Seeing You // boyxboy

Day 1- Jason

When I first met Arthur there wasn't really much that initially stood out to me. Just a scrawny, brown haired guy with glasses a little too big for his face, spindly pale looking fingers shoving them up his nose every few minutes when they slipped down a little too far. He was wearing a white collared shirt with an expensive looking brown sweater over the top and kept pulling at the neck nervously.

The sort of textbook 'nerd' I guess you could say.

He clutched some books under his right arm, all pages thick and leather bound and probably filled with words i didn't understand. His left hand reached and clasped mine in a feeble handshake and I focused my attention back to whatever Dr. Lloyd was saying.

"- over this next 8 months you will be monitored by Arthur and Arthur alone, however as you already know you will not see Arthur at all during this time period other than the short weekly meetings outside of your place of residence" Dr. Lloyd reiterated pointedly looking to me or Arthur as he spoke. His white nose hair was pretty distracting to say the least so it was hard for me to focus on the task at hand.

I tuned out again, instead focusing on the timid boy in front of my who was currently scuffing his brown leather shoes against the dark linoleum.  The corridor itself was pretty bland and boring on the eyes, white walls, white doors, white lab coats. Everywhere had that nauseating clinical feel about it and it was strange to think a place like this existed only a few miles from my university dorm.

I'd grown up in a pretty small city in the uk, so small it technically shouldn't have been categorised as one. I grew up in an average sized house with average looking parents, my mum a vet and my dad a mechanic, and from the outside we were just your standard nuclear family. my education was standard and consisted of public school like most people in my town and soon enough, after sixth form i was leaving for university, only a couple of miles from my actual home but yet i decided to live in a dorm like every other college student.

Why I signed up for this program honestly defeats me at this point however, you do have to take into account the types of circumstances that lead me up to this point in time.

A few weeks prior, before I had even heard about the program, I'd been a bedraggled university student, living off of ramen and vending machine snacks. This however wasn't a problem for me as I could very well live the rest of my life on the same diet and be happy enough. However the debt was not something I could live with in the long run.

I was flunking classes i didn't want to take, losing sleep and my self worth had very much gone down the drain. I lost friends and close family from my own personal isolation, I was rolling in debt and my two years of sixth form really could never have prepared me for the hell that was university.

And then I heard about this program, saw the flyer haphazardly taped to the back of a bathroom stall. 'SEE' it was called and despite the strange and sort of off putting name the opportunities that came along with it blew my 18 year old mind.

' a group of sociology students need YOUR help in conducting an experiment. You will be monitored alone for 8 months in standard accommodation to help students with a project regarding social interaction and societal norms.

What's in it for me? You say, well fear not, if you choose to take part in this experiment you will have the entirety of your college debt and any overall fees paid off, you will live in free accommodation with internet and food included in the deal and by the end of the 8 months, you will be paid £20,500 for your help in furthering sociological research.

Contact : *******@*****.*** if interested.
*terms and conditions apply, student admission only

To the average person, 8 months of isolation may seem like living hell, however this seemed to be my calling.