Chapter Text
The first day of college, and it was already chaos. Carter arrived late, and most dorms had been assigned already. He lugged around his heavy suitcase, his service dog close to his side. The note in his hand read '543-E', the farthest building on campus. It was extremely hot outside, and it felt like he was melting.
"Ugh... Why does summer hafta last so long..." He groaned. "Why did Cam not wake me up when she was leaving?" He huffed. His perfect sister had gotten up super early, took the car, and left without him. He was lucky his dad wasn't mad he slept in and drove him, otherwise he would have had to pay the dorm fee without getting a dorm. After the almost hour long trek, he made it to the E building. He took the elevator to the top floor, dragging his luggage to his room and opening the door with his new key. To his shock, the door was already unlocked. The door opened wide, and he saw a Pink haired person setting up a small kitchenette station. He stood in the doorway, and began to sweat as the person turned. They had amber eyes, and crimson pink hair. The person also wore a white button up and some casual but nice looking pants. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, until the person spoke up with a surprisingly deep, but somewhat pleasant sounding voice.
"You lost?" The person spoke. Carter cleared his throat, answering quickly with a small stutter.
"this is room 534-E, yeah?" The pink-haired person stared at him even harsher.
"Let me guess, I got stuck with a last minute check in?" They groaned. Carter sunk into himself.
"I had to do a lot of last minute packing last night and none of my alarms woke me up" he huffed.
"Great. Just great. You can take the bed by the window then and-" The person finally actually looked at what Carter had with him, and noticed the service dog. "You have a service dog?" They spoke, eyes widening.
"Oh! Uh! Yeah- his name is Mash, sweet boy, promise."
"Right... Don't let him touch any of my things, please."
Carter drags his luggage to the sleeping room, opening up his suit case and tossing the dog bed on the floor beside his twin bed. He aggressively put on his sheets and tossed his pillow in the corner of the bed.
"Don't let him tough my things!" He silently mocks. "He's a trained dog, he's not stupid. I already hate this situation even more." He tosses on his light but warm blanket, sitting down and pulling his meds from his backpack and setting them on the side table. His schedule falls from his bag, and he sets it on there too. "I have a feeling I'm not gonna like this person."
*
Carter woke up to an alarm blaring. His eyes shot open, seeing his roommate turning on a sunset lamp and starting to get ready. He reached for his own phone seeing it was only-
"What the fuck are you doing up at four AM??" he groaned.
"Getting ready, my first class is at seven." He can hear his rude roommate grumble back, apparently his presence spoiled the pink haired person's mood.
"You have three hours... Why the hell would you get up this early??" Cater mumbled, rubbing his eyes and digging for his shirt in his blankets. He had a thing for slipping it off in his sleep when he got too warm. After slipping it back on, he noticed his lovely roommate wearing a bonnet. He watched them pull it off, revealing the soft curls he had seen last night. He watched the person tie it back into a braid and noticed how the sides of their head were shaved.
"Anyway, Can I put a name to your face?" Carter spoke up. The person turned back to look at the seemingly lazy man.
"My name is Will." He glared before looking back into the mirror by his bed.
"I'm Carter." You-know-who replied. The quiet was suffocating for the short period it was there, before it was interrupted by Carter's phone blasting the dumb ass Samsung ring tone. He groaned, picking up his phone and bringing it to his ear. "What's good?"
"Hey, you're up for once. I was calling to ask if you wanted to get McDonald's with me before class starts." He heard Cam speak on the other end.
"Depends, you paying for me?" He reached over and grabbed his meds, taking what was necessary.
"mmmmm, don't know if I should pay for a loser who sleeps in."
"Oh you bitch, you know I stayed up late packing! You didn't even bother to try to wake me up!" he groaned.
"You are a grown man, Chip! And don't call me a bitch! You're lucky I'm even willing to drive you. Plus, I want you to meet my roomie." Her words made Carter groan again.
"Fine, give me like, twenty minutes in case I pass out or whatever." He hung up, slamming his phone onto the side table and scooting closer to the edge of the bed. Mash got up, going to him as he swung his feet over the edge. He stood carefully taking breaths, and started digging through his bag for fresh clothes. He grabs his jacket, sweats, and black shirt, going to the bathroom. The newly identified as Will stared at him as he walked off, wondering what the help that call was about, considering he only heard Carter's side of the conversation.
*
Carter got in the back seat of his sister's car, seeing another pink haired person sitting up front.... What was with all this pink hair!???
"Chip, this is my new pal, Rylie. She's chill. Rylie, this is Carter, Aka chip. Don't call him that unless he lets you though."
"Nice to meet you, Carter" She offers her fist for a fist bump, he gladly responds, giving her the first bump she offered.
"Nice to meet you too, you can call me chip, don't worry." He sits back, petting Mash as he rested his chin on his lap. "This is Mash, I don't know if Cam told you, but he's my service dog."
"She told me, don't worry dude."
Cam started the car, and they blasted trash music as they pulled up to the desolate McDonald's at 5am. All of them screamed when country came on, and Carter actually didn't mind his sister's new friend.
*
He walked into his history class, Mash's leash in one hand, and a McDonald's burger in another. His happy expression dropped as he stared at the name cards on the desk, then at the only other person in the room. Of course he just had to have the same first class as Will. He sighed, walking over just to make sure they hadn't been sat by eachother. Except, he found out they had, infact, been sat by each other. I guess that save some time that he would've spent looking around. He collapsed into his chair, pulling out his laptop and notebook, seeing the other person already having a slideshow up and writing down notes.
"what are you're pronouns?" He suddenly spoke up. He realized he sounded like a woker (wokee? Idfk) but then realised, this person has pink hair, what fascist would dye their hair that shade of pink.
"Sorry?" Will turned and looked at him funny.
"We may not be on great terms considering our harsh meeting" Carter waved, "but I'm not gonna call you something you're not, and I don't wanna assume anything." He said, trying not to sound offensive. He's been told by his sister many times that he had the tone of a cis straight guy trying to be 'in the now' when it came to asking about these things, he just hoped that he didn't sound like that now.
"Uh... Nice of you to consider I guess. I just use he/him. You do the same?" Will sat up a bit straighter, a bit shocked this dense and seemingly stuck up guy he had barge into his dorm yesterday was... Considerate wasn't quite the word, but close enough, to ask about his pronouns.... Was he passing as well as he thought he was, or was it the pink hair? (Spoiler, it's always the pink hair)
"Yeah, he/him for me too." Carter turned to his computer, attempting to drag himself through the screen with his mind. Gods, this was awkward. This dude probably hates him more now after all of that.
Will, though, turned to his own computer, his thoughts quite the opposite. 'maybe this guy isn't that much of an ass. Too soon to debate it though. Barging into my room all loud and shit. I'm kind of mad admin didn't call me to give me a heads up someone would be rooming with me.' He sighed, sipping a coffee and going back to writing notes.