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Robin
The “Sock on the Door” was pretty well established throughout the college community. Yes, it was unnecessary in some cases, but in the off-chance that your roommate doesn’t check their phone before coming home, the trick would save you from an extremely embarrassing situation.
Robin and Steve were two firm believers in the “Sock on the Door” stunt, but this was mainly because the two of them had experienced the extremely embarrassing situation first hand. She didn’t want to get into details, but let's just say that Steve walked in on Robin and one of her very few hook-ups in the middle of an intimate moment.
Saturday, October 1st, 2022
The girl was walking down the fourth-floor hallway when she heard muffled screaming. She sped up her walk when she heard it coming from her room. The first thoughts that flowed through her brain were, is he okay? And, did someone break in? Those thoughts were quickly shoved out of her mind when she saw the white tube sock hanging on the doorknob.
The two of them had set up this arrangement when Steve walked in on Robin for the second time. They had both agreed that this was a good plan but neither of them considered where the other roommate would go when there were certain activities going on inside. She didn’t really have anywhere to go besides here, being a college student and all. Robin winced as she heard a loud moan coming from the room. Luckily, she had been at the campus café working on her psychology thesis, and had her noise cancelling headphones with her. She made a little bit of distance between her and the door and pulled on her headphones. She opened her phone and shuffled the first playlist that popped up on Spotify. Corduroy Dreams by Rex Orange County filled Robin’s ears and drowned out the sounds coming from just feet away from her.
After about an hour of alternating between doing nothing, and working on her assignments Robin dozed off.
She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep, but when she checked her phone, the screen flashed 12:36AM. The girl blinked the sleep from her eyes and stretched her arms out just as she heard the clambering of footsteps. She looked up to see a petite blonde girl making her way down the hall. She was wearing a green and yellow sweater vest over top a simple white dress shirt and brown corduroy trousers paired with worn black high-top converse. She had her long blonde hair pulled back in a half-up half-down style. Little baby hairs and what Robin assumed were curtain bangs escaping the up-do, framed her round face.
Robin had seen her around campus before, and they had talked in a couple lectures, but they weren't on a first name basis. The girl had been Robin’s hallway crush since Professor Clarke’s Science and Technology lecture on the first day of classes.
Suddenly the girl stopped, right at Robin’s feet. She looked up to meet her eyes and pulled of one of her headphones.
“Are you like locked out of your room or something? Cause if so, I could walk you down to the RA if you want?” The girl said with soft and sweet voice.
Robin died internally. This girl was perfect.
“Oh, no, no, um my roommate and I, we set up this system and he’s, y’know.” Robin nodded towards the sock hanging on the doorknob.
“Ohhhh.” The girl dragged the word out with understanding, “Well in that case, you can come chill in my room if you want?” The girl had a comforting tone that almost made Robin want to agree.
“Oh, no. I-It's fine, I mean- I'm fine. Out here, I mean. I wouldn’t want to intrude.” She gave a small smile at the girl.
“No, it's totally fine,” The girl said offering her hand to help Robin up.
She took the girls hand and pushed herself up from the floor. Grabbing her bag at the same time.
“Oh, I'm Robin by the way. Nice to meet you.” Robin gave her a smile
“Chrissy, pleasure to meet you.” She smiled and pulled out the key to her room. “By the way, my roommates out for the night, so if you really needed to, you could sleep in his bed?’ She said as sort of a question.
The thought of sleeping in someone else's bed gave Robin the chills, but she smiled and nodded anyways.
Chrissy finally jammed the key into the hundred-year-old lock, finally pushing open the old, loud door with a thud.
The second Robin walked into the dorm she felt like she had just walked into an episode of Liv and Maddie. The room was almost exactly split down the middle. The left side of the room, (which she, with an educated guess, assumed was Chrissy’s.) had a twin bed, decorated with light green frilly comforters, cute pillows that were definitely itchy as hell, and soft and fluffy throw blankets. The walls were scattered with pictures of Chrissy with her friends, all lighthearted and sweet, matching her aesthetic. Her desk was embellished with trinkets, stationary, and her rose gold MacBook.
The other half of the room was almost the exact opposite, black worn-out sheets with only a thin blanket to cover the mattress. Several withered posters of old 80’s rock or metal bands covered the wall above the bed. The desk was extraordinarily unkempt. There were day old coffee mugs littering the desktop, paper strewn about, despite the container full of paper clips. There were clothes thrown about the floor, but only on one side. It seemed as though they were two completely different rooms.
“Wow.” Robin said looking from her left, to her right, then back to her left.
“Yeah, he’s kind of a slob, but we’ve been friends since forever so there not much I can do to get rid of him.” She chuckled to herself, trying her best to gather at least some of the clothes scattering the carpeted floor.
