Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 20:29:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jo Jo <crossingboi2004@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Living Years Chap.3 "Just Another Day"

Disclaimer: The following story contains activity that would be
considered of homosexual nature between consenting college students.
While none of it crosses into a gratuitous nature, if such material is
offensive to you or you are not of the legal age to read such material in
your area, please do not. Other than that, please enjoy the story!



The Living Years


Chapter 3 "Just Another Day"



"Sorry..." Trey mumbled, after accidentally bumping into Shawn.

It was to be expected however, since the sink was so small. That and the
fact that they were now permanent roommates.

Admittedly, it had been a shock for both of them to find out that they'd
be rooming together yet again. Shocking and awkward. Now anyways.

They'd both done well to avoid talking about their situation over the
weekend. Or each other.

Ben had been keeping Shawn pretty busy, dragging him to all sorts of
campus events all weekend. Trey, hadn't left the dorm room much since
Friday night and still had no friends.

But now, now it was actually time to start living in reality. Because
today was the actual first day of classes.

Both of them had early morning classes, thus the reason why they were
both up getting ready.

There was pretty much an awkward silence filling the room as they both
worked to get ready.

Shawn was brushing his teeth and Trey was looking through his clothes
trying to decide what to wear.

Back home, he'd always had to dress a certain way just so he wasn't
picked on. But now, now he was free to dress how he wanted. People paid
to come here and no one really cared how he dressed. Or at least, that's
the way he saw it.

It wasn't just picking out his clothes, any ones he wanted, any way he
wanted to wear them, that had him feeling nervous. It was picking them
out near Shawn.

For some reason, he felt as though he had to pick out the best outfit he
could so that Shawn wouldn't think of him as being some poorly dressed
loser, worse than he probably already thought him to be.

He still felt so trapped when he was around Shawn just because he felt
like Shawn really didn't like him. It was strange because, he felt
somewhat connected to Shawn.

He didn't want to be feeling that way about his own roommate, but that
was the way it was.

"Your turn," Shawn mumbled, as he finished up at the sink.

Shawn had taken his shower the night before, after having been dragged
all around campus by Ben, he'd been pretty dirty and smelly.

And he'd already picked out his clothes and had them ironed, so he was
pretty much ready. Ready and nervous, as he felt the butterflies in his
stomach fluttering at full speed.

He was at college. It still hadn't sunk in for him that he was studying
courses that would help him for his future career. It hadn't sunk in that
he was completely on his own from here on out.

But he had plenty of time to think about that later. Now, now he was
feeling hungry. And he was done with everything.

He looked over at Trey, debating whether or not to invite him to come to
the cafeteria with him. Whatever.....feelings...he may have had for Trey,
it still didn't change anything. Trey was still a loser.

"Uh...I'll be back," he decided to say instead.

He realized that he didn't have to say anything at all, but he didn't
want to just take off leaving Trey to wonder whether or not he was coming
back just because it was rude.

Trey looked up at Shawn but didn't speak.

Shawn just took it to reinforce the fact that Trey really was a loser and
left without saying anything else.

Trey let out a sigh and sat on the edge of the bed, wondering why he felt
the connection to Shawn that he did.

He had a long year ahead of him and this was only day one.
***********************************************************************

"Pillow fight covered in jello? Okay!" Jesse mumbled.

Amber smiled over Jesse before shaking him awake gently.

Jesse opened his eyes quickly before shutting them again, moaning.

"God, sometimes being a vampire in the morning is perfectly okay," he
mumbled in a raspy morning voice.

"Sorry," Amber spoke, getting up. "But I thought you said something about
having a morning class today?"

"No that's Monday," Jesse replied, wrapping himself in some more of his
covers.

"It is Monday, Jesse," Amber replied, brushing her hair as she looked out
her large window. "As in the first day of school."

Jesse let the statement sink in as he thought about it. He'd spent all of
his weekend going to parties and following the girls around. Everyday was
a party for him, so the days all just kind of blended together.

