Author's Note: The events of this story are fictitious and are not based on any specific real people. I've tried to do something a little different for once and build up the characters and story more than usual. So this chapter is a bit of a slow burn to start.
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My name is Noah. I've lived in Virginia my whole life. Not that my whole life is that long. I only just turned 19 last August, just before the start of my first semester at a local university. Well, I say local, but it's a good half hour drive on a low-traffic day. My parents and I decided that it would be best if I got a dorm on campus.
I'm a total mommy's boy, so it was hard adjusting to the loneliness at first. I had one roommate, naturally, but he turned out to a be bit of a weirdo. Although the major issue was that he was a dickish weirdo. Luckily, he up and disappeared after the fall semester. I don't know if he is still going to this university or if he transferred or dropped out. We never got close enough to get to the point of keeping any tabs on each other.
I had a small hope at the start of this spring semester that I'd have the whole place to myself. But then another guy got put with me. His name's Michael and he's a black dude who is two years older than me.
I don't want you to think I'm a racist for pointing out he's black. It wasn't really something I expected though. For context, I'm a shrimpy little white boy who went to a high school with probably a max of 50 kids who weren't also white. I stopped growing at 5'7'', I currently weigh about 130 pounds, and I'm basically the textbook definition of a baby-faced twink. I was more afraid of doing something to offend Michael than afraid of him doing something to me like beating me up or stealing my stuff since I've barely ever talked to a black person before.
My parents nearly had a panic attack when I let it slip in casual conversation. My dad didn't say anything, but I usually get the feeling he's got some secret prejudices even though he doesn't usually say anything outwardly to people. My mom was scared until I managed to convince her that Michael hadn't tried to get me to do drugs with him. It was hard to keep a straight face while thinking about the fact that I had already tried marijuana a few times back in high school. The talk was a lot easier than when I came out as gay back in senior year. When that happened, my dad just nodded and scratched his beard thoughtfully without saying anything, but my mom fainted over the couch.
Anyway, enough about my loveable yet somewhat ignorant parents. The more important point is that Michael turned out to be a lot cooler than my first roommate, although it wasn't exactly a high bar for him to pass honestly. He likes to tease me and make fun of me a lot but it's always in the way that you can tell he just likes giving people shit in a playful way instead of trying to tear people down. I guess he took a couple years off after high school to support his family by working. Now he's at university to study electrical engineering or some such thing while still working. I wish I could work a job during the semester too but I'm a lazy couch potato.
Anyway, we're opposites of each other in several ways. I want to go to medical school, he wants to be an electrician or engineer or something. He's pretty tall at 5'11'' compared to me at least. We're both pretty fit, although in different ways. I used to do soccer back in grade school but now I mostly just run and swim casually. I don't think he's played any sports but he really likes to go to the gym and lift weights. He even has a bunch of dumbbells in his room. As a result, his arms and chest look pretty defined whereas I'm mostly just lean. We're both big video game players and we've been bonding a lot over a bunch of console games, most recently the new Smash Bros where we're both evenly matched.
He's a big party guy, and I'm more of a shy guy who just likes to hang out with a few friends. Michael invited me to a handful of parties after the first few weeks of getting to know each other, but I kept turning him down. Now I'm too anxious to ask to go with him again. He always tells me the stories of hilarious events that seem to go down at every party he goes too. He's a really great storyteller and he his comedic timing and impressions are spot-on. I always love listening to Michael talk about what he's been up to or about the stuff he's learning about, since he always seems really excited and I like seeing him smile. And I love it when he walks around the dorm now and then with his shirt off...
Wow. Listen to me I'm like a middle school girl. Yeah it might be pretty obvious by this point, but my roommate is really fucking hot and I might have something of a crush on him. The only problem is the last and most important opposite quality of us both: I'm gay but he's straight...
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Yep. Why are all the hot guys always straight? Or at least all my crushes have always turned out to be straight in the past. At least with Michael it came out early on before I had even started thinking about him like that. I figure it's smart to let your roommates know you're gay or bi or trans or whatever really quick so you can find out if they have a problem with it so you can try to find a different roommate. Roommate #1 never said anything homophobic to my face but I could tell it bothered him. Michael didn't even blink when I asked if it would be a problem. He just said, "Nah man that's pretty chill" and then asked me if I had a boyfriend and then talked a bit about his girlfriend.
I met her once and she seemed alright. They broke up pretty soon into the semester and Michael didn't really seem too miserable about it. Just bummed for a few weeks. At the moment, I'm pretty sure he's still single but he comes back late at night and tells me about girls he's been talking to or hooking up with. I don't know if he's a total player or if he's stretching the truth sometimes. He's certainly attractive enough for his success rate to be true.
I've never had a boyfriend, although I did kiss a guy once in high school. Of course, I only realized I was gay around the time of my junior year, so I haven't had a lot of time to find a guy to date. Michael's always asking me every couple of weeks if I started dating any hot guys and then when I tell him no he says something encouraging like "Ah man. You gotta catch those studs Noah." The truth is I haven't even really tried to find anyone so far at the university. I don't really mind being single that much, and I have enough friends nearby to keep myself socially occupied.
Wow. You probably think I'm the kind of person who never shuts up, but face to face I'm really not this annoying and long-winded. Anyway, enough of my backstory. I'm not a superhero origin movie, so let's skip ahead to the part you really care about, towards the end of my first spring semester...
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It was a Friday, my longest day with the most classes. I finished my last one around 2:45 and arrived back at our dorm for the last time that day. Michael was already there when I got home and eating some tacos. He gave me a little signal with his fingers that probably meant "sup" while he continued to chow down. I mimed stealing one of his tacos and then went to put my backpack away and grabbed some clothes before hopping in the shower.
Once clean, I did some obnoxious online homework for a while and then went to the common space where Michael was playing and then we played Smash Bros for a couple hours. Michael told me he was going to a party a mile or two away that night. He said he was probably going to get drunk and most likely wouldn't be back until after midnight, but he'd try to be quiet when he got home. I just nodded and said "alright" like I usually do.
