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Senior year of high school rolls around. Jedidiah and Sydney are both (miraculously) accepted into Ohio State University's pre-med program. Deep down, Jedidiah wants to be an engineer, but he knows that isn’t really in the cards anymore.
But it’s hard to think about fixing objects when Sydney is the only broken thing he cares about. (Sydney wants to be a pediatrician. Jedidiah wants to specialize in whatever will keep Sydney whole and healthy.)
So, yeah. The two of them are accepted into the program. They just need to make the final preparations. He’s finally getting out of his mother’s house for longer than just the days his father was allotted in the custody agreement. He and Sydney can finally go somewhere that they can breathe.
And then Lucille drops a bomb on him. He’s just left his room for a moment to grab a snack, but she corners him between the fridge and the cabinet, folding her arms in front of her chest like she does when particularly naughty campers get sent to her office.
“We need to talk about your living situation next year,” Lucille says.
“I don’t see why we’d need to discuss this?” Jedidiah asks nervously, “I already know who I’m rooming with.” Jedidiah wanted to get them an apartment, but since OSU only allows freshmen and sophomores to live off-campus in very specific circumstances (which they do not meet), he decided not to push for it.
“You aren’t rooming with Sydney,” Lucille states.
“I-” Jedidiah stifles a laugh, “what?”
“It wouldn’t be proper,” Lucille tells him.
“What,” Jedidiah says, “because he’s trans? You know that housing said he’d be classed as a boy, so he can room in the boys’ section.” If this were Iowa, he might suggest they just get hitched so they can access married housing.
“Yes,” Lucille says, “he will be living in a boys’ room with a differe nt boy.”
“But he doesn’t know anyone else,” Jedidiah protests.
Lucille laughs harshly. “The boy talks enough that he'll know half the university by November. He’s not going to drop dead rooming with a stranger.” That makes his blood boil in his veins. Lucille knows how fragile Sydney’s health is- how close he’s actually been to dropping dead.
“Lucille-”
“You don’t really want to encourage his dependence on you, do you, Jedidiah?” Lucille demands.
“He’s not-” Jedidiah stumbles, “he’s not dependent on me.”
Lucille sends him a look that’s almost kind. “Jedidiah. Be honest with yourself.”
He lets out a frustrated little groan. “Okay, maybe he… is. But he’s not a burden.”
“Maybe you don’t think so now,” Lucille says, “but give it a while.” Lucille smiles a cruel little smile. “I think you’ll come around.”
Jedidiah glares. “I won’t.”
She sends him a wry smile. “But do you think he wants to take that chance?” Oh. He can see what she’s doing now. This isn’t about pressuring Jedidiah- this is just informing him of what she’s already convinced Sydney to do.
Jedidiah lets out a frustrated little groan. “What did you say to him?”
His mother rolls her eyes. “Nothing he didn’t already know.” Jedidiah just glares as he moves his hands in a way that tells her to elaborate.
“He agreed with me that it’s best that he room with someone else,” Lucille says, with that smug look she always gets when she’s won a game Jedidiah didn’t even know they were playing.
“That’s not fair,” Jedidiah protests, “you didn’t even- you didn’t let me talk to him!” If Jedidiah had gotten to talk to him- well. Maybe nothing would have changed, but he thinks they’d both feel a bit better, at least.
This isn’t fair, though. Lucille has always been able to bully Sydney.
“Let me make this perfectly clear, Jedidiah,” Lucille tells him, “I do not have to fund that boy’s education. I don’t even have to fund yours.” Jedidiah sucks in a hesitant breath
“This is a favor to you,” Lucille reminds him, “ don’t make it a burden I can’t bear.” There are so many angry words he wants to let bubble from his lips. But he doesn’t let a single one of them come up this time. Why? Because Sydney’s clean place to live- his steady source of actual food- his opportunity at a career- all of that depends on Jedidiah staying in his mother’s good graces.
So Jedidiah forces a smile- sharp as a broken tooth. “Of course.”
So, they go to college and don't room together. Jedidiah gets a single room in the same dorm but not on the same floor as Sydney and his new roommate. Sydney ends up rooming with a cis guy named Joshua who has an embarrassing crush on him. He’s overcompensating in just about every way. Maybe it’s that he thinks he can win back the points he lost by being queer by being the most hyper-masculine skinny nerd alive.
