the original terminology and for a long time was the recognized and correct version. I understand that it’s been misused enough over time that people have come to accept “third wheel” (and your links to sources such as the Urban Dictionary reflect this more contemporary view) but it still always sounds wrong to me. You can use “fifth wheel” when you’re with any number of people – two couples, six couples, etc. – so it’s more versatile.