Chapter Text
“Greenie meet Newt, professional downer of our fine group.”
Newt looked up at the sound of Minho’s voice to see the Korean boy walking toward him followed by some guy with ruffled brown hair and eyes that looked like the mocha that was currently sitting in front of him.
He didn't have time for this right now. He was bloody working. Why did Minho have to come and bug him when he was trying to do a job to get paid money, a concept that Minho clearly didn't seem to grasp.
The dude elbowed Minho in the stomach. Newt honestly didn't blame him. If his manager wasn't talking to the customer sitting at table three, he'd have probably elbowed him too. Minho may be his friend, but he was also a total slinthead sometimes. "I told you not to call me that!"
Ah, the bloody shank wasn't a fan of the nickname. Or Minho. Well, probably both.
Minho snorted in response and turned toward Newt. "This shank is Thomas Greene and he's my new roommate."
Last year, Minho and Newt had been put in the same room. That was how they met. It made sense that when Newt and his twin sister, Sonya, had decided to rent an apartment together that somebody else would have the horrible luck of getting Minho as their roomie.
Newt really felt bad for the guy. Living with Minho was the worst. He was loud and he tended to come in really late, usually with a girl. How Minho hadn't failed any of his freshmen classes was well beyond Newt's understanding.
Newt smiled at Thomas, feeling a bit of pity for the shank . "Nice to meet ya, Tommy."
Thomas returned his smile. "You too, Newt."
"Sorry you're stuck rooming with Minho," he apologized.
"What?" the brunette replied, looking extremely confused but, then again, there always seemed to be a little bit of confusion on his face.
Minho quickly changed the subject. Obviously he was trying to make a good impression before he totally ruined the dude's college experience. "Hey, so are you coming to Teresa's party tonight, Newt?"
Newt crinkled up his nose. "Absolutely not," he stated as the mocha's owner finally came up to the register to claim their drink.
Minho grinned as he pulled Thomas out the doorway. "Great! See you there !"
Newt rolled his eyes as he went to make the next customer her pumpkin spice latte. At least he couldn't get dragged to these things anymore since he didn't actually live with Minho. That's another perk that Tommy would soon be discovering.
He smiled knowing his night was open. He could have a nice dinner with his sister or watch football as Alby desperately tried to explain the concept of the sport to him once again. Newt just didn't get why that was called "football" and real football was called "soccer." In American football, the ball was rarely allowed to actually touch anybody's feet and what the hell was a "soccer" anyway.
Either way, it was pretty enjoyable watching Alby's frustration when trying to answer all his questions and deal with all of his complaints. Since Alby had played it in high school, he was practically a pro while all Newt really did in his high school was run track until his "accident."
The clock struck 7 o'clock and Newt headed home to his nice, quiet apartment where he lived with his sister, who was far less annoying than Minho, even when she was all up in his business.
Newt despised parties. He hated how loud they were. He hated how many people were there. He hated how hot it was. He hated everything. Yet, he always seemed to get dragged to them.
His sister had kicked him out since she wanted to have her boyfriend, Ben, over and Alby was busy so he was stuck going to this thing.
"It'll be fun!" Sonya had said before sending him off. "Plus, you need to loosen up a bit. Get drunk. Have sex. This is college!"
Because that was exactly what Newt wanted to do. Turn into a drunken idiot so he could fuck some other drunken idiot. He didn't get why people didn't understand that the real reason they should go to college is to learn, not to get shitfaced and have sex with as many people that they'll never speak with again as possible.
Yet, here he was at this stupid party drinking cheap beer that tasted like cardboard flavored water and wouldn't get him nearly drunk enough to deal with all these stupid shucks.
"Newt!" called a female voice. Newt turned to his right to see the hostess herself strutting toward him in a blue shirt that brought out her eyes as well as dark wash jeans and black combat boots.
Newt grinned, happy to find somebody that he knew at the party so early on.
"Hey Teresa!" he yelled back over the booming music.
"Thank God you're here. I didn't actually invite any of these people to my house and I honestly have no idea what's going on," she explained as she guided him up to her bedroom where it was quiet.
Once they got in, they quickly locked the door behind them. Didn't need any drunk people bursting in to make out or puke or anything of the like.
"Minho invited me here," Newt answered his friend. "I didn't want to go, but some force keeps dragging me to stupid college parties that have never had any desire to attend."
"You wouldn't want to go to my party?" She slapped her hands onto her chest in fake offense.
"So, we need to find Minho," Newt concluded for her.
Teresa shrugged. "Nah. Parties are fun, Newt. Enjoy yourself. Make new friends. Make new more than friends." The girl wiggled her eyebrows as she left the room.
Newt followed suit a few minutes later. He was definitely going to need another beer as soon as possible.
He went into the kitchen and cracked open another can of beer. He turned around and almost crashed into somebody.
"Sorry!" they apologized at the same time. Newt finally got a chance to see who it was he had almost collided with, only to see it was the guy from earlier.
"Hey Tommy." Newt smiled. There was something about this guy that comforted him, even with all the anxiety that parties tended to give him.
"Oh, hey Newt." Thomas blushed. "Are you enjoying the party?"
Newt shrugged. "Not really my scene, but I guess it's nice when you have friends on your side."
He sounded like a bloody idiot. Everything coming out of his mouth was absolute bullshit, but Tommy didn't seem to notice.
