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Maybe moving out of state wasn't such a good idea, Jason thinks as stares at the three boxes full of his belongings on the dirty floor of what would be his home for the foreseeable future. Maybe I'm a fucking idiot.
And well, maybe he was. He was a music major after all.
Jason piles sheets and comforters on his mattress until it doesn't look as sad and thin as before. He unpacks the rest of his things and makes canned soup in the single pot he owns. He eats it straight out of the pot. He sleeps like shit that night.
He sleeps like shit the next night, too.
It shouldn't be so hard to wake up early for class after doing it for most of his life, but it is. He misses two classes the first week. He eats boxed macaroni, and sleeps on his shitty mattress and thinks about going home every single day.
He doesn't see much of his neighbors during the first few weeks. He keeps his head down as he comes and goes from the off campus apartment complex, running late more often than not. Still, he spots a few regulars, an elderly lady with a little cart, a couple that argues in the lobby every other day, a few students that look just as miserable as him.
Jason wants so badly to be friends with them. With anyone, really. He'd left the only friends he had back home, and they'd stopped trying to keep in touch by the end of the first week. Maybe that's why, when a couple of guys from one of his classes ask if he wants to go out drinking with them, he doesn't think twice before agreeing.
He barely knows their names, he has an assignment due in two days that he hasn't even started, he has a class early the next morning. Fuck that . He goes out that night and gets so drunk he can't see straight, and he wakes up the next afternoon after missing all his classes for the day with thirty dollars less in his wallet.
Maybe I'm a fucking idiot , he thinks as he makes himself drink a glass of water.
He takes an hour-long shower, drinks another two glasses of water, and goes back to sleep. It's 6:45pm. His head hurts.
He goes out drinking with his new group of not-really-friends a little more often than he should. He doesn't pass out again, and he makes sure to keep his wallet on him at all times.
And, since they don't give a shit about him, he walks back to his apartment complex on his own, falling down drunk and cold as hell. He doesn't own a car.
His mother calls him every week. Just to check in. He tells her things are going great, he loves it, he barely even misses being back home. His parents send him an allowance every month. He appreciates it, even if it barely affords him ramen noodles (he'd run out of boxed macaroni weeks ago).
He's in line at the grocery store buying a five pack of ramen and a Redbull.
"That'll be $5.76." The cashier, a brunette with glasses and dark under eye circles, says to him.
Jason counts out five dollars and fifty one cents.
He feels the cashier's eyes boring into him. He looks back at the long line of people waiting for their turn.
He counts his money again. He's still short.
Jason is about to tell the cashier that hey, sorry man, I'm not taking that Redbull, thanks. When the guy behind him in line steps up to the cash register, hands the cashier a quarter, and pats Jason on the shoulder.
"Thanks, man." Jason says, after a second of gaping at the kind stranger.
He shakes his head and says, "Don't worry about it."
He looks vaguely familiar, his long brown hair and denim jacket. He absolutely reeks of weed.
He buys frozen veggie burger patties and a six pack of cheap beer.
"Uh. I’m Jason, by the way. Thanks again," Jason says. He's still just standing there, a little dumbfounded, a little starstruck.
"Cliff." The friendly stranger replies. He starts out of the store and Jason follows him, both of them turning left on the same street.
"Uh…" Jason says, they're both waiting to cross the street. "Do you live near the Mezri apartment building?"
"Dude." Cliff says, he looks like he's trying not to laugh, "We live on the same floor."
"Oh."
It's only a little more embarrassing than being short while buying cheap ramen.
They're in the lobby waiting for the elevator when Cliff speaks up again. He pulls a can of beer out of his grocery bag and hands it to Jason.
"Don't worry about it, the beginning of the year is always rough."
Jason wants to ask him if it's his first year too, and what he's majoring in, and if he could maybe share some of his weed. The elevator dings, and he ends up asking, "Are you vegetarian or something?" And pointing at the veggie patties he'd bought.
Cliff laughs. "No, they're not for me. This shit tastes horrible."
And then the elevator stops at their floor and they both get out. Jason's unsure if he should say anything, so he doesn't. He turns to his apartment and goes to unlock the door.
"Hey," Jason turns back towards the hallway, Cliff waves and says, "See ya around."
The smile stays on Jason's face for the rest of the night.
Jason sees him in the lobby when he's heading out for a class the next morning, and even though he's tired and stressed and more than a little miserable, it still makes him smile.
That weekend, Jason goes out drinking with his not-really-friends again. He gets back late, as usual. But unlike usual, there's someone in the lobby when he gets back.
Jason sees him as soon as he opens the door, a mean looking blond stepping into the elevator.
Jason drags his feet, reluctant to get in the elevator with a guy that looked like he'd just dragged himself out of a bar when he himself had just dragged himself out of a bar. Jason catches sight of a nasty bruise under the strangers eye, and a freshly split-lip bleeding all over the white lettering of his FUCK OFF t-shirt.
There was no way he was getting in an elevator with this guy.
Except, he accidentally makes eye contact across the room, and the mean blond oh so kindly holds the elevator door open for him. He has blood on his knuckles.
Jason shuffles over, he says 'thanks' and the mean blond grunts, and they don't say anything else for the rest of the elevator ride.
Jason is mortified when the elevator stops at his floor and the stranger follows him out.
He's not quite drunk enough to believe he could win in a fight, but not sober enough to believe he could successfully run away.
Jason stops at his door, sweating bullets, he grips his keys between his knuckles, making a fist. But the mean blond walks right past him, a little further down the hall to room 336B.
The mean blonde barely gets his front door open before someone inside the apartment bursts out laughing. He slams the door shut so hard Jason is sure everyone on their floor heard it, the laughter doesn't stop.
Jason feels a little bad for him, but the guy did look a little ridiculous. Like a pissed off cat. Jason laughs quietly to himself. He hopes he doesn't run into the mean blond again.
It's not that he expected things to get easier. It's just that he really, really hoped they would.
Jason wakes up early one morning, like every other morning. Sore, and a little cold, and very tired. He gets ready for class, thinking of the long day ahead of him. Thinking of his parents back at home. Thinking of the perfectly good college back in his home state.
Maybe he was a fucking idiot.
He sits down on his shabby bed, and he stares at the wall directly across from him, and he thinks about how the color of his bedroom back at home was much nicer and he doesn't go to class that day. He doesn't go the next day either.
He drags himself out of bed on the third day, if only to answer his mom's weekly phone call. And then feels so guilty he ends up attending his last two classes for the day, the less mind-numbing ones of his whole schedule.
Jason heads straight for the roof when he gets home after class, only stopping by his apartment to drop his backpack off and grab a jacket.
