One Shots (Boyxboy)

Black Lipstick

Price Visser wasn't expecting much from his college experience. Honestly he thought it would be very similar to his high school experience, just more people.

Price was never popular, but he was also never picked on. In fact, Price was hardly noticed at all. He was average. Not top of his class, yet not at the bottom, he graduated without any fuss made over him. None of his family attended the ceremony. While most of his former classmates went out to party or celebrate with friends, Price went home alone.

Summer went by in a blur, Price had managed to save up a decent amount of cash from his job as a housekeeper. He had been accepted to a nearby college and could use the money to get books. Neither of his parents offered to help pay.

Luckily Price had qualified for a few different scholarships that paid for his dorm and tuition. Or at least most of it. Price wasn't on any sports teams, which meant no sports scholarships, he wasn't outstandingly bright, so no academic awards, nor was he musically talented, thus no music money. However, he most definitely qualified for the scholarship that awarded left-handed people, he also qualified for a scholarship that gave money to students from a broken home. Obscure money for average college bound youth, Price was the most average of them all.

Moving proved to be somewhat of a challenge, at first Price's mother was very reluctant to drive her only son to school. She worried on and on about traffic, about the fact that she may have had to interact with people, she even went as far as to worry about tornados appearing out of nowhere and flinging her car hundreds of feet into the sky. Price finally called his father instead.

The drive was silent. Not even an attempt at conversation was made. Price didn't blame the man, after all he had a new family. He didn't have time for the son he left with his crazy ex-wife.

Thankfully the drive was short and Price didn't have to endure the silence too long. His father stopped in the nearest available spot and waited for Price to remove the few boxes he'd brought along. Once everything was set on the sidewalk Price's father left with a parting handshake and a twenty. Price tucked the money in his pocket for later and grabbed anything he could carry, the rest he'd have to come back for. All around him doting families helped lost looking teens carry mountains of bags and boxes to their room. School wasn't set to start for another four days, but coming early meant getting a head start on meeting roommates, setting up rooms, planning parties, or in Price's case, applying for a work study job.

Unable to look at his papers, Price couldn't quadruple check that he was headed to the right room. He'd just have to squash his nerves and trust himself. Which in this case was much easier said than done. Hordes of people lined up by the elevators carting along everything from suitcases to deconstructed loft beds.

Price's ever present anxiety decided to show up and make this day even more exciting. Unable to cope, Price turned and scurried out the doors back to his measly pile of belongings. There, he sat on the dewy grass waiting for the crowd to thin. After all, he lived on the eleventh floor, way at the tip top of the building. What if the elevator couldn't take it any more by the time he got on? What if he got all the way up to his floor, a crush of bodies surrounding him in the small space of the elevator, then just as the doors started to open the cables snapped. Dropping everyone inside to a painful death.

Or perhaps someone would bump into Price.

Either way he couldn't risk squeezing onto the packed deathtrap. Instead Price moped, he picked at the grass around him and watched as more and more students arrived. All looked happy and excited, like college kids were supposed to be. No one noticed Price.

So lost in his own head, Price jumped about a foot in the air when a car horn went off right in front of him. In the spot where his father had been not long ago, now sat an intimidating black truck. Price watched warily as four doors opened to reveal its occupants.