Chapter Text
Alec slumped in his chair, and tapped his fingers against his jaw. His eyes had grown dry from staring at the lecture board, and he half-heartedly listened as the Professor continued to drone on. He rubbed his eyes with the insides of his palms and allowed his eyes to then to flicker across the room.
Alec scanned the room, and raked his fingers through his hair, tugging lightly in an effort to wake himself up, when his gaze locked with a person a few rows in front of him.
If Alec had of been walking, he would’ve of, without a shadow of a doubt, stopped in his tracks. There was a sudden pause where Alec stared openly at the man in front of him. Alec’s lips parted slightly and his breath hitched when the man flashed him a bright smile. How could Alec of missed him before? Surely Alec would have noticed someone this beautiful?
The man in front lifted up his hand and waved subtly at Alec; a pleasant twinkle sparkling in his eye.
Alec blanched, and stared blankly at the man before he allowed his lips quirk into a weak smile. Alec lifted his hand and waved back, although he became overwhelmingly aware of how ridiculous he must have looked. He was sat, alone, in the top row, hidden away in the corner, hunched in on himself, awkwardly and silently communicating with someone he’d never noticed before.
“Mr. Bane, saying as you don’t seem to be paying attention, care to explain the theory?” the Professor’s voice rang throughout the room, successfully snapping Alec out the moment.
“Sorry, of course,” The man sent one last smile towards Alec before turning back to the front.
A deep blush bloomed across Alec’s cheeks and he quickly averted his gaze. He turned his focus back onto the Professor and took in what the man in front was explaining. Or at least, Alec tried to, but he found himself not only mesmerized by the man’s smile, but also his voice. Strangely, even when discussing economics the man’s voice was entrancing and smooth.
Alec should not be this affected. He snapped a hair tie he’d stolen from Isabelle against his wrist, and shook his head, as if the action would knock the thoughts away.
Without much luck, Alec finally began typing notes on his laptop, willing himself to stay focused. Whenever his eyes would try to flicker back to stare at the beautiful man, he reached down and snapped at his reddening wrists again.
---
When the Professor called an end to the lecture, Alec had briefly considered hanging back to talk to the new, beautiful man that would no doubt be haunting his dreams; but he decided against it. Alec wasn’t willing to embarrass himself any further, so, in an entirely self respecting manner he had all but flown out of the room and raced back to his dorm.
When he reached his dorm, Alec quickly slammed the door and set about readying himself for a much needed catch up session in the library.
---
Alec had thought a few hours in the library would enable him to catch up on the lecture he’d just spent zoned out and daydreaming over beautiful men in, but it seemed the world was not on his side.
He massaged his throbbing temples as he continued to stare at the book in front of him. The words seemed to blur together though. Alec blinked rapidly and pressed his forehead against the table. He groaned loudly and promptly slammed the book shortly afterwards.
Alec leant back in his chair and glanced at the ceiling before forcing his gaze back down to the table. He tried push the intrusive thoughts out of his head one last time, but upon failing in doing so, he pushed his chair back and strode out of the library.
---
“Hey Alec, I’m playing at Hunter’s moon tomorrow night, do you want to tag along? I know you have dinner with your parents, but I thought it would be fun,” Simon rambled incessantly the moment he arrived back at the dorm, too busy fishing around in his bag for a flyer to notice Alec’s pathetic moping. “Woah, what’s wrong starfish?”
“Nothing.” Alec mumbed into his pillow, shifting slightly to peek at Simon over his shoulder.
“I know you always get like this before you see your parents, but this is next level.”
Alec sighed and with reluctance, he turned to fully face Simon, “It’s nothing really. I just didn’t take any notes in my lecture and it stressed me out.”
“Alec, come on, it’s one lecture. What’s the big issue?” Simon crouched down to pat Alec on the back, “You’re one of the smartest people I know. So you zoned out in one lecture, it happens. You have far too much on your plate, you’re allowed to slip up. Stop letting them stress you out.”
“Them?” Alec questioned, although he would be lying if he said he didn’t know exactly what Simon meant.
“You know what I mean,” Simon silmed sadly at Alec before clapping loudly and springing to his feet, “You can decide about Hunter’s Moon tomorrow, but right now, we’re having a Marvel marathon.”
“Again?” Alec’s voiced hitched and he burrowed his head back into his pillow.
“Alec, don’t pretend like you don’t like these films. You and I both know under that cold exterior, you’re a huge nerd,” Simon scoffed and shoved Alec, forcing him to make room.
“Just play the movie Simon.”
---
Alec quickly got lost in his own thoughts, the movie merely a buzz in the background, even Simon’s chattering wasn’t enough to break him out of his daze. Under his jumper Alec fiddled with the hair tie, the increasingly unhealthy habit had managed to sneak into his daydreams once again, and everytime his mind wandered to unsavoury places, be it his love life or his studies, he’d unwittingly twist and snap the hair tie against his ever red skin.
It wasn’t until Simon started talking about the ‘mysteriously handsome man’ from his Psychology class that Alec realised what he was doing. Simon tended to turn to Alec and absorb his responses more when this particular subject came up.
Alec rubbed his wrist lightly, trying in vain to ease the sting, then he turned to a beaming Simon.
“So I kept dropping hints but I’m not really sure if he’ll actually turn up,” Simon paused to draw a breath before quickly jumping back into his rant. “I hope he does, but if he does I’m not quite sure what to say. Most of our conversations consist of me talking and him grunting along, although one time we did have a pretty intense talk about this new advice blog that’s been set up.”
“Wait, I have so many questions, but firstly, an advice blog?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it actually. It’s this blog, linked to the school’s site, there’s flyers about it all around campus, it’s some sort of LGBT advice blog. Hang on,” Simon reached to grab his phone, tapped around the screen and shoved the phone into Alec’s face, “See?”
“BrooklynBi, clever,” Alec pushed the phone out of his face, and stomped down on the nervous butterflies that had been erupting violently in his stomach all day, “Must be nice for people to talk to a person anonymously, it takes away the judgement.”
“Yeah it’s is,” Simon glanced at Alec from the corner of his eye, and pretended not to notice the hopeful yet weary gleam crossing his friends face.