Bright for the Win

Chapter 1

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Win's POV

I tried not to look tearful as my mom and dad dropped me off in front of the dormitory building that was going to be my place of residence for as long as I was a full paid scholar of the Astrophysics department of The Royal University (A/N: this is a fictitious name for a university, doesn't exist) ,

I had been lucky to land the eighth out of twelve full paid scholarships that the university offered to deserving students.

I didn't know to what other divisions of the university the rest of the twelve scholarships had been distributed and I didn't care to know. I just felt grateful that I had managed to win one of the coveted places.

My mom had offered to walk me to the building but my dad stopped her. My dad said that I needed to start acting on my own and be independent and all that shit but I knew that I was not yet ready to let go of my mom's apron strings.

In the end, I knew that the time had come for me to leave the nest as the cliche went, so as I stood and paused at the front door of the lobby of my dorm, I muttered under my breath, "Ready or not, here we go, Metawin."

I discovered later in the next few days that the dorm where I stayed housed the students from two different faculties, the Astrophysics department and the Physical Education department, the reason being that the main buildings of both departments were adjacent to each other and a few minutes walk from the dormitory.

The students from the Physical Education department were working to earn the degree of Bachelor of Science in Physical Education in different major courses, whereas the students from the Astrophysics department were working for their Bachelor of Science degree major in Astrophysics, also in different major courses.

I registered at the front lobby, gave the receptionist my name and my government issued ID. I also handed her the official letter that the university had mailed to me confirming my scholarship and the details of my stay at the university campus. She went through her computer and matched the information I gave her with what was staring out of her screen and then she pushed her swivel chair to the metal cabinets behind her. Without getting up from her swivel chair, she unlocked one drawer and pulled out a key card with the matching room number.

I thanked her before heading for the row of elevators on one side of the lobby.

I fished out my phone from my pocket and checked the time. It was half past five in the afternoon. It was close to dinner time. Why didn't my parents think of inviting me to dinner first before dropping me off here? But of course it was too late for recriminations. I had to deal with being independent now. After dropping my stuff in my room, I planned to go back out and look around for a place to eat dinner. I hoped that the places to eat were not too far from my dorm.

The elevator at the far end of the corridor dinged open with the green up arrow lighted. I made a run for it before the doors could close. A well built half naked student in only swim trunks and an olive green towel slung carelessly across his shoulder walked out of the elevator. When he saw me making a run for the elevator that he had just stepped out of, he walked back inside and kindly held the open button for me until I was able to walk in.

I thanked him breathlessly, not failing to note the tanned body with the six pack abs, and the good looking face that broke into a flashy gleaming white smile to acknowledge my thanks. My heart started to turn cartwheels in my chest as I wondered whether I was ever going to bump into him again.

I got off on the third floor and went looking for room number 306. I turned into several wrong corridors before I found the corridor with the sign at the corner wall saying "300 through 310".

I slid the key card into the slot on the wall adjacent to the door on the same level as the doorknob and pushed open the door.

Shit, someone had already been in the room ahead of me. My roommate, whoever he was, had already carelessly strewn his clothes willy nilly on his bed, his suitcase left wide open on the floor with some clothing items still inside it. And shit, he had chosen the bed closest to the bathroom. I would have wanted the bed closest to the bathroom because I woke up often during the night to use the bathroom. Well, since he had chosen the bed closest to the bathroom, he would just have to deal with whatever noises I made on the way from my bed to the bathroom.

Instead of spending the time organizing his stuff and putting his clothes away neatly into the closet designated for him, he had spent or wasted his time putting up a picture of himself posing beside a swimming pool, his arms raised high above his head, his palms clasped together, as if getting ready to slice into the water. He had set it on the wall just above his study desk.

I shook my head and was about to turn away when I jerked back my head in whiplash fashion and stood frozen in my spot.

The guy inside the picture frame was the same guy who had held the elevator doors open for me earlier. Yes, it was the same well built guy with the tanned muscles and the perfect six pack abs and the stunningly handsome face whose gleaming smile had made me weak in the knees.