Chapter Text
The first few weeks at Moorpark was a pretty big adjustment for Wade. He had never been away from his bros this long, and realized how difficult it was to not have them around all the time. He was getting pretty lonely, and pairing that with the amount of difficulty he was having in his photography classes, Wade was, like, super bummed. And to top it all off, his roommate was just the fucking weirdest.
There was nobody in Simi Valley quite like Aldis. He was spiritual, peaceful, and didn’t really care if Wade burned or not. The first time Aldis accused Wade of not burning (which he totally does thank you very much), Wade expected to be ridiculed like Bryce would if he was home. He didn’t expect, however, for Aldis to accept it and offer to hang out with him anyway. After Aldis left the dorm, Wade was left to wonder why that thought made his stomach flip.
After Wade began to get more comfortable around Aldis and made friends with the Apache Posse, he started to realize just how different he behaved around the bros. The time he’s spent at Moorpark was the most authentic he had been in a while, and frankly, that scared the shit out of him.
That’s why, when Xander and Molly had their kickback at their new place, Wade spent most of his time away from Aldis. As guilty as he felt, Wade was terrified about what he would do or say that might make the other bros wonder why he was so close to Aldis already.
Then everything went down with the Rancho bros, and when Aldis told Wade he was leaving, the disappointment felt like a weight was on his chest.
The following Monday, Wade was back at Moorpark, and with an entire day of classes, he didn’t get back to his dorm until late that night. Walking into the room and dropping his backpack, Wade dropped face-first onto his twin bed, planning on not moving for at least 12 hours. That was disrupted, however, with Aldis coming back from class shortly after Wade.
“Wade! How are you this fine evening?” Aldis greeted him, smiling at Wade like he was just told he’d won a million dollars.
“Ugh. I’m exhausted man. This whole ‘college thing’ is really killing my vibe.” Wade replied, muffled by his pillow.
Just then, Wade’s phone dinged, and he blindly grabbed for it off of his desk. It was a group text from Xander.
“Hey man, are you up for a kickback tomorrow night? Apparently my nephew Hawk said his first word and Molly wants to celebrate. You in?” Wade asked, looking up from his phone.
“That sounds wonderful! I will gladly attend with you!” Aldis replied, beaming.
The next day, Wade and Aldis drove to Xander and Molly’s place in Simi Valley. By the time they arrived, the kickback was in full swing. Bryce and Duncan were shotgunning beers to entertain the girls, Xander was playing with Hawk, and Johnny was lounging in Hawk’s kiddie pool, a beer in one hand and a joint in the other.
“Wade! Glad you could make it bro! And you brought your roommate! Dope!” Xander yelled as they walked into the backyard. “Beer’s in the fridge! Help yourselves!”
“Thanks Xan! Sup Hawk! Hear you’re talkin’ now, huh little dude?” Wade said, walking over to his brother and nephew. Aldis hung back, grabbing them both a beer and watching Wade.
‘He is pretty cute playing with Hawk.’ Aldis thought, taking a long swig of his beer and smiling to himself.
The next few hours went by in a blur for Wade. After a while, he realized that he had lost track of his friends, and began searching the house for someone he actually recognized. Upstairs, he came across Xander’s room, empty except for Aldis sitting on one of the beds, nursing his beer and playing on his phone.
“Hey man! Having fun?” Wade asked, slurring as he staggered towards his friend.
“Uh, yeah. I guess.” Aldis replied, an uncharacteristic frown on his face.
“What’s up? You look bummed.” Wade said, sitting closer than needed to the other boy. While Wade would definitely blame the lack of depth perception from all of the alcohol, deep down he knew the real reason why.
“Oh nothing. Just talking to an old friend of mine. You probably know him. He’s in your Intro to Photography class? Jake?” Aldis explained, showing Wade a photo of his friend.
“Oh yeah! I know him! He told me about that fancy “Photoshop” trick! Nice dude!” Wade slurred, nodding at the photo.
“Yeah he was just telling me about the girl you’ve been talking to in your class, Evonne? He said you guys seemed to be getting pretty close. That’s so great for you, friend!” Aldis smiled, but even Wade noticed that it wasn’t as genuine as Aldis’ smiles normally were. Then again, he really shouldn’t be putting so much thought into how Aldis smiles.
“I guess. She seemed cool but I don’t know if it’s going to go anywhere.” Wade explained, unsure why he felt the need to explain himself.
“That’s too bad,” Aldis said, putting a hand on Wade’s shoulder, “You deserve to find somebody to make you happy, Wade. Someone you can be yourself around.”
In that moment, it clicked for Wade (no one ever claimed he was the brightest). All of the weird feelings in his stomach when he was around Aldis, all the unnecessary touches, the disappointment when he wasn’t around. Wade frowned to himself, concentrating on sorting out his feelings.
“Well,” He started, turning his body so he was facing Aldis, “I think I might have…” He started to inch his face toward his roommate’s, Aldis’ hand traveling from his shoulder to cup his face.
Before his brain fully caught up with the moment, Aldis was kissing Wade, just a light press to not scare Wade off. He pulled back, looking Wade in the eyes. Wade, with a shocked expression on his face, shook his head slightly, and dived back in. The kiss grew more heated, with Wade getting more and more into it. He dropped the beer he had been holding, letting it spill all over the floor and not being able to care. He brought his hands up to hold Aldis’ face.
They continued to make out, too distracted by each other to hear the door to the room opening, until they heard a voice,
“What the fuck!” Bryce exclaimed, dropping his own beer out of shock.
Wade instantly pulled away, terrified of what was about to happen. His hands started to shake, and Aldis’ grabbed one out of instinct.
“B-Bryce….I-I-It’s not what it looks like……” Wade stammered, trying to come up with any other reason why he would be making out with his roommate in his brother’s room.
Bryce kept staring at the pair, not even blinking for a solid 2 minutes, before he started laughing. When he finally caught his breath, he noticed the terrified look on Wade’s face.
“Dude. It’s nothing to worry about. I’m not going to give you shit. It was just, like, unexpected you know?” Bryce said, smile still on his face.
“What? You’re fine with this?” Wade asked, dumbfounded. Never in a million years would he expect Bryce to take this as well as he was.
“Uh dude, it’s 2019. Even I’m not that big of an asshole.” Bryce explained, looking slightly hurt.
“Um. Weren’t you the one who threatened to fight a baby? Multiple times?” Aldis asked, breaking his own silence.
“Yeah but that’s because Hawk started it. I’m not going to make fun of someone for something they can’t control. You do you dude.” He said, turning to leave the room.
Once Bryce had closed the door, Wade let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “Well, that went better than I thought it would.” he sighed, collapsing backwards onto the bed.
“Oh, so you’ve thought about this…” Aldis smirked, an almost devious smile on his face.
“Maybe once or twice. Thinking about you has never been difficult.” Wade admitted, staring at the ceiling. Aldis began crawling up Wade, coming into his line of sight and laughing at him a little before resuming their previous activities.
“He’s doing WHAT in my bed?!” Xander yelled, pushing past Bryce towards his and Molly’s room.
“Woah hold up bro, let the kid have his moment. Don’t be homophobic.” Bryce said, grabbing Xander’s arm and holding him back.
“Yikes dude I’m not being any kind of phobic. Molly just washed those sheets and she said if there were any more…stains….that I’d be sleeping on the couch for a month.” Xander replied, shaking Bryce’s hand off of him.
“WADE! DON’T BE GETTING ANY FLUIDS ON MY BED YOU PEICE OF SHIT!”