It's freezing cold outside, but there was no way he was risking his deposit for smoke damage. He sits down on the cold cement and lights a cigarette.
Jason watches the sun set and feels lonelier than he ever has.
He tries not to think about how early he had to get up the next morning, or all the work he still hadn't turned in.
It's completely dark out when someone throws the door open and stomps onto the roof with him. It startles Jason so badly he bangs his head against the wall he'd been leaning against.
It's some guy arguing on his phone. He's wearing a KUSF t-shirt with a skull on it and bright red short shorts. He had his hair in a ratty ponytail and he was about five feet tall, if that.
Jason doesn't even want to look at him, but the stranger sort of waves at him so Jason sort of waves back, and then quickly goes back to being miserable.
Jason does his best to block out the one-sided argument, it's easy since he has no clue what's being said. The stranger wasn’t speaking English.
Ten minutes later, the stranger startles Jason again when he plops down on the ground next to him, so they're sitting shoulder to shoulder against the cold cement wall.
"Hey, man."
"Uh… hey?"
Jason offers him a cigarette and he gratefully accepts it.
Jason speaks up again after an uncomfortable silence, "You doing okay?"
The stranger takes a long drag and exhales. "...define ‘okay’?"
"Yeah, me neither." Jason mutters.
The stranger laughs. "I'm uh- I'm the problem child." He gestures vaguely with his phone. "My parents disapprove."
Jason nods along, barely stopping himself from asking what, exactly, they disapprove of.
"I hate it here, man." He tells him instead.
The stranger laughs at his bluntness, and Jason laughs a little too. It feels good to tell someone.
"Why?" The stranger asks.
He tries not to blow his smoke directly in Jason's face but it's difficult when they're sitting so close together. Jason thinks about scooting away but he doesn't, it's too cold for that.
"I'm tired." Jason answers honestly. It sounds more pathetic when he says it outloud.
The stranger frowns, he leans in closer, bumping him with his shoulder. "Like, of life?"
"Yeah- no, what? No, like," Jason struggles for words, he rubs his eyes. "I'm tired, I can't sleep well, I have class in the morning-"
"Why the fuck would you take a morning class?" He asks, genuinely perplexed.
And well, Jason doesn't really have an answer.
The stranger must read in Jason's expression that he's coming up blank. He laughs, loud and obnoxious.
"Drop the morning class." He tells him once he's done laughing. "Take it in the afternoon."
It's like someone's ripped a blindfold off his face.
"...right."
The stranger laughs at him some more, but it's all in good nature. Jason pulls another cigarette out of his pack and the stranger lights it for him.
They're hallway through his pack of cigarettes before Jason realizes how fucking cold he is.
"You staying out here?" Jason asks as he gets up to go, his whole right side going cold as he pulls away.
The stranger pulls his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs. "Yeah, for a bit."
"I'll see you around. My name's Jason, by the way." He calls over his shoulder.
"Lars!" The stranger replies.
Jason sleeps in the next morning. He meets with one of the college advisors about his schedule and ends up dropping all his morning classes, and the early afternoon one too, moving his entire schedule into the later afternoon. He sleeps more, and his bed is just as uncomfortable as before, but he feels less like shit.
He doesn't see Lars in the building very often, but he sees him driving in and out of the underground parking lot sometimes.
Lars is a terrible driver, Jason learns this one afternoon when he's leaving the building and Lars almost hits him with his car.
"What the fuck !" Jason yells.
"You're in the way!" Lars yells back.
"I'm on the sidewalk!"
Jason spots Cliff walking up the sidewalk towards the building, shaking his head and laughing. Jason ignores him.
"Do you even have a driver's license?" Jason's hisses.
Lars waves him off. "Yeah, sure. You going to class? I'll give you a ride, it's on my way."
"Fucking unbelievable…" Jason mutters, he gets in the car anyways.
Jason takes an extra class once a week. It's not a required class, but he goes anyway. He likes it enough not to care about how difficult it is, or how late he gets out, and the fact that he has to walk home alone in the dark.
Well, not quite alone . A lot of his classmates walk, too. And some of them even live off campus, too. It's only when he's two blocks from his apartment and the last of the stragglers have turned right when he turns left that he's alone.
Or, he should be.
There's someone walking a few feet ahead of him. A skinny thing with a mess of black curls.
Jason only speeds up to walk besides them because it's the gentlemanly thing to do.
"Hey-"
The stranger whips around, eyes wide and startled.
"Sorry-" Jason starts but the stranger cuts him off.
"You scared the shit out of me." The stranger says, a hand over his chest. His chest.
"Sorry," Jason says again, more embarrassed than he's ever been in his life. "I'm so sorry I thought-" He cuts that sentence off right there.
"Do I know you?" The stranger asks, he still has his hand on his chest. Jason sees that his nails are painted black and immediately tries to unsee it.
"No."
The stranger stares at him for a while. "Are you mugging me or something?"
"No! I just- I thought-," Cutting the sentence off right there , Jason pinches the bridge of his nose, "I'm just walking home, I live down the street."
"Oh." The stranger pulls his jacket close against the cold. " Oh. Me too."
The stranger keeps walking, Jason only follows when he turns around and gives him a ' you coming or not? ' sort of look.
"Are you just getting out of class?" The stranger asks after a moment of awkward silence. He nods at Jason's backpack.
"Yeah." Jason says, eager to get off the topic of what a goddamn creep he was. "You?"
"Nah, I was at work." He kicks a stone. "My friend always gives me a ride, but he can't on Thursdays."
"That's funny, I only take this class on Thursdays."
"Are you waiting till next week to mug me?" He asks, completely serious. “‘Cause I get paid bi-weekly.”
"Wh- no !"
The stranger bursts out laughing. His teeth are jacked, canines way too sharp. Jason tries not to stare.
"I'm Kirk/" The stranger says, he elbows Jason to keep walking but Jason hadn't even realized they'd stopped.
"Jason." He says once he catches up. "Where do you work?"
"Comic store," Kirk gestures over his shoulder in the vague direction of the city center.
"Oh, that sounds- fun."
"Yeah, it's pretty cool. D’you like comics?"
"Uh, sure.”
There'd been a kid at Jason's elementary school that brought his comics to class one day, but another group of kids had teased the hell out of him for it and he'd never done it again. Jason had had very little interest in comics after that.
"Which ones?" He asks excitedly, he bumps Jason's shoulder with his own and then doesn't pull away, so they're walking shoulder to shoulder. "D'you like Tales From The Crypt?"
"I like Batman." Jason says eventually.