“Oh no, don’t worry about cleaning, my room is just as messy.” This was a complete lie, but she didn’t want to make Chrissy feel bad. Steve was a complete neat freak, but Robin still had her bad days where she couldn’t bring herself to clean up the clutter around her disorganized room.
Chrissy sat on her bed, patting the spot next to her signaling Robin to sit next to her.
“We could watch a movie if you want, I have my laptop with me.” Chrissy said as she went to grab her MacBook.
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Robin said with a smile.
Chrissy grabbed her laptop and scooted back so she was leaned against the wall, Robin joined next to her and inched closer to the other girl so she could see the screen.
After a couple minutes of scrolling through Netflix to find a movie, the awkwardness and tension between the two diffused. Eventually they decided on Legally Blonde, with Reese Witherspoon as they both loved the movie.
They watched about half of the movie until Robin remembered her roommate.
“Oh, I should probably tell Steve where I am, he'll probably start to worry.” Robin started, “Do you have a paper and pen I can borrow cause I'm assuming he doesn't have his phone on him because you know.” She looked over at the girl with a sheepish grin, that Chrissy returned.
“Oh yeah, you can just run across the hall and slide the note under the door if you want.” Chrissy gestured to her desk, an open notebook.
Robin hopped off the bed and scribbled down a quick note to Steve, making sure to let him know where she was and walked out to the hallway. She slid the note under the door, hoping he would see and made her was back to the pretty girl inside.
Steve
Steve hated his job. There was literally only one good thing about it. Well technically two, if you count getting paid, but besides that there was only one good thing. Eddie Munson. Eddie was Steves favorite customer and most loyal regular. Every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at exactly 7:15AM. The days that Steve had opening shift. He would come in and order the same drink every time, a medium light roast mocha, with two pumps of vanilla, caramel syrup, and chocolate syrup, and a chocolate croissant. Every day Steve would beg him to get something else. but every day he refused and ordered the same sweet ass drink at seven in the morning.
Eddie usually stayed in the café for a couple hours on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, but he had morning classes on Monday and Tuesday. Steve had learned this through the excessive amounts of talking they had done. Between the hours it took to make his atrocious drink, to the hours he would spend typing away on his old laptop, Steve had learned basically his whole life story. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration but he knew a lot. For example, he knew that he was a published author, struggling to get his sequel book published. He knew that he was a year older than Steve, because he had to repeat his senior year. He knew that he played DnD and was looking for more people to join his campaign. The list goes on, so let's just say Steve knew a lot.
Through the weeks of Eddie coming in to get his drink, he started getting more flirtatious, especially when he finally noticed the bi flag pin on his bag. They both clearly had interest in each other, as observed by Steve's co-workers--mainly Tommy--and the other regulars in the store, Pat McKinney and Barb Holland. The annoying this is that they never did anything about it. They would joke and flirt constantly but they never took initiative on the one thing they both clearly wanted. It got to the point that their friends would try to trick them into going on a date, yet it never worked.
Towards the end of September is when they stopped trying to set up Steve and Eddie, and towards the end of September was when Eddie finally asked Steve out.
It happened rather abruptly but it was cute nonetheless. Eddie walked into the Café at exactly 7:15, as usual. Except instead of their annoying flirtatious banter about Eddies horrible drink, Steve was met with a shy and nervous, never before seen Eddie Munson.
Monday, September 26th, 2022
“Your usual I presume.” Steve said with an eye roll and an eyebrow raise, already knowing the answer to the question.
“Of course, Harrington.” Eddie said with assurance.
Steve looked at Eddie in a questioning way, knowing something was off.
“You, okay?” He asked as he compacted the espresso into the espresso machine.
Eddie nodded. Steve looked skeptical, but continued making Eddies drink.
Steve handed Eddie his cup and croissant just as Eddie blurted out, “Do you wanna go on a date with me?” He said at a volume so that the people within close range of the two could hear what he said loud and clear, but people on the other sides of the store couldn't hear a thing.
The younger man staggered, almost dropping the disgusting drink.
“I’m so sorry, that was so random. I honestly don’t even know where that came from, I’m so sorry-”
“I would love to go on a date with you.” Steve said with a smile turned smirk at seeing Eddies bright red face.
Steve took a pen from under the counter and without breaking eye contact wrote xxx-xxx-xxxx call me:) -steve on a piece of paper, and put it in the open breast pocket of Eddies vest with a little tap of reassurance. Eddie stood shocked for a couple of seconds before reaching to grab his wallet.
“No, it's on me today.” Steve said in a low voice, grabbing the hand Eddie was using to reach to his pocket.
“Thanks Stevie.” He said with a smug smile, him back to his usual self.
Eddie turned waving behind him, before happily walking out the door,
A voice appeared from around the corner before the figure.
“That was great, man.” Tommy said with a chuckle, he walked out from the staff room, tying his apron around his waist. “Heard the whole thing.” He said before the other man could ask.