"Ugh..." he groaned, sitting himself up.

He really didn't even want to be here just because he wasn't ready to
start doing actual work, but he was curious to see what college classes
would be like. It was the only thing keeping him from going back to sleep
and blowing off his morning classes.

"God I'm so nervous, aren't you?" Amber asked.

Jesse got out of bed and walked into the bathroom, not bothering to close
the door behind him. He figured, plenty enough girls had seen what he had
to offer, so he didn't care about adding Amber to the list.

"Well I'm still tired, if that means anything at all," he replied,
beginning to take his much needed piss. "I stay up late but don't usually
get up early."

"That's the way I felt when I started going to cheerleading practice in
the mornings. But then my captain was all like, 'Amber you can't come to
practice tired in the mornings' and I was all like 'But Tiffani-"

Jesse hadn't heard the rest as her words were drowned out after he
flushed the toilet and took the liberty of shutting the door this time.

He could easily tell that Amber wasn't exactly the brightest of all the
girls he'd ever met, but she was still hot and his roommate, so he was
just going to have to deal with her.

"Anyways, I've been getting up early for years now, so it doesn't bother
me," Jesse could hear Amber say as she walked into the bathroom.

"Hey, I what if I was in here naked?" Jesse spoke, not really all that
upset.

"Hey you're not supposed to even be here, remember?" Amber spoke.
"Besides, seeing you naked would be a good thing."

Jesse wasn't going to argue with that statement.

"Truer words have never been spoken, my dear," Jesse spoke, as he left
the bathroom in order to figure out what he was going to wear on his
first day of class.
***********************************************************************

Noah didn't even have to wait for his alarm clock to go off. He was
already up.

He'd been up all night, basically. And not because he was particularly
excited about the first day of classes. No, he'd been kept awake. By his
roommate and his snoring.

Jeremy was still asleep and snoring even now. He figured as much,
considering the fact that he was a sophomore, which probably meant he had
a different set of classes altogether and was on a different time
schedule.

He didn't care either way. Jeremy was a semi overweight nerdy loser who
spent most of his free time playing video games on his giant Alienware
computer.

That was basically all that Noah knew about Jeremy, or all that he cared
to know for that matter.

What he knew now was that it was time for his first class of the day,
Music Appreciation 1000. He never really got excited the day before a new
school year because the way he saw it, he was still having to go to
school, and eventually, the excitement factor of living a 'new' year,
wears off.

Today was no different for him. He'd already told himself that he just
wanted to get in and get out of college. So far, he'd gotten in, but now
he wanted to make sure he graduated.

School, was still just school.

That's what he thought about as he quietly worked to get ready. Not
because he didn't want to be rude, but because he didn't want to be
around when Jeremy woke up. Their conversations had been limited to
discussing the finer points in the Pokemon series, a topic that nearly
bored Noah to tears.

Jeremy wasn't a bad guy, he just wasn't an interesting one.

And he wasn't^Å.Trey for that matter.

As much as Noah wanted to tell himself that he didn't want to think
about Trey, the truth was that he couldn't stop his thoughts, no matter
how hard he tried.

And now that he was about to start his first day of class, he was even
wondering whether or not he'd run into Trey during the day.

Given the sheer size of the campus itself, that was an unlikely
possibility. That and the fact that Trey might have even switched
schools.

It was a ridiculous notion, but he had had a lot of time to think about
what he figured was going to happen to him while he attended college.

As he grabbed his backpack and quietly crept out of the room, he noticed
a familiar face.

"Hey," he smiled.

He'd only known Zoey a short amount of time, but he was already
beginning to feel as though he'd be able to call her a friend soon.

In a lot of ways, she kind of reminded him of Sabrina.

"Hey," Zoey replied, as she turned the key in the knob of the door to
her room.

"So I got saddled with a couple of early morning classes," Noah
started, as he joined Zoey at her side.

It was funny, he'd usually only seen Zoey looking extremely `artsy'
and average. Not to say that she wasn't a good looking girl, which he
was certainly taking notice of now that she looked a little different.