"Classics, okay." Kirk nods, still smiling. "He's pretty cool."
Jason looks up and sees his building coming into view.
"That's my place." He says at the exact same time that Kirk says, ' I'm just up ahead. '
They stare at each other for a second before Kirk asks, "Are you sure you're not trying to mug me or something?"
"Fuck off." Jason laughs and hits him in the shoulder.
They walk up to the building and into the lobby, Kirk is telling him about a particular issue of Tales From The Crypt in extensive detail.
Jason presses the button for his floor when they get in the elevator. Kirk looks surprised when the elevator stops and Jason gets out.
He grabs Jason by the shoulder, and Jason crouches down a little, since Kirk is just slightly shorter than him, so they're eye-level.
"We live on the same floor." Kirk says incredulously.
"That's… cool."
"That's fucking weird.” Kirk follows him to his door, his hand still on his shoulder. "Why have I never seen you before?"
"My schedule used to be really weird, I just changed it." Jason shrugs and fiddles with his key.
"Must be that." Kirk pats him on the shoulder and nudges him towards his door, "Well… see ya' next week."
Jason waves at him before disappearing into his apartment, closing the door behind him and leaning heavily against it.
Jason feels himself go through a fucked up version of the five stages of grief as he remembers how embarrassing the whole interaction had been in the beginning. He lands squarely on acceptance as he thinks about next week .
Sure he'd been kind of a weirdo, but that was fine, Kirk was kind of a weirdo too.
Jason doesn't see him at all the next couple days, he's not sure what his schedule is, if he's taking classes at the nearby college or just working, he'd have to ask him next Thursday.
He sees Cliff in the hallway one afternoon, and gives him shit for laughing at him when he'd almost been run over. ‘Vehicular manslaughter!’ Jason says, but Cliff only laughs again, and Jason can't even be mad at him.
A few days later, he catches Lars taking the garbage out. It's late at night, and cold as hell, and Lars is wearing those fucking shorts again. Jason finally makes fun of him for it.
"Fuck you!" Lars says. "They're comfortable."
"Yeah, I bet they're like wearing nothing."
Lars hits him in the arm with his garbage bag.
Someone yells for them to ' fucking shut up! ' when they both burst out laughing, Lars yells back a quick ' fuck off!’ They both hightail it back inside when the angry neighbor opens his window, still laughing.
That week, Jason happily tells his mom about how his classes are going. And how he's managed to make grilled cheese sandwiches without burning them too much. And how, yes, he had been sleeping better. He can hear the smile in her voice when she tells him she's glad he's doing better.
Thursday night, after class, Jason walks home alongside his classmates. He's about a block away from where he'd been last week when he sees Kirk crossing the street.
Kirk sees him and waves. Jason waves back and waits for him to cross.
"This is for you!" There's a goofy smile on Kirk's face, Jason gingerly takes the comic book in his hands. "It's the one I was telling you about, with the guy and his wife-"
"And their dead kid."
Kirk looks a little surprised that he remembered, but the smile doesn't leave his face. "Yeah, that one. So, that starts on page ten, but there's some other good ones in there too."
Jason flips open to the first page. He lets Kirk put his hand on his shoulder and lead him down the street, walking very slowly as Jason is still reading
"Oh that's a good one." Kirk points at one of the characters on the page, Jason tries not to stare at his chipped black nail polish. "This guy gets mad because his girlfriend left him for another guy, so he cuts the other guy's hand off and- actually, I shouldn't spoil it for you."
Jason gives him a look that very clearly says ' you already did’, Kirk just smiles.
"What the fuck?" Jason mutters, a few pages in.
"I know, right?"
They stop under a streetlamp to read the last page of the story, Kirk leaning against his shoulder to get a good look at the page, even though he'd read it already, probably more than once.
"The next one's really good, too.” Kirk says, looking up at him through his bangs.
"I need a minute after that, thanks."
Kirk bursts out laughing. "I knew you'd like it!"
Jason doesn't say anything, just shakes his head. But they stop at the next streetlamp so he can start reading the next story.
"No wonder you're so weird, you read this stuff all the time." Jason mutters after they've finished the second story, still standing under the streetlamp.
"Hey, I'm weird for other reasons, too." Kirk says proudly.
Jason smacks him on the arm. Kirk doesn't seem to notice, he's still leaning against his shoulder trying to read. Jason nudges him so they can keep walking, but they end up stopping under the next streetlamp.
"Wait, what ?" Jason brings the comic book closer to his face, reading the page over again.
"That's fucked up, huh?" Kirk says absently, he leans in closer so he can keep reading.
"These are… fun." Jason says dumbly, realizing all at once that he's having the time of his life, and that he's cold all over except for his left side where Kirk is practically hanging off of him, and that they're still pretty far from their apartment.
Kirk smiles, tight lipped, and for the first time, a little embarrassed.
"Yeah.. I thought you'd like them." He says.
Jason opens his mouth to say something, and then closes it when he hears footsteps coming towards them. Kirk hears it too, and they both turn towards the sound.
Jason isn't sure what, or who, he was expecting. But it wasn't the mean blond from the elevator.
The mean blonde freezes when he sees them, shoulders dropping in something that looks an awful lot like relief. And then he notices Jason and gives him the nastiest glare of his life.
"Oh, hey." Kirk says, finally leaning out of Jason's space.
The mean blond says. "Thought you got lost or something."
"Nah, just-" Kirk gestures vaguely at the comic book in Jason's hands.
Mean blond glares at Jason again, he's not wearing his ' FUCK OFF ' t-shirt, but Jason gets the message pretty clearly anyways.
Jason clears his throat and hands the comic back to Kirk, but Kirk puts his hands up and says, "That's for you, you can keep it." He smiles again, embarrassed. "I'm really glad you liked it."
Mean blond says. "Do you know how fucking late it is?"
Kirk rolls his eyes, Jason barely catches himself before laughing.
Kirk grips his jacket closer against the cold. "Aw~ were you worried?" He asks sarcastically, and he keeps walking.
Jason isn't exactly sure what to do, so he just follows Kirk, and they keep walking towards their apartment. Jason tries very hard to ignore the hostility coming off the mean blond in waves.
The mean blond puts his arm around Kirk's shoulder as soon as he's within arms reach, pulling him in close to his side.
Jason tries really hard not to stare, mostly because he's sure the mean blond is just waiting for an excuse to swing on him. But Kirk takes his hand out of his jacket pocket and lightly touches the mean blond's hand where it's dangling off his shoulder, and well. It's hard not to notice.