Jedidiah honestly has no idea. He doesn’t care much either. It’s not like he’s cursed to be in the same presence as Joshua very much. Sydney meets him in his room or they hang out in tiny, secluded areas of the dorm or campus or even the little stowaway corners they find in the dining hall so that no one stares at Sydney as he eats bread and butter for the nteenth time. They mainly ignore the rest of campus as they obsess over the football season or a television show or something else boring and stupid.
Everything outside of Jedidiah and Sydney's little world of me and you and us and we is boring to him, frankly, but Sydney sometimes gets worried when he says things like that. Considering, you know, the chronic illness that will only get worse and worse and worse and then he'll be dead.
"And I'll get to rot, Jeddie! Isn't that great! Rotting is such an interesting, natural process. I have considered switching over to studying the process of composting instead of the living human body, you know-" So. As most of the campus talks about Buckeyes football or an upcoming sorority formal or this season of The Bachelor, they talk about things like this. Jedidiah doesn't want friends, but Sydney does.... and it's unsurprising to Jedidiah, no matter what Lucille claims, that Sydney hasn't made another friend, even though he's been trying.
But then... it happens. Sydney does make another friend. Somehow it's because of Joshua, the roommate he can't stand. It's a girl named Yvonne who’s even more goth than Sydney, just as quick-witted and funny, and majoring in theater of all things. She's Joshua’s best friend from high school that, apparently, makes his presence “slightly bearable”.
Jedidiah’s not exactly interested in meeting her, though. Sydney wants the two of them to become friends, but whenever Jedidiah lets someone into their fragile little bubble it gets dangerously close to popping. So, yeah, Jedidiah hears about Yvonne in passing, but he never really… expects her to become his problem. Then she does.
One Saturday when Jedidiah is holed up in his room having a day-long Sydney-specific-disabilities-research-session, he hears a knocking on his door. It’s not rhythmic the way that Sydney knocks. It’s erratic- frantic, almost, and Jedidiah does not like that one bit.
He walks cautiously up to his peephole. The person on his doorstep is vaguely female (but he’s known Sydney long enough not to assume) and even spikier than Sydney. Their hair is dyed an unnatural black (not like Sydney’s soft, natural shade) with bright blue ends gelled into points sharp enough to take an eye out.
“Uh,” Jedidiah says, “do you… want? Something?”
“Real nice way to greet a friend of a friend,” the walking hot topic model says, rolling her eyes.
Jedidiah feels his eyebrows furrow in confusion. “You’re- you’re what?”
“A friend of a friend,” she says smoothly, “this is Jedidiah Martin’s room, right?” He doesn't answer that. It doesn't feel like a safe question.
“Wait,” Jedidiah says, finally realizing what she's getting at, “you’re Yvonne?”
“The one and only!” she says, leaning awkwardly against his door frame.
“Oh,” Jedidiah says, suddenly feeling a little bad about the brush off, “what do you need?”
“I’m doing Sydney a favor,” Yvonne says. He feels the confusion spread across his face again. They’ve only been here for three weeks and she’s already willing to do favors for Sydney? That’s- a little suspicious, actually.
“Uh huh.”
“Look,” Yvonne tells him, “ I like Sydney, and Sydney wanted to check in on you.”
“You’re Joshua’s friend,” Jedidiah says, “is that- is that why you’re doing this? To try to get Sydney to like him by proxy?”
Yvonne cackles. “Wow- I just.” She waves a hand vaguely as she gropes for words. “You’re a paranoid fucker, aren’t you?”
Jedidiah just glares.
“Sydney doesn’t like him back,” Jedidiah tells her frankly.
“Oh wow,” Yvonne mocks, “I never could have guessed! I thought making Joshua eat that weird-floor hot dog was just the way the guy flirted.”
“Sydney really doesn’t like him,” Jedidiah assures Yvonne, “like, even as a human person.”
“I know,” Yvonne says, crossing her arms over her chest.
That quells a bit of his suspicion. “Oh, okay? What are you doing here, then?”
“Sydney’s having one of those “can’t get outta bed” kinda painful days and asked me to drag you down to dinner.”
“Oh.”
“So are you gonna come with me or what, Jed-Head?” Yvonne challenges.
“Don’t call me that,” Jedidiah tells her. Yvonne rolls her eyes and starts walking down the hall. Jedidiah still follows her.
Somehow, this leads to them. Actually. Hanging out. Sometimes Jedidiah and Sydney and Yvonne. Sometimes Jedidiah and Yvonne. And sometimes even Jedidiah and Sydney and Yvonne and Joshua .