Gone were the thick black `artsy' glasses. She must have been wearing
contacts.

Her hair was even done differently.

And as far as her attire went, while she wasn't dressed all that
differently, the particular style just altogether made her look
attractive to him.

"It would have been so much better for me if you'd have just let me
think you were stalking me," Zoey smiled, putting her keys into he
jacket.

"Where would the fun in that be?" Noah asked, smiling back.

There was a moment where the two of them just smiled at each other.

Noah wasn't quite sure what to do exactly.

"Well, we should go..."

"Right, yeah," Noah replied, moving to Zoey's right as they walked
down the hallway.

"So what's your first class?" Zoey asked.

Noah had memorized his schedule pretty much the day he'd picked his
classes.

So he didn't know why he'd actually pulled out his course schedule and
looked it over.

Maybe it was nerves.

"Uh^ÅMusic Appreciation 1000," he replied.

"Art Theory 2610," Zoey replied.

Noah pushed the `down' button once the two had reached the elevator.

"So I guess all your classes are pretty much freshman level huh?" Zoey
asked.

"Well, you do generally have to take freshman classes when you're a
freshman, yeah," Noah replied.

"Aren't we a sarcastic smart ass today," Zoey replied, shoving Noah
playfully as the two got into the elevator together. "Of course, I live
for sarcasm."

Noah just smiled over at Zoey as he tried to keep from feeling too
nervous about his first day of class.
*******************************************************************************

As a rule of thumb, Trey generally tried to at least look like a person
he wasn't.

Not by dressing a certain way, although that was pretty much what he'd
done all his life.

But through his actions.

He'd never once had anyone to talk to over the phone. Ever.

But he had a cell phone which he talked on quite frequently. What was he
doing on the cell phone? Pretending to be talking to all the friends he
wished he had.

He did it in public so people wouldn't think he was as lonely as he was.

He also made sure to walk a certain way, sit a certain way, and pretty
much do everything in a way that would suggest that he was every bit as
normal as would have liked to believe he was.

All of that had extended to today.

He had thought he'd know where to go.

After all, he and^Å.well, he and Noah had went and located all their
classes together so that he wouldn't be lost when it came time to
actually attend them.

But that was nearly three months ago.

He had intended to go and look for them again before this day had come,
but he hadn't expected to have faced all of the things he had over the
weekend.

Certainly a rough start to his college career.

Needless to say, he was now lost.

But he had taken great strides not to look like he was.

He knew it was foolish not to have a school map in his hands, but he
figured it was bad enough he was a freshman. He'd much rather have kept
that fact to himself.

His first class was Psychology 1000. It was a required class that all
students had to take before they graduated. Trey had decided to take all
of his required classes first so that he could get them out of the way.

He knew that just because it was a 1000 level course, didn't necessarily
mean that there would only be freshman enrolled.

He knew that the class was in the Language Building. As to where the hell
that actually was^Å

But none of that was stopping him from walking like he knew exactly where
he was going.

He was even sipping on the latte some girl in the lobby had handed him
and practically everyone else for some reason.

First day thing, probably.

He made it a point not to look directly into the faces of anyone he
passed, although that was probably mostly accredited to the fact that he
was just that petrified.

Still though, he was taking strides not to look that way.

He'd been walking a good ten minutes.

He wasn't too worried because he had left early for this very reason,
but he still wanted to get to class early.

Thinking about that stuff among other things was exactly the reason why
he'd found himself bumping into a very surprising face.

"Oh^Åuh, sorry, I'm-"

He stopped.

How was this possible? How was this possible that he just happened to
have bumped into^Å.

"You may be a weird little pussy who runs away from people on first
sight, but now you're seriously adding spastic dumb ass to the list?"

He thought he'd left Shawn back in the dorm room over half an hour ago.

Trey said nothing as he just stared at Shawn who looked pissed with his
arm crossed and over at Shawn's friend, who has an amused look on his
face.