"Yeah," the brunette replied. "I'm not usually much of a fan of them either, but maybe it's just because I don't drink ."
Newt raised an eyebrow. Most college aged kids drank, legal or not. In England, it's legal drink from age 18, so Newt had been drinking legally up until he moved to the States.
"Why don't you drink?" he asked. What a stupid question. Maybe he was just a law abiding citizen. Obviously Newt was the one who shouldn't have been drinking.
Thomas shrugged. "I'm a total lightweight and I don't want to embarrass myself in front of large groups of people."
Newt blinked. He didn't suspect honesty from this guy that he had just met earlier that day. "I understand," he began, "but living with Minho's gonna have you wanting to get as drunk as possible.
"Okay, what's so bad about living with him?" the brunette asked.
Newt laughed and patted Thomas on the back. "Oh, you'll see, Tommy, you'll see."
Just then, the very man himself popped up.
" Heyyy duudeesss !" Minho slurred, somehow drunk already. Newt looked pointedly at Thomas.
"Minho," Newt began. "Teresa is going to cut you into pieces. Starting with your dick."
"Come onnnn, Newtie . Live a little. Come with me and Thomas we're gonna go pick up some chicks and you can be our wing man ."
"I'm good," Thomas said, looking awkwardly down at his feet.
"I'd rather eat a bloody cactus," Newt replied, earning a sad expression from Minho, who promptly waddled away into the crowd of people.
"Should we find him and get him back to the dorm?" Thomas asked worriedly.
"It's fine, Tommy. Minho's a big boy," said Newt.
"Besides," he continued, grasping Thomas' wrist. "I need to bust Ben's nuts before he tries to touch my sister."
Thomas, obviously confused like usual, followed him out of the house. "What?"
Newt turned around in Teresa 's front lawn and started walking backward so he could face the other boy. "My sister invited her boyfriend over tonight. I need to ensure their date is over."
"Why do you need me?" Thomas asked as he continued to follow Newt's lead.
Newt grinned at him. "Because it's obvious that neither of us want to be at that party."
Thomas shrugged and ran to catch up so they were able to walk side by side.
"So," Thomas started, "what do you have against this Ben dude?"
Newt shrugged. "Nothing. He's just dating my sister and it's my responsibility to make her life miserable by chasing off all potential love interests. Our parents live back in London, so somebody has to do it."
"Fair enough," Thomas agreed as he followed Newt into his apartment complex, which was only like three blocks from Teresa's house.
Newt approached the door to his room and put his finger on his lips so Thomas stayed silent. He had to listen in because, although he wanted to prevent Sonya and Ben from doing the do, he certainly didn't want to catch them in the act. He could hear nothing except for, was that?
"Dude," Thomas whispered. "I think she's just on the computer."
Newt turned the doorknob and walked in the room to see his twin sitting on the couch with her laptop eating a sandwich.
"Ah me grd!" Sonya yelled through a mouth full of sandwich.
She swallowed. "You actually brought somebody home for once."
Thomas stood off the side in his normal amount of confusion.
"Where's Ben?" Newt asked, a tint of anger hanging from his words.
Sonya smiled back at him. "He couldn't make it. Dinner with his parents or something. If you need the apartment, I can probably hang with Harriet or Aris tonight?"
Newt blushed and hoped to god that Thomas didn't see. "Tommy here also got dragged to the stupid party against his will, so I figured I'd let him sleep on the couch or something so he got another day of innocence before he has to deal with Minho's shit."
Sonya nodded. "That's fair. Better a couch than the floor outside the dorm while Minho's waving his dick around inside the room."
Newt turned to see a horrified looking Thomas.
"You okay mate?" Sonya giggled. "You look like we just killed your dog?"
"Um,"
"Speak up, slinthead!"
Newt decided it was time to stop his sister. "Sonya, leave him be. He's a friend of mine. You don't want to scare him away just yet."
"Let's start over, mate. Name's Sonya." She stuck her hand out toward him.
"Thomas," he replied as he shook it.
Sonya turned to Newt. "Well, I'm heading over to Harriet's anyway. Have a nice evening Newt," she said then turned to look at the brunette, "Thomas."
When she shut the door behind her, Newt immediately turned to Thomas.
"I'm so sorry. She's not normally like this except to Minho because they're both bloody pricks."
"It's fine," Thomas shrugged. "I get it."
"What?" Newt raised an eyebrow at the brunette.
"Like you said before. Your mom and dad are all the way in England. She's just doing her job as a sister."
Then, Thomas bloody winked at him. That kind of klunk should be shucking illegal. Was he flirting with him? Did Newt want him to be?
A chuckle from Thomas pulled him from his thoughts. "Well, if I'm going to sleep here tonight, you better get me some pillows and stuff."
Newt blinked for a second then went to fetch a blanket and some pillows for him. It was strangely comforting, how close they had grown in a span of a day.
Usually, Newt had trouble trusting anyone, but he bloody sure trusted Tommy.
He tossed the stuff to his new friend. "I'm going to head to bed then. Need anything?"
Newt swore he saw a flicker of disappointment flash across the brunette's face, but maybe it was just his imagination. "No, I'm all good."
Newt smiled. "Good that. Night Tommy."
"Night Newt."
The blonde walked to his room to go to bed with a smile on his face for the first time in ages.