Work Text:
A very uninteresting week passed by. The group finally started brainstorming for their project, and they were getting to know each other a bit better. Not that they were friends, but they knew more than surface level stuff.
Like he knew Impulse was a part of the band Gem was part of. Should he have maybe known that before? Yeah. Did he care? Absolutely not.
But — as respectfully as he can say — Impulse wasn’t that interesting. Although, Joel can say for sure that he was more interesting than Etho. By a very long shot.
Etho’s main points were that he lived in a dorm alone (lucky bastard) and he helped work on some frog game. That was about it. Oh and he was freakishly resistant to the cold, but that had already been established.
Well, that wasn’t really it. Outside meeting at the cafe to work on the project, Etho was a surprisingly frequent texter. He was pretty dry, but Joel couldn’t complain as a fellow dry texter. It got the point across, so what did it matter.
Regardless of texting style, they texted often. Instead of doomscrolling through social media while watching some tv show or video he didn’t care about, Joel would be tapping away at the keyboard and sending it to Etho. It felt very weird to smile down at his phone when a message from the fox popped up; it wasn’t something he’d done since his last relationship. He knew he got glares from Gem, but it kept her from yelling at him to get off his phone so he really didn’t care.
Until she asked.
They had been in the living room, watching some anime. Joel was, of course, not paying attention. He was too busy clacking away at the keyboard about some band he recently found and wanted to share with Etho. The promises from the fox that he would listen to them when he had the time and the fact he didn’t stop Joel from talking about it was what made the usual frown or neutral expression change to the unusual smile.
Gem sat up with a frustrated sigh. “Ok, what the heck have you been doing that’s making you so giddy?“ She pointed accusingly. “This is not normal Joel, and I am getting concerned!”
He blinked, focusing his energy onto creating a natural sounding excuse. He failed, very quickly, as Gem’s glare was becoming daggers. “I’m talking to a friend.”
“What friend? What friend makes you practically giggling and kicking your feet like a teenage girl in love?”
Shit. “First, I am not doing that. Second, it’s none of your business.”
“I think it is my business to know why my roommate is all smiles and rainbows.”
“Well it’s not. Plain as day.”
“Who the hell is ‘weird mask dude’?” Her voice suddenly appeared over his shoulder.
“It’s — HEY! Fuck off!” He teasingly shoved her face aside, nothing too hard.
Her laugh was warm as she punched his shoulder in response. Her hand scuffed his brown and green hair teasingly. “I wasn’t entirely joking about you acting like a teenage girl in love. Your face is red.”
“No it’s not.” Joel objected, although he wished he could deny the slightly warmer face he definitely felt. “You’re imagining things, Gem.”
“Said every liar ever. You’re trying to gaslight me right now!” Gem made her way back to the couch, still looking over at Joel. “It’s not nice to gaslight people, Joel.”
“It’s not gaslighting when it’s true.” He shrugged, his fingers returning to the phone’s keyboard.
“Sure..” She responded skeptically, making herself comfortable again. “Regardless, you didn’t answer my question. Who’s your weird mask dude?”
“Guy I’m working with for a college project. He’s weird and wears a mask and I don’t know his name. Weird mask dude.”
“Why don’t you ask his name?”
“It’s more fun calling him weird mask dude. I’d keep that as his contact anyways.”
“You’re weird Joel.”
She didn’t press any further — thank god — but she did sort of make Joel think. Why was he so happy talking to Etho?
The thought haunted him. For hours.
He tried working on their project, starting base sketches for the design. He put on music, praying it would distract him, but it didn’t. In his sketchbook where drawings of buildings should have been, there were little doodles that looked way too similar to Etho. Like scarily similar. Joel was no artist, but those doodles? Close to his level in drawing buildings.
Joel huffed frustratedly, closing his sketchbook and pushing his materials to the side. He leaned back in the chair, deep in thought.
He could talk to Grian or Jimmy about it, but that’d lead to hours of teasing Joel was not necessarily in the mood for. Gem didn’t need to know more than she did, for sure.
And that was the friend list thought over. Fuck.
Joel lifted his phone from his desk, quickly checking the time. Barely 3:00 pm. Damn.
Maybe he could hang out with Etho. Outside of the project. But then came the issues.
Genuinely what the hell does Etho do? Where would they hang out? What if Etho’s one of those people who talk more over text than in person? Would Etho even want to hang out with Joel?
He picked at the skin around his fingertips, staring up at the ceiling in thought. He looked down at his phone again, the temptation only growing worse. He picked it up, opening it to the messages app. He stared at the empty text bar, impulsivity flooding his mind.
weird mask dude
3:06 pm
hey wanna hang out
im bored as hell
nothing to do