Southside Espresso || Asheiji

Chapter 2

Minutes passed, and Eiji had put his belongings on the empty mattress inside of the dorm. The dorm was compacted with two beds, a bathroom, a sitting area, and a small kitchen. Eiji was fine with the space, though.

As the boy started to make his bed, Bones decided to start up a conversation. "So, why exactly did you come here?" he asks, sitting on his own bed, which had baby blue sheets on top of them.

Eiji shrugged, running a hand through his hair as he tried to process the question. "Pole vaulting. I got approved here" he says as he puts on the blanket on top of his bed, which was a plain red color.

"Approved?! So like, a scholarship?" Bones asked, intrigued on his roommate's situation.

Eiji blinked, looking over at Bones, watching him undo his braid and cleaned it up. "Scholar... Ship?" he asks, giving him a look of confusion.

"Yep," he pops the p and goes "scholarship. Like, you got accepted like you said. Did you have to pay to go here?"

He shook his head, finally sitting on top of his bed.

Bones sat up, gazing at the boy in awe. "Really? Lucky! That's really hard to get, you know." He chuckles lightly before continuing, saying "You must be really smart. I only know one other guy who's pretty good in school, actually. It's surprising, though. He looks like he couldn't care less about it at all."

Eiji nodded slowly, taking in all of the information about some boy Bones was talking about. Did he and the secret boy have a thing for one another?

"Name?" Eiji asks, tilting his head a bit as he looked at Bones.

"His name? It's Aslan Callenreese. But yeah, he's some sick fuck who knows how to study, I'll tell you that."

"Aslan..." Eiji mumbles to himself so that he remembered the name for later on.

"Wait," Bones says, thinking out loud as he goes "how exactly will you learn if you don't know English that well?"

"Oh, I go to different class to learn" Eiji says blandly, taking out a notebook and pen and began to write stuff down.

Bones nods in reply before noticing that he stopped talking. "Say, what are you doing?"

"Writing words" Eiji stated, opening up a page and titling it 'English Words'. One thing Eiji learned on that stupid app he has is that any language is easier to understand written down instead of being spoken. As that thought came to mind, he decided to write down some of the few things Bones has told him. He writes down the word 'Scholarship', but immediately puts his pen near his tempter as he tried to think.

What was the boy's name again?

Eiji sighed in frustration to himself, trying his best to think of how to spell it. After a moment of concentration, he finally writes down what he thinks the boy's name is.

Ass-land.

The black-haired boy didn't realize that Bones was looking over his notebook, which led to his roommate bursting into laughter.

"What is funny?!" Eiji asked, his accent coming into play.

"His name isn't Ass-land!" Bones said as he finally lets his laughter come to a halt. "It's Aslan. Like this."

Bones takes Eiji's pen and notebook, crossing out the word Eiji write and instead put 'Aslan'.

"There, like that."

"Aslan?" Eiji says to himself, looking at the way it was written. "Americans do not spell good."

Bones just laughed again, but what was so funny? Eiji knew he was right. First was the taxi driver, and now laughing because of the spelling? You try learning a new language in just a few days, sir.

After the laughing fit, he cleared his throat before going "Anyway, is there anywhere you've been since you got here?"

Eiji shook his head. "No. I just came here."

This response made a gasp escape Bones, which proceeded with him going "Oh! You should see the café I work at sometime soon!"

Eiji blinks. "Café?" he questioned, but then the roommate wrote down the word on the notebook before chuckling.

"Yeah, a café. Like, the place with coffee and where you can study? I think you'd like the coffee at this place, too."

He takes his notebook back, looking at the boy's pink hair that was slowly getting undone from the braid... Again. "Name?" Eiji asks, smiling a bit. A café would be nice to go to, plus he could definitely learn English there for sure.

Bones rolled his eyes in a joking manner, taking the notebook again and writing down the name of the café.

"Southwest Espresso. I've been working there for a bit now, and I would say we're pretty good at our job" Bones says, chuckling to himself. This made Eiji smile, feeing comfort with being around the new roommate. Maybe even a new friend?

"Okay, thank you" Eiji says, bowing from where he was sitting. Bones didn't question it, since he's already asked a bunch of stuff in that pastime, too.

"Of course! I hope you do go, though."

Eiji nodded, taking his notebook for a final time and closes it, putting it on top of his pillow.

Minutes turned into hours, and Eiji and Bones were getting along just fine. The two talked about a multitude of things, such as how Eiji's home life was in Japan and how Bones got accepted into Baruch. And, to top it off, Bones expressed how he wasn't a huge fan of the mysterious Aslan, even if they did have to work together.

This, however, intrigued Eiji even more to meet the boy.

"When do you go work?" the boy asked, standing up from his bed and stretching. He sat for too long that his legs were aching, and he needed to do something.

Bones checked his watch before panic was written all over his face. "Crap! I go in in about an hour! I got to get ready!" he says, his voice quickening as he grabbed his uniform and head to their bathroom.

Eiji blinked, confused on the commotion as he noticed a badge on the ground from where Bones' uniform was beforehand. He went over to the badge, picking it up and reading what it said.

"Southside Espresso: Bones"

Eiji smiled sheepishly at the badge just as Bones walked out of the bathroom. The uniform was an all-black suit and a white apron; very simple, yet looks very formal for a café.

"You forgot" Eiji says, handing him the badge.

"Gah, thanks! I needed that!" Bones exclaimed, taking the badge and putting it onto his uniform before looking at Eiji. "Do you want to go check out the café? We can just walk."

The boy nodded, which resulted in his hair falling in front of his face. He moves it out of his way before grinning.

"Yes, I want to meet Ass-land myself."