Chapter Text
Grace replaced another swear with a friendly alternative.
The box in his arms kept slipping. The things inside jostled around and he tried his best to lift with his back like he'd been told to do. His new dorm was on the third floor and the building - old as it was - didn't have a working elevator. He'd pushed the button and waited a full three minutes before deciding to take the stairs instead. (He didn't hear any gears or have you, so he just wasn't going to waste time waiting for something that wasn't coming at all.)
Grace was entering his sophomore year. With classes picked out, a new dorm and packed schedule to get re-used to — Ryland Grace had his hands full. He had hoped he would've been able to stay in the same dorm through the summer and into the fall but a sudden email about the building's imminent demolish brought those hopes crashing down. Grace had to shuffle too many expectations and plans around and went to go live with his cousin Rocky for the summer. The last thing he wanted to do was live with his parents again.
Grace reached his floor soon enough and shimmied the box into one arm and scrambled for the keycard in his wallet. He opened the zipper of his wallet with his teeth (and was careful with his canines against the metal) and finessed the flimsy plastic rectangle out with his thumb. The scanner's light turned green and the door opened.
This was the first of many, many boxes and Grace was a single man with no other ways to take the boxes up then in his arms. He was already dreading it.
The first thing he notice was that the apartment smelled a little funny. Musty, maybe. The walls were a standard eggshell white and there was that sort of buzz head carpet lining the floor.
Grace kept a keen ear out. He knew he had roommates. The dorm had rooms to house six, even if the floor plan made that amount decision sketchy at best. There was the faint buzz of electricity but otherwise it was quiet. Maybe they were sleeping?
The blond continued down a short hallway until he found the room he was supposed to be sleeping in, 'B' with his bed being 'B2'. Grace paused in front of the door for a moment. He felt a little queasy. Nervous. Was someone already in there? Had they already set up their side of room? Were they nice? Mean? God he hoped they were nice. Grace opened the door.
It was standard, as far as he could tell. Two sided, with each side a mirror of the other. Each mattress on it's own bed frame but naked of any sheets or bedding. There was a desk on each side, shelves, a chest of drawers, a little closet empty of hangers. There was a large window that took up most of the far wall. The blinds were drawn.
Grace set his box down on the mattress and dragged on the string until the blinds went up with a rattle. The grout was stained black and there was a dead fly in one of the window crevices.
Grace found the lock latch and opened the window, letting some air in. Outside there was a plot of grassy terf where Grace could see students throwing Frisbees to each other and generally being sociable. The early fall weather was nice, warm with leftover summer and still encouraging that fun time energy too. Grace sighed, longingly. He hoped he'd get to enjoy himself a bit more this year.
But not yet. Maybe later. He could make those wistful plans once he finished unpacking and properly worked out his schedule. He still had boxes to bring up. Grace left the window open. Hopefully it would help with the smell.
Grace propped the dorm's door open with that same box he brought up and went back down to his car. He knew it would take a couple trips and he wasn't looking forward to any of them.
-||-
He had noticed a large amount of plants around the apartment on his trips. Big ones, small ones. Little cacti and scraggly ones he couldn't name. Grace appreciated the smell and look of them. They looked healthy, as far as he could tell anyway. He had never been able to keep a single thing alive in his entire life. Not the strawberry plant he was entrusted with when he was eight and not the betta fish he begged for when he was nine. They all died in within the week.
So seeing so many green and thriving things gave him a good feeling about whoever owned them. If they were nice to plants, maybe they would be nice to him?
-||-
Grace had just about a million thoughts, a million times a day. He liked to think working made them easier to manage. But more likely it just made them easier to ignore. And he chose to ignore that part too.
-||-
Grace collapsed onto the dorm's living space couch, thoroughly exhausted. Some things were still in their boxes but the essentials were tided up and put away. He managed to throw some sheets on the bed. He didn't do anything fancy with the blankets or comforter, he didn't have the energy. Most of the cabinets in the kitchen were empty, which he found odd but he wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth. At least now he had a place to put his spices. (There was also some weird…juice? In the fridge? He hadn't touched it. It must have belonged to one of his roommates. He wasn't someone to touch someone else's…really…red…fruit punch.)
(There was also some random food stuffs in the fridge and in one half of one of the cabinets. So Grace knew there was at least one roommate here.)
His arms ached. Grace rubbed at his eyes, his glasses tipping up at the motion.
He still hadn't seen any other people come into the dorm in the hours it had taken for him to settle in. Though there was still a couple days before classes officially started. They could always move in tomorrow.
Grace allowed himself slip down full down and onto the couch. He laid down long ways, with his knees bent. He stared at the ceiling for a second. The electricity hum was giving him a headache. He rubbed at his eyes again. Maybe he should take some Tylenol. Grace then thought about the box still full of bathroom articles and thought better of it.
Maybe whoever his roommates were, weren't sleeping and just weren't home at the moment, or even not moved in at all. Just like he thought before. He hummed to himself, thinking. That made sense.
In a fit of boredom, the blond pulled out his phone. He held it above his face just like he'd been told not to do many, many times to growing up. What were his roommates names again? Grace quickly navigated to housing website and signed in. He clicked on the little roommate icon, scrolling past the basic information about roommate agreements until he found the names.
'Albert Hanks, Elliot Pyres, Josh Karbb, Calvin Tigerman and Simon Eden.'