"Look, Shawn, it was obviously an accident," Ben spoke. "Let's just
forget about and move on."

Trey looked over at Shawn who was still staring at him like he was highly
pissed off.

"Shawn, man-"

"Whatever," Shawn replied, shaking the hand Ben had put on his shoulder
off of him.

Trey just looked straight ahead as Shawn and Ben moved past Trey and over
to the other side of the walkway past him.

Another awkward moment he could add to his list of the rest of them.

So far, he was living with someone who hated him, completely alone in an
entirely new school and completely lost in a new school.

He had to wonder if this was what his college life was going to consist
of from now on.

Jesse wasn't in a very good mood.

For starters, the fact that he was even up right now was in need of some
serious reconsideration. It wasn't like he needed college anyway. He had
enough money to last him the rest of his life.

And then there was the fact that he had no idea where to go.

He had cancelled all his classes because he had never intended to have to
come back to this god awful place.

He hadn't even thought about that over the weekend, as he'd spent all
of his time doing what he usually did, which was to party.

Now, now there were no parties, as he'd quickly discovered people
actually wanted to be here. To learn, of all things!

So, he wasn't sure what to do really.

Amber was in class, and so were most of the other girls from the
sorority. And he hadn't exactly made friends with any guys, so there
weren't really any other people around for him to talk to.

Not that he'd even want to associate with anyone here.

As far as he was concerned everyone here was light-years away from being
anywhere near as interesting as the people back home.

As such, he was still left with pretty much nothing to do.

So that was when he started looking around.

He had already decided that he was going to at least see if any of the
classes are boring.

There were a large amount of people heading towards one particular area,
Jesse noticed, consisting of several large buildings that were all close
to each other.

He figured that had to be where a lot of classes were. Otherwise there
wouldn't be as many people heading that way.

With a sigh he begrudgingly began heading that way as well, deciding to
head towards the largest, newest looking building, hoping that he
wouldn't be as bored as he was predicting that he would be.

His early, `misadventure' with Trey had left Shawn feeling less excited
about his day. Granted, the fact alone that he was even Trey's roommate
had left him considerably less excited anyway.

Now^Å.now he just was feeling really^Åsour.

Like he had a permanent bad taste in him mouth and that it was the reason
why he was feeling like he was in a bad mood.

It was weird because he was always such an outgoing person in school who
tried not to let anything get him down.

He'd had a mostly enjoyable high school experience and had been lucky
enough not to be one of the losers people like him picked on.

Now he had to fault Trey for that.

Because now, he really felt like a loser and he didn't know why exactly.

Maybe it was because he knew Trey was a loser, and that he was now the
roommate of a loser.

Or maybe it was because no matter what he did, around Trey, he always
seemed to become a loser.

But most of all it was the way he felt.

The way he felt about Trey and the way he felt around him.

Two different, scary, feelings.

Feelings that he knew he needed to get a handle on before anything worse
happened.

Trey was definitely all about trying to look cooler than he was, and
where he sat and how he picked his seats in class definitely played into
that.

For starters, he went out of his way not to seem too eager to get to the
class.

For one thing, seeming too eager would be a dead `that's a freshman'
giveaway.

Plus he didn't want to seem like the nerd that he was.

So when he got to his second class of the day, Anthropology, and saw that
they weren't quite ready to start, he immediately turned around and
walked as far away from the classroom as possible.

Far away enough to look like he was just there for a class, not excited,
but not too far that he couldn't see the classroom when the class
already in session let out.

He only had to wait about ten minutes before the class let out and he
noticed people around him beginning to head into the classroom.

Trey put on a slow walk.

The slow walk he used whenever he was in an unfamiliar place trying to
seem cool.

He walked slowly, but as he did, more and more people seem to be coming
from somewhere he hadn't seen exactly, and were passing him to get into
the class.

He put a little more pep into his step, in an effort not to let too many
people pass him but once he got inside the room, he realized the severity
of his mistake.

