Chapter Text
As Avery walked the halls of Texas State University, he let his mind wander.
He’d always wanted to get into a school with a relatively good theatre program, or any fine arts program at that, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it into schools like Juilliard or UC San Diego with grades like his. 3.2 GPA average…yikes. He’s glad he managed to get into college at all, especially one like UT. He was able to put together a good enough portfolio of acting gigs and classes that they let him in despite his lack of academic success.
He scanned the numbers on the doors, looking for the one that matched the little paper slip given to him by the lady at the front office.
”Room 303…” He thought to himself, before he realized he’d have to go up another floor.
Avery sighed to himself as he made his way to the elevator at the end of the hall, pressing the button to take him up another floor. He wondered who his roommate would be. He signed himself up for one of the random slots since he wouldn’t know anyone here in Texas. He left his friends and family back in California to come here, and it sucked because none of his friends back there had any interest in coming to Texas at all.
As the elevator was coming to a stop, he glanced at his reflection in the mirror on the wall next to him. He certainly didn’t look like he was from Texas, that’s for sure. Bright green hair, Hawaiian print shirt, a shell necklace… he was a little worried people would stare.
He heard the ding and saw the doors opening, so he picked up the handle to his suitcase and started walking again. There weren’t many other students out, he noticed. Probably because it was the weekend and everyone was hanging out with friends elsewhere. Avery realized he would have to make new friends all over again, like it was elementary school or something. It wouldn’t be too hard, since he considered himself somewhat charismatic and he was able to do it easily back home.
He shook those thoughts from his head. ”Stay focused, Avery.”
Luckily, his room was one of the first ones, so he grabbed the key out of his pocket and unlocked the door.
Once he was inside, Avery let out a sigh of relief. All he needed to do was put his suitcase down, take a shower, and then he could sleep. Hopefully his roommate wouldn’t mind it, if they were here. One glance down actually confirmed that they were in fact here, because there was a pair of well loved red Nike AirForce shoes neatly placed near the door.
He walked through the very short hallway and into the actual room itself, where he saw his supposed roommate. Another guy, with dark hair that was pulled up into a ponytail and glasses was already setting up some things on one side of the room. He was quietly humming a tune, which Avery immediately recognized as “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by George Harrison, and felt a little jolt of excitement at the idea they might have similar music tastes.
Avery cleared his throat to get the other man’s attention, which worked a little too well. He jolted and turned around very quickly, clearly looking startled. Avery bit back a tiny laugh that threatened to escape him.
“Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to scare ya.” He smiled, moving over to the other side of the room and setting down his suitcase. “I guess we’re roommates, huh?”
The darker man huffed a little and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose.
“Yeah, I guess we are.” He gave Avery a once over, and the green haired man couldn’t tell if it was judgmental or if he was just observing.
“That’s definitely a way to get people’s attention.” He said, nodding at Avery’s hair with dry amusement.
Avery chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, noting the slight accent the other man had.
“Oh, uh, yeah…” He fidgeted with his shell necklace before looking back up. “I’m Avery. Uh, Meyer. Just moved from Cali, so this was pretty normal over there…”
The other man smirked and went back to setting up a half-made desk.
“California, huh…” He said, half to himself. “And you came here, to do…?”
“I’m a theatre major.” Avery spoke with a little bit of pride, as this was something he’s loved doing since middle school.
“Theatre, cool.” There was a small moment of silence between the two before the other man stopped what he was doing and looked at Avery again.
“I’m Derek.” He said, offering a small smile that seemed genuine. “I’m majoring in history. I would’ve gone to a school that mainly focused on it if I was rich, but I guess we can’t win every battle…”
Avery laughed, opening up his suitcase to start unpacking. He hadn’t felt this excited since Chapters three and four of Deltarune released. “I feel you, man. I would’ve gone to a school that focuses on performing arts if I had better grades in high school, but it was just fisting me.”
Derek snickered. “What, did you have a 3.2 GPA or something?”
Avery’s jaw dropped and he stared at the other man in mild shock. “How did you know??”
Derek, also surprised by how accurate his guess was, mirrored Avery’s look. “Wait, I was right? That was just a guess!” He turned back around to keep building the desk. “Whatever, everyone has a different experience in high school, so it’s not my place to judge.”
Avery hummed in agreement, and a comfortable silence fell over the two of them. He hadn’t hit it off with anyone like this since he met his best friend in second grade.
A few minutes passed of this silence, before Avery got curious of something.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but where are you from? I noticed you have a bit of an accent, but I don’t recognize it.”
“I’m from Greece. My mother is Greek and my father is Armenian, so I picked up both of their accents, I guess. I mostly grew up here though, in Arizona. We moved when I was…er…five or six years old, I think.”
Avery hummed again and took a peek at Derek over his shoulder. Greek and Armenian…that made sense. He had darker skin, dark hair, a bigger nose…
“That’s cool. Did you like it back in Greece?”
“Since I was so young I can’t say I remember much, but the things I do remember are all positives.”
Avery could practically hear the smile in his voice.
“Are there actually, like, statues of Greek gods over there? Or is it more just ruins n’ stuff?”
Derek laughed. “Yes, there’s statues and ruins everywhere. I lived closer to one we call ‘The Oracle of Delphi’, which was Apollo’s temple. My mother says she took me there when I was a baby, but I obviously don’t remember that.”
Avery smiled a bit, imagining little baby Derek all swaddled up at this temple for a god. ”Cute…” He thought.
He finished putting the essentials out next to and on his bed, which now had a sheet, a pillow, and a blanket on it, then decided it was shower time. Luckily, the dorms here had their own bathrooms instead of the community ones that Avery had heard about. He told Derek his plan, got his change of clothes, and hopped in the shower.
While he was in there, Avery let his mind wander to everything he had been thinking about for the past few weeks leading up to actually moving out and getting here. He remembered how hard it was to say goodbye to all of his friends and family back home, and how they promised him they’d send silly hand written letters to his dorm. He thought about how he’d miss his room back at his parents house, specifically the big window where he could see the beach from. He’d miss the beach, too. Avery spent a lot of his summer days running around with his friends for hours on the beachfront, coming home sunburnt and ready to do it all again the next day. He found himself feeling a little sad about leaving that part of his life behind, but reminded himself that it would get better here too.
When he finally came out of the bathroom after a much needed refresh, he saw that the desk Derek had been working on was finished, and said man was on his bed scrolling through reels. Avery walked to his bed and plopped down, sighing happily as he got under his blanket and pulled out his phone to scroll for a little bit too.
“Gave up on that desk, eh?” He asked, smirking a little.
Derek looked up from his phone and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it’s too much work right now.”
Avery snickered, and the two of them went quiet again. He hadn’t even realized just how tired he was, because he halfway heard Derek start to say something before he blinked and started hearing his alarm.