Chapter Text
"You got the last box?"
Jay heard the call from his bespectacled friend as he closed the boot of his car, holding a rather small yet heavy box between his palms. It was the first day of college -- moving in day. He and his friend Alex had almost finished taking Jay's boxes upstairs to the room he'd be living in for the next few years of his life. Looking over at Alex as he held another one of his boxes, Jay felt a surge of appreciation. Alex was the only friend Jay truly felt he could almost be himself around, that if he told him his secrets Alex would do everything in his power to help him. Maybe their friendship was a coincidence. A vampire and a supernatural fanatic as best friends felt completely ironic, considering how Alex hadn't noticed any of the strange quirks that Jay exhibited. His pale skin, his cold hands and how, if caught in the right light, his olive green eyes would glaze over in a gentle shade of red.
"Yeah, I got it." Jay mumbled in return, adjusting his grip so the heavy box would not slip out of his hands. He pushed the glass doors of the dorm building open with his back and held it for Alex too. Jay was honestly disappointed -- he wouldn't be sharing a dorm with Alex. He knew that most people in the dorms weren't going to be paired with their friends, but Jay had a harder time than most when it came to making new friends. He was awkward, often introducing himself with long run on sentences that most people would have gotten bored listening to after the first few seconds. He had grown past that phase with Alex, but he wasn't sure if whoever he shared a dorm with would be quite as patient.
Room 102. Jay felt quite lucky to be having a dorm room on the first floor; it meant less stairs to climb when he felt particularly exhausted. It also meant he and Alex carried his boxes upstairs with relative ease. His dorm room was just the standard one you'd expect from a public college -- a medium sized living space with a small kitchen area and an even smaller bathroom branching off to the side. Two doors on the west wall presumably led to the bedrooms. Jay had yet to pick his own. Opening the first door, he found exactly what he had expected. It was a small square room with an even smaller bed, and a desk pressed against one of the bland walls. There was one main thing Jay liked about this bedroom -- the lack of windows. Jay wasn't like the vampires portrayed in the mainstream media. The sun wouldn't dissolve him and he wouldn't set ablaze on the spot. He just got sunburn a lot easier than most of his peers did. It explained why he was always seen in that pale green hoodie, even in summer. Jay decided he didn't even need to look in the other room, so he dragged all the boxes into the room and began to unpack, with Alex's help.
7PM. Jay had finished unpacking about two hours ago and Alex had left not long after. He had sat in the main living area for a while, staring idly at the walls and thinking about what he could cover them with over the next few years. Jay was surprised that his roommate hadn't turned up yet. Surely he was going to get in trouble for that? Jay decided it wasn't worth thinking about all that much -- he hadn't planned on making any new friends just yet, and if his new roommate couldn't be bothered to turn up on moving day then he figured it wasn't all that important to him either. He stood up, stretching to the joints in his knees cracked before making his way over to his new bedroom door. Jay had just barely placed his palm on the door handle when the front door to the dorm suddenly burst open and someone stepped inside. He was shorter than him, with jet black hair. When Jay tilted his head a little, he could see sideburns. The man was wearing a pale beige jacket and his hands were buried deep in the pockets. Jay paused when looking up at his face. Immediately, he felt those butterflies begin to dance in his stomach and his throat tightened. His new roommate was gorgeous.
Before Jay knew it, he was speaking to him. "Hey, I'm Tim."
The man had gotten closer to him during the time Jay had taken to stare at him. He was starting to give Jay an odd look, so he quickly responded. It shouldn't have been too hard, right? "Yea-! I'm Jay.." His voice cracked midway through saying his name, and he had to battle the urge to throw himself into his bedroom and lock the door. The expression on Tim's face seemed unbothered, and he was already moving away to get his things. "Do you need some help with that?" Jay offered, watching Tim walk in with a small box in between his hands.
"Nope, it's just this." Tim muttered, walking by Jay to the room that hadn't been taken. Just that?! Jay wanted to ask, but figured it'd be annoying of him to start going around in people's business when they had just arrived. It wouldn't have been the first time he had made that mistake. Jay had a tendency to ask the worst questions when he had no idea what else to say, and had ended up asking his close friend Jessica some very personal questions when she clearly wasn't in the right place to answer them. Maybe it'd just be better to keep his mouth shut. Jay opened his bedroom door and decided he’d call it a night. Being a vampire meant he didn’t need as much sleep as humans did, but he enjoyed the comfort of his bed and could lay there all day if he didn’t have things to do. Jay kicked off his shoes and curled up under the warm blankets. Jay’s skin was icy to the touch, so the gentle heat that had been trapped inside the blankets always comforted him.
Jay was stirred not even half an hour later by a gentle rap on the door and Tim’s muffled voice, “hey, I was just about to make some dinner but your refrigerator is empty.”
Jay sat up with a sigh. He hardly got any nutrition from human food, so he never troubled himself with buying groceries. Now that he had a roommate, that was going to change. Getting out of bed, he opened the door and looked at Tim with a feigned sleepy expression. “Sorry, did I wake you?” Tim tilted his head a little.
“I needed to wake up anyway.” Jay responded as smoothly as he could, observing his roommate a little more closely. Tim was wearing a comfortable shirt and jeans, presumably what had been under that jacket he was wearing when he arrived. “I was gonna run to the store and get some things.” Tim started off, and Jay could tell he was opening up to ask the obvious question of ‘would you like to come with me?’ Jay already knew his answer. Spending time with people in general wasn’t Jay’s forte and he already didn’t want to make an embarrassment of himself in front of his incredibly attractive roommate. The question was asked and Jay responded with a very simple ‘I’m too tired’, to which Tim shrugged at and presented him with a piece of paper.
“It’s a shopping list.” Tim stated after seeing the visible confusion on Jay’s face. Jay didn’t understand why Tim was making such a big deal out of buying a lot of things when they were both broke college students but he figured it’d be better to not start an argument over what they were and weren’t going to shop for. Jay was about to hand the list back to Tim when one word in particular stood out to him. Garlic. Unlike stereotypical vampires, Jay wouldn’t die from one clove of garlic -- he’d just have a terrible stomach ache for hours and the time until bloodlust would be shortened. Jay would rather avoid that. “Um, can you not buy garlic? Everything else is fine.” Jay handed back the list to him, but Tim was giving him a look of shock and almost offense. Jay had no idea he’d strike a nerve with that simple request. “Why can’t we buy garlic?” Tim’s voice was laced with a tone of disbelief.
“Because…-”
“Because?”
“I’m allergic.”
Tim paused for a moment, staring at him with an expression of confusion. “You’re allergic to garlic?”
“Yeah!! Garlic allergies exist, you know.” Jay pressed, suddenly becoming defensive. Jay wasn’t the best liar, but he found it impossible for Tim to see through it. What other explanation would there be? Jay shuffled on his feet at the uncomfortable silence until Tim spoke again. “Okay, no garlic, then.” He mumbled, stepping away from the door slightly. “I’ll be back later.”
“O-okay! Don’t worry about getting too much.” Jay called over to him, and Tim just gave him a polite nod before heading out of the door.
Jay threw himself back onto his bed. Great. Tim’s first impression of him probably wasn’t the best. He probably thought of him as ‘that weird, scrawny guy that always looks sick and has a garlic allergy for some reason.’ Jay rubbed a hand over his pale face. This was a great start to the next couple of years of his life.