One time, it actually ends up being just Jedidiah and Joshua and Yvonne because Sydney's having a really bad pain day and insists that “Yvonne and Joshua, I guess, go take Jeddie and make him have some fun.” And the thing is… they do. Jedidiah lets them get him drunk at the dorm party and he actually requests a song and he- well. He dances to the Skyrim soundtrack right there in front of human people who aren’t Sydney October Sargent.
And it’s. Kind of nice, actually. He spends an absurd amount of time studying how to maybe take away Sydney’s chronic pain and sixteen mental illnesses and help him figure out how to get better instead of just slowly getting worse and worse and worse.
But almost as fast as it started, their first year at college is coming to a close. It’s April and not a single one of them has thought about what’s going to happen this summer when they all get kicked out of the dorms and don’t have anywhere to go.
It’s a day near the beginning of April, too long after spring break to still be refreshed but a bit too far from the end of semester to feel relieved. The four of them are all hanging out in Sydney and Joshua's dorm room, working on their own school work. Or in Yvonne's case, just chilling out.
“Guys,” Joshua says, “there’s only like, a month of school left.”
“Wow,” Sydney says, “someone learned how linear time works! How lovely!” Sydney keeps type-type-typing at a paper for Organic Chemistry, curled up in his bunk bed instead of at his desk. He never sits at his desk because his chair hurts his back. That means that Sydney's desk is basically just Jedidiah's desk, so that’s where he’s sitting right now, right across from Joshua typing at his own version of the O-Chem paper.
Jedidiah finished that weeks ago so that he could keep working on his independent research, but there’s no reason to bring that up to the group. That’s always been something he’s kept close to his chest.
Yvonne, the lucky theater major, is lying across the rug like some kind of burr, flipping through Tumblr posts on her phone.
“No,” Yvonne says, “Joshua’s right.”
Sydney groans. "Joshua? Right?"
"I know," Yvonne says "it's hard to admit-"
"Hey!"
"but this time he is. The year’s almost over. Fuck, what are we gonna do this summer? I just- I don’t want to go home , you know?”
Joshua grunts in agreement.
“Well,” Sydney says, in his chipperest- I Am Working With Children Voice, “I know what Jeddie and I will be doing!”
It’s Jedidiah’s turn to groan. “Sydney-”
“Oh come on, Jeddie!” Sydney says, sliding his laptop off his lap and into the corner of the bed, “Aren’t you a bit excited?”
“No,” Jedidiah says, ignoring him in favor of the laptop, “I’m not.”
“We’re going to be counselors now!” Sydney chirps, “we get to mold the youth!” Jedidiah, frankly, would rather let mold grow on the youth than help them.
“Yip. Pee,” Jedidiah says, with his least enthusiastic tone.
“Wait,” Yvonne says, “you guys are gonna work at that weird summer camp that Jedidiah's mom owns?"
“The very same!” Sydney beams, “would you like a job, Yvonne?"
Yvonne pushes herself up to a sitting position and looks up at Sydney in his bunk like he's the most amazing person on the planet. “Really?”
“Of course!” Sydney booms, “why wouldn’t Lucille want more help?”
“Because she’ll have to pay another person” Jedidiah suggests.
Sydney laughs harshly. “She needs counselors, Jeddie."
“I can’t just- just- show up with an extra person!” Jedidiah complains. Sydney leans forward on his bunk, far enough that his face is almost coming down to meet Jedidiah’s lower one.
“Yes you can!” Sydney says, “what do you think happened when you got me.” Then Sydney points to his adorable, cherub cheeks for good measure.
“That was different,” Jedidiah says firmly.
Sydney turns to Yvonne. “Well I’m not coming without Yvonne.”
“Thanks, dude,” Yvonne says, putting a hand to her heart, “that’s flattering.”
“What about me?” Joshua asks expectantly.
Sydney glares. “What about you?”
Joshua wilts like a flower that's been poisoned. It's almost sad.
“Joshua can come too,” Yvonne insists, “you said counselors work in pairs, right?”
Sydney’s eyes narrow. “I did.”
“Then I need my partner,” Yvonne says. Joshua sits a little straighter, and his smile returns.
"Yeah!" Joshua says.
“Fine,” Sydney agrees, sounding exasperated, “you can both come.”
Jedidiah gestures wildly, “I didn’t- I never agreed to this.”
“But don’t you want me to come?” Yvonne asks, sending him puppy-dog eyes the likes of which the world has never seen.
