I took a deep breath as I stared at the door, trying to calm my beating heart. I knew what was waiting on the other side of the door, and for the first time in my life, I was a bit scared.
Six months ago, I left home for university. I was only seventeen, and I turned eighteen a month after getting there. The transition was rough. I would never admit it to my friends back home, but I was a little afraid that I would never make friends. At first, I didn't fit in. Here at Ohio State, there were literally thousands of freshman roaming around, meeting one another. The school had around forty thousand undergraduates alone, and I was just one person of them.
When I got here, I was immediately swallowed by the sheer volume of people. What was I thinking, a small-town Ohio boy going to such a large school? The people in my dorm were nice, but they all went out partying every night. Me? I was a bit of a prude. I didn't really like one night stands with girls all the time. Well, I didn't even like girls at all.
Let me start over, because I can tell I'm butchering this. My name is Thomas Elliot Davidson. I moved to Ohio State. I'm a freshman studying economics. I'm from a small town, and I hate this big school. I'm antisocial and introverted, and have pretty much no friends.
My first few months were hell. My roommates were nice enough, and they got along with one another well, but I never really connected with any of them. They all went out and played football on the quad while I was inside playing computer games and watching YouTube videos. They partied all weekend while I occasionally watched a movie by myself. We couldn't be more different. The first few weeks, they tried inviting me out to grab dinner sometimes, but after I declined all their invitations, they stopped inviting me.
My classes weren't much better, either. I wanted to get away from the small town environment. I loved the excitement at Ohio State, but it was almost too much once I was here. The classes were enormous lecture halls. My smallest class was about one hundred students, and my largest was four hundred. I didn't know very many people.
After my first semester, I went home and did some soul searching. I talked a lot with my parents, well they lectured me, and they pushed me to try joining some clubs. I didn't really like a lot of these things, but I figured that it couldn't hurt anyone to go once. Then, at least my mom would stop bugging me about them.
That's how in January, a month ago, I found myself being that awkward new kid who slightly opened a door and asked if they were in the right place.
"Hi," I said, sticking my head through a small crack in the door entrance. "Is this the animation club?"
"Welcome," an older guy said, fully opening the door and pulling me in. He was taller than me at about six feet, though I was only five foot six, so it was pretty easy to do. "We're working on a design for a new game. Have you done much programming?"
"Not really," I said sheepishly. "I've done a lot of playing computer games, and my mom kept bugging me to join this organization," I immediately regretted my answer. Internally, I was cursing myself. What loser needed their mom to push them to join a club?
"Well, we could use a tester and aneye for flow," he chuckled. "What's your name?"
"Thomas."
"Well hello Thomas! I'm James. This is Dave, Samuel, and Daisy," he introduced, pointing at each in turn. Dave looked like a surfer boy straight out of a movie. Samuel was an Asian guy with huge, thick glasses. Daisy, contrary to her name, was a gothic girl. Her dark black hair was braided into two braids and she sported tons of bracelets on her wrists.
"Hey guys," I waved lamely. Before I could further embarrass myself, I sat down at a desk in the small classroom. Daisy sat to my right and there was an empty chair to my left. All four resumed looking at their computers, and I sat awkwardly, wondering what would happen next.
Suddenly, another person burst into the room.
"Sorry I'm late!" A deep, melodic, male voice panted, out of breath. "I was caught up doing some Macroeconomics homework."
He walked across the room and seemed surprised to notice me in a seat. I watched him, his dark brown hair and light brown eyes piercing into my face. "I'm Ashton. Who are you?"
"Thomas," I replied, thankful that I hadn't messed up my words.
He nodded, giving me a slight smile that instantly made my pants tighten. "Nice to meet you."
"Okay, let's get started." James announced, clapping his hands. "Daisy, did you work on the latest graphics issue with the war character?"
"Yeah, but it's still a little sketchy. I uploaded it to our project folder."
Everyone clicked around on their computers, and I glanced around the room, sliding down in my seat a little. What made me come here? I wished I could disappear.
"Here, you can look off my laptop," Ashton offered. I nodded, willing myself not to blush in embarrassment. I ducked my head a little, hoping he wouldn't notice anything amiss.
An image loaded onto Ashton's computer screen as he loaded his laptop. The desktop background was of a group of people, possibly his family or friends, at the beach. I stared at the image of a shirtless Ashton coming out of the water with droplets coming off his chest. A girl and guy stood off to his left, but I barely noticed them. Ashton's dark chest glinted in the sunlight, his Latina color seeming so alluring to me.
Ashton clicked on the desktop and brought up Chrome, breaking me out of my spell. The rest of the meeting was uneventful, but I found myself forcing myself to go back to more meetings, wanting to sit next to Ashton. Every time he spoke, his voice glided over me like waves on a beach. I could get lost in his eyes, and I was careful not to look at him too much. Even his smell drove me insane -- he had some sort of cologne on that I could smell from my seat. Everything about him excited me.
I started going out with the group more often. Occasionally Daisy brought her boyfriend and Dave brought his girlfriend to dinner outings. James, the oldest of us all as he was a senior, rarely went out to eat with us. Samuel, Ashton, and I were pathetically alone.
"So, what are your plans for tonight?" Ashton asked me as we sat down one time in the dining hall.
