New Beginnings

Pretty boy

Not all change is bad, however. Sometimes change is beneficial. Like a heavy downpour of rain as spring starts to warm the earth after a long period of winter frost. The change allows for the seeds to pop out from their hidey-holes in the ground, and snake their roots into the newly nourished soil.
Spencer was like a flower after a rainfall.

A slow-growing flower, who had to try very hard not to succumb to the lingering winter chills, but a flower nonetheless.

It made Luke happy to see his maybe-boyfriend recite his day excitedly, hands waving, eyes sparkling.

"—And then, even though I thought I was going to, like, fall over with nerves, I ran up to the last person and I shouted, Luke, like in front of all those people, and I was all 'I'm Spencer, and that's and that's Penelope, and we like Star Trek!' Can you believe that? I've never done anything like that. Plus, I had to link my arms with her, too, and I didn't flinch all that much. The someone linked on my other arm and shouted it again. It was really cool."

Luke smiled cheek to cheek, and took a bite of his cheeseburger. "I remember playing chain-link last year. You wanna know what I said I liked?" Luke blushed.

Spencer nodded.

"Boy bands." Luke avoided Spencer's eyes as long as he could, then slow like honey, drew them up only to see his boy trying so gallantly to suppress a mountain of giggles.

"Fine. Just laugh!" Luke chuckled, and buried his face in his hands.

"Boy Bands!" Spencer gasped for air through his giggle-fit, and had to lean his head down against the table to keep from falling over.

"I know, I know! I was so nervous! I didn't understand the game! I thought we all had to just jump in and just say whatever the last person did!"

"Boy bands." Spencer was winding down, his breathing starting to normalize in-between sporadic hitched breaths. "If ya want me giiirl, let me know..." he sang giddily.

Luke reach out and ran his fingers through Spencer's long curls, and Spencer kept his head down on the table a moment longer just to feel Luke's touch.

"I missed you, Lu. It would've been so much more fun with you there." Spencer cooed.

"I missed you too. I thought about you all day." The older boy winked at him.

"Derek!" Spencer's head shot up, and he waved at someone across the room.

A well-built boy with a blinding smile came over, and Spencer scooted over so that he could take a seat next to him.

"Hey, Pretty boy!" Derek slapped Spencer on the back.

"What're you doing here, getting dinner? This is my, my uh, this is my Luke." Spencer beamed and gestured at Luke from across that table.

"Hey, Luke, nice to meet you. I'm Derek. I'm Spencer's roommate." Derek reached out to shake his hand.

Luke raised his eyebrows, looking Derek up and down. Where did the 'Pretty boy' thing come from? "Hey, yeah, likewise. You wanna eat with us?"

"Absolutely! Let me just go grab my Baby girl—" he scanned the room quickly, jumped up from his seat bustling with energy, and got lost in the swarm of students.

"Pretty boy, huh?" Luke grinned. He felt like his stomach was shriveling up.

"Yeah, he's pretty heavy with the nicknames. Just wait till you hear Penelope and him together." Spencer scrunched up his nose and snorted.

When Spencer's new roommate finally returned, it was with a a vibrant young lady, completely decked out in every imaginable color under the sun. Her hair was half pulled up in a bun, and half down in long colorful wisps of red, orange, yellow, and pink.