4A First For Everything
A/N: I'm back with a new story! This has some slash in it, so be warned. It also has hetero relationships, so be warned. No drug use, but drinking and cursing will show up later on, hence the rating. Read and enjoy!
Summer was over. Jeremy was eighteen, a high school graduate, and about to head off to college. He couldn't leave his high school life fast enough. Sure, he had made good grades, and yes, he had known all the answers, but that didn't stop people from picking on the weak and nerdy teacher's pet. It didn't help that he had no friends to defend him, either.
But now that he was off to college, everything was going to change. He would still try for the good grades and would try to know all the answers, but he was going to make sure that no one beat him up again. He would find friends, he would work out, he would be bold. He just would.
With one last scan of his room, Jeremy was ready to leave. His parents, however, weren't as ready. His father was trying to find some flaw in the packing process they had meticulously done and his mother wanted to hug him just one last time again and again. Finally, teary eyed, they let their son get into his '97 Dodge Ram.
"Don't forget to call us when you get there!" his mother called one last time before the garage door shut her son from her view. As Jeremy drove out of the alleyway and towards his new life, he turned on his CD player, letting Maroon 5 music drown out the traffic he was about to encounter.
Jeremy pulled into the parking lot of his dormitories, a block of buildings with a number of fellow students and their parents and friends moving boxes and beds into new rooms for the semester. Nervous around so many people, Jeremy turned off his car, reaching into his pocket to check his room number again: room 142, West Hall. Stuffing the paper back in his pocket, he pulled a box out of the back of his truck and starts walking.
Five minutes later, he struggled to a dorm room, checking the number on the door. He attempted to open the door, balancing the now heavy box between one hand and his knee, only to fall sideways as someone opened the door from the other side.
"Whoa!" a voice said as Jeremy fell against the voice's owner's chest, almost losing hold of the box. Thankfully, the boy he had fallen into had a hold of both the box and his right arm.
"Uh…thanks," Jeremy muttered, his face heating in embarrassment. He hadn't been there for an hour and he had already made of fool of himself in front of his roommate. "Uh, you must be Kyle, right?"
"Yeah," the boy said. "Do you need any help with that?" Kyle lifted the box out of Jeremy's hands before he could reply.
"Uh… thanks," Jeremy muttered again. "I'll be back with the rest of it in a second," he added before walking away as fast as possible.
"Hey, wait up!" Kyle called, jogging to catch up to his new roommate. "I'll help ya carry stuff."
"Uh…thanks," Jeremy muttered again, at a loss of what to do besides walking to his truck.
The pair headed for the cafeteria after unloading the second and last box from Jeremy's truck. Jeremy was unaccustomed to the multitude of questions Kyle had asked of him, but as they had talked, he became more comfortable.
"So," Kyle said as the two sat at a table with food in hand, "do you play many video games?"
"Not really," Jeremy replied, grabbing his fork, "I was always too busy with school to really do a lot."
"What was your class rank then?"
"Sixth out of nearly five hundred." Jeremy felt his face flush a little in embarrassment at the fact. "What about you?"
"Around two hundred out of a thousand. I just barely made top twenty-five percent." There was a lapse in their conversation as they ate and Jeremy saw a large man standing around, trying to find somewhere to sit. Deciding now would be a good time to try and turn his life around, he called out to the man.
"Hey, over here; you can sit with us," he called, waving his hand in the air to get the man's attention. He saw and, smiling, walked over to their table and sat next to Jeremy.
"Hey guys, what's up?" the man said, acting as if they had always done this.
"Not much, my name's Jeremy." He extended his hand to the man, slightly nervous.
"Evan," the man said, shaking his hand with a firm grip. His eyes fell on Kyle. "And your name's…"
"Kyle," he said after a moment of staring at his food, shaking Evan's hand as well, making brief eye contact. "So, are you new here?"
"Yeah, I just moved into room 318 this morning. This is my first year away from home," Evan said, taking a bite of his sandwich afterwards.
"Isn't that the far north hall in the building?" Kyle asked, swallowing a bit of his soda.
"Yeah, it is. Which rooms are you two in?"
"We're both in room 142," Jeremy said, finishing off the last of his food. "Speaking of which, I'm heading back to unpack my stuff. I'll see you guys later." With that, Jeremy stood and strode off.
"So, you two are roommates?" Evan asked, curious. Kyle glanced at Evan's face briefly before looking back down at his food.
"Yeah, I moved in yesterday and he showed up this morning." Kyle started to pick at his fries, nibbling on a few before pushing his plate aside. "I'm gonna-"
"Hey, can I see your schedule?" Evan interrupted. "I really don't know anyone here and I don't want to feel by myself." He smiled innocently as Kyle made eye contact again before looking down at his pants and taking his schedule from his pocket. Evan looked it over, his face easing up as he read.
