Chapter Text
Ralph was angry.
Ralph was beyond angry. Pissed, raging, fuming. It was practically radiating off him as he stormed through the hall. He turned the final corner down the hallway leading to his dorm and stomped his way to the door. He opened the door to his shared dorm and slammed it shut behind him, startling Nicky out of his homework daze.
“Jesus- Ralph! Don’t slam the door so suddenly.” The boy with glasses looked up, but reeled back at the sight of the pure, unfiltered rage in Ralphs’ eyes.
“Did you know?” Ralph slammed his hands down on Nickys’ desk, who in turn, put his hands up and sank further into his chair.
“Ralph-?! What on earth are you on about?”
“You know what I’m on about!” He snapped.
“No I don’t!” Nicky snapped back.
Ralph took a deep breath and counted to five, trying to calm himself down. He was being irrational, definitely.
“Jack! That prick! Bloody twat! That absolute-“
“Ralph,” Nicky stood up and put his hand out at Ralph like he was a startled animal and about to bite him, which Nicky was partially convinced he would. “Calm down, what are you talking about? What did Jack do?”
The blond boy stood back and huffed, recollecting his thoughts.
“Today, during English, Jack passed me a note, which was strange enough because since when did Jack fucking Meriden pass me notes, and it was out of the blue and all-“
“Ralph.” Nickys’ fed up voice cut through Ralph’s odd rambles. Had the boy lost control of his tongue?
“Right- sorry. He passed me a note, telling me to check my locker,” Ralph walked to his bed and back to the shorter boy, “so obviously I panicked and said I needed to go to the bathroom and ran to my locker.”
Nicky nodded along, becoming increasingly worried for the stories end. The two boys had been at each other’s throats since year 6. They hated, despised one another.
Yet they had… an odd rivalry, to put it simply. There were moments in their relationship everybody saw as unusually endearing. They were strangely possessive of each other. If anyone else tried to even insult Ralph, suddenly Roger would be after them. Everyone assumed it was Jack who sent him after them, after all Roger was one of his lackeys.
Ralph unexpectedly behaved similarly. Once, in year 8, Ralph and Nicky caught wind of two boys in their year planning to jump Jack for being a prissy, stuck up prick (which nobody could argue against). However, on the day it was planned for, the boys had unexpectedly found Jack nowhere to be seen, but they had found themselves at the mercy of Roger, Maurice, Bill, and Robert. (Roger has done the most beating-up. Many people believed Bill, Robert and Maurice were only there for moral support, as Roger was a terror and completely capable on his lonesome). Nobody knew what actually happened, but no one ever tried to plan to jump Jack after the boys landed in the hospital.
People passed it off as an intercepted plan from the choir boys, but Nicky believed otherwise.
“And my locker was a mess! My books were all crinkled and my papers were missing and scattered, and my pencil case was gone! I can’t believe him.” Ralph was pacing around, somewhere between angry and stressed. “So I rushed back to class and when it ended Jack slipped away like a bloody alley cat! I couldn’t find him all day. So I’m going to his dorm to confront him. And you’re coming with me!” Ralph grinned, revelling in his apparently ingenious plan, his anger momentarily forgotten.
Nicky took a few beats to process what he had just been told before whipping his head to Ralph in alarm.
“What?!” His voice pitched an octave or two higher, “I am not coming to confront Merridew with you! Leave me out of your drama, I’m going back to my homework.”
“But Nicky-“ Ralph whined.
“No!” And with that he went back to his homework, sitting back at his desk and leaving no room for objection or discussion.
“Whatever.” Ralph scowled and stormed out of the dorm, angrier than when he entered.
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Jacks’ stupid dorm was so far away, a whole two stories above his. He sped walked through the hallway, up two flights of stairs, and through another hallway.
His thoughts were racing with Jack. Stupid Jack and his stupid red hair that stuck up in off directions and how he was never able to tame it, and his stupidly handsome freckled face and his stupid posh, stuck up attitude. Stupid, annoying Jack.
How could he get Jack back? It had to be perfect, something that would tell Jack to shove off and really get a taste of karma. Maybe he’d rip up his books? Draw on his walls? Burn his choir cap?
No, he’d throw his bedding out the window. He looked over at a window he was passing and saw it was raining. Lashing. That would be perfect, the embarrassment of having to drag himself outside, pick up his soaking wet blanket and pillows, and drag them all the way up four flights of stairs. Let his bedding get soaked so he’d sleep on the floor or with a sopping blanket. That arsehole deserves it, Ralph thought to himself, his pencil case is still missing.