Nearly every seat was already full.

What was more, everyone appeared to know each other.

At least, that was the way things seemed to him.

It certainly seemed much louder in the classroom than it would have been
if no one in it knew each other.

He hated having to find a place to sit.

Anywhere.

On buses.

In movie theaters.

In cafeterias.

In classrooms.

That was usually the reason why he tried to arrive to everything that
required finding a place to sit as early as possible, in an effort to
avoid all of that.

He'd even gotten here early enough.

And he hadn't been standing THAT far back.

He honestly didn't know what had happened.

What he did know, however, was that he now needed to find a seat, before
more people came in and made it that much harder for him to find one.

He started up the stairs that led to the rows of seats, spread out like
seats in a movie theater in a coliseum layout.

He started trying to group some things together in his head.

Having spent his entire life living in the inner city, he rarely saw
anyone of the white ethnicity.

He was used to being surrounded by black and Hispanic people from sun up
to sun down.

Since coming to college, however, that scenario had all but flipped
around entirely.

It seemed the majority of the school was white, making up a good 60
percent of the student body and faculty.

The rest was spread amongst the Asian, black and Hispanic student body.

He noticed instantly that most of the white students seemed to be sitting
together, along with the Asian, few Hispanic and few black students.

Even though he himself was black, he didn't quite feel `black'.

He looked the part, but didn't act it, and he was sure that any black
person he'd meet, if that ever happened, would be able to tell that
about him right away.

So in that respect, black people, at the school and in the class,
intimidated him.

He was almost afraid to look any of them in the eye.

He felt like everyone was starting at him ESPECIALLY the black students,
who were in small clusters throughout the room.

He just kept walking, trying to find a section he'd be comfortable
sitting in, but as he was taking longer and longer, people were passing
him and filling seats that were vacant just seconds earlier.

He was starting to feel a bit panicked.

He always panicked at the slightest mishaps.

And even though he'd since stopped showing his panicked feelings, the
actual panicking hadn't ceased.

He literally didn't know what to do and was even considering sitting on
the floor before he noticed a girl towards the top, in one of the few
sections where most of the black kids were sitting, was waving him over.

Or at least, he'd thought she was waving him over.

It turned out, she'd been waving a buff looking black guy behind him up
and over, who'd actually bumped into him, causing him to drop his book
and notebook.

Not only did he not stop, but he actually seemed annoyed.

Trey had just bent down to start picking up his stuff when he noticed the
guy turn back around and walk back over to him.

"Aye, yo, my bad man," he spoke.

Trey had already had his stuff picked up by that time as the guy turned
back around and headed towards the girl from earlier.

Realizing that there really wasn't anywhere else to sit, Trey walked
around from the back and to the other side, sitting in the same row as
the girl, right next to her.

He noticed the guy looking over at him with a scowl on his face and the
girl frown at him and turn to look over at him.

"Don't worry about him," the girl spoke. "As long as I stay in the
middle, he won't bite."

Trey figured that was supposed to be a joke so he just smiled at her and
got settled.

"And the exponential product of the sub variables is always going to be
equal to^Å."

Jesse realized that his first mistake was following a hot blonde into the
class he was in, which turned out to be an advanced math class.

Math had never really interested him in school.

No subject had really interested him in school.

It was what he did after school that always got his attention.

Now, he realized that he was stuck in a boring class, that as far as he
knew, wasn't even on his schedule.

That is, if he'd have made a schedule.

He never planned on having to come back, so he never went through the
trouble.

Now he was going from class to class, trying to find one that interested
him.

So far, the deciding factor had always been a hot girl.

Now he knew hot didn't always equal interesting.

"And if we double the second variable-"

Jesse sighed and looked at the person sitting to his left.

A guy.

He didn't really judge guys on their appearances, but the guy didn't
really look like a nerd to him.

So he figured he'd give him a try.

"You'd think they'd supply us telly's and such for those who aren't
interested," he spoke.