Hm. Grace knew this was going to be different then what he was used to. He'd grown up as an only child and didn't have very many friends that wanted to spend all day, forever at his house. So living with people like this was going to be very new for him. (Living with Rocky barely counted. They talked but it felt a lot like living by himself. Rocky left him alone and Grace left Rocky alone and on Tuesdays they played Mario Kart and Rocky would win. It was easy and definitely not comparable to suddenly living with five other people.)
He wondered what it would be like. What they all would be like. He had heard horror stories. Roommates stealing things like clothes or money. It was something he wanted to avoid. He liked his things untampered with and untouched. He had been a very…raw kid growing up and people touching his things only made everything worse.
Grace absentmindedly scratched at a crack on his screen. He would need to cut his nails soon. Not that cutting them did much good. They grew back too quickly.
A few minutes passed with nothing but electricity and mindless scrolling and Grace was just about to let his eyes slip shut when he heard the door open. (As he'd of course unpropped it once he had finished bring everything up from his car.) His pulse quickened slightly. This must be one of his roommates.
(The weird musty smell was back, even though he'd opened all the windows. He would be able to analyze it better if he tried but he was exceptionally interested to take the time at the moment.)
Grace hastily stood up and readjusted his glasses. New person, new person, new person-
It didn't take long before shuffling foot steps came into the kitchen and Grace's first thought was "pretty" before he shook that annoying thought loose and had a much more normal, regular, appropriately timed thought. "Oh gee, he looks terrible."
Of course Grace had no idea which roommate this was but he felt a swell of sympathy for him. He was wearing some kind of uniform. Notably Korean. His dark hair was pulled up, with a few strands loose and curling around his half-lidded eyes. His broad shoulders slouched forward and his lips were pressed into a tired frown. He held an overall air miserableness that had Grace suddenly very hesitant to talk to him. Oh. What if he's mean and hates me already? Or what if he's hungry or tired? Or has a resting bitch face? Or what if got stuck in traffic for a really long time? Or- or any other number of things that would make more sense then him instantly hating me-
"Um- " Grace faltered. "Hi..." He greeted weakly, one hand coming up to wave.
The other paused and finally turned to him, as if he had only just noticed him. He stared. "...uh, hey." He replied quietly and turned back around to the fridge. Like that short answer was one and done and he had better things to do. (Grace withered. Only just a little.)
Grace watched him pull out the strange red juice he saw earlier and take a long swig from it.
(The funny smell was stronger. Grace would hazard a guess it was coming from his new roommate. It was less musty and more…metallic? A little buttery too. He wondered what kind of cologne or strongly made deodorant the other used. Now that he was paying attention there was the smell of coffee too. Maybe he worked at a cafe?)
The silence was deafening. The electricity was somehow ever obnoxious then before and Grace was sure he was breathing too loudly. He fiddled with the ends of his cardigan, his cheeks a little warm. This was…worse then awkward. He had to say something, he had to say something, he had to say something, just say something Ryland-
"I-I'm your new roommate. Uhm." He paused, the anxiety jack-knifing into his throat, as he waited for the other to acknowledge him. He was rewarded by the dark haired man turning back to Grace slightly. Well at least Grace's social skills weren't horrifically useless. The blond stepped forward, hand out stretched. "I'm Grace. I mean Ryland- I mean, everyone calls me Grace. Nobody has called me Ryland proper since the fifth grade and I really do prefer my last name- so uh- ah-" Grace's bit his tongue and waited.
The other gave one blink to Grace. Grace felt like a crumpled up piece of paper but he kept smiling and waiting with his hand outstretched. A full count to six was had before the other finally spoke. It was six seconds of torture.
"Simon." The other - Simon - introduced softly. He sounded drained, but his voice was still firm. Solid. Grace could imagine under the right circumstances his new roommate would have a very relaxing voice.
Simon didn't give anything else, no last name, but there was only one Simon on that roommate list. Simon Eden.
Well it was certainly nice to have a name to a face.
Simon didn't take Grace's hand. Grace awkwardly put his hand away after it became obvious the other wouldn't be shaking it. Even though his heart was beating wildly and anxiety prickled at his finger tips—Grace kept smiling.
"It's, it's nice to meet you Simon." Grace tried. He tried so hard.
Simon stared at him for a moment. "...you too," His bushy eyebrows furrowed. "I guess."
Wow. Just stab him already.
Grace was probably shaking and he really didn't wanna imagine how red his cheeks were. Holy moly Christ this was awkward. And embarrassing. Embarrassingly awkward.
"A-anyway- it was nice talking- I have to go um- sort my socks. Bye!" Grace said, making some lame excuse to get away from the situation.
Simon just stood there, weird red juice in hand and a vaguely confused look on his face as Grace fled the room.
Grace swiftly closed the door to his newly minted room and found one of his pillows to scream in.
That.
Did not go well.
(At least it seemed like he wasn't directly rooming with Simon. That would have just made the whole embarrassment worse.)
He really hoped the rest of their interactions weren't like that. Because he really didn't want to have a whole semester and some change in an awkward, mind-meltingly terrible stare down.
(Though Simon did have very nice eyes. Umber brown, long lashed. Grace wasn't weird, he just noticed things like that.)
Grace squeezed at and bit at his pillow until he felt marginally better. No amount of biting things like pillows could fix the way the encounter burned another tally into the "Grace Sucks at Social Interaction" column. But he could try. He could certainly try.
(He always tried.)
His gaze fell to the floor and onto an unpacked box. It was full of socks and other loose articles of clothing.
Well.
At least he wasn't lying about the socks.
He actually did have socks to sort.
(And maybe he could take some time and try and think about what to do differently next time.)