"We have U.S. History together," Evan stated, grinning. "I guess this means I'll see ya tomorrow." He stood, waving to Kyle as he started to walk away. Kyle stayed seated for a few seconds, feeling his face heat slightly before he composed himself mentally and headed back to his room.
Kyle found Jeremy moving a stack of books to the small shelf at the foot of his bed. His desk had a hastily set-up laptop sitting open, loading. Kyle's side of the room mirrored Jeremy's, furniture-wise, but was a fair bit messier and much more cluttered. Posters of cars and rock bands covered his half of the wall, much to Jeremy's curiosity.
"So what type of bands are those?" Jeremy asked, pointing to Kyle's posters.
"Rock, mostly alternative rock, though," Kyle replied, sitting on his bed and picking up the small box in between his bed and desk. Kyle picked up a few of the items, mostly pictures of him and friends, before pushing the box aside and lying on his stomach to watch Jeremy.
"So what do you listen to?"
"Pop, although I do like a bit of hip-hop," Jeremy said, not looking up from his task. From what Kyle could see, he was arranging paperback books in a certain order, although what order he couldn't tell.
"And what are all those books?"
"Sci-fi, classics, a few others." Jeremy's face turned red slightly at the last part, just passing under Kyle's notice. "Do you read much?" Jeremy finally looked up at Kyle, although he went back to his books quickly.
"Not really, I don't find them all that interesting." The two were quiet for a moment. "What's your class schedule?" Jeremy looked up from his books again, surprised, before pulling a neatly folded piece of paper from his pocket.
"Here," he said, going back to his books as Kyle compared Jeremy's schedule with his own.
"Let's see…we have that Freshman class together." He looked at Jeremy's schedule a little longer. "You're taking Calculus already?"
"I told you, I was in my top ten."
"Right…" Again, they were silent. Jeremy finished putting his books away and stood up, stretching. After a moment of thought, he turned around and fell backwards onto his new bed, staring up at the ceiling. "So, do you know anyone here already?"
"Besides you and Evan, just my high school friend Emma," Kyle said, turning onto his side to face Jeremy. "She's really nice, but none of our classes match up. How about you? Do you know anyone?"
"Not really," Jeremy said after a moment of thought. "A couple of kids from high school, but I don't really know them." And they sure don't know me, he added mentally.
"Well, I'm bored," Kyle stated as they lay on their beds for a few more minutes. "I'm off to go hang out with Emma." He stood up, going to the door. "Want to meet up for dinner tonight?"
"Sure, be sure to come get me, alright?" Kyle nodded before leaving the room. Jeremy, with nothing else to do, grabbed the one book left in the box and started to read.
Kyle walked over to the East Hall, quickly finding the room Emma had told him she was in. Knocking, Kyle watched the hallway full of girls looking and smiling at him as they giggled and whispered to each other. Before long the door Kyle knocked on, room 723, opened to reveal a smiling blonde.
"Kyle!" she exclaimed, pulling him into her room. Kyle got a good look at her room, seeing a very large contrast in color halfway in.
"You've already painted?" Kyle asked skeptically, glancing at Emma and the walls. "Are you even allowed to do that?"
"Ugh, I had to," she said. "My roommate, Rita, already painted her side black so I had to brighten it up a bit."
"But pink? I thought you preferred the 'cooler and less prissy purple'," Kyle said, mimicking Emma's voice.
"Shut up!" Emma cried, hitting Kyle hard in the shoulder. Laughing, Kyle took a seat on Emma's bed, the comforter the less prissy purple. "So how did your move in go?"
"Good, good. My roommate is probably a genius."
"Let me guess: top ten, glasses, really gross hair?" Emma said, sitting in her purple computer chair. Kyle shook his head.
"Top ten, no glasses although he might wear contacts, and he keeps his hair too short to get dirty. It's black anyway so it doesn't show a whole lot anyway. Speaking of him, I told him we can all go get some dinner later. You don't mind, do you?" Emma turned in her chair as she spoke, inspecting her reflection in her wall mirror.
"No," she huffed, glaring over her shoulder, "but you'll be sorry if you invite someone to hang out without my permission again. Anyone else I should know about?" She turned back to her mirror, adding a small amount of red lipstick.
"Not really," Kyle said, thinking, "although would you mind if we brought Evan along? I don't think he knows anyone on-campus yet."
"Who's Evan?"
"Tall, wavy blonde hair to his shoulders, a bit heavyset though." Kyle moved his hands as he spoke, acting as if they were his hair being blown in the wind.
"Oh, I think I saw him in the cafeteria earlier. He looked liked he knew someone there when I saw him though."
"That must've been when Jeremy, my roommate, waved him over. From the way he acted, you wouldn't think that he would've done something like that."
"Really?" Emma asked, swiveling in her chair to face Kyle. "Is he the silent and shy type then?" She swiveled back to face her mirror.
"I think so," Kyle said, scratching his upper lip in thought. "He acted that way most of the morning, anyway." Emma nodded, brushing her long hair a few times as they continued to talk about the school and its students.