"This is my friend Jason, by the way." Kirk says, Jason looks up at the mention of his name and the word 'friend' in the same sentence. He meets the mean blond's eyes for all of two seconds before he settles back on Kirk. "Jason, this is James, my roommate."
Jason says ' hey ' and sort of waves at him, and is not surprised at all when James very pointedly does not say ' hey ' back.
If Kirk notices the tension, he's stellar at ignoring it. He's telling Jason about something called The Vault of Horror . James doesn't say anything.
Jason walks the fine line between 'n ot staring at them because James still looks like he wants to have a go at him ' and ' making polite eye contact with Kirk because they're having a conversation '.
Weirdly, Jason thinks about the guy in the first story who got his hand cut off.
He feels beyond relieved when they reach their apartment building.
The three of them wait for the elevator in uncomfortable silence.
Jason gets out of the elevator as soon as it stops on his floor.
"See ya' next week!" Kirk cheerily says as he passes him in the hall.
Jason smiles and says goodnight and tries to forget about James' entire existence.
Kirk digs his keys out of his pocket to open their door. James drops his hand from Kirk's shoulder to his waist, he throws a nasty glare at Jason before disappearing into their apartment, slamming the door shut behind them.
Jason blinks a couple of times, he opens his door, drops his comic book on his bedside table and goes to sleep.
The next day, Jason finds Lars out in front of the building, he's trying very hard to parallel park.
Jason only laughs a little, but Lars catches him anyway. He honks and flips him off and, laughing, tells him to fuck off. Jason does, but only because he's late for his class.
Jason's group of not-really-friends invites him out drinking that night. Jason thinks about saying no for a minute but the alternative, sitting in his room alone all night, isn't much better. He says yes, and agrees to meet them at the bar later that night.
Jason runs into Lars again as he's leaving. He's in the lobby with James and they're both falling over each other drunk.
"Well, well, well…" Lars says as soon as he spots him, standing up straight, only slurring slightly. "What were you saying about my driving?"
Jason bursts out laughing. Lars stalks over to him, grabbing him by his jacket and shaking him, mock threatening. Lars is laughing too.
"You can't drive for shit." Jason says. He tries to pry Lars' hands off his jacket and only succeeds in kind of holding his hands.
"What the fuck did you say?"
Then James pushes Lars aside and shoves Jason so hard the back of his head bounces off the elevator wall.
It only takes Jason a second to realize what is happening but it's a second too long, James already has him by the front of his jacket, crowding him against the back of the elevator.
"James. James, James- what the fuck!" Lars tugs urgently at his arm, trying to pry James off of him.
Jason barely notices him and James even less so.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jason grabs the front of his shirt, putting his forearm across his chest, trying to keep him as far away as fucking possible.
James doesn't say anything. He sneers, his eyes bright from the alcohol and the anger. Jason realizes, with a far-away sort of fear, that he's about to get punched in the face.
Jason had been in exactly one fight before, and it barely counted. It had just been him and his friends drunkenly beating the shit out of each other in an empty parking lot, for the fun of it.
James' split lip was still scabbed over, his long hair standing at odd angles, he looked like he had just crawled out of a bar fight and was itching to jump into another one.
James takes his right hand off him, pulling his arm back, fist raised, chunky silver rings glinting threateningly. Jason sees it like in slow motion and moves on instinct, pushing him back with all the strength he can muster. Which happens to be a lot, when you're trying not to get your teeth knocked out by a shitty skull ring.
It throws James off balance and he stumbles back a few steps. And Lars, who had been trying to pull him away from the fight, is sent sprawling to the floor, the breath knocked out of him, he groans in pain.
Jason and James stare at him for a second. And then James looks up at him, as if to confirm it was Jason that did it. Jason stupidly stares back for a second, he opens his mouth to say something and then closes it when no sound comes out.
James lunges for him, teeth bared, he says something that might be 'I'm gonna fucking kill you', but Jason doesn't hear him over the ringing in his ears, and the sound of the lobbyist yelling.
Jason doesn't quite dodge the first punch, it clips him painfully in the shoulder and across his clavicle where he can feel the skin tearing under those fucking rings.
Jason backs up against the wall, his fists raised. James is already fixing his posture, standing up straight and pulling his arm back, but before he can throw another punch, there's someone -multiple someone's- pulling him back.
Jason looks up for the first time and takes in the whole scene. The lobbyist yelling, threatening to call the police, two of their older neighbours watching everything go down, and Lars and Cliff holding James back.
Jason hadn't seen Cliff arrive and he wasn't planning on sticking around to say hello. He scrambles out of the elevator, past James and the other two, and towards the door, ignoring James' shouted promises to fucking kill him .
He only turns around once he's halfway outside, in time to see the elevator doors close on the other three.
Jason stands on the steps for a moment. He rubs his shoulder, he feels the pain sharply now, with the adrenaline fading. His whole body is shaking.
Jason leaves when the lobbyist notices him still there and starts walking towards him. He goes to the bar and gets so drunk he can barely see straight and one of his not-really-friends has to drop him off at his apartment. He passes out on his bed without even taking his shoes off.
He's woken up the next morning by a knock at the door and what feels like his brain trying to crawl out of his skull.
He lies there trying not to breathe too hard and wondering what the absolute fuck he had been thinking last night.
There's another knock.
Jason groans, tries not to vomit. Eventually he gets up to open the door.
It's Kirk.
"Uh, hi." Jason says. His mouth is dry.
"Dude…" Kirk says emphatically. He looks mortified. "I'm so sorry about last night."
Despite it all Jason still finds it in himself to feel a little embarrassed. Hungover and embarrassed and sore.
"I'm fine." He says.
Kirk shakes his head, brows furrowed prettily. "I'm sorry it's just, James- he's... you know."
"A fucking asshole?" Jason supplies helpfully.
Kirk doesn't look like he wants to agree or disagree. "Yeah…" He says mildly. "But uh, I'm just sorry about the whole thing."
And again Jason feels embarrassed .
"Don't mention it."
Kirk looks like he really wants to keep mentioning it, though , -Hey, I heard about how my roommate rocked your shit last night. That sucks, man.- , but they're both distracted by the door to Kirk's apartment opening.
Jason isn't sure what he would've done if it had been James. Maybe get the jump on him and punch him in the face. Maybe close the door to his own apartment and go back to sleep.
It's not James. It's Lars. He's wearing sunglasses indoors and he looks about as hungover as Jason feels.
"Hey, man."
Lars gives him a miserable half-wave. Jason's head hurts just from looking at him.
"Sorry about yesterday." Lars says, uncharacteristically quietly.
Jason waves him off and, unlike Kirk, he drops it.
