Chapter Text
Peter Spankoffski met his current roomates and girlfriend in College.
Stephanie Lauter was a self described "rich kid who got better" who got into the college she wanted thanks to hard work. She and Pete had met during their first year after beauty and science students had an overlap in classes, and started dating in the second. She was as sharp as a knife and was unlikely to let someone get away with something she deemed stupid. Including Peter. It was one of the things he loved about her.
Ruth Fleming was on a musical theatre course and had quite literally run into him on their first days. Since then, they kept showing up until, eventually, they'd become friends. They were almost always singing and, because of this, they'd been given the attic room. They hadn't complained since it was the largest room in the house.
With Ruth came Richard - Richie - Lipschitz. Apparently the pair had been friends since the start of high-school. He had been on a fashion design course when Pete had met him, the interest kick-started by a love of cosplay. Richie was a former anime nerd, even if he still watches it. He insists that he used to be worse - to the extent of unironically using anime terms in his day-to-day speech. But, now he speaks two languages fluently so he doesn't seem to entirely hate that part of his life.
The last roommate was an odd character. Richie's boyfriend Max was someone that Peter knew with all but absolutely certainty would bully him in high school. Even if he was nice now. Max had happened to go to their college on a sports scholarship. Peter wasn't sure if he and Richie had been dating before or after college, and Ruth hadn't helped any when he'd asked about it.
That was the big question in Peter's head. Richie and Max were so different. How had they even met properly, let alone started to date each other?
---
The house was sat on the L couch, bundled in some soft blankets and watching a movie. They'd decided on Spiral, an odd choice but it was because Pete had deemed it a good entry point for the Saw movies. It certainly wasn't the goriest of the bunch, while still being enough to get a good gage of what their tolerances were.
Peter had seen all of the Saw movies before, and while he found them needlessly gratuitous, it was still a fun enough franchise to sit and watch with people who hadn't seen it. Such was the case with Ruth, who had slowly been covering their face more and more with their blanket as the traps kept happening.
"Ruth. Don't you like Chucky? Why are you hiding?" Peter asked. Ruth's eyes snapped to him, narrowing.
"That's horror comedy, Pete. This is..." She winced as the man chained up started screaming in pain, putting their hand up to block their peripheral. "This. Is torture porn."
Pete wasn't about to get into the specifics of subgenres in horror, especially not with Ruth. So he turned around and payed more attention to the movie again. Though, his speaking must have broken the silence for good, because when the killer showed up on screen in the twist, Richie interrupted the movie.
"That's like how we met." He sounded pleased with himself. Pete was just confused. He looked at the scene, then at where Richie and Max were sat beside each other on the couch, and then back at the movie. He paused it halfway through the flashback and turned to face them fully. "What?"
"No, not what from you. What the fuck?" Pete couldn't be more confused. Richie snorted slightly, clearly amused, and Max was smiling.
"It's a joke Pete, calm down." Richie grinned, leaning back against Max. "That's not really how it happened."
"Yeah, you'd be too pussy to kill anyone." Ruth giggled. Richie and Max looked at them.
Max laughed slightly. "Yeah I'd kill though."
"Ohhh... Yeah. See. I was just thinking about how William kills Zeke's dad at the end." Ruth nods. "That. Is believable as something Richie would do."
Richie considers it, but before either can say anything, Pete interrupts again. "No. Hold on. You've already seen this movie?" Ruth nods. Peter turns to Steph. "Please say you've not seen it too." She smiles helplessly at him.
"You just looked so passionate about it, Pete." She tightens her grip on his arm. "We didn't have the heart to tell you."
Pete guffaws. Ruth giggles and Max and Richie look too amused to be worth noting. Pete deflates against the couch again, accepting his fate.
He unpauses the movie, but the chatter has been started, and Ruth, Richie and Max all debate who's the most likely to kill the other's dad.
Delightful...