The boy smiled, trying to keep from laughing and turned to face Jesse.

"Math can get a little boring sometimes, yeah," he spoke.

"We passed boring after Professor Snoozefest introduced himself."

The boy laughed and cleared his throat.

"I'm Todd."

"Jesse Yorkshire," Jesse replied. "Hey, so you mean to tell me people
actually pick this class?"

"I guess," Todd replied. "I mean, it was a requirement for my major.
But I don't mind, math's easy."

"Oh god, not for me," Jesse replied.

"Why don't you tell us the answer back there, son?"

Jesse just continued to doodle away on his paper, only looking up when he
noticed things had grown oddly quiet and people were now looking up at
him.

He looked up and around at everyone.

"I can't very well give you all autographs now can I?" he spoke.

"No, son, but you can tell us what the variable is in the equation I
have here on the board."

Jesse sighed and squinted at the board up ahead.

"Nope, sorry wasn't interested," he replied.

"And I wasn't asking."

Jesse furled his eyebrows at the professor before frowning and letting
out a sigh.

"And here's where I go off to try for course number three," he spoke,
standing up.

Everyone watched as he headed towards the back door.

"The answer is twelve, I believe. Good day sir," he spoke. "I said
GOOD DAY!"

Everyone sat speechless.

"He's right you know, it IS twelve," Todd spoke.

Noah would be lying if he told himself that he wasn't nervous.

It wasn't being around all the new people that had him nervous, although
that was part of it.

No, it was being in a new situation that had him feeling the butterflies
in his stomach.

It was new because it had been a long time since he'd actually been
excited to be having to go to a class, let a lone nervous.

And admitting it to himself, he realized that that's exactly what he
was.

He was both those things and was expecting this whole experience to be a
change from what he was used to.

Looking around the room of his first class, he felt a little intimidated.

He was used to small rooms that held no more than 35 people.

This room looked like it could hold nearly five times that amount of
people. It was as large, if not larger than a movie theater stadium.

He wasn't quite sure where to sit so he decided to just sit in the
middle.

It wasn't exactly the back but it wasn't the immediate front either.

He nearly got up and left once he saw a face he hoped to never have to
see around campus again.

Sitting about two rows in front of him was the British nut job he'd come
to know as Jesse Yorkshire, a guy who only thought he was famous, but
certainly acted just like you'd expect a spoiled celebrity brat to act.

He considered moving but just stayed where he was once he saw the course
instructor walk into the classroom.

"Frozen much?" a girl next to Noah spat out, rubbing her arms. "God
it's like the guy never heard of a window. You don't need A/C for
everything."

Noah stared at her for a few seconds, realizing there weren't even any
windows in the room, before turning his attention to the front.

His thoughts soon ceased once he noticed his instructor walking into the
room.

She was a redheaded woman about 30 years old, fairly nice build, and all
around nice looking person.

He just hoped that as his first professor and class of the day, things
went smoothly for him.

"Wow, I got a big class this semester," were the first words out of her
mouth.

Noah looked down at his schedule to see what her name was.

Before he found it, he looked up once he realized she'd said it.

"I'm Professor Tennison, but if you guys wanna call me by my first
name, you can," she spoke. "It's Nora by the way."

Nora, Noah though.

Like the female version of Noah.

He looked around at everyone in the room.

It was hard for him to tell whether or not anyone was a freshman like
him. In high school, he only shared classes with people in his grade.

Now it was different, and he almost hated that he couldn't tell
anyone's year.

He wasn't at home anymore.

He'd since realized that he couldn't exactly stay as antisocial as
he'd been for the past few years.

He needed to try to embrace his life a little bit more.

He was just happy that Zoey was helping him to come out of his self
created shell a little more.

"So, just to let you know, I won't be lecturing today," Nora spoke,
sitting on the edge of the desk in the front of the room. "I like to get
to know my students personally first. It makes it easier for me to teach.
So^Å.who wants to start first?"

Noah looked around.

No one seemed to be willing to volunteer.

