I'm not broken (RoyalChaos)

Chapter 1 - Welcome to college

Ze's perspective

Headphones on my head, music flowing into my ears, my eyes fixed on the ground, my heart beating fast. I definitely imagined my first day of college being... Better? Better than high school at least. Just the mere thought of my last years at high school sent a shiver down my spine. It wasn't a time I liked thinking of, that's for sure. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, I had to concentrate on doing well in college. This was the only chance I'd get and I didn't want to mess it up.

"What's so hard to believe?", a loud voice spoke over the sound of my music. I flinched, ripping off my headphones while turning around to meet eyes with a guy about my size with messy black hair and quite funny looking eyebrows. He grinned at me as I stared at him like a lost little lamb. "Huh?", I mouthed, not able to understand what he wanted from me.
The guy broke into laughter and turned to his sides as if he was checking if someone had noticed the happening. "You were shaking your head as if you couldn't believe you're actually in college", he remarked, looking back into my eyes, now holding out his right hand, "I'm John. But please just call me Smarty, John's so... Serious". John, or Smarty, smiled across his whole face and lifted his eyebrows.
"Uhh, sure", I mumbled, still staring at him in confusion until I noticed he was waiting for me to introduce myself and shake his hand. "Z-Steven", I stuttered, maybe it was better to use my actual name for starters. I only told people my nickname - Ze - when I got close with them.

Smarty grabbed my right hand and shook it, glancing down at my medical bracelet. I quickly pulled out of the handshake, covering the bracelet with the sleeve of my coat. Though it was only the beginning of September, it had already gotten cold outside. "Well", Smarty exhaled, grinning at me again, "Nice to meet you, Steven. I hope I'll see you at tonight's party?" 

"Party?", I asked, looking even more confused than before. Great, college was all about parties and drinking. Forgot about that part. The last party I had been at went horribly wrong and I really couldn't use a recurrence of it. But maybe it was a chance to start all new. Maybe I'd meet some new people there, make some good connections, that kind of stuff. Who knew? I wouldn't find out if I didn't go.

"The grand opening party", Smarty announced, drawing a half-circle in the sky with his hands. He smiled and looked back down to me. "So what, you coming? It'll be a lot of fun and you sure will regret missing out on it". He raised his eyebrows, grinning even wider. This Smarty guy was weird. He was so confident walking up to strangers, ending up inviting them to parties. I was the complete opposite of him. Rather shy and rather living my own life than sharing it with others. I sighed. I had to take chances like this one. If I didn't like the atmosphere I could still leave.

"Yeah, sure", I replied, "Where's that party gonna be at?". I was new here so I had no idea where anything was except for the main school building and of course my little apartment that I had been able to rent for a fair price. It was only a few minutes away if you took the bus.

"You know what, let's meet at the front door of the main building at eight", the black haired guy said, "We'll walk over together. Maybe I can hook you up with a nice girl as well!"
I gave Smarty a crooked smile. "I'd rather not... Meet up with a girl like that". My thoughts raced back to high school, back to Mira.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry!", Smarty basically yelled out, "You're gay! I should've known, I'm sorry!"
I felt my face turn bright red as I quickly looked around us, multiple people were staring at me, most of them with a wide grin on their faces. Awesome. Couldn't Smarty have been just a bit louder so more people could've heard? I angrily stared back at him. "I'm not", I hissed under my breath, "I'm not gay, Smarty".
Now it was Smarty who stared at me in disbelief, his brown eyes wide open as if he had seen a ghost. "Oh", he said, jaw dropped, "I'm so sorry dude, I just thought... Actually it doesn't matter what I thought. Alright, no girls, bro night. Meet you at eight!" With those last few words he disappeared into the crowd which was making it's way into the main building. I should go too, my first class was going to start soon. It was more of a welcoming class, designed to give us newbies all the information we needed to start college life succesfully.