Roommates // DNF

16

*Hi besties, I'm on vacation and I wrote this chapter on the beach and I haven't reread it so I don't know if it's even any good but here ya go 😀

George kept his eyes focused down as he followed Karl across the room, brushing through the crowd of people as they drew nearer to Niki and Wilbur.

As they emerged near the couch, Niki's eyes lifted to meet Karl's, a huge smile on her face as she greeted them.

Karl spoke, introducing George to Wilbur, but the words were drowned out by the buzz of the crowd and the sound of George's heartbeat thumping nervously in his ears.

He finally lifted his eyes to watch Wilbur stand up from the couch, closing the distance between them as he leaned in closer to George to be heard over the noise and said, "nice to meet you, George. Are you taking computer science with Professor Johnson?"

George could only nod as Wilbur leaned back a bit, a smile on his face as their eyes met and he continued, "I thought so, I noticed you in there last class. I'm Professor Johnson's TA."

George silently prayed to himself that the reason Wilbur noticed him wasn't because George was constantly staring at him; his attention usually focused on him when it should have been focused on the class itself. His face flushed in embarrassment at the words, his eyes dropping back down as he shifted his weight on his feet.

Wilbur seemed to notice, adjusting his glasses as he hurriedly said, "oh, I didn't mean that to sound weird. I just meant, I noticed when the professor got annoyed with you and your friend for being loud."

Oh perfect, George thought to himself.

He looked back up at Wilbur, his face flushed as he quickly responded, "oh, that's just my annoying roommate. He loves to cause problems for me."

George rolled his eyes and laughed for emphasis, earning a laugh and a nod of understanding from Wilbur. The two drifted into conversation about the class, eventually landing on the subject of the partnered project, to which George had no choice but to admit he hadn't been listening to what the project was even about.

Of course, he chose to omit the fact that he had been distracted by Wilbur when the project explanation was happening.

"Oh that's alright," Wilbur said with a wave of his hand, "it's a simple coding project. I don't want to bore you with the details right now. But if you'd like, I would be more than happy to go over it with you another day."

George nodded, a smile on his face as he answered, "that would be really helpful."

"Okay. How about we meet at the coffee shop right outside of campus tomorrow morning?" Wilbur suggested.

"That sounds perfect," George responded.

He could feel a nervous flutter in his chest at the very idea of it, but he brushed it away. He was sure that Wilbur would do this with any student that asked. It was his job as the TA, after all.

Before Wilbur could speak again, George felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he turned, Niki was looking up at him with wide eyes.

"You okay, Niki?" George asked, his voice edged with concern.

Niki quickly pulled him closer, motioning across the room as she quietly said, "George, I don't know if you know this, but Dream is here."

George furrowed his eyebrows, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. He had a ton of missed calls and texts, all of them from Dream. And they got progressively more angry as they went on.

"Shit," George muttered, "I didn't even feel my phone going off. Where is he?"

Niki motioned across the room again, and George's eyes followed until they landed on Dream. He was leaning back against the wall outside of the kitchen, plastic red cup pressed to his lips. He took a long sip from the cup as a girl chattered beside him, the very same girl George had seen talking to him at the last party.