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“God, I hate this place..” Jay groaned as he entered his dorm room. He dropped his bag next to his designated desk and flopped down onto the free bed.
Cole looked over at him curiously. “What, are you gonna drop out?” It was barely noticeable to the other, but his voice was laced with worry.
Jay shook his head, “no, but I wish I could quit my job.”
A quiet sigh of relief escaped Cole. “Wanna tell me what happened? I could use some entertainment right now.”
The freckled boy began to smile. He sat up as he began to talk about his shift, “so, you remember that one colleague I told you about, Candice?”
Cole hummed affirmatively in response. He did not look up from the task at hand though, continuing to fold the laundry he had brought back earlier.
“I was supposed to work with her today,” Jay continued, “but she didn’t show up. No message or a call. Wouldn’t have been the first time, and I can make it work. The line moves a bit slower then, but that doesn’t matter. Well, unless there’s a huge crowd of customers out of nowhere!”
“Aw fuck, really? You had to do this all by yourself?” Cole felt bad for his roommate. And in hindsight, he actually was glad to not have stopped by the cafe earlier and added to the stress Jay had to deal with by himself.
“Yep, it was horrible ,” Jay sighed dramatically and dropped back down onto the mattress. At that moment, he wished he would never have to get up from it again. Cole finally looked over at him again and felt even more bad for Jay. “Then I suppose I should put your laundry in the drawers for you.”
It took a moment for Jay to make a decision, but he eventually got himself to move off the bed once more. “That’s nice of you, but I’ll do it myself. You keep folding, I’ll do the sorting, as always.” Cole would have protested, but he knew Jay would not listen and just snatch the pile of folded shirts from him either way.
Thus, Jay dutifully sorted the clothes into two piles. He still felt only half awake, always having to do a double take whenever he had to figure out whether it was his own navy blue or Cole’s raven black shirt in his hands. But his eyes widened at the realisation that in this very moment, Jay was holding Cole’s football jersey. A mischievous grin tugged at his lips as he laid the top onto his own pile before quickly trying to cover it up with another shirt. He picked up Cole’s shirts to put them in his drawer, hoping the other wouldn’t notice the missing brightly blue coloured piece of clothing amidst the black and brown pile of shirts.
“Oh, wait a sec, Jay,” Cole called out, “I still have a bunch of shirts here.” He laid a few more clothes on the other bed for Jay to sort accordingly. And it almost would have gone unnoticed, but something caught Cole’s eye. One of the blue shirts on Jay’s pile was a completely different texture than the rest. He pulled it out, only to see it was his own jersey.
Jay smiled sheepishly at his roommate who held up the piece of clothing. “Care to explain why this was in your pile and not mine?”
“I, uh.. must’ve overlooked it! It’s blue after all, and you don’t wear that colour.”
“Unless I’m on the field, and you know that. And it’s a jersey, you would’ve felt the different fabric.” Cole’s voice got more stern and his bushy brows furrowed.
“It was.. between some other shirts!”
“You wanted to steal it again.”
Silence. Jay stared at Cole with big eyes, waiting to see what the burly football player would do next. But neither of them moved for a long moment. That was, until Jay tried to seize the moment, and the shirt, in one quick lunge forward. Cole had seen this coming however and took a step back, the jersey held up high above his head.
Jay began to jump around in an attempt to get a hold of the jersey in any way possible. He noticed too late how close he had gotten to Cole, as the rightful owner tossed the piece of clothing back and grabbed the thief with both hands. Cole pushed Jay down on the bed and tried to pin his hands above his head. “Stop stealing my jerseys!” yelled Cole.
“Never! Blue is my colour!” Jay retaliated and squirmed around with all his might to avoid the grasp of his victim.
“I don’t care, my team colour is blue, so it’s mine too!”
“You get it all muddy and brown after one game! Blue will never be yours!”
Cole was getting pissed at Jay for always repeating the same arguments every time they fought about this, so he quickly moved one hand down to shut him up by covering his mouth. But Jay refused to give up, and he did not care to play fair. He wanted to win this fight, just once. So without any shame, Jay opened his mouth to lick a fat stripe across Cole’s palm.
“Did you- ?!” Cole groaned in disgust. The plan had worked, as Cole removed his hand to wipe the saliva off. Jay tried to take that opportunity, slip his hands out of the loosened one-handed grasp and roll off the bed to escape. He did, however, overestimate how long it would take Cole to have both hands available again.
Jay had just freed himself when he was pinned down once again, this time by the shoulders.
“Quit stealing my damn stuff,” Cole growled up close into Jay’s face. It seemed hopeless, Jay believed he would have to give up once again and return the shirt to its owner. But then he realised he had one last trick he could pull, one last attempt at winning the fight. Jay looked up at Cole with big, cute eyes and a pout. “But it feels so nice to wear, and I had a hard day..”
At first, Jay thought his plan did not work. Cole’s face was still harsh and unchanging, glaring down at Jay with annoyance. But after a short moment, his features began to soften and the weight put on his shoulders lightened. Cole eventually pulled back entirely and stepped away from the bed. As Jay sat up, he was hit with the jersey being thrown against his chest.
“You can have it for now, but only until I need it for my next training ,” Cole muttered. He had his back turned to Jay and had gone back to folding the remaining clothes in silence. Jay was beaming and did not hesitate to pull the shirt over the one he already wore. He felt accomplished for winning for the first time and pranced around the dorm room as he put away the remaining clothes into their respective places.
Meanwhile Cole wanted to bury his face anywhere Jay couldn’t see. He was too flustered after having seen the adorable freckled face so up close. And to add insult to injury, the almost comically oversized jersey looked very cute on Jay.