Chapter Text
Today was the day.
The day that Langa had been dreading all summer.
Today was the day he was moving into the college dorms. He would meet his roommate today, and to be honest? He was scared.
Langa was never good with people, he was honestly kind of awkward, okay fine. Really awkward, and he missed a lot of social cues. His roommate would probably think he was odd, he would make a bad first impression and then the rest of his college days would be filled with embarrassment and discomfort.
He felt his stomach twist in knots as he walked to his dorm room. It was like a mouse was running circles in his intestines. His brain came up with the worst case scenarios as he walked, his steps feeling heavy as he approached his dorm. He looked up at the dingy door. On the front was his room number, 888, expect one of the 8’s was hanging on for dear life turned to the side.
Thud
Somthing fell on the other side of the door.
Fuck.
His roommate was already inside.
Langa stood in front of the door for a couple of seconds petrified, muttering greetings under his breath.
“Hi I’m Langa, I’ll be in your care from now on!” No, that sounded weird… Hi I’m Langa, I’m Canadian!” Why does this person need to know where he’s from?
Maybe he could make a joke? Then at least this person would think he’s funny. Funny is better than strange, right?
“Hi I’m Langa, in english my name sounds like lasagna, which is cool because I really hate Monday’s just like Garfield”
...
Oh God, he hasn't even met this person yet and he was already ready to embarrass himself.
The longer he stood at the door muttering to himself the more awkward the greetings got. After about 5 minutes of agonizing he decided to just go inside.
“Hi, I’m Langa. I don't like Mondays and I’m Canadian.”
Before Langa could process how awful and awkward his greeting was, his roommate turned around. Even though Langa’s brain came up with almost every single scenario on his walk here, nothing could have prepared him for this.
His roommate was… Reki?
Langa rubbed his eyes once to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating.
It really was him. Fuck…
Langa hadn’t seen Reki since high school. They used to hang out every day. They would go over to each other's houses, skate, talk about their futures together… Until one day Langa completely messed up and broke Reki’s trust.
Ever since that day Reki started ignoring Langa. And honestly Langa felt like he deserved it. Like he wasn’t worth Reki’s time. And maybe he was right, Reki made new friends easily, and Langa even heard rumors that he had a girlfriend. Langa was miserable for the rest of the high school year. He dropped skating, his grades dropped, it’s a miracle he even got into college.
And now, Reki was standing right in front of him, and he was, he was…
wow.
Langa stood in silence staring at Reki’s face, somehow Reki had become even more attractive. How is that even possible? He honestly looked really different. He didn't have that usual bubbly energy about him, his eyes seem to have lost their sparkle and he looked kind of… sad? Langa didn't know if sad was the right word to describe it, but he definitely wasn't colorful. He was wearing all black except for a red long sleeve shirt that matched his hair under his black baggy tee. Speaking of his hair, he no longer wore a headband. But it was still red, a slightly darker red than before and it draped over his face, his face… He had snake bites! Oh wow… Langa had never seen someone with snake bites before, did they get in the way of eating, or… Langa wondered if it would hurt to kiss someone with snake bites, then he started thinking about kissing Reki, and then he turned red and started breathing heavily, enough for Reki to look at him with a very concerned look on his face.
“Langa?” Reki Finally broke the silence.
“Oh wow, you remember my name! I thought you would’ve forgotten. I mean it’s been so long, a whole year wow…” Langa joked trying to break the suffocating tension, while pushing away his very odd thoughts.
Reki didn’t laugh. Instead he looked away scratching his neck, “So what are you doing here?”
“Well I’m here for the same reason as you, it’s move in day…” Langa tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke. Reki clearly did not look happy and it was making Langa feel awful. His stomach hurt, and he felt like he was going to start crying if Reki asked him any more questions.
“So we’re roommates?”
Langa didn’t respond, he just nodded silently, swallowing the lump in his throat.
As Langa started to unpack, he noticed that their beds were right beside each other. Good lord, he’s going to sleep beside Reki every day. He didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand he was happy to see Reki again, happy that he actually spoke to him, on the other he was worried that he was making Reki feel anxious and uncomfortable by simply existing near him. Did Langa make him uncomfortable enough for Reki to request a room reassignment? He felt sick just thinking about it. Langa had lost Reki once, he wasn’t going to let it happen again.
“Reki...” Langa finally mustered the courage to say
“Yeah?” Reki had looked over at Langa, the sun was cast on his face, his amber eyes were radiant with light, and Langa almost forgot what he was going to say.
“We… We’re okay right? I mean… what happened, you know? In highcool, that was so long ago, and now we’re in college and different people. We can put the past behind us right? So we can live comfortably together. It would be too bothersome to switch rooms anyway so…
“So you would switch rooms if it wasn’t ‘so bothersome’?”
Oh no, Reki looked bothered. He scoffed and looked away from Langa, folding his clothes and closing the drawers violently.
Langa felt ill again, he was always saying the wrong things. He was so bad at expressing his feelings that when Reki started avoiding Langa in high school he couldn't even get himself to apologize properly. He tried once, and failed miserably, saying all the wrong things and making Reki even more upset. After that he intentionally put space in between him and Reki. Thinking that an outgoing, cheerful guy like Reki didn't deserve to be bound down by Langa’s strange and awkward energy. To be honest he always felt like Reki was doing charity work by making friends with him. He was always doing all of the talking and all Langa did was stand there staring at him longingly. Wait… did Langa stare at Reki too often? Was that also one of the reasons that Reki felt disgusted by him. Langa made a mental note to stop doing that in the future. If there was a future… Right now Reki was mad, now stuffing his clothes into the drawers, not even bothering to fold them anymore. Langa had to say something, anything.
“That’s not what I meant! I just… want us to start over.”
“Start over?” Reki looked over at Langa again, confused.
“Yeah, start over… My name is Langa, I love poutine, and I have awful handwriting”
Reki laughed, Reiki laughed? His laugh echoed, filling up the empty room, and for the first time in a long time Langa felt alive. Like really alive, his heart was beating so fast it felt like he had run a marathon, or maybe the mouse inside his intestines was the one running the marathon. He was smiling from cheek to cheek.
They both laughed as the sun poured in through the glass windows and shimmered onto the walls. Langa was really scared to meet his roommate today, but he had a feeling they would get along just fine.
Right?