Of course, he wasn't surprised once he saw that Jesse kid standing up
and clearing his throat.

He didn't just stand up in his seat. He stood up, walked all the way
down his row and straight down to the front of the room, blocking
everyone's view of Nora by putting his back to her.

"Well, I really didn't think I'd need to do this everywhere I went
here, but apparently you people aren't as literate and pop culture
informed as you obviously should be."

Noah rolled his eyes, sighed, and slouched in his seat a little,
preparing himself for the show he knew was coming.

"So I've decided to be gracious and inform you myself," Jesse
continued. "I'm Jesse Yorkshire, London's most eligible bachelor and
world's most superb party thrower."

"I thought P. Diddy was the best party thrower?" the girl from earlier
next to Noah spoke.

Noah looked over at her and noticed that she had actually been talking to
him, not just making a statement to herself out loud.

He stared at her staring at him before sighing again and shaking his head
slowly as he looked down.

Already his college experience was turning out to be a worse version of
his high school experience, he thought.

"You know, I could have gone to Yale," Jesse continued, turning his
attention to Nora. "Everyone tells me I'm scholastically advanced."

"Really? Well you should have no problem in this class then," Nora
spoke.

Jesse frowned.

"What exactly is it that you teach, anyway?" he mumbled.

"Music Appreciation," Nora replied.

Jesse straightened up and smiled.

"I know loads about music," he spoke. "Who's trendy here anyway?"

"Uh well-"

"Seriously?" the girl next to Noah asked, preventing him from hearing
what was going on up front. "Is he really doing this?"

Noah didn't even bother to face the girl this time and noticed her turn
back to the front after a few moments out the corner of his eye.

"I never quite understood that American wannabe British rocker stuff,"
Jesse spoke. "Then again, I'm not sure I want to."

"Oh get over yourself already!" the girl next to Noah suddenly shouted
out.

Noah's eyes widened as he looked over at her in horror.

He quickly glanced around the room and realized that everyone's
attention was now focused in their general direction, including Nora and
Jesse.

He turned around and sunk even further in his seat, trying to keep from
turning red from his annoyance and embarrassment.

Jesse narrowed his eyes before starting up the stairs leading towards the
area the girl was standing in.

"You must be one of the lasses in love with your favorite blue eyed
blonde haired fake, right?"

Noah frowned in annoyance as the girl shoved past him and out to where
Jesse was.

"Just because you're all British and have that accent you think you
know more about music than I do?"

"Did you just admit that the British are the most informed people in the
world?" Jesse spoke, crossing his arms. "I think you did."

"What are you even doing here if you could have gone to Yale,
freshman?" the girl asked.

"Can't you tell? I'm badgering random music girl number one-"

"Oh please-"

"Sod off already," Jesse mumbled.

Noah turned away from the two of them, feeling embarrassed just for the
fact that he even knew who Jesse was.

It sort of made him feel like because he knew Jesse, he was a part of
this.

"Okay, I think that's enough for the debate in social economics," Nora
spoke, joining Jesse at his side. "They teach that somewhere in this
building by the way, I believe."

Jesse looked over at her.

"Thank you for that," he replied, heading for the door. "I've had
enough of all of this anyway."

"And don't come back!" the girl called after him.

"Uh^Åthanks^Å."

The girl turned towards Nora and smiled.

"Sierra," she spoke.

"Right. Well, I guess I'm glad he's gone then," Nora spoke.

"Of course," Sierra spoke. "Because no one likes an attention hog. By
the way, I wanna go next introducing myself. I might be a while."

Noah rolled his eyes.

Trey had planned the perfect schedule.

His first class was the furthest from the dorm and started at 9 in the
morning.

His last was almost right next to his dorm hall and ended at 3.

He was taking 16 hours this semester, so he was going to be busy with
class every day just the same.

It was one class followed by another and then another.

Now that he was done, he realized that all the walking he'd done had
left him more than a little hungry.

