Chapter Text
Alex’s new roommate was supposed to arrive today. He hoped whoever he was he’d be better than the last guy who’d stolen all of Alex’s dishes and never washed them. The asshole.
He sighed, flopping over onto the brown couch lazily and pulling a pumpkin themed blanket around himself. All his motivation for the day was gone after a nearly three hour long lecture but he still had papers to write.
He was about to shuffle through the endless piles of rough drafts with a highlighter and pen again when a knock sounded at the door.
He called out, “it’s unlocked!”
A blonde head poked through the doorway.
“Erm hi, I’m your new roommate-Henry, I believe we spoke on the phone..”
Alex’s eyes bulged. So this was Henry. He’d thought he sounded like a prick on the phone but now maybe he had to reevaluate.
The tall blonde shuffled awkwardly through the door, his arms full of boxes. He had shoulders for days, a long pale neck, and clear blue eyes matching the blue sweater snug across his chest under a white button up shirt like some British wet dream. The cheap fluorescent lighting caught his fine blonde hair and made it glow. Alex couldn’t help but think how out of place Henry looked with his smart accent and crisp school boy clothes in Alex’s dingy apartment.
Henry cleared his throat. Right, Alex should help him with the boxes.
He jumped off the couch and moved towards his new roommate. He leaned forward to take some of the boxes from him,
“Let me just help you with that,” he said, fumbling around trying to get a grip on the heavy packages.
Henry let him, leaning back and out of the way, his arms relinquishing their grip on the upper boxes. Their hands rubbed together as Alex took the boxes from him and he felt an electric jolt pass through his body up his spine.
“Um.” Was all Alex could say. Eloquent.
“So I’ll just pop this stuff down then,” Henry said, taking charge and moving down the short hall towards the bedrooms.
Alex nodded, “yeah, yeah, your room is over there.”
He helped Henry navigate the doorway with the boxes and set them down on the bare bed. The room held a bed, a blank desk facing out the windows with a distant view of campus, an empty built-in closet, and Henry.
Henry who was still looking at Alex expectantly.
“Did you want to grab a bite to eat or something?” Henry asked.
“Sure!” Alex said and he sounded a little too thrilled even to his own ears. Damn it Diaz. He wasn’t even sure if ‘grabbing a bite to eat’ was solidly in the territory of things roommates do but whatever, maybe Henry wanted to be friends with the person he’d see everyday. Alex was more than ok with that.
Henry grabbed his phone and wallet and they set off walking down the stairs and out of the apartment building. Alex’s apartment was close enough to campus so that they had a good selection of lunch spots to choose from. They ended up at a popular sandwich place famous for their fries.
As they stood in front of the counter ordering their sandwiches it started to rain. Hard. Like pouring down, wind whipping, almost Texas level rain.
Henry glanced out the windows nervously,
“I haven’t got a jacket with me..” he said, chuckling uncomfortably.
Alex laughed heartily, “sweetheart if you think this is rain you haven’t been to Texas.”
Sweetheart. If Henry noticed his mistake he didn’t let on, instead laughing with Alex and admitting that no he hadn’t been to Texas. Maybe Henry didn’t think it was that weird though, after all he came from a place where everyone called each other ‘love’ all the time.
They took seats at a booth across from each other and swapped stories, getting to know each other. Henry told him he was from Whales and Alex told him about Texas and they laughed when they found out they both had younger sisters who were determined to embarrass them.
Alex found himself talking more with this random roommate then he realized he had talked to anyone besides June in a while. Maybe June was right and he did need more friends. The thought made him scowl and he bit into another cheese-covered fry aggressively.
After they finished and paid the rain still hadn’t let up but Henry had classes to get to and Alex had his paper to write that he’d procrastinated on for too long so they decided to just make a run for it through the rain.
“Ready?” Alex asked as they stood at the front door. Henry nodded grimly.
He shoved the double doors open and they darted into the cold rain.
He gasped as his shoes smacked down into a puddle on the sidewalk and Henry laughed.
“Oh you think that’s funny?” Alex grumbled, running faster to try to keep up with Henry and his long legs.
Henry turned and grinned at him but wasn’t looking where he was going and ran straight under the gross drain pipe run off from a frat house.
“Oh ew it’s in my hair isn’t it?” The man exclaimed, swatting at his hair to try and get it off, making an expression close to a little kid who’d dropped their ice cream.
Alex’s face turned red from laughter and he had to slow down once again.
Finally they made it, ducking into the lobby of Alex’s apartment and gasping for breath. Henry shook his head from side to side like a wet dog, blonde hair spraying droplets of water onto Alex.
“Hey!” He said, shoving Henry away from him.
“Sorry,” Henry said sheepishly, smiling wryly.
Alex shook his head in disbelief.
The elevator arrived and they stood in the metal chamber a little awkwardly after the events of the afternoon. When they reached Alex’s floor Henry practically catapulted himself out of the elevator and muttered something about needing to shower off and get warm. Alex nodded at his retreating back.
He wanted to remind him that he had class soon but figured Henry already knew and was choosing to show up late but dry.
As the bathroom door clicked shut and the shower turned on Alex sighed, facing his piles of papers grimly.
As he started flipping through them and highlighting passages though, there was only one person on his mind.
The shower turned off.