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This was all Raven’s fault. He wouldn’t be in this mess if Raven hadn’t been so fucking nosy about his social life.
It had been a Wednesday when she called. He had just finished his classes and was heading back up to his dorm when his cellphone rang. “Hello?” he wedged the phone between his chin and his shoulder.
“Hey Charles, it’s Raven, your favorite sister!” Raven said cheerfully--too cheerfully.
Charles puffed up his cheeks and blew air out of his mouth. “You’re my only sister, Raven.” He proceeded to lay his textbooks across his desk.
She giggled. “Anyways, I called to tell you that I’m gonna be in town this weekend.” Raven went to college in the same state as him, but Raven and Charles were both broke as fuck (no thanks to their mother: “Ms. You’re-Going-To-Have-To-See-How-It-Is-In-The-Real-World-When-I’m-Not-Here) and both had no transportation vehicles.
“Oh really?” Charles asked, picking his pencil out from behind his ear and placing it on his desk. He sat down and leaned against his chair, spinning around a few times.
“Yeah! My friend from my Creative Writing class is visiting her boyfriend around where your college is.”
Charles nodded. He never really got a chance to talk to his sister; they were both busy with classes and especially Raven since she just started. “Yeah, I guess you could stay in my dorm. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“Excuse me, I’ll sleep on the floor, it’s your dorm, mister,” Raven laughed, probably pacing around and twirling her hair with her fingers. “Want to hear details?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Okay, so Angel and I are probably going to arrive there Saturday morning and she’ll drive me over there and we can meet up. Oh, and Angel and I leave Sunday morning so you got an entire Saturday with me and your boyfriend.”
His boyfriend? He didn’t have a boyfriend. Suddenly, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Charles remembers drunk texting Raven all about his boyfriend and how much loved him (“heyyy rAven, i luv my bf so so s oso os much.”) God, of all the things he could’ve said, that was it. Drunk him was kind of random and idiotic. “Oh, um, yeah, my boyfriend.”
“I can’t wait to meet him! What was his name again?”
Shit. Shit. “Uh, Erik, yeah.”
“Erik? Aww, I bet you two are adorable,” she paused before yelling, “yeah! I did that shit already. Professor already looked at it-- sorry Charles, I gotta go.”
“Yes, er, understandable,” he swallowed a lump in his throat, “see you later Raven.”
“Bye Charles!”
Charles hit the end button immediately. Shit, there he was again being an idiot. Erik was the name of his roommate who was kind of sort of hot, but most likely hated him because he never said a word and glared at him constantly. All hell had broken loose and as if nothing could get worse, he heard the familiar sound of someone unlocking the door.
Erik walked in, his backpack hanging low on his shoulders. He looked exhausted and irritable. Great. “Hi Charles,” he mumbled, before walking across the room and plopping down on his bed. “Oh, hello, Erik,” Charles replied nervously, “um, actually--Erik?”
Erik sat up, rubbing the temples of his forehead. “Yeah?”
Charles fiddled with his thumbs on his desk. “I kind of did something really bad and it involves you in it and before I tell you, I’m super sorry.”
Erik scoffed. “If you framed me for murder, I’ll actually kill you.” He was joking, but it still scared Charles shitless.
He laughed weakly. “No, no, nothing like that. I kind of told my sister that we were dating…?” Charles looked up to see Erik’s expression, but his face was blank. Was he looking for an explanation? Yeah, probably. “She’s going to be in town and wanted to meet the boyfriend and I panicked and the only person I know around here is you. I’ll give you money or I’ll do your homework or something.”
Then Erik was laughing. Was he laughing at Charles? Erik probably thought it was hilarious that Charles, the literal fucking nerd, actually dared to ask him to be his fake-boyfriend. Charles closed his eyes and prepared for the insults.
“I don’t need money or whatever. You’re my roommate so I’ll do it for free,” Erik said, lifting the weight off of Charles’ shoulders.
“Free?”
“Yeah, you’re kind of my only friend around here, too.”
“Oh my God, thank you so much.”
---
When Saturday finally rolled around, Charles was all jittery and freaking out. Raven said she probably would get there at nine, but he needed to prepare Erik so he woke the two of them up at eight. “Okay, so just act affectionate and stuff, yeah?”
Erik nodded, smiling down at him. Wow, Erik really was hot. He actually wouldn’t mind if he actually was his boyfriend-- Charles shook his head. Yeah, like that ever were to happen. He almost started laughing just thinking about it.
A knock on the door startled him. He opened the door and Raven stepped in, nearly knocking him down by wrapping her arms around him. “Oh, Charles! I haven’t seen you in forever!”
