Chapter Text
It was the first day as a college sophomore. Zanka was excited to finally have a dorm, he’d been staying with Enjin for so long, and that was fine but he was tired of living with a slob and was ready to move out with just enough money for a dorm. The problem was, he didn’t know who his roommate would be, and he wouldn’t say he was exactly excited to find out.
It was almost 6 and Zanka wanted to find where Riyo was. He went down to her room and found her and Rudo talking, though it was more her talking and Rudo glaring, not because he was annoyed, that's just what his face looks like. Riyo was a freshman now, Rudo must've been helping out. Zanka helped unpack Riyo’s stuff and they set it up. Riyo’s side was more decorated than the other, the kind of decor a middle schooler would assume was emo but still cute. They chatted for a while until Zanka decided to stop stalling and went to his dorm.
Zanka soon found himself in his room.
He called into the room, “Hello?”
“Hey Mr. Bad-Attitude! Haven’t seen ya since graduation!” Jabber, a rival from highschool, the only time Zanka ever got in trouble was when Jabber had provoked him. Zanka was anything but excited to share a room with him. But after all, beggars can’t be choosers. He ignored Jabber while he set up his room.
Jabber studied Zanka, “You don’t look excited.” Zanka rolled his eyes. Jabber had already set up his side of the room, Zanka wasn’t gonna pretend that Jabber had no sense of design. It was surprisingly pretty looking. He must’ve been a toxicology major based on his textbooks.
Jabber was taller than Zanka by a few inches. He was pretty stylish, though his pants looked too big while they dragged behind him. He had a loose tank top that showed his chest through the sleeves, or lack of, and various piercings. It was definitely a glow up from highschool.
Zanka had always thought of Jabber as stupid, and very untrustworthy, you usually do with people you don’t like. So Zanka was having a hard time believing that Jabber had even been accepted into college, let alone allowed near poisons.
Zanka and Jabber didn’t talk for the rest of the time that Zanka was setting up, and maybe he was crazy, but it wasn’t as tense as it felt like it should be. Not to say that Zanka wasn’t still holding that grudge against him. He knew it was immature to still be mad about it but it was, at least to Zanka, the reason he didn’t get into a better college.
He made himself a snack and settled onto the couch for a minute. Honestly, he forgot he even had a roommate until Jabber came back. Jabber was actually pretty quiet, he sat on the couch next to Zanka and did some of his homework. His homescreen was a picture of him and a teal-haired girl.
“Who’s she?” Zanka pointed to the girl.
“Cthoni, my mom,” she was far too young for that though, she looked 30 at the oldest.
Usually it’s hard to talk to people you don’t like, but weirdly enough Zanka was having an easy time talking to him. It didn’t seem like senior year was even a relevant topic, it was like it never happened. This was a different person, unrelated to the relentless fighting of before. But it was so weird, and Zanka could feel it in his throat. He didn’t want to push the past away, but he doesn’t have too many friends outside of Rudo and Riyo so he didn’t want to risk it. No you have to mention it, it will only cause more problems later… Well damn what is he even talking about now? He was having a hard time regaining attention on the topic after spacing out, Jabber could probably tell but he kept talking. He was really expressive, Zanka didn’t realise you could even make half of these shapes with your face. Though no-matter how stupid the face was, he still looked pretty, which is a weird thing to think about someone you hate. I guess Jabber noticed Zanka looking at him and he grinned a bit.
He lightly touched his fingers together under his chin in a sarcastically cute way, “Horny or what? Do ya even know what I was talking about?” He was grinning too much at that assumption.
Zanka looked awkwardly side-to-side, unsure how to reply to that, “No, what?”
“Okey,” Jabber grinned and pulled his knees up to his chest, tip-tapping his feet on the couch. They started on their own tasks, uncertain how to continue that conversation.