Lars claps his hand on Kirk's shoulder. "I'm getting us some Taco Bell or something." He mumbles.
He doesn't wait for a reply before leaving, hand lingering on Kirk's shoulder before sliding down his back.
Jason tries not to stare. He has a headache.
Kirk seems to catch on to the fact that he's only on his feet because God won't let him die. He apologizes again, and then excuses himself back to his -and James', and possibly Lars'- apartment.
Jason closes his front door as quietly as possible but it still makes his headache worse.
"Sorry my guy kicked your ass last night." Jason says to himself in a high pitched mock of Kirk's voice.
Jason pukes in the bathroom, drinks a glass of water, and then goes back to sleep.
Jason sees Cliff in the elevator a few hours later, when Jason has finally gathered the strength to crawl out of bed and walk down the street to buy orange juice. Cliff, graciously, doesn't say anything about how Jason got his ass beat.
"You know what's really good for a hangover?" Cliff says, apropos nothing.
"Sleep?"
"More drinking."
Jason gives him a supremely unimpressed look but follows him to the liquor section in the grocery store, and then follows him back to the roof of their apartment complex afterwards.
They drink in silence for a few minutes before Cliff pulls a joint out of nowhere and offers it to Jason.
"You feel better?" Cliff asks.
"Way better." Jason, who had never had actual good weed in his life apparently, answers.
They stay up there for a few hours. Jason inevitably says something cheesy about the sunset, and Cliff laughs at him, but Jason can't bring himself to mind.
Jason's shoulder aches for a couple of days. It makes carrying his backpack around annoying, but not impossible.
He doesn't see James around at all, but he'd barely seen him around before the fight so he thinks nothing of it.
Lars will still drive him to class if he sees him on his way out. His driving doesn't get any better, but Jason doesn't really mind. He yells at him when he runs a red light, Lars just laughs.
It's 1:45am on a Tuesday when Jason finally gets back from the twenty-four hour section of the library.
Cliff is in the apartment lobby when he gets there, carrying a bag of groceries and waiting for the elevator.
"Oh, hey." Cliff says when he notices him. "Your classes run this late?"
"No." Jason stares blankly at the closed elevator doors. "I was in the library… I'm gonna fail literary analysis so bad, man."
Cliff gives him a sympathetic look.
"You should ask Kirk for some help."
Jason is about to ask how he knows Kirk when the elevator door opens. They both step in and Jason hits the button for his floor but before the elevator door can close, the door to the lobby opens and James walks in, carrying two grocery bags.
James pauses for a second, he looks from Cliff to Jason and back, and then, as if nothing had happened, makes his way into the elevator with them.
Jason figures he's not gonna beat him up twice.
It's a very awkward elevator ride. Jason makes small talk with Cliff and tries really hard to ignore James.
The elevator stops at their floor. Cliff walks with Jason up to the door of his apartment, both of them still complaining about their useless landlord. James walks past them to his apartment without saying a word.
Jason and Cliff say goodnight and Jason watches in horror as he walks up to James, helping him unlock the door and stepping into the apartment with him. Jason stares after them for an uncomfortable amount of time.
And hey. Jason understands . He had also looked for roommates at the beginning of the year. Ultimately, he'd decided his comfort and privacy was worth the extra rent, but he knew a lot of people shared apartments, especially if they were renting off-campus.
Four guys, though?
That place must be a fucking nightmare, he thinks to himself.
Jason leaves his Thursday night class early after his professor cuts the class short because of a family emergency.
Jason only hesitates for a second before turning to the person closest to him -a tall blond that he often saw hanging around the grocery store, bothering the cashier- and asking if he knew where the comic book store was.
It was a short walk, Jason gets there a few minutes before closing.
"We're closed!” A tired employee tells him.
"Uh, I'm not here to shop." Jason says.
"Then leave!” Another tired employee shouts from somewhere in the store.
"Jason?" Kirk pokes his head out from behind a tall display case.
Kirk doesn't laugh at him when he tells him he's failing literature analysis, but he looks like he wants to.
"Cliff said to ask you for help."
"Okay? You want my notes or something?"
Jason shrugs and gives him a ' might as well' sort of look, Kirk does laugh at that.
"I mean, sure." Kirk says.
He leans against the shop window next to Jason and they both wait for Kirk's coworkers to finish mopping so they can lock up and leave, until Kirk's other coworker calls him back into the shop when the till comes up short.
"He just can't fucking count." He mutters to Jason.
Jason is still waiting out front of the shop when a white 4x4 service truck pulls up to the curb. The driver's side door opens and James steps out, wearing grease stained Dickie's coveralls, the long sleeves tied around his waist, and a backwards cap.
They stare dumbly at each other for a second.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" James asks, more genuinely curious than pissed off but still pretty pissed off. They're the only words besides ' I'm gonna fucking kill you' that he's ever spoken to him.
"...buying comics?" Jason says unconvincingly.
The door to the shop opens before James can call him out. Kirk stops in the doorway, his coworkers pushing past him and saying a quick 'bye' and 'see you tomorrow' before heading out for the night.
"Uh-" Kirk takes an awfully long time locking the door and then checking the lock and then checking the lock again. "I thought you worked late tonight…?" He says eventually.
"I'm on my break." James says with a shrug.
"Guess we're not walking." Kirk says to Jason, a slightly strained smile on his face.
James doesn't look like he wants to let Jason onto the truck but he also doesn't look like he likes arguing with Kirk, and in the end he only gives Jason a nasty glare and gets back in his truck.
He won't kick my ass twice, Jason assures himself as he climbs into the backseat.
"Can I drive?" Kirk asks, leaning against the open window on the driver's side.
"Yeah, when you get your license back."
"Fuck that." Kirk makes his way around to the passenger side. "I don't have time to go to fucking driving school."
James watches him, amused, waiting for him to continue.
"I wasn't even speeding!"
James pulls away from the curb. "Yeah, you were." He says mildly.
Jason tries really hard to ignore the whole interaction. He thinks about all the reading he has to do for literary analysis.
James drops them off outside the apartment complex. Jason gets out of the truck as soon as it's parked, he doesn't wait for Kirk before heading into the lobby. Kirk catches up to him in the elevator.
"At least we didn't have to walk." Kirk says after an uncomfortable silence.
Jason snorts.
Kirk agrees to help him with his reading whenever they have time. Jason thanks him and also begrudgingly thanks him for the ride.
"I'll tell James you said thanks."
"Don't do that."
Jason takes to showing up at the comic store on Tuesday night's, when it's slowest. He brings his literary analysis reading, and usually stays until closing, when Lars will come pick them up and drive them back home. Lars' driving still isn't any better. Jason really wants his own car.