“Hello, erm, Raven,” he pulled away from her grasp and lead her inside. She stepped in, observing every aspect of the room. Raven set her stuff down in front of a closet. Her eyes found Erik.
“Is this your roommate?” she asked. When Erik nodded, she held her hand out and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m Raven.”
Charles immediately locked eyes with Erik, hoping he wouldn’t fuck anything up. When Erik broke eye contact with Charles, he grinned back up at Raven. “Erik.”
Raven gasped, looking from Charles to Erik. “Erik? As in the Erik? Boyfriend-Erik?”
“I’d be the one,” Erik stood next to Charles and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
Oh God, was Erik always this warm? Charles leaned into Erik’s side, feeling like his heart would jump out of his chest. He rested his head on Erik’s shoulder, forcing a smile at Raven. “Yes.”
“Oh my gosh, that is adorable. You're roommates!” she covered her hand with her mouth. “It’s like it was fate that made you two dorm buddies!”
“That’s what I used to say,” Erik batted his eyelashes and kissed the top of Charles’ head.
Charles’ head felt like it was on fire in that one place. He’s pretty sure he was as red at a tomato at this point. “All the time, actually,” he tried to sound annoyed, but Charles was terrible at acting and that’s all he’s going to say about that.
“So Charles, I was thinking we could head to the mall and get a bite to eat and then go home and hang at your place,” Raven smiled and turned around with their back to them, “Erik, do you want to come with?”
Charles shook his head and mouthed “NO!” at him. “I’m sorry, I have lots of, ah, studying to catch up on. I’d be happy to hang out with you guys later,” Erik winked at Charles.
His face grew pink again as he pursed his lips at him. “That’s too bad, darling,” Charles found himself saying. “I’ll see you later, then.”
“Ah-hah! There it is!” Raven yanked a purse out of her suitcase. “Okay, let’s get going, Charles. Bye Erik!”
“Bye Raven, bye Charles,” Erik did the unthinkable and pecked Charles on the lips. It was a quick and chaste kiss, but Charles would’ve stood there for an hour just to make sense of what happened.
“Charles, we have to go, you can make out with our boyfriend when I leave,” she giggled. Raven took ahold of his arm and lead him out the door.
--
When Raven and Charles got back from their outing, Erik had pulled out Monopoly from who-knows-where and they all played for hours until it was bedtime. Charles snuck looks at Erik every chance he had. And even after dark and they were all in bed, Raven wouldn’t shut up about the both of them.
“So, do you guys have any classes together?”
Erik sighed. “Political Science.”
“What was your first date?”
“Um, movies,” Charles said quickly.
“Have you guys, you know, had--”
“That’s enough, Raven, goodnight,” Charles interrupted, ignoring the muffled laughter from Erik on the other side of the room.
When Raven finally left, Charles groaned, pulling a pillow over his head. “That was unbelievable,” he mumbled into his mattress.
Erik shrugged. “It was alright. I think you’d make a good boyfriend.”
Charles sat up. “Really?”
“Really,” Erik repeated.
“Aw, that means a lot coming from you, Erik,” Charles pseudo-swooned. He stretched his arms out. “Hey, do we really have Political Science together?”
Erik stared at him. “You really never noticed me in that class?”
“Oh gosh, I don’t even pay attention, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Erik sighed, walking into the bathroom.
Erik was acting weird. It wasn’t that big of a deal that he didn’t notice his only friend (sort of friend) in a class. Shit. “That really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
Erik walked out of the bathroom, wiping his face on a washcloth. “Well, I mean, you’re my only friend here and it’s kind of insulting that you don’t know I’m in that class.”
“Insulting?” Charles folded his arms. “You know what’s insulting? The fact that whenever I try to talk to you here, you just glare at me.”
Erik threw the washcloth into the bathroom and stood in front of Charles. “Maybe I don’t want to talk.”
Charles scoffed. “Well then, you,” he poked him in the chest, “shouldn’t get all pissed off at me for not noticing you in class if you never want to talk to me!”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
Charles wasn’t sure who initiated the kiss but suddenly Erik’s lips were on his and his body was pressed flush against him. He started to wrap his arms around Erik’s neck but stopped and backed away.
“I’m sorry,” they seemed to say at the same time. They met eyes and Charles just couldn’t handle it anymore. He started laughing, running a hand across his hair.
“Idiotic,” he muttered to himself. “Did you know I kind of developed a crush on you today?”
“You have a crush on me?” Erik was smiling, flashing his shark-teeth at Charles.
Charles covered his smile with his mouth. “This is stupid...oh, you know what fuck it,” suddenly, he was leaning back in for a kiss, pushing Erik against the wall.
Erik pressed a kiss to the side of Charles’ mouth. “Wait until your sister finds out.”
Charles nearly slapped him.