When Kyle came back to their room, he found Jeremy sprawled out on his bed reading a book.
"Hey, you ready to go?" Kyle asked, causing Jeremy to jump slightly. "Did I scare you?"
"No," Jeremy said, his face turning pink. "I just hadn't realized it got so late." He stood up from the bed, stretching his arms as he did. "What time is it anyway?"
"Nearly seven," a female voice said. Emma's slender frame slipped into the room past Kyle. "And I'm starving, so hurry up."
"Come on then," Kyle said, moving on down the hall. Emma and Jeremy followed closely behind.
"The male dorm's pushy," Emma complained after being shoved into Jeremy for the third time, who turned redder each time.
"What did you expect? We're guys," Kyle said, turning down a hallway. "Here it is: room 318." Kyle knocked and was quickly greeted by Evan's roommate, a short and stocky red-haired man who opened the door a crack. "Hey, is Evan here?"
"Aye," the man said with a noticeable Irish accent. "Oy, Evan, some blokes 'ere ta see ya." The door opened all the way to reveal Evan closing his laptop and standing from his desk chair.
"Oh, hey guys. What are you doing here?" He asked, looking from one person to another. "And who might this lovely lady be?" Evan added when his eyes landed on Emma with a slight smile.
"My name's Emma," she said, moving a hand to her cheek, acting shy, "and you must be Evan." She extended her other hand towards him, which Evan brought up to his lips to kiss. "Oh, you're good."
"Anyway, we were gonna go grab a bite to eat and were wondering if you wanted to join us," Kyle interrupted, smiling.
"Alright," Evan said and then turned to his roommate. "Do you want to come Conner?"
"Nah, I'm gonna get o'ver me jet-lag," he said before falling onto his bed and falling promptly asleep. Shrugging, Evan followed the other three out the door and towards the parking lot.
"So who's driving?" Jeremy asked as they exited the building.
"I vote for Kyle to drive since it was his idea," Emma said, walking close to Evan. Evan shrugged while Jeremy nodded.
"That's fine, but I warn you that you might want to vote for someone else next time," Kyle said, an evil grin crossing his face. He led them to a silver car and ran ahead of them, waving his arm at it like it was on display. Everyone stopped to look at him. "This is my baby. A 2007 Mazda 3, freshly painted, and it just purrs on the road."
"Your parents haven't given you time to modify the engine yet, have they?" Emma asked, looking at the car a little worried.
"Why do you suspect I've changed it?" Kyle asked innocently. Emma gave him a level look as she crossed her arms.
"Because every time you get a chance to, you make attempts to make your car go faster and 'roar like a lion' as you called it."
"Ouch, Emma," Kyle said, hurt. "This car is perfect."
"So you haven't?"
"No," Kyle said, defeated and hanging his head. "But that won't stop me from driving like I've modified it."
"In that case…" Emma trailed off, walking towards the car. "Shotgun!" She ran towards the car and climbed into the passenger seat before anyone could stop her.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Evan yelled, chasing after her. Losing the quarrel the pair had, he climbed into the seat behind her, huffing, leaving Jeremy to sit behind Kyle.
"Where to?" Emma said, excited. Kyle started up the engine, closing his eyes as he listened to the engine.
"How about Whataburger?" Jeremy suggested.
"Oh yeah, let's go there," Evan said. "I love their fries, the best in the entire state."
"Okay then, get ready," Kyle warned as he started out of the parking lot. The moment they were on the main road, he floored it. The car gave out a loud roar as it shot to forty in seconds, much to Jeremy's hidden distress. He gripped the door handle tightly as he hid his fear by looking out the window.
"Radio privilege," Emma sang as she started to mess with the radio. She settled on a R&B station playing Miley Cyrus.
"Oh god, Emma, change the station now before I stop this car and kick you out," Kyle said. "And no arguing. Driver gets to override all radio choices, remember?"
"Fine," Emma huffed, changing it to a station playing Santana.
My Spanish harlem Mona Lisa
You're my reason for reason
The step in my groove, yeah
"And if you said this life ain't good enough," Evan sang. "I will give my world to lift you up."
"You like them?" Emma asked, turning in her seat to look at Evan.
"Yeah," he said, smiling. "Me and my dad listened to them a lot before I moved out. He's a big guitar fan."
"My mom's really into Santana. I can guarantee that she had at least one of his CDs in her car at all times."
"And it's just like the ocean, under moon it's the same the emotion that I get from you," the two sang together. "You got the kind of lovin' that can be so smooth."
"Alright, that's enough," Kyle said, changing the station again. "Emma's singing is bad enough, I don't need it in surround sound."
"You just can't appreciate a good song if it slapped your ass and called you daddy," Emma said. The radio was now playing Finger Eleven.
"No, I just can't stand your singing." Kyle, Evan, and Emma continued to talk together as they went as Jeremy continued looking out the window. So this is what having friends is like…