College Buddies

First Day of Class

"Hello? Jackie, Jameson, Chase, anyone?"

Seán looked around, the hallway eerily quiet as the lights flickered occasionally like lights in a horror game.

"Everyone must be at class or something." Seán murmured thoughtfully as he walked forward, crying out in fear when he saw Jackie's body lying on the floor surrounded by blood.

"Jackie!" Seán ran and knelt by Jackie, paling at the sight of blood. "Someone help!" He looked around frantically.

Seán yelped in panic when Jackie grabbed a fistful of Seán's shirt and yanked him down so they were face to face.

"Say goodbye." Jackie grinned, his face changing to Anti's as a plunged a knife into Seán's stomach.

Seán woke up with a startled cry and nearly fell out of bed, shaking violently with a cold sweat soaking through his shirt as he checked himself over to make sure it was only a dream. "Jesus I gotta play less horror games or something..."

Seán turned on his phone, wincing slightly at the brightness before reading the time. "Thirty minutes before my alarm goes off...might as well get up now and not have the alarm on so I don't piss Anti off with it."

Seán got out of bed and got changed out of his white t-shirt and blue flamingo shorts, putting on a black shirt with a white ring in the center and black skinny jeans.

Seán glanced over at Anti as he picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, his roommate still asleep much to his relief as he quietly grabbed some pop-tarts and an iced coffee for breakfast from his stash of food by his bed and slipped out the door.

Seán went towards the kitchen to eat his food there, pausing in the common area when he saw Chase looking at a photo, Chase's eyes bloodshot and rimmed red.

"Hey...you okay man?" Seán asked gently as he cautiously approached Chase, who jumped in surprise and hastily stuffed the photo in his pocket.

"I-I'm fine bro, just have a lot on my mind and couldn't sleep...why're you up this early?" Chase looked at him, rubbing his eyes.

"I had a nightmare and woke up before my alarm." Seán admitted, sitting in a chair by Chase. "I'm not gonna make you talk if you don't want to, but...I'm here for you, okay?"

Chase smiled weakly and nodded. "Thanks bro, you're the best...Jackie's awake and he says he feels good enough to go to his classes, and he's got an alibi made if anyone asks what happened to him. Henrik cleaned up the blood in the hall before anyone could notice it thankfully."

"That's good." Seán nodded. "Hey I'm going to the kitchen to eat my breakfast so I don't bother Anti, you wanna get some food and join me?"

Chase shook his head. "Sorry bro, I think I'm actually gonna try to go back to sleep. I don't have a class for another couple of hours."

"No problem man, sleep well. I'll see you later." Seán smiled and stood, patting Chase's shoulder before walking down to the kitchen, setting his backpack on the floor by him.

Seán ate his breakfast and watched videos on his phone, trying to distract from the weird dream he had.

Once Seán finished his breakfast, he picked his backpack up and walked to where his first class would be to wait in the classroom until it started.

Seán was surprised to see Anti there as he walked in, taking a seat near Anti. "Good morning, didn't know you and I both had general statistics at the same time."

Anti ignored him, listening to music in his earbuds as he scrolled through social media on his phone with his feet propped up on his desk.

"Right." Seán sighed and set his backpack down, opening it to get out a notebook and pencil to take notes.

Eventually more students filed in as the start time for class drew nearer, the lecture hall almost completely full of sleepy college students by the time the professor walked in.

As the professor introduced himself and went through the syllabus, Seán tried paying attention and took a couple of notes about important rules and wrote down the name of the teacher so he wouldn't forget.

Anti remained on his phone with his earbuds in, seemingly oblivious to the class starting.

Seán sighed softly in relief as the class ended, glad to not have any homework or surprise tests already.

"Anti-"

"Class is over, I know." Anti interrupted, rolling his eyes as he stood up and brushed past Seán.

"Why do you hate me so much? We barely know each other, and I haven't done anything to you."

Seán's words made Anti pause by the door, looking back at Seán before tuning away and leaving the classroom without a word.

"Great." Seán mumbled and grabbed his bag, putting his things away before putting his backpack on and heading to his next class.

It was close to evening when Seán finished all of his classes for the day, having gotten lost multiple times.

"Jesus this place is like a maze, all of my classes are in different buildings and I can't fucking remember which dorm building is mine." Seán sighed as he walked around, trying to find his dorm so he could take a nap.

Seán headed in what he thought was the right direction before freezing in his tracks, his eyes widening as he ran forward.

Robbie was lying motionless on the ground, his eyes closed and body seeming uninjured as Seán got closer.

"Robbie!" Seán knelt by Robbie, shaking his shoulder gently as he tried to not panic.

"Five more minutes." Robbie mumbled sleepily, lifting his head up slightly as he cracked his eyes open some to look at Seán.

"Dude you fucking scared me, you okay? You get dizzy and pass out or something?" Seán grunted and helped Robbie up.

Robbie groaned a little and leaned against Seán, shaking his head. "No, I've got narcolepsy and I guess I forgot to take my meds last night...basically narcolepsy means I'm always tired and will fall asleep randomly, sometimes have hallucinations, sleep paralysis before I go to bed or after I wake up...fun stuff."

"Let's get you to your room so you can rest or do whatever you need...do you remember where our dorm building is?" Seán asked sheepishly.

Robbie nodded, rubbing his eyes as he guided Seán to their dorm building. "I'm glad you found me Seán, I hate falling asleep and waking up alone with no idea of what happened."

"It's no problem man, I'm glad to help. Anything I can get for you?" Seán helped Robbie to his room.

"Nah don't worry about it, thanks though. Oh, and please don't tell anyone else about the narcolepsy thing? I don't wanna worry them." Robbie unlocked his door, looking back at Seán.

"Sure man. Be careful okay?" Seán hugged him, Robbie laughing softly as he hugged him back.

"I'll do my best. See ya later Jack." Robbie smiled wearily and pulled away from Seán, going into his room and shutting the door behind him.

Seán walked back to his room, sighing softly in relief when he saw Anti wasn't there. "Cool, I have the room for myself for a bit."

Seán dumped his backpack on the floor and kicked his shoes off before climbing into bed, curling up under the comforter as he closed his eyes. "I'll get dinner when I wake up..." He mumbled before trying to sleep, eventually drifting off.