It starts really getting cold around the end of October.
Of course Jason had sweaters, blankets, and a tiny space heater. He was prepared for the cold. He was not prepared for his immune system to betray him.
He wakes up on a Sunday with an itchy throat and the beginnings of a headache. He ignores it, and goes to bed that night feeling miserable.
He wakes up sometime in the middle of the afternoon the next day. Every muscle in his body aches. His eyes sting, eyelids sticking together with sleep and dried mucus, his sheets damp with sweat. He shifts slightly to try to get a look at the clock, it makes him so nauseous he feels bile rising up his throat. He has a fever.
He goes back to sleep.
It's dark outside the next time he wakes up. This time he manages to move without the last grilled cheese sandwich he'd eaten threatening to make a return. He gets up, drinks a glass of water, grabs an extra blanket and crawls back into bed.
Jason remembers, vividly, standing in the medicine aisle of the general store, only a few days ago, and walking right past the cold and flu medicine in favor of buying a box of condoms that he had yet to use. Insult to injury and all that. If his body weren't trying to kill itself he'd laugh.
He wakes up some time in the late afternoon, he can see the orange light of the sun setting behind his windows and his neighbors around him are all quiet.
Jason gets up, tries to get a glass of water, drops it, and then just stands there. His feet are wet. His nose is so stuffy he can barely breathe. He has a fever.
Jason thinks about calling an ambulance. But even in his feverish haze it seems a bit ridiculous.
He thinks about calling someone . Anyone. His mom maybe.
The thing about being out of state is he had no friends or family. The group of not-really-friends he went out drinking with would rather leave him drunk in a ditch than drop off some cold medicine at his door.
Wildly, he thinks about the nightmare apartment across the hall.
Jason thinks about Cliff who'd helped him afford to eat all those months ago. And Kirk who had apologized for his roommate being an asshole. And Lars who was weird and kind of mean but had shared a smoke with him and helped him sort his shit out. And James who- actually, he tries not to think about James.
He thinks they have to have some NyQuil or something.
Jason pulls his blanket tight around his shivering shoulders. Somehow, he makes it across the hallway. Half delirious with fever, he knocks on the door.
Lars opens the door, takes one look at him and says. "Uh- what the fuck?"
Jason blinks and when he opens his eyes again he's sitting on a sofa, it takes him a long moment to realize he must be inside their apartment. Lars is sitting next to him, he's saying something but Jason hears him like he's underwater.
Cliff appears out of nowhere, he hands him a few pills and a mug of what might be just warm water. Jason drinks it and immediately passes out.
Jason wakes up what he can only assume is several hours later.
He lays there in the dark propped up against the arm rest, wrapped up tightly in his blanket. He feels stuffy and his head hurts, but he doesn't feel like he's dying anymore, so he has to count it as a win.
Jason stares at the ceiling. Thinking about that assignment he hadn't finished. Suddenly, he hears a door quietly click open.
For one terrifying, post-fever induced second Jason is convinced he's being robbed.
He screams.
It isn't a robber.
It's Kirk, stepping out of his bedroom. He has his hair in a ponytail and he's wearing glasses. He screams, too.
A second later James bursts through the same bedroom door. The three of them stand in the dark staring at each other. Neither of them is wearing a shirt. Jason feels feverish again.
Lars sleepily yells. "What the fuck was that ?" From another bedroom.
James says. "Nothing, go back to sleep."
"I'm so sorry." Kirk whispers to him.
"It's fine, I'm sorry, sorry-"
"No, It's fine, are you okay? Do you feel better?"
"I'm fine… Sorry."
James glares at him with more heat than should be possible after being scared awake at ass o'clock in the morning. He pats Kirk on the shoulder and disappears back into the bedroom.
Kirk gets himself a glass of water, and he must still feel bad about scaring Jason because he gets him one too. He leaves it on the coffee table in front of the sofa before heading back to his bedroom.
Jason says 'thanks' and 'goodnight' and tries not to stare.
He sits in the dark for a while and wonders what the arrangement is. Bunk beds? Yeah, probably. He still has a fever.
Jason kind of wants to die from embarrassment. He tells this to Cliff the next morning, when they're the only two awake.
"You scream like a little girl." Cliff tells him.
"I was sick!"
Cliff shakes his head, he hands him a plate of waffles. Jason eats and then quietly apologizes for almost dying on their sofa.
Cliff says. "That’s what friends are for.” Like it’s nothing.
Jason finishes his breakfast and leaves and tries not to get teary eyed about the whole thing.
He sees the others all the time . He smokes on the roof with Cliff and Lars sometimes, and Kirk comes to his apartment with the pretext of extra help with his reading and only ever ends up reading or watching tv. He even sees James sometimes, pulling out of the parking lot driving Lars' car, he revs at him threateningly.
Jason is heading to the roof to smoke and watch the sunset, he's romantic like that. He stops at the top of the stairs before opening the door, he can hear a familiar voice on the other side, though he can't hear what Lars is saying, he sounds happy. Jason pushes the door open and then freezes.
Lars and Kirk were leaning against the concrete half-wall at the edge of the roof. It had to have been a trick of the setting sunlight but it had looked like they'd been kissing.
They wave him over, and the three of them smoke together for a few hours before Lars and Kirk leave. As they leave, Lars wraps his arm around Kirk's waist. Jason tries not to stare. He thinks about bunk beds.
Eventually, Jason buys his weed from Cliff. Because he gives him a neighbor/friend discount, and because he doesn't trust his regular guy not to lace it with rat poison for shits and giggles.
Usually, Cliff will invite him in for pizza or something. One of the others is always there. Jason doesn't think he could live in such close quarters with three other people, but it seemed to be working for them.
One night, Jason knocks and Lars opens the door for him. Cliff and Kirk are on the couch, watching a movie. Jason wouldn't say they were curled up together. But they might as well be. Jason doesn't recognize the movie on the screen but there's a lot of very fake blood involved.
Lars offers him a beer and Jason sits on the same couch he'd almost died on all those weeks ago.
Jason doesn't worry about them robbing him blind, he figures they could've done that when he was dying of the plague on their couch. He drinks his beer and smokes and watches the gross horror flick and hardly even notices how cuddly Lars is getting with Kirk.
Lars sits on the couch next to Kirk, he steals the blunt he'd been smoking from between his fingers and takes a puff before giving it back. Kirk glares at him half-heartedly.
"Sharing is caring." Lars says, he blows smoke at him.
Jason once again thinks about bunk beds.
Finally, Cliff reaches across Kirk and slaps Lars upside the head.
