Drowning Lessons (Frerard AU)

Two - A Temporary Stand In For Your Face

As they walked a few doors up to their door, I turned back to my dorm again, sighing sadly and sympathetically at it, it made me a little sad to think people really did this sort of thing, the poor boy in there had to deal with it a lot. I wouldn't mind standing by his side though, I could do that, I wouldn't mind doing that, I had done it before, in fact out of all the people I knew I seemed to be the only one who hadn't been through bullying personally. I had supported my sister, my friends and just classmates who had nobody, I guess it seemed a little weird, especially as I had never experienced it first hand, but I seemed to be good moral support, Jamia certainly managed it very well. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel like I was the same as everyone else and for him to be unhappy, I was happy to try to help him, or just be a friend, unless of course he like me just wanted to keep a low profile, maybe he just didn't want friends at all.

Knocking gently on the door, rather than just bursting in - I didn't want to make a rude first impression - I waited several moments before knocking a little harder, not getting an answer then either. Assuming there was nobody in there I slid my key into the door, seeming not to need it anyway, but letting the door quietly open slightly, giving me the opportunity to slip in carefully, pulling my bags too before closing the door. The room was almost pitch black, meaning I couldn't actually see very much of the place at all, there was just a little light coming from either side of the curtain and through the middle, as well as the bathroom light seeming to be on. Maybe the boy liked to be in the dark, maybe he hated being normal or just hated everything, people possibly included, I wasn't quite sure what, but the room was incredibly dimly lit and it made me wonder about him.

The room seemed to be reasonably sized, with two beds, each with a bedside table, desk and wardrobe each, but only one window and obviously a shared bathroom, but I wasn't even sure we would have a bathroom at all, in Harry Potter they didn't. From the door, it looked as though the room had been almost split in half, the bathroom illustrating the centre line, one half having the door the other having the window. On the left were two single beds, about two meters apart from each other, with another meter between each and the wall to the other side, there was a fair width between the beds and the furniture on the other side of the room. On the right side, there was a wardrobe, then a desk and then a large gap, filled by somebody's bag and some files and books, followed by the bathroom door, which was half open. The other side of the bathroom door was symmetrical to the first, an empty space filled with a bag, a cluttered desk and a wardrobe, which had a suitcase on top.

Standing still in the doorway, I looked between the two sides of the room again, both sides filled with stuff, look very much in use, neither looking like I was supposed to be there, one side tidy, one side...not. Desk nearest the door, had the wardrobe closed and neatly, the desk neatly organised, well laid out and tidy, like you would expect from a perfectionist or someone with OCD, I would personally assume intelligence of some form, the stuff on the floor, was a black rucksack, neatly ordered subject folders, in alphabetical order and height order and then some books. However the window side of the room, that was a whole different story, it definitely was occupied and looked like somebody had been throwing things around frantically, ransacking the room, the desk scattered with papers, bags and folders just dropped carelessly and clothes hanging out of one of the drawers, maybe someone had been in a hurry to get something.

One thing was for sure, I felt very awkward, I had definitely been told room thirteen, the receptionist had double checked and neither Dan nor Phil had questioned it. What made it all the more awkward was the boy sat on the bed nearest the door, he hadn't even seemed to notice me, he had earphones in and was staring down at a book reading intently, I was unsure of whether disturbing him was a good idea or not. Honestly my body was just telling me to get the fuck out of the room, not because I was scared per se, more that the room was clearly occupied and the boy didn't look particularly eager or expectant of a roommate.