Chapter 1

Dan goes off to college only to find that his roommate is a sexual marauder, and he won't be able to sleep in his own dorm all semester long. Hadrian lets Dan room with him for the night.

Maybe it was too perfect for too long, Dan thought. No, it hadn't been perfect. It had been crazy, and wonderful, and... heartbreaking. No, he thought, it hadn't been perfect at all, but he missed it. He missed the way Hadrian had mumbled stupid drunken ideas ino his chest, his fingers still loosely wrapped around the bottle of whiskey. No, it hadn't been perfect at all. 

Dan reached into his pocket, fumbling for the key. Christ, had he lost the damned thing already? He could've sworn it was-- he found it; still in his pocket, thank god. That was when he realized the door had been cracked open. 

"You've gotta be f*****g kidding me," he said, pushing the door open and lugging his suitcase in behind him. There was a boy lounging on one of the beds (if you could call them that--they were really more like cots) and absentmindedly tossing a baseball and catching it. He looked at Dan, briefly waved, then disregarded his presence, going back to tossing the ball. 

He unpacked his things as slowly as possible, then, once he was fully unpacked, he organized and reorganized his papers. Just when he thought he couldn't find any other way to reorganize his desk, his roommate-- whatever the guy's name was--left; he didn't say anything before he left--he just did. Dan thought about looking at the boy's desk to see if there were any papers with his name on them, but decided against it, instead pulling out the book he had been told was summer reading. Poor planning on his part, really, he thought. If he had actually done the summer reading in the summer, maybe he would have a chance at starting off the semester with a good grade. 

Only four chapters into the book, there was a banging on the door. Then some shouting. Dan couldn't understand any of the words, but the guy on the other side of the door sounded agitated, so he opened it. It was his roommate...with a girl. Dan's roommate stared at him for a few seconds. It took Dan longer than perhaps it should have to get the message, but when he did, he slipped on his loafers, grabbed his book,  paper, and a pen, and slipped out of the room. 

Sitting down in the common area, he said to himself, "Jesus, it's the first night and I've already been banished to the common room. This semester's gonna be fantastic." For a few hours he took legitimate notes, but as he continued reading, his note quality slipped drastically. "I wasn't supposed to go to college. This is ridiculous," he groaned, looking at the sheet. He was particularly proud of his last bullet point: F**k you, Herman Melville. 

He heard the door to the building swing open. Not wanting to interrupt anyone else's sexual endeavours, Dan decided to keep his eyes on his paper, despite the fact that he was quite obviously not taking notes. In fact, he concentrated so hard on looking like he was doing work that he didn't notice how quiet the footsteps were, or that whoever had opened the door was now walking towards him-- at least, not until whoever it was sat down and began to speak.

"Making a valiant effort to cram in the summer reading?" Dan looked up as the boy sitting across from him took his notes, smirking as he got towards the bottom. "I see you got roomed with Casanova VonTiger Bates. Yeah, you won't be sleeping in your dorm room at all this semester. You might want to transfer to a different room. For tonight, you can stay out here, or you can stay in my room." Dan shuffled his notepapers awkwardly. 

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but um...I don't know you," he said.

"You don't know him either," He gestured to Dan's dorm, "but unless you want to be stuck rooming with a guy who can't keep his dick in his pants for more than four minutes. Look, if I were you, I'd take my word for it."

"I guess so...but wouldn't your roommate mind?"

"Would your roommate mind?" The other boy scoffed.

"Would he mind? Would he mind?" He laughed. "He's off shooting heroin and f*****g hookers. He won't be back tonight, and if he is, he won't be sober enough to aim correctly while he's taking a piss, let alone open the door to the room. By the way, my name's Hadrian," he said standing up.

"Dan," he replied, extending his hand for a handshake. Instead, Hadrian took his hand and pulled him up, then walked towards his own dorm room, not checking to see that Dan was following. 

Once Hadrian unlocked the door, he walked in without holding the door, and Dan practically broke his fingers trying to get the door before it closed in his face. Hadrian didn't notice. 

"You can sleep on his bed, he won't care. He's never sober enough to know it's his anyway," Hadrian said, waving his hand dismissively at the bed. 

"Alright...thanks," Dan replied.

"Yeah. You might want to sleep soon. Who knows when you'll get sleep this semester," he said, going to the small wardrobe in the corner of the room and taking off his sweater and collared shirt. He was thin, but not skinny enough for Dan to see his bones, and his skin glowed almost orange under the low-budget lighting. There was a trail of freckles from his left shoulder down to his hip.  

Dan was startled into looking away when Hadrian turned, glancing at him sideways, but saying nothing before he grabbed the room key, a towel, and his toothbrush and headed towards the bathroom. He wasn't sure whether he should wait for Hadrian to come back or just go to sleep. After a few moments worth of consideration, he decided upon going to sleep. Not knowing quite where to put his sweater and jeans after taking them off, he folded them and placed them next to the bed, then crawled under the sheet. 

Several minutes and a few failed attempts at sleep later, he heard the key turn in the lock. The door opened and Hadrian walked in. Dan heard footsteps as Hadrian padded towards the wardrobe, and a creak when he sat down on the bed to get under the covers. What he hadn't expected was to hear muffled choking sounds shortly after the room went silent. 

"...Hadrian? Are... you okay?" Dan sat up. There was no reply. He got out of the bed and walked around the end of Hadrian's, then crouched in front of him. Hadrian covered his face with his arm, pulling at his hair, and audibly choking back sobs. "Hadrian?" he repeated, gently tugging on Hadrian's hand. Again, no reply. "Hey, you're going to pull out your hair if you keep doing that," he murmured. Slowly, Hadrian's sobs quieted to sniffling, and he said in a choked whisper, "S**t, this is embarrassing..." Dan was sent back to the other bed after Hadrian assured him that he was alright and it was nothing to worry about. They both went to sleep without another word. 

Author's Note

Any commentary/criticism is always, ALWAYS, welcome!