“I don’t know,” Steve looked down at his fidgeting hands. “Do you think I was acting too different than I normally do?” Steve said, his earlier confidence fully dissolved.
“Don’t get me wrong, you were totally different than normal,” Steve sighed dragging a hand down his face. “But it was hot as fuck, man.” Tommy slapped Steve on the shoulder as he started cleaning the cappuccino machine.
“Really, I don’t think so.” Steve questioned.
“Really, he was practically coming in his pants when he left.” Tommy said refraining from laughter.
“Shut the fuck up Tommy.” Steve tried to whip him with the dish towel slung over his shoulder, but the shorter man expertly dodged it.
“Anyways, you're lucky there’s someone with the hots for you. I’m literally so lonely.” Tommy groaned.
“No, don’t say that. You’ll find someone eventually, and besides, I've seen you eyeing up that regular, Pat before.” Steve mockingly waggled his eyebrows and looking in the direction of his friend’s crush, him sitting at a table with his laptop.
“First of all, shut the fuck up, second of all, we don’t even know if he likes guys,” Steve rolled his eyes, looking at Patrick’s sweater, converse duo. He doubted that. “And third of all, even if he does like guys, he might not like me. I mean, what if I'm not his type.” Tommy looked desperate.
Steve looked Tommy up and down, from his fluffy brown hair, to his cuffed jeans, Steve thinks that there's a high chance that Tommy is exactly Pat’s type.
“Oh, stop. You’re exactly his type.”
Eddie
Saturday, October 1 st , 2022
It's safe to say that Eddie’s date with Steve went well. It resulted in a second date.
And also, sex.
The details weren't important but after that Monday, Eddie texted Steve a time and a place. The other man got the message and arrived two minutes early and wielding flowers.
Their second date was more exiting in many ways. 1. It wasn’t at a cheap diner, 2. They had got the pleasantries and ice breakers out of the way with the first date, so now it was just them getting to know each other, and 3. They had sex.
The date started out civil, they had planned a nice picnic at the local park. They greeted each other, talked, and ate mediocre food. After a while they kissed for the first time, this led to them making out in the park, which directly led to them getting yelled at by an old man who was probably homophobic.
As much as this old man should’ve ruined the mood, it somehow enhanced the mood. They burst out into a fit of laughter and rapidly packed their picnic supplies back into their bags. This was ten times harder than it should've been because they were both incredibly horny.
Once they made it back to Steve’s dorm--after promptly hanging one of Steve’s socks on the doorknob—they had sex, unintentionally ten feet away from Robin, Steve’s best friend.
Since they were both horny teenagers, it was over relatively quickly, unbeknownst to Robin, who had sat in front of her dorm for two hours longer than she could’ve.
At around 1:30AM, Eddie noticed a piece of paper slowly slide under the door.
“Dude, I think a piece of paper just slid under your door.” He said, still engulfed in Steve’s arms, the other man twirling his dark curls.
In a hysterically calm tone Steve said, “Don't call me dude after you just fucked me, that’s weird.” Steve stifled a laugh as Eddie playfully punched his arm.
The taller man got up, and grabbed the piece of paper and brought it back to the bed. He unfolded it and tilted the paper in the direction of Eddie, so he could read the message.
im across the hall in 417 in case you worried.
have good sex
-rob<3
“Who sent that?” Eddie questioned
“My roommate, why?”
“Cause, that’s my dorm.”
“What? Really? Why didn't you tell me you lived across the hall from me?” Steve asked.
“Cause, I had your dic-” Eddie started but was cut off.
“We should go over there!” Steve said enthusiastically.
“We should?” Eddie said with amusement. He raised his eyebrows but complied and followed as Steve pulled on sweatpants, not bothering to pull on a shirt and opting for a white undershirt instead. Eddie pulled his hair into a messy bun smack dab on the top of his head, along with some of Steve sweatpants—that he had to pull the drawstring all the way—and his Metallica cropped t-shirt from earlier.
They both made attempts to make it seem like they hadn't just rolled out of bed, but gave up when they figured no one would see them.
They knocked on the door but when no one answered, Eddie pushed the unlocked door open. They were met with the sight of each of their best friends/roommates sitting so close their asses were touching, watching the last couple minutes of mean girls.
“Steve?”
“Eddie?”
“What are you doing here?” Chrissy said shutting her laptop.
“Why are you two together?” Eddie asked
“Are you Chrissy’s roommate?” Robin questioned, looking over at the left side of the room.
“Are you Eddie’s roommate?”
“How do you two know each other?”
“How do you two know each other?”
“ Ohh, y our who he’s been talking about.” Eddie snicked at that one. “ Your who he’s been talking about.”
“I’m really confused here.”
Everything was repetitive.
There was a lot of staring, and looking back and forth.
In summary, everyone was confused.