Jedidiah lets out a huff of air. “Yes, but-”
“But nothing,” Sydney says, “Lucille loves me. She’ll be okay with a few more counselors.” Jedidiah wants to fight Sydney on this one. Lucille does not love Sydney. She doesn’t even love Jedidiah. But she might be willing to put up with this if they run the camp for her. But it's not worth it. If he said any of those things, Sydney would be crushed, and he'd rather upset Lucille than Sydney.
“Fine,” Jedidiah says, “Yvonne can come.”
Joshua looks affronted.
“Yvonne and Joshua,” Yvonne says firmly, leveling a glare towards Jedidiah, “we’re a package deal, Jed-a-ding-dong.” Joshua smiles for a moment, and then cracks into a hysterical laughter.
“Jed-a-ding-dong?” Joshua asks between cackles.
“Don’t call him that,” Sydney says, sending both Joshua and Yvonne his own dark glare. Jedidiah feels caught between, but mainly, he just feels tired of fighting. And a little excited that Sydney’s willing to immediately glare down a friend over Jedidiah’s preference that no one but Sydney ever call him by a nickname.
“Sorry,” Yvonne says, not looking sorry at all.
“Can we still come?” Joshua asks hopefully.
“Fine,” Jedidiah mutters, "whatever." Joshua does a little fist pump into the air. Then Yvonne holds out her fist and they do a partner fist pump.
Jedidiah sends Yvonne a look. “You’re in charge of keeping Joshua out of Sydney’s hair.”
“Thanks Jeddie!” Sydney chirps.
“I dunno,” Yvonne says, “it might be a little hard to do that, considering how much hair Sydney’s actually got.”
“Hm,” Sydney says, pulling at his own blanket of thick, black hair, “that… is accurate.” Jedidiah glares at Yvonne. She knows how literally Sydney takes things sometimes.
Sydney leans over the edge of the bunk again, and lets his insanely long hair fall over Jedidiah’s head. It tickles. It smells good.
It is an absolutely embarrassing situation to be in.
“Ha, see!” Sydney says, “now Jeddie’s the only one in my hair.
“Syyydneeey,” Jedidiah says, “this is- it's demeaning.”
“I don’t know da-meaning of that word!” Sydney says in his “I’m telling a terrible joke and you’re going to enjoy it” tone.
“Syyyyddddddneeeeeeeyyyyy,” Jedidiah groans. Then, Sydney leans down and plants a kiss on his forehead. Jedidiah feels the blush spread quickly across his face.
“See,” Sydney says, sending Jedidiah his most angelic look, “all better now.”
“Get it, Jeddie-Boy!” Joshua whoops. Yvonne stands up and punches him in the arm.
“Don’t encourage them,” she stage-whispers, “or you’re gonna get us sexiled.”
Jedidiah feels the blush spread even further. “I’m not- it’s not-”
Sydney tickles Jedidiah with his hair. "Tehehehe," Sydney teases.
“Okay,” Joshua says, “well. With that awkward little bit of exhibitionism, I’m gonna get back to work."
"What!" Jedidiah hears himself sputter.
Joshua grins. "Unlike some people, I don’t want to flunk out of med school.”
Sydney throws his hair back up and sits in a more normal position in his bed. Then he glares at Joshua.
“Says the worst med student in this room,” Sydney says.
"Ooo!" Yvonne says, "can we, like, have a worst med student competition! My viewers would love that."
Sydney grins widely. "As long as it makes Joshua look stupid, I'm in."
Yvonne grins. "Oh, my dearest mushroom boy, I promise it will."
"HEY!"
After that, the night catapulted a bit off into different directions, as Yvonne and Sydney tried to pitch the merits of such a Youtube video, Joshua worked on his essay, and Jedidiah crept into deeper and deeper corners of the internet looking for medicinal usages of the occult.
But… the night was nice. They had a good time, just hanging out. They finished up their classes and all traveled to Camp Here and There together, and it was a summer that was just as strange and unpleasant as any other ever spent at the camp, except there were friends now.
But once they got back to school, Sydney's health took a nose dive. Jedidiah fell deeper and deeper into trying to “fix” him, and then he killed him and brought him back and flunked out of college and got his dad killed and didn't have another meaningful human connection for years.
But for a moment in college, before they all got dragged back to Camp Here and There and all the problems Jedidiah hoped he could leave behind or fix , things were good.
They really were.