"Get a fucking room." He says, only half joking.
Lars laughs, loud and obnoxious. He gets up off the couch, taking Kirk's joint, he doesn't give it back this time.
"Well," He says to Jason. "It was nice seeing you, I'm gonna go lie down now. Good night." And he disappears into what Jason assumes is his bedroom.
Jason distractedly says ' goodnight ', he turns back to Cliff who is still trying to explain the plot of the movie to him. He's been trying to explain it for a while. Jason still does not get it. Kirk leaves quietly not five minutes later, and Cliff discreetly turns the volume up on the TV. Jason thinks about bunk beds so hard .
Jason leaves after the movie ends. The eerie music of the end credits playing a little louder than is comfortable. He runs into James in the hallway as he's leaving.
"Uh- hey."
"Hey." James says back, and then walks past him into his apartment.
Jason counts it as progress. Progress towards what he's not sure. He's high as fuck.
It's around 9pm on a Friday, and Jason has been staring dead eyed at his notes for the better part of the last hour when someone knocks at his door.
Jason gets up to answer, more than a little surprised to find Lars on the other side of the door.
"Hello?"
"-you going to the bar with us?"
Jason stares at him.
"What?" He asks eventually.
Lars looks at him like he's dumb "Do you want to go drinking?" He asks very slowly.
Jason thinks about all the work he still hasn't gotten done.
"Yes."
Not five minutes later he's stuffed in the back seat of Lars' car, next to Cliff. Lars sits in the passenger seat while James drives. They stop at the comic store to pick Kirk up.
"Can I drive?" Kirk asks again, leaning against the open driver's side window.
"No." James says at the same time that Lars says ' fuck no '.
Kirk ends up squeezing into the back seat next to Jason.
Jason isn't sure what he'd expected. It wasn't for the four of them to drink him under the table.
What feels like minutes after arriving, Jason finds himself following Cliff and Lars conversation about BMX with the absent concentration of someone that was drunk out of their goddamn mind.
"It's about your center of balance-"
"Right, right, of course-"
"-you have to keep your center of balance."
James is at the bar grabbing another round of drinks. Kirk is… somewhere. Jason is really drunk.
James comes back to their table. In a bizarre act of mercy he hands Jason a glass of water instead of another beer. Jason mumbles something that might be ' thanks ' and goes back to staring blankly between Cliff and Lars and thinking about absolutely nothing.
Kirk only reappears to drink the rest of Lars' beer and drag him away before he can get a word in complaint-wise. Jason watches them disappear into the crowd of people. Cliff doesn't miss a beat, he turns to James and continues what he was saying about balance.
"Do you know what a seesaw is?" He asks, genuinely.
Jason had never seen James laugh. It was weird. James laughs with his whole chest, dumbly nodding along. He looks at Cliff with bright eyes, smiling so widely his eyes crinkle.
Jason stumbles to the bar and orders himself another beer. He thinks about bunk beds.
At the end of the night they all pile back into the car. Cliff is driving this time, James in the passenger seat.
"I really need to get a car." Jason says to no one in particular.
"Me too." Kirk says. He's sitting squished against the door in the backseat, Lars sitting next to him, leaning against him comfortably, back to chest.
"You can't fucking drive." Lars kindly reminds him.
"I can drive! I can drive, it's the- the government took my license."
Jason laughs so hard he starts to tear up, Lars laughs too, burying his face in his hands. Kirk shoves his shoulder, hard, but he barely notices. James looks at them through the rearview mirror but doesn't say anything.
Fitting all of them into the elevator back in their apartment complex is almost as hard as it was to get them into the car. Jason leans against the elevator door and then almost falls face first when the doors open. Cliff catches him by the back of his collar, hauling him back onto his feet.
"Thanks." Jason says, still a little disoriented.
"Don't sweat it."
Jason stops at his door, struggling to get his keys in the lock. Lars is hanging off his shoulder, calling him a lightweight and telling him to come with them more often all in the same sentence.
"You need to build up- uh, immunity. Tolerance. Whatever." Lars says, shaking him by the shoulders.
"I'm gonna puke on you." Jason warns, he finally gets his key in the lock.
Lars laughs and shakes him again. "G'night."
Jason waves goodbye to the others and disappears into his apartment. He pukes in the sink, drinks a glass of water, and goes to sleep.
Jason doesn't go back home for Thanksgiving, he can't afford the trip, and he has too many assignments to finish. He tries not to let it get to him, but that week he has to cut his call with his parents short when he feels his throat tighten and his eyes water.
The final straw is when the water in his apartment gets shut off. He calls his landlord who assures him it's regular maintenance and will be fixed soon. Jason stands in the middle of his bathroom. He needs a shower.
Before he can think too hard about it he grabs a towel, shampoo, and a change of clothes. He heads over to the apartment across the hall and knocks. It takes longer than usual for someone to open, and when someone does open Jason wishes he'd stayed in his apartment.
"Fuck do you want?" James asks.
"Uh- can I use your shower?"
"What?"
"Can I use your shower? Mine's uh- not working."
James stares at him for a moment. Likely debating whether to laugh or slam the door in his face.
"Sure." He says eventually, stepping aside to let him into the apartment.
Jason stands in the doorway in shock before stepping in. The apartment is eerily silent, Jason quickly realizes it's because the others aren't there.
James leads him to the back of the apartment where the bathroom is.
"Just don't use Lars' shampoo, he's a real bitch about it."
"...okay." Jason says. He says ' thanks ' but James is already gone.
Jason doesn't know what bottle is Lars'. There are three different bottles of shampoo, a regular bar of soap, a three-in-one bottle of shampoo/conditioner/body wash, and three open bottles of curly coconut conditioner. Jason takes the quickest shower of his life and gets the hell out of there.
James is at the kitchen table, he has a few books open in front of him and he's writing detailed notes in a notebook.
"So, where is everyone?" Jason asks.
"Kirk's mom's house for Thanksgiving." James answers, he doesn't look up from his notes.
Which was only a little weird.
"You didn't go?" Jason asks before he can stop himself.
James does look up then, irritated. "Why would I?"
Jason opens his mouth to say something before deciding he doesn't actually want to start a fight and closing it again.
"Thanks." He says instead, and leaves.
The water comes back on sometime in the middle of the night. The shower turns on by itself, scaring Jason awake.
The others don't get back until two days after Thanksgiving. Jason is walking up the steps to the apartment complex that morning when he hears a familiar voice yelling in the parking lot. He heads over to find the other three by Lars' car, arguing over who should carry which luggage.
