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Gholston, female roommate just friends
Ohio State defensive end shares a two-bedroom apartment with a woman he first befriended as freshman but never tried to date
Friday, January 04, 2008
Ohio State defensive end Vernon Gholston and former OSU student Kamillya Herring see nothing wrong with a guy and girl living together as friends, although they know not everyone around them is comfortable with their relationship.
The two share a two-bedroom, two-bath townhouse in Gahanna outside Columbus, and the arrangement works well for both of them — at least most of the time.
Ohio State All-American Vernon Gholston and Kamillya Herring are roommates in an apartment in Gahanna, They have been friends since their freshman years at OSU, but have never dated. They have a relationship that is similar to brother-sister. She is a massage therapist by trade.Budding romances for Gholston often lose momentum when his dates want to see his apartment.
"We try to hide me, but you can only hide me for so long," Herring said. "I think girls get more jealous than guys do, as far as having the opposite sex as a roommate. He stays away from saying 'her' or 'she.' He'll just say 'my roommate.' But then they'll come over and see the bathroom between our rooms is definitely decorated for a woman."
The two became friends while living on the same floor of Morrison Tower on campus when Gholston was a freshman and Herring a sophomore. When Herring was being hassled once by someone she called a "crazy guy," she sought out the hulking Gholston for protection.
"He just kind of stood at the door," she said. "I think that was intimidating enough that the guy just left."
The two remained friends over the next two years and went apartment-hunting in the summer of 2006, each planning to live alone. But they found a place they both liked and made a spontaneous decision to move in together.
OSU has coed dorms, but guys and girls live on separate wings or floors and aren't permitted to room together. Those restrictions don't apply to off-campus residences.
"When I tell everybody I live with a female, they start thinking different things," said Gholston, 21, a fourth-year junior from Detroit who is expected to turn pro after the season. "But a lot of the guys know her and know she's a good friend of mine.
"It's a good living situation. I know my role, and she knows her role. I take out the trash, and she does the dishes."
He thought of one other perk: "I love when she folds my clothes."
The number of unmarried people living together increased 72 percent between 1990 and 2000 to roughly 11 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But Herring doesn't see many platonic relationships among the males and females who cohabit around OSU.
"I don't think it's that common. The majority of people are rooming with the same sex," she said. "For us, it's really comfortable because it's never been the type of relationship where we were dating and it was weird.
"But even now, some of my girlfriends come over and say, 'How do you have him as a roommate? Don't you ever want to date him?' Of course, he's very well-built physically. But I'm like, 'No, I'm just not attracted to him.' "
Herring, 23, a Joliet, Ill., native, dropped out of school and is working as a licensed massage therapist. And she's found her dating life has become a lot less complicated with Gholston around.
"There's guys who are jerks. I won't see it, but he's honest with me. He'll say, 'He's not a good guy. You need to let him go,' " she said. "And I'll tell him the same thing. He's about to go to the NFL. Females only see that and try to jump on the bandwagon, and I try to open his eyes to it."
Herring said having separate bathrooms helps keep the peace — and modesty — intact. But all is not perfect. They once had a minor tiff when Gholston scarfed down a batch of cookies she had made.
"He ate every single one," she said, still sounding annoyed. "He knows now that if he's going to take something, he has to replace it."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125
or dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
