Then Okay [DreamNotFound]

2. It Only Takes a Taste (when it's something special)

The coffee in the dining hall tasted like shit, Clay thought to himself, dragging a hand through his hair. It was 8am and they didn't need to be at the welcome meeting until 9:30, but Darryl had pulled open the blinds and insisted that they get an early start. The roommate in question was dual-wielding a fork and his phone, shoveling eggs into his face as he tapped away on some app. 

It had been weird waking up in a room with some guy he'd only met that day. And it sounds even weirder when he thinks about it like that. But Darryl seemed like a nice enough guy, so far.

"I can't believe we have classes tomorrow already," Darryl said, putting his phone down for a second.

"I know," Clay responded, the effort to make small talk straining on his tired brain. "Like, give us a minute to unpack, jeez."

"Exactly! USF gave us a whole week before the first day of classes," Darryl mentioned casually.

"Wait, USF?" Clay asked.

Darryl brought another forkful of breakfast to his mouth. "Yeah, what about it?"

"You went to University of South Florida?" Clay asked again.

"Oh!" Darryl finally realized. "Yeah, just for a year though. Didn't I mention I was a transfer student?"

Clay shook his head. "Nope."

Darryl laughed. "Well, I am!"

"That's kinda crazy though, I'm actually from Florida," Clay said.

"No way! Me too!"

It was Clay's turn to laugh. "Why'd you transfer here, though?"

Darryl shrugged. "I changed my major to Video Game Design halfway through and decided this school would be better for that."

Clay nodded. "Makes sense."

"I hope you don't mind that I'm a sophomore," Darryl said, scratching his head. "I can't believe I forgot to mention it."

"Don't worry about it," Clay said. "It'll be nice living with someone who kinda knows what they're doing."

Darryl laughed a bit too loud at that, and slapped a hand down on the table. "Yeah, kinda."

--

The welcome ceremony went on for far too long. What was it with universities and old white men talking at their students for hours? After that, they were dragged to some weird introductory activity that gave off suspiciously cult-ish vibes. Roommates and friends were torn apart and Clay was left in a sea of people, meant to find and shake hands with someone born in the same month as you. Clay found himself subconsciously scanning the crowd, though he wasn't sure exactly who he was looking for.

Once that ordeal was over with, Darryl dragged him back to the dining hall for more grub, then across campus to an auditorium for more "helpful information" from staff. At each stop, Darryl was more than eager to listen and take it all in. Clay just let it wash over his head, picking at his cuticles or counting the number of shits he gave about any of this. Zero; easy.

It was approaching evening when Darryl spotted the club fair on the campus green. "Oh, Clay! Let's go check that out! I wanna join a bunch of cool clubs." And at that moment, Clay knew that he couldn't take one more exaggerated smile or clipboard shoved at his chest.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna head back to the room," Clay said. "Don't let me hold you back though."

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! It can get pretty overwhelming, definitely go take a rest if you need to." He playfully shooed Clay back in the direction of the dorm. "Don't worry about me, I can handle this rodeo on my own. You're sure you wanna miss this, though?"