The Roomie

It was really weird for Mario to be roommates with Marco. They had lived together during the whole first year of college but he was too shy to develop any kind of communication besides the usual courtesy hello they would say to each other, specially because he had the biggest crush on him. Since the day he saw Marco for the first time, he felt like he had found the most beautiful man in the world, but he couldn't do anything about it.

He was a bit younger than Marco because he had been smart enough to make it to college two years earlier. He should be proud of it but it actually made him feel quite silly, Marco was a tall blonde popular boy and he was just a nerd.

That's right. Since they had started sharing a room, Marco would always be out partying, inviting friends over, getting to the room drunk, having hundreds of girls running behind him... he always seemed to be having the best time, while Mario would spend all of his free time inside the room alone. He didn't have many friends, some people spoke about him behind his back, not to mention some were speculating about him liking guys and not girls... he was all the opposite of what Marco was. There was no way Marco could like him. Not that he expected him to like him, he tried to convince himself.

Around seven months had passed and after all the meetings Marco organized in their room, all of them out of Mario's league, he had found out that he was from Dortmund, he wanted to be a footballer and he didn't have a girlfriend currently. It was just a little bit what he knew about him and it made him even more intrigued. He was sure there was much more inside the popular guy.

A couple of times, Marco had tried to have some talk with Mario. He felt so bad because his amazing amount of shyness didn't allow him to speak, he just managed to mumble some stuffs and he would get so nervous he ended up confusing words and feeling stupid. He had just been able to tell Marco that he came from Munich, made it clear that he hated to talk about coming to university two years early and that he was also single. Not that Marco cared. Still, Marco was always kind to him... when he wasn't drunk or surrounded by his stupid superficial friends. They would sometimes have dinner together. They asked about each other's day, Mario would laugh at Marco's jokes and he would blush when Marco prepared a coffee or a sandwich for him, he would blush even more when Marco got in their room worried about failing a test and he begged for "the genius" to help him.

One day Marco arrived earlier than usual, he looked worried and he wasn't cheery as always. He looked like he wanted to say something but he wouldn't dare to do so. They spent around half an hour in uncomfortable silence until Mario gathered up all his courage and asked him.

"Marco... are you alright?" His question came out really soft and gentle.

"Yeah... no... I don't know" he was actually kind of babbling his answer.

"What is it? Can I help you with something?" Mario asked genuinely concerned by Marco's expression.

"I don't know... I just..." he paused, he still seemed to be needing to let something out but he just couldn't, "I just have a science test tomorrow and I can't understand anything" he finished but he didn't seem the slightest bit relieved.

"Do you want me to take a look? Maybe help you a little with it?" Mario was surprised by his own bravery to just go and ask him.

"I would love that, Mario. But I'm always bothering you with this. I'm so dumb..." Marco finished the sentence looking at his feet that were suddenly interesting.

"I don't mind... I mean... I have no homework for tomorrow, I'm not doing anything else anyway. I really don't mind helping you"

"Wow, thank you. It's really kind from you" Marco replied with a sweet look of admiration that made Mario blush and shiver almost uncontrollably.