Unprofessional Without A Witness [Discontinued]

13

Sharing a dorm with Wes was awkward for Nick. At least he never tried to talk to him.

He woke up in the middle of the night one time, yawning. He checked his clock, seeing the time.

Freezing, he fell silent. There was a faint click. About every minute or so, there was the click again.

He glanced over at Wes's bed, seeing it was empty. Then he looked over at the bathroom door, which was nearly shut but not quite.

Silently getting out of bed, he crept over to the door, not wanting to wake anyone else.

He slowly pushed open the door. "Wes, do you know wh-"

Forget about not waking anyone else. He couldn't hold back a scream when he saw it, backing away. Not a shriek, a full-on scream.

Wes had jumped upon hearing him talk, dropping the small red object.

"Nick, I swear it's not-"

"You- your arm..." Nick mumbled, white as a sheet and in shock.

Wes tugged down his sleeve. "It's not what it looks like."

"You're burning yourself." He couldn't stop looking at Wes's arm, the image of the black and red skin not escaping his mind despite that a sleeve covered it.

"Okay, maybe it is. But don't... Don't tell anyone, alright? I know it would be a superior way to get back at me for all of this-"

"Get back at you?" Nick's voice was brittle. "You think I want to get back at you? With what you said in front of your father and this, I'm worried about you."

"Don't waste your time worrying about me, there are more important things to do."

Before Nick could answer, there was an anxious knock on the door. "Nick?"

Jeff. Of course.

"Wes, have you seen yourself?" Nick asked, voice low. "You need help. Let me help you."

He shook his head. "I've needed help for a while. I'm too far gone now."

With that, he walked past Nick and sat on his bed, taking out his phone. He pretended to be busy.

Nick looked at him worriedly before opening the door.

"Nick, are you okay?"

"Jeff, I'm fine. There's nothing quite as frightening as waking up to a spider right there." He put his hand close to his face to indicate the proximity.

"I thought you liked spiders...?"

"A kitten could be that close to me when I woke up and it'd still scare me," Nick pointed out.

Jeff shrugged. "True." He sniffed, expression shifting to curiosity. "Why does it smell like something's burning in here?"

Nick sniffed as well, not having realized that. "It does, doesn't it? Weird."

He half-glanced at the bathroom door, but it was shut. Seeing the light shining through the crack, he realized they left the light on.

Then he remembered they never turned on the light.

Before he could say anything, the fire alarm went off.