Room 258

Styles...Harry Styles

"Styles... Harry Styles" I looked at the secretary who was looking for my name on the list she had.

"Styles, Styles, Styles...  Ah, here it is! Room 258, you’re sharing it with a certain Louis Tomlinson!"

I took the key she was handing me and I gave her one of my smiles I was sure it would melt her. That forty-years-old lady was probably the youngest woman in this place. Why would my parents force me to attend a boys-only college? Well, the truth is that I knew why, but it still wasn’t fair.

Yeah it’s true, I had the bad habit of taking to bed a different girl every night, and I also got one pregnant though she had a spontaneous abort right away.

I dragged myself up the stairs until the second floor, couldn’t they put an elevator? I started looking for my room, 254, 255, 256, 257, there it was, 258!

The secretary mentioned that I’ll have a roommate… great, as if it could get worse. Couldn’t I have a single room? For sure my roommate was going to be some kind of loser-nerd who would only think about grades and studying. What was his name again? Lewis?

Argh.

I took a deep breath and unlocked the door. I was surprised by finding it empty, perfectly in order, with only one luggage on one of the two beds, betraying someone else’s presence before me in that room.

The room looked a bit like the ones you find in hotels: the wardrobe was on the left and right on the right hand side there was a door leading to a small bathroom. In front of me, instead, there was the bedroom with two beds, two bedside tables, a leather sofa on the right and a shelf with mini fridge on the left. On the shelf there was the TV. The whole room was decorated in red and gray, the collage colours. I went on the balcony, right after the two beds in front of me, to get some fresh air. The view was breathtaking, there was a lake and the woods behind that, but the thought that from there to actual human life it was something like a 20 minutes car ride, it was killing me, keeping in mind that I still didn’t have my driving license.

I looked at the clock, it marked 17:15. Suddenly I remembered the lady from before saying something about a meeting for freshmens at 17:30.
I didn’t even waste my time getting ready to go out, who should I get ready for? It’s not like there were any girls there. I went looking for the Hall room where I knew the meeting would take place.

I wondered around for a while – you could say anything you wanted about that collage but not that it’s a small place – and I managed to enter the Main Hall before the meeting started. I sat in the last row and didn’t listen to almost anything the principal said.
I understood something about how you don’t get food if you arrive late at the canteen, something about some cars you could rent to reach the city and about the fact that you can’t bring inside the collage anyone who isn’t part of it, not even a family member.
Great, I couldn’t even take any girls for the night, not that I could fuck having a guy sleeping next to me. At this point why not become a monk?

“And remember, you can sleep outside collage only with my official permission and you’ll have to ALWAYS and I repeat ALWAYS wear the collage badge on you, otherwise you’ll have some serious disciplinary consequences and I can assure you, you won’t like them. You’ll find the badges in you rooms. You can go now, and remember, dinner is at 19:30!” The principal concluded and everyone stood up and left.

With a little struggle I managed to do the same route backwards and get back to the door with the numbers 258 on it. I walked in, desiring nothing more than a shower before dinner but I stopped as soon as I saw a guy with a phone in his hands lying on the bed next to mine. He lifted his eyes as he heard the door close. Blue, his eyes were extremely light blue and cold.

“You must be my new roommate, I’m Louis Tomlinson.”
I got closer to the guy, he looked older than me, probably a senior. He didn’t look anything like the nerdy guy I imagined, in fact, I have to admit he was a pretty handsome guy. Brown hair, fringe falling in front of his face, small slim lips and a pair of wonderful light blue eyes.

“Yep that’s me. I’m Harry Styles.” I replied stretching out my hand.
Louis looked at it for a while but literally dissed it and went back to his phone.
‘Oh well, he’s a nice guy’ I thought ironically.

In the same way, I turned my back and headed to the shower.
I stayed in there for a while before getting prepared for dinner, it was 19:20 when I was ready.
I was about to walk out before I stopped to look at the guy still lying on his bed.

Even if he wasn’t exactly kind, that didn’t mean I wasn’t supposed be it, right? I did have to share a room with him for a whole year.

“So what? You’re not coming for dinner?” I asked without much enthusiasm, that dude didn’t convince me so much after all.

“Sorry curly, I have better things to do.”
Curly? He didn’t even remember my name? Who did that stuck-up think he is? And what did he have to do better than having dinner?

“Perfect” I replied walking out the door. To be true, I wasn’t even hungry anymore but I headed for the canteen anyways.

The canteen had 5 long tables and other smaller ones with 4-6 seats. I sat in the corner of one of the big tables, next to this blond guy who looked like he was starving and he didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
I’ve arrived in that place only a few hours before and I already hated everything.
Why did they put me here? Why?

“Hey, you must be new! I’m Liam Payne, I’m a sophomore”.
Talking was the guy in front of me, short brown hair and brown eyes. He looked like a nice guy, maybe too nice for me. Who the hell starts talking to a complete stranger? And especially to a freshman?

“Harry” I simply replied.

“That’s Niall and Zayn” he said pointing first to the blondie next to me and then to the guy with black hair and dark skin.

I made a sign with my head and that guy,  Liam I think, seemed pretty uncomfortable because of my not-being-talkative, so he simply added:

“Well, if you need anything you can count on us”.

“Sure, I will.”

That’s not true, I wouldn’t have done it, I don’t like asking for help, I prefer dealing my stuff alone. I felt a bit sad for that Liam guy, he was being nice, it wasn’t his fault if I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.

I finished dinner in silence and then I went back to my room.
Louis wasn’t there.
Not sure why, but I was dying to know where he went and why he skipped dinner.
In any case, I wouldn’t have found out that night, the day after I would have had my first class and I was so sleepy, might as well be going to sleep.

I heard the noise of the key turning in the lock. I peeked at the clock on my bedside table which showed 3:00am.
Louis walked in so I pretended I was asleep, peeking to see what he was doing.
Well, he didn’t do much if not change into his pajamas. I have to admit that my roommate has a really nice body, when he took off his shirt I could see his great six pack.
I found Louis very intriguing, what has he been doing since 19:30-20:00 until 3:00am?
While my sleep took the better of me, I decided that I was going to find you in a way or another.