Jason approaches them, getting a smile and a wave from Cliff and a one-armed side hug from Kirk, who is still arguing with Lars. In the end Jason helps them bring their luggage in when Lars refuses to help because he was tired from driving.
Kirk tells him about how Lars had gotten them lost on the way, even though they go every year and he really should know not to try and take a shortcut at this point.
Jason wants to ask about how dinner had been, and if his parents were nice, and if they liked Lars and Cliff. But he was still upset about not seeing his own parents. Kirk must be able to tell because he doesn't ask if Jason had gone home or not. He makes Jason come into their apartment and wait while they unload the Tupperwares full of leftovers his mother had sent with them.
"This is for you." He says as he hands Jason four Tupperwares full of food and a plate covered in aluminum foil. "That's my aunt's pecan pie. It's really good."
Jason tries really, really hard not to get teary eyed over it. He says ' thanks ' and stays a few hours, watching TV and smoking on the sofa with Cliff.
Jason goes back to his apartment afterwards. He has pie for dinner. It is really good. He calls his parents again, and apologizes for cutting their last call off short. He tells them he loves them, and promises to make it home for Christmas.
A few days later, Jason is startled awake by someone knocking at his door. Knocking so loudly the door shakes on its hinges.
Jason doesn't even look through the peephole before opening the door, in a pair of sweatpants and nothing else.
"What the fuck?" Jason asks, still mostly asleep.
"Did you say you wanted to buy a car?" James asks.
Jason stares at him for an uncomfortable amount of time before saying, "Yeah?"
Jason ends up getting dressed and following James down to the front of the building where James' truck is parked. James drives them to the auto shop that he works at. Jason gives up on trying not to fall asleep approximately two minutes into the drive and lets James startle him awake a second time that morning when they arrive.
James leads him to the back of the shop where a beige '73 Corolla is parked.
Jason takes one look at the car and says, with a wide smile on his face, "Oh it's ugly."
James makes a vague hand gesture. "They're gonna scrap it. It's a little dusty… the tires need to be rotated but, I mean. It drives."
"How much?" Jason asks.
"They just wanna get rid of it." James says. "Sort the plates out and it's yours."
Jason is so happy he could kiss him.
Jason speaks briefly with the owner of the shop, he doesn't expect James to still be there when he gets back but he is, tinkering under the hood of Jason's new-old car.
"You keeping it?" James asks without looking up
"Yeah." Jason says, peeking over his shoulder as if he knew the first thing about motors.
"It needs an oil change."
"Oh." Jason says, and then nothing else.
James lets the awkward science hang for a second before saying. "I'll change it for you. Might as well rotate the tires while I'm at it."
"Thanks, man." Jason says, because he can't think of anything else to say.
James drives him back home afterwards, the silence a little more comfortable than it'd been earlier.
Lars offers to give him driving lessons. Which, even if he needed them, Jason would've impolitely declined.
Cliff gifts him a pair of bright pink fuzzy dice to hang from his rearview mirror. They look like shit.
"They're for good luck." Cliff says, trying not to laugh.
Jason takes them anyways. They give his beloved POS a splash of color.
Finally, it feels like things are as they should be.
He drives his shitty car to class, the afternoon classes that he had carefully chosen and scheduled to fit his needs and wants, he comes home -and it does kind of feel like home now- to a mostly functioning apartment, with not-too-noisy neighbors.
He gets Kirk to help him with literature, and bothers James into checking out his car when it starts making a weird noise, and when the water gets shut off in his apartment again, and he has to shower in the nightmare apartment across the hall, he lets Lars yell at their landlord over the phone until he promises to have it fixed within the hour.
He stops going out to drink with his not-really friends, and goes out with his probably-real-friends, all of them crammed into Lars' car like they'd been the first time.
And sure, they're kind of weird. They’re a little too loud, and like arguing a little too much. They were the kind of weird that got you kicked banned from the local grocery store, the kind of weird that made your downstairs neighbours hate you, the kind of weird that made Jason feel like he was fifth wheeling sometimes.
The kind of weird that had you yelling at your roommate in the middle of the apartment complexes underground parking lot, where the echo lets everyone in the vicinity hear how much of a fucking asshole you think he is.
Jason rounds the corner and spots Lars standing too close to Jason’s piece of shit car, poking James square in the chest with an accusatory finger and yelling in his face.
For one wild second Jason considers turning around and just walking to class. He’d done it before, sure he’d be late, but it was better than stepping anywhere near whatever was going on over there .
Unfortunately for him, James spots him. He makes eye contact with Jason over Lars’ shoulder, and James gives him a look awfully similar to the one his dad used to wear when he got chewed out for not taking the trash out. ‘Can you believe this shit?’ type of look.
Yeah, they were pretty fucking weird.
But Jason didn't mind their weirdness too much, he was pretty weird himself, so it worked out. And he was pretty sure they had, like, bunk beds or something.
Jason winces sympathetically and sneakily gets in his car. Lars either doesn’t notice him or doesn’t care enough to stop his rant, Jason watches them warily through the rearview mirror.
Jason gets home late that night after an impromptu meeting with his professor to help with some of his notes.
His confidence is through the roof. He's going to pass this class, he knows he will. He parks his beloved piece of shit in his favorite spot, smacks one of the fuzzy dice on the way out, he feels great.
He waits for the elevator in the lobby for a full minute, whistling tunelessly to himself before deciding he'd just take the stairs.
Jason is coming up on the landing to his floor when he hears... something.
He was a grown man. He knew what it sounded like when two people were making out. But in the time it takes him to realize and think 'maybe I should've waited for the elevator' he climbs the last few steps to the landing and finds the culprits. Still making out.
It takes his brain an extremely long two seconds to realize what, who , he's looking at.
Jason stares, dumbfounded. Lars and James stare back at him.
"Oh, hi." Lars says eventually. He looks a little inconvenienced.
"Hey." Jason says, extremely casually, as if he hadn't just seen all that. He walks past them, not looking back, pushing the heavy metal door open like it’s nothing and not waiting to see if it’d closed fully before booking it down the hall to his apartment.
Horrifically, he runs into Kirk and Cliff as they’re entering their own apartment.
“Jase! You wanna come watch a movie?” Kirk asks.
“Not a slasher this time. Or arthouse.” Cliff assures him.
Kirk has two fingers hooked through one of Cliff’s belt loops. Jason can’t look them in the eyes.
He says, “Maybe next time.” In a voice so high and strained it rivals his thirteen year old self.
Jason hears the squeak of the heavy stairwell door opening, he bolts into his apartment, locking the door behind him and leaning heavily against it.
He thinks they might not own bunk beds.