Chapter Text
It was Jeremy Heere’s first day of college. As he wandered through the lived-in corridors of, well, wherever he was, he stopped in front of room…503? He was in room 714. Great. Jeremy hadn't had the best high school years. Besides the fact he was what most would consider a Monumental Loser™, he really didn't have any friends. But college is where the losers and the nerds ruled, right? Maybe. That's what his favorite YouTuber Mellowmode always said. “Guys like me are cool in college!” And who better to trust than a stranger on the internet! Anyway. He couldn't find his dorm room, not to mention he didn't even KNOW his roommate, and, oh, did he tell you, he couldn't find his dorm room? How wonderful.
He'd hoped this would be a new start. Maybe he'd find a friend or two. But he found that hard to believe, when he couldn't even find his–
“Excuse me, do you know where East Hall is? My dorm is there.”
Jeremy spun around, barely avoiding a strangled choking noise. It was just another student. He could handle another student. Maybe.
Jeremy paused. “That’s, uhm, where my dorm is too. Is this, ah, not East Hall?”
“I don't think so…” said the girl. Odd. Jeremy would've sworn he was in East Hall. “Wait a minute! I think I've got the campus map!”
She shrugged her backpack off, and started digging around. After a few seconds, she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper that looked as if it may have survived both world wars, and smoothed it on her skirt.
“There we goooo…. yeah! I passed that building on my way here!” She pointed to a rectangle on the map. “I must've taken a wrong turn. I'm Christine, by the way.”
The girl, Christine, stuck out her hand. Jeremy tentatively shook it. Oh God, his hands were sweaty. Did Christine notice that? She definitely noticed that.
“I’m Jeremiah– Jeremy. I'm Jeremy. So, uh, what– what room are you in?” Jeremy was surprised he managed to get any words out at all.
“709, I think.” He liked the way she said it. Seven-oh-nine, rather than seven hundred and nine. “You?”
“Nice! We’re by each other! Well, I'd assume. I'm uh, 712.” Seven-twelve.
“Oh, yay!” Christine chirped, spinning on her heel and bounding down the hallway. She stopped suddenly. “You coming?”
“OH– oh, right, yeah! Coming!”
Maybe college wasn't going to be so bad after all.
°°°
It didn't take long to locate East Hall now that they had the map. Once they'd gotten their bags in their respective rooms, Christine turned to Jeremy.
“I've gotta go get the rest of my stuff, see you around, Jeremy!”
“See you!..” He called after her. She was pretty far away now, he doubted she had heard him. So fast for such short legs, he thought, walking back to his own car. Well, his own rental.
He grabbed his last bag and tossed it over his shoulder. Unfortunately, the bag tossed him with it. He scrambled to his feet. Hopefully nobody saw that.
When he got back to his room, he paused. The door was wide open. Odd. He must've forgotten to shut it. He quickly unpacked most of his stuff. It wasn't until he heard what could only be described as “commotion” outside his door that he remembered he had a roommate.
Bang. Jeremy heard a muffled yell. “GAH, fuck this,” Thud, thud. Something fell on the other side of the door.
Jeremy sprang up and opened the door. He was met with a small guy, carrying probably twice his body weight worth of stuff, and dropping a decent amount of it.
“The door was open for a reason, Tallass.” He spoke with a slight lisp.
Jeremy wanted to shrink into himself, but he hadn't quite mastered the art of disappearing yet, so standing there awkwardly would do. “Oh, I uh– sorry. Uhm. Yeah, sorry.”
The guy dropped his mountain of stuff on the other half of the room, and turned to Jeremy, and froze. “You. Are not Jake.”
Jeremy almost forgot to respond. “I'm Jeremy.”
“He probably didn't turn in the form on time…”
“Oh. That's…” Jeremy couldn't think of anything to say. So much for first impressions.
“Goddamnit Jake,” the guy said, more to himself than anyone else. “Well, I'm Rich.”
“Uhm, nice to m-meet you. Sorry you're not, ah, rooming with the person you wanted to.”
“S'all good.”
Jeremy tugged at his sleeve.
“I guess that makes us roommates, huh? Ya’ better be cool.” Rich had already started unpacking. Jeremy joined him.
Jeremy tensed. “I'm not really known for being… cool.”
Rich gestured at the half unrolled poster sticking out of Jeremy's bag. “Anyone who likes Ocarina of Time is pretty cool in my books.”
Maybe Mellowmode was right.
“I brought the game with me, maybe we could, uhm, play sometime?” Jeremy replied, somewhat timidly.
“Yeah man! Sounds fun. Oh yeah, I never asked, what's your major?”
Oh no. Jeremy had hoped that wouldn't come up. For someone with a very out there major, he wasn't very out there himself. “Uh, musical theatre.”
“That's sick as fuck dude!”
What? “What?”
“Yeah! Sounds fun as hell.”
“O-oh, yeah it is. Lots of singing. It's, ah, like High School Musical, but it's actually nothing like High School Musical.”
“Dope.”
“What about you?”
“Social work. I wanna help kids in bad situations.”
“That's… really cool.”
After a pause, Rich returned to unpacking. Jeremy was pretty sure he saw him put an entire full duffel bag inside a drawer. Whatever speeds it up, he supposed.
Jeremy unpacked what was left of his stuff, pausing when he noticed Rich hanging a large bisexual pride flag on his side of the room.
Rich noticed Jeremy looking and narrowed his eyes. “...Is this gonna be a problem?”
Jeremy blinked. “NO! Nonono, I, uh, I'm bi too.”
“Nice.” Rich said, as a relieved grin spread across his face.
“No homophobia here! Haha…” Jeremy gave a weak thumbs up. He should just stop talking.
Rich hung the flag.
“I'm tired. I'll finish unpacking in the morning,” he said, already changing into pajamas, “don't let me sleep past noon.”
“O–okay, do you mind if I watch some YouTube?” Jeremy quickly added, “I'll wear headphones!”
“Knock yourself out. I sleep like a LOG.”
And sure enough, shortly after, Rich was no longer conscious.
Jeremy pulled out his laptop and smiled to himself. For the first day in the dorms, things had been pretty good. He'd say he even made a friend or two. Dad would be proud, he thought. He'd have to call his dad sometime this weekend.
Jeremy took note of that, and went to the page of his favorite YouTuber. His most recent video looked interesting, it was a game Jeremy had seen before. I’d probably watch it even if it looked super boring, Jeremy thought, and he clicked play.
“HOW'S IT HANGING! Mellowmode here. Today we're playing Escape the Backrooms which chat has been BEGGING me to play for like, three months, so... sorry it's taken this long, I'm lazy."
The video had no facecam, but Jeremy could see the mouse cursor bouncing up and down excitedly onscreen.
“Uh, heads up, next week's video might be late? I'm moving into my dorm soon. So if I disappear it's because my roommate murdered me or I forgot how to use campus WiFi. Probably both.”
Jeremy always found it cool he was the same age as Mellowmode. It just made him that much more relatable. Jeremy hated to admit it, but Mellowmode videos had gotten him through some tough times. He was like a teenage girl with Taylor Swift music.
After about an hour of the video, Jeremy paused and decided he'd watch the rest tomorrow. Right now, he had to get some sleep. First day done, and he had only gotten lost once. That’d have to count for something, right?