Chapter Text
Mikey heard his phone clattering between the sheets with a loud buzz. He reached over to the tiny shelf on the side of his bed attempting to locate his glasses. He gripped them with his hand and shoved them onto his face.
He noticed a shirtless Frank across from him, slightly hanging off the side of his bed. Mikey reached for his still buzzing phone and pressed the stop button on his alarm. The clock read 8:31.
Mikey reached for a plush (from one of his favorite comics) from behind him. He proceeded to chuck it at Frank, who was on the other side of the dorm room.
“Huh- what? Asshole! I was sleeping.” Frank shouted, rubbing his eyes.
“Asshole.” Mikey mocked, “It’s 8:30! Don’t you have a 9 AM?”
“A wha-…?” Frank jolted, “Oh fuck, fuck I do! I don’t even know where it is.”
Mikey started laughing, “Didn’t walk your classes like I told you?”
“I did-“ Frank blinked, “Err… in my head.” He scrambled out of bed, tearing his newly furnished closet to shreds. “Fuck me.”
“Uh, no. You lost your chance.” Mikey giggled, glancing down at his phone again and opening instagram. He saw an advertisement for the fireside bowl, “Hey, we're still going to that show on- Frank!”
Mikey covered his eyes as he saw a bare ass Frank in his peripheral vision.
“What? Not the first time you’ve seen my ass.” He tugged on some underwear and skinny jeans. “Don’t you have…. class too?” Frank rolled his eyes.
“Yes, at 10. I set aside time to go to the dining hall.” Mikey hummed, now sitting up since Frank’s lower half was clothed, “Anyways, you mentioned the show. Fireside bowl? That’s a bowling alley!”
Frank put on a shirt and some chains, “And a concert venue. Come on Mikey, get with it! Yes, I would like to go. I’ve heard everyone gets into crazy fights with each other.”
Mikey blinked, “Is that your idea of fun?”
“Yeah. They’re protesting something.” Frank scrounged around for a pop-tart box and pulled a pack out. “Perfect breakfast. Room temp pop-tarts.”
He walked over to his desk, mid munching, to grab his backpack.
“I’ll see ya later. Meet for lunch?”
He walked towards the door, staring Mikey down.
“No shit, yeah. See ya.”
He rubbed his eyes, waving at Frank.
Mikey headed to the dining hall. His first class was something about the history of Cinema. He was studying film and television. Mikey was a total nerd for art, movies, animation. Only he didn’t have the skills that his brother did to draw. He was just kind of into reading, watching, and writing.
Frank on the other hand was studying music- it was production or business or something. Maybe both. Mikey was into music, he wanted to start a band. He had a bass that he didn’t quite know how to play. He wanted to play it though. Frank would probably show him at some point.
You could tell they were art students. “Art” loosely. Being in the arts college of DePaul. Music and movies are totally art. Even if neither of them could paint.
Mikey’s classmates were also artsy. He had a thing for artsy girls. One of them had a septum and an eyebrow piercing. And holy shit- he wanted her so bad.
According to Gerard though, a lot of art students are gay. Mikey had never been in a room with more than one gay person. But how does he know if a girl is gay or not? It’s not weird. Frank is bi. It’s literally just a thing.
His professor was an indie film director. He had some festival awards. But he was really funny. Something something hanging out fake id’s at freshman orientation. Side note: do not get involved with cocaine.
His next class was a gen ed: english. That wasn’t until 1:00. So he was going to meet Frank at the dining hall.
The food was good, at least to Mikey. High school food is literally terrible. At least college cafeterias have deep fryers and desserts. Sucked for Frank though- dude was basically vegan at this point. The options for him probably weren’t great.
They found themselves sitting at a trendy table in the corner of the room. Literally, trendy. It looked like an attempt to be artsy and modern. Mikey thought it was cool.
“Dude! One of my classmates owns a fucking record label. Oh- and get this, one of my other classmates has a record deal! Granted it’s like some random ass label in the middle of nowhere. But they’re beating me so hard. I just have guitar and logic and band t-shirts!” Frank held his head in his hands, shaking it, “My professor has a grammy.”
“My professor has awards too. Literally. Some of my classmates were talking about movies they were writing. Whole ass movies! That’s so intimidating…. but at least you look cool.” Mikey laughed, shaking his head.
