In Excess (Itafushi)

Chapter 1

I leaned back in my desk chair and tossed a stress ball into the air mindlessly. It was included with the bag of 'helpful' supplies I got at registration. The bag featured other notable items such as a sticker, two unsharpened pencils, a lanyard, and a single condom. At least they understood the general student population's priorities. The desk chairs were noticeably unique in the way that they were clearly designed to prevent suicide. What did that say about the school?

Syllabus week was leaving with more free time than I would have liked. My roommate was nice enough, but he was from a town two hours away, so he was constantly hanging out with his hometown friends. It was only the second day of the semester, so I hadn't had enough time to really make any friends of my own.

My phone started buzzing on my desk. I sighed and tipped the anti-suicide chair forward again, answering the call.

"Hey," I answered dryly.

"How's day two going?" Satoru Gojo was paying for me to be here, so I felt obligated to answer his daily calls.

"It was fine. I only had one class, and it ended early." Nobody warned me about how boring the first week was.

"Did you do anything else today?" He failed to hide the slight concern in his voice.

"I ate at a dining hall," I recounted. "I went to the bookstore to buy a textbook. And now we're caught up." There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.

"Made any new friends?" Gojo knew me well enough to know the answer without asking. I sighed exasperatedly.

"I talked to a few people in my classes, but nobody that I'm linking arms and skipping around with." I hated admitting my shortcomings to him. He always expected me to end up just like him. I nearly broke his heart when I told him that I wanted to go to school in the U.S.

"What about that roommate of yours? What's his name?"

"Will," I reminded him. He echoed me trying to commit the name to memory. "He's hardly ever around."

"Just don't spend too much time skulking in your room." I rolled my eyes.

"I'll be fine, Gojo." I heard a set of keys rattling in the door. "I think Will's back. I have to go."

"Alright. I'll talk to you later, kid." I quickly ended the phone call as the door was opening. Will was chatting loudly with another guy following close behind him.

"Yeah, she'll be there for sure. I don't know about Kate, though," the guy following Will informed.

"Yo, Megumi. Do you mind if Josh chills here for a bit?" Will kicked off his shoes haphazardly.

"Yeah, that's fine. Nice to meet you." I put my hand up to wave, but Josh took it as an invitation to grab my hand and curl his fingers into mine. What the hell was that?

"Josh come on man. Shoes off the carpet." Will made shooing motions at Josh until he was off of the rug.

"When did you get so uptight?" Josh complained while slipping his shoes off. "Megumi." I was only partially listening to them, so when he called my name it startled me. "What are you doing tonight?" My eyes widened. I may as well have had a sign on my forehead that said 'loser'.

"I don't know. Nothing?" I didn't mean for it to come out like a question.

"A buddy of mine is having a party tonight. You want to come?" I looked at Will and then back at Josh.

"Sure." I shrugged. I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn't want to sound anxious. Luckily, Will and Josh were still finding out the details themselves, so most of my questions were answered without prompting.