rule of three. [saltburn]

deux.

deux.
chapter two.

xxx.

          Later that night, while most were still in the dining hall, chatting incessantly and laughing loudly to the point where the sound was practically echoing off the walls, Oliver retired to his dorm's common room. It was empty, and dark, but that was the sort of thing he was looking for, really. A place to think, to be alone, to digest everything that prospered in a matter of 24 hours.

          Most of that thinking was dedicated to Felix Catton, though. But that wasn't all that strange, he imagined lots of people would sit in their rooms thinking of Felix Catton too, just likely doing more 'thinking' under their sheets.

            One of the doors down the corridor creaked open, though since the footsteps that followed were silent, Oliver didn't pay much attention to the sound. Not until felt a presence near the doorway, making him glance over his shoulder, a visibly startled expression on his face.

            He said nothing, and maybe he should've, but the person standing in the entrance of the common room didn't speak either. He was tall, even with the slight slouch of his shoulder, messy ink-black hair covered his eyes for the most part, and his clothes hung loosely from his frame, hiding most of his build. Nick Kim-Roth, in all his less-than-glory.

Nick clearly hadn't been expecting anyone else to have hung back from the first night's celebrations, his brows shifting in surprise. He didn't dwell on it long though, simply looking around the room for a moment. Oliver watched the other young man as he opened the drawer of a desk, pulling something out of it before concealing it in his hoodie pocket.

He didn't catch a good enough glimpse of whatever it was before Nick turned back around and went the exact way he'd come, not a single peep out of his mouth. As he watched his back fade into the darkness and listened for his creaking door again, Oliver briefly wondered what his voice sounded like. Tired, maybe, the bags under his eyes were visible even in the dimness.

This would be the first time Oliver saw Nick Kim-Roth, and it was the only time they would share a curiosity rather than a deduction of each other.

Back in his dorm, Nick locked the door behind himself. He lingered near it for a moment; he didn't normally do that, but something about the loner in the common room made him feel like he had to. He walked back over to his bed, deciding that Felix could handle using his key to unlock it whenever he got in, regardless of how drunk he was.

              He plopped down on the bed, pulling the envelope out of his pocket. Nick had hid it in the desk earlier, knowing no one else would bother to check around the common room on their first day, and because he knew that if Felix had seen it, he would've been annoyed into letting him open it. Nick himself had no intention of reading it, but he was considering giving it to his sister; it was a letter from home, which was a bit ironic since they had only been dropped off at Oxford that morning. More than likely, it was already written hours before they even began to pack their bags.

              Nick wasn't all that interested in what it said, but he was a bit conflicted on giving it to Nell. Depending on what it was or who wrote it, he could imagine a handful of scenarios happening when she read it, and none that his cynical mind could procure were good. He sighed quietly and sat the letter under his bed frame as his legs hung off the edge and he stared across at his roommate's half of the space. Somehow, it was already messy, clothes strewn over the bed and a pile of books on his nightstand. They'd barely been there twelve hours and Felix was already being Felix.