He stared down at some mediocre pizza on his plate. Frank was eating some sort of rice and meat substitute.
“This better pay off dude-“ Frank grimaced, taking a bite into his food, “That’s a new texture. Oh fuck-“
“Don’t throw up!” Mikey waved his hands in front of Frank.
“I’m not-!”
So the tone of the day is that everyone was way more talented than them. Lovely.
English class was- well, english. He found the building. It was significantly more scary. There were frat boys and girls who were nursing majors. Horrible. There was a graphic design major in his class though.
They were doing these introductions of the sort. Name,
pronouns, major, hometown. That stuff. No one from Jersey, obviously.
And as the business chad began to speak his name, the classroom door burst open.
“Oh, professor, I’m so so sorry!”
In came a disheveled boy. Holding onto a skateboard. He had a tight t shirt that looked like a home-made band tee. Vans. Vans are a good sign. He had locs, they were brown but bleached at the end. I admire people with dyed hair. He kinda looks punk like Frank.
“The train- um, it was delayed. Sorry! Wait- no. I mean- I commute. Hi. Yeah, train got delayed while I was on my way to campus.” He offered a smile.
“Oh. What’s your name?” She looked at him.
“Pete. Wentz.” He propped his skateboard up against the wall and took one of the only seats left- dead center. I was sitting in the back.
“Talk to me after class-“ She spoke sternly.
Who takes a skateboard on a train? A bit ironic, no? Like a bike on a bus. But I always thought skating was cool. And he probably lives far away. I wonder what band is on his t-shirt. Something death-
Anyways, they finished the introductions. I was one of the first people to go. Got it out of the way. We started reading a story about a library that got stolen from. Sucks for the library. We have homework, answering questions.
It’s like kind of giving high school but with a weird workload. I dunno.
I had one more class after english that was like, a freshman only class. It was kind of fun for the first day. Everyone in my class was an arts student somehow.
We were put into groups of four and we had 5 minutes to come up with a presentation about college. Just college. There was this kid in my group, Gabe. He was a music student too.
And… there was a girl. And a… non binary? Person? I don’t know. They were pretty though. Handsome. Don’t ask me! But the two of them were animation majors.
I just feel intimidated, like everyone has such cool aspirations and I’m over here mansplaining Jaws and like the Star Wars franchise. And Smashing Pumpkins.
I’m a huge nerd. I’m reading comics, watching movies and listening to music. All the time. And the occasional video game. I was never like.. athletic. Guess you could probably figure that I’m a virgin, but I’m not an incel! I’ve technically, not so technically dated two people.
Anyways, when we presented we like- alternated slides. Mine was about college being cool and fun or something. I’ve only been here a few days but sure it’s fun for now.
Frank and I met back up again for dinner. I think I grabbed a burger and mac n cheese. He had a salad. I was drinking fruit punch. It was decently good.
We were sitting down, and I began to tell him about my other classes,
“It was so unserious- we had memes on our slideshow and the whole class thought it was funny. But there were like, these two dudes. They reminded me of you, they looked all punk and stuff-“
“Ooh! Mikey, you’ve got to do me a favor and hook me up with them-“ Frank said as he shoveled lettuce into his mouth.
“Hold on- what if I want to be friends with them?” I raised my eyebrows and watched him.
He swallowed his salad, “You’re not punk.”
“I can be punk!” I scoffed, “I like punk music. You’ve met my brother. Besides, you’re taking me to this show on Friday.”
“We’ll see if you’re really punk then, hm?” Frank teased me, patting my shoulder.
We both went back to our dorm, and we kind of stayed up until 11 playing video games. Of course, we went to sleep afterwards.
It’s one of those nights where I just can’t fall asleep without a thought in my head. I have to be distracted to fall asleep. And it’s got me thinking how I’ve been adjusting, away from home. Frank was my best friend in high school, I’m lucky that he’s here in college with me. I was horrible at making friends when I was younger.
It feels like there’s so many people who are cooler than me. Frank too. I don’t know. How do I make friends? More friends. I have new classes tomorrow, I guess. Maybe I could join a club. We’re going to that concert anyway. I dunno. Fuck.