As he came before Jacks dorm door, he considered knocking before deciding Jack wasn’t worth the courtesy. He slammed the door open, and slammed it closed behind him, angrily snapping at Jack.
“Oi, prick, I can’t believe-“ The words died in his throat as he saw an empty Jacks’ side of the room, and a not empty side of his roommates.
He looked around and saw two blazers lay discarded on the floor, along with a tie, three shoes (where was the fourth one?), and a school bag. He watched in surprise as Jacks roommate, Maurice, jump up and whip his head around to look at Ralph, like he was guilty of something. Ralph noticed his hair was disheveled, he had red- seemingly bitten- lips, he was missing his tie and his shirt was wrinkled and messily untucked.
Had he been.. making out with someone?! Had he managed to sneak some lass onto the school grounds after class? How did he manage that?
Ralph found that his questions were quickly answered as he watched an equally, if not more, disheveled blond head pop up beside Maurice.
Eric? No, Sam? Sam had a mole above his lip, yeah that was Sam.
SAM?!?
Ralph looked from an awkwardly smiling Maurice to a scared looking Sam. Nobody moved and they all just stared at each other in silence and horror at what Ralph had walked into. They both jerked up and untangled their legs, moving so fast as if to erase the comprising position they had been in moments before.
Had Sam and Maurice been making out in Maurices’ bed?
After another uncomfortable beat of silence, Sam suddenly lurched towards Ralph, attempting to flatten his hair.
“Ralph! Hey mate, what are you doing here?” He grabbed Ralph by his shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes. Sam had never been scary or threatening in the slightest, he was a bundle of sugar and sweetness, yet Ralph swore he almost pissed himself looking into Sam’s eyes in that moment.
“What. Are. You. Doing. Here.” Sam put emphasis on every word, slowly pulling Ralph in by his shoulders. Up close, Ralph could see Sam’s tie had been loosed and hung limp around his neck, and his shirt had been unbuttoned a few centimetres below his collarbones.
He looked with poorly concealed horror at the bite mark indented on the right side of Sam’s neck. He quickly decided to look no further for fear of seeing, god forbid, a hickey.
“Were you two making out?” Ralph blurted out before he could stop himself. It’s not like he would judge, he’s not homophobic, oh far from it. He had actually came to terms with his bisexuality months ago, with some help of friendly snogging with Simon after a few stolen drinks once. Ok, maybe more than once.
“Christ- yes, Ralph. We were making out, and you interrupted.” Maurice was a goofy, first-to-make-everyone-laugh, class clown type who never took anything seriously in every situation possible. Yet now, he was deadpanning Ralph with what seemed to be barely concealed annoyance dripping of every word.
“Oh. Sorry- I didn’t- I was just-“ Ralph stumbled over his words, struggling to explain his intrusion, prying Sam’s hands off his shoulders. “I’m looking for Jack.”
“He’s in Roger and Simon’s dorm.” Maurice said, still sitting on his bed with his arms now crossed. “What do you need him for?”
“He trashed my locker and stole my pencil case.” Ralph explained.
“That pencil case?” Maurice pointed at a black pencil case covered in footballs, sitting discarded on Jacks bed. Well it certainly wasn’t Jacks, it was Ralph’s.
“Oh.” Ralph’s eyebrows raised in surprise, it wasn’t in a bin somewhere throughout the school or burnt to a crisp in the yard. “Yes actually, that is mine.”
He stepped around a still glaring Sam and grabbed it, turning and making a beeline for the door for a swift escape. Just as he grabbed the knob, he felt a hand grab his arm.
“Wait.” Sam pulled him back around, now looking worried. “Don’t..” he hesitated for a moment and then whispered, as if he didn’t want Maurice to hear him.
“Don’t tell Eric. Please. I’m waiting for the right time to tell him about.. me, and I don’t know how he’ll react, and I know he’ll always support and love me but it’s still a big thing and-“
Ralph cut him off, smiling both nervously and sympathetically.
“Hey don’t worry, I won’t say a thing.” He looked behind Sam and he saw Maurice staring at Sam out of the corner of his eye.
“Thanks Ralph.” Sam pulled him into a hug tightly, and then shoved him promptly out the door.
He blinked for a second at the closed door in front of him, holding his pencil case to his chest.
Sam, a certified study-aholic, sweetheart and one of Ralph’s best friends ever, was messing around with Maurice, possibly the biggest procrastinating slacker in the whole of England. Not to mention he was best mates with Jack Merridew, and Ralph didn’t trust anyone who hung around him.
Speaking of, he still had to find that bloody ginger.