He had a five day meal plan built into his housing payment schedule,
which let him eat however much he wanted as long as the cafeteria was
open.

His dorm was one of the few freshman dorms whose food was actually good,
or so he'd heard from a few people he happened to be sitting around in
one of his classes.

He hadn't had time to eat in the morning before class, although he
probably could have made some time.

It also didn't really matter, as he wasn't that hungry then either.

Now he was.

There was only one thing that worried him: people.

Just like he hated having to look for places to sit in class, he hated
having find places to sit in the cafeteria at high school.

Having never had any friends, finding a place to sit everyday was always
mortifying for him. It was especially hard because sitting with the wrong
people given the school he went to, could have gotten him into big
trouble.

Now, he didn't know what was what.

After handing his i.d. card to the woman at the entrance of the
cafeteria, the first thing he did was get a good look around.

There were two areas he could have sat in. One on his left and one on his
right.

To his immediate left after walking up a few steps was a relatively small
area labeled the `Shack Café'. There was only one side for seating
while the other side was where all the food was, among other things.

On his right was the larger side, the side he guessed was where most
everyone sat. There were several different food areas, and rows upon rows
of places to sit.

Both sides were set up similar to a restaurant, with small tables, larger
tables and booths. And for a cafeteria in a university dorm hall, the
whole place looked great.

The ceiling, he noticed, was made like a greenhouse, with windowed panels
that let the sun in clearly.

As far as he could tell, everything smelled great.

He wasn't sure what was what, but he didn't care.

All he cared about was that it all smelled good.

A few people, in groups, passed him and headed for the area to the right
of him.

He watched them as they got trays and headed in line to get their food,
then he took the time to study both the right and left areas more
clearly.

The right side, which had quite a few people already eating, seemed to be
occupied by mostly white students.

There were small groups of them and some larger groups and they were all
relatively spread out. A few of them were even sitting by themselves,
watching the flat screen t.v.'s angled on the corners of the wall.

Then there was the left side, which was the poor mans right side.

That area was occupied by far less people, mostly black. The other
difference was that most of the people were sitting together, talking and
laughing loudly.

Some of them were playing dominoes even. Without directly stereotyping
them, they seemed to be dressed exactly like all the people from his
school back home. That and acting like them, from what he could see.

He knew that he wasn't at home, so if he wanted to sit on the right
side, he knew that he could and no one would care.

But he was so used to acting a part to fit in with his own `people'
that it almost made him uncomfortable to think about sitting anywhere but
on the left side.

So without thinking about it anymore, he started over to the left side
after grabbing a tray, cup, and some silverware.

He wanted to look around for a seat before he got his food, but didn't
want to look as nervous as he felt, so he just confidently walked over to
a line that was serving cheeseburgers, figuring he'd get two of those
and some fries.

The burger line was the longest of the two in the area, the other being a
deli line serving sub sandwiches, but it wasn't as long as any of the
lines on the right side, for lack of people.

He waited in line all of about two minutes before he got his food and
drink and then started walking slowly.

He was trying to look around for a seat without actually having to look
around for a seat. Or at least, making it seem so obvious.

He wasn't sure where to sit really.

It didn't really seem like anyone on this side was eating alone. He
didn't want to be the only one.

He swallowed, trying to keep himself from panicking over something so
silly, but realized that it was exactly what he was about to do.

He started walking fast, ready to head over to the other side after all
before he heard someone calling out `yo' behind him.

He wasn't sure if it was being directed towards him, but he stopped to
make sure.

Turning around, he noticed the girl from his second class, the only
person all day to talk to him, waving him over.

He looked behind him to make sure that he was the one she was waving over
before starting over towards the table she was sitting at, which just so
happened to be the one where every seat but the one to her left was
occupied.

At the very end of the table was the group of guys he'd seen playing
dominoes earlier, even louder now that he was closer to them.

Then in the center was a large group of girls, talking about something,
just as loud as the guys were talking.

Towards the end was a mixture of guys and girls, which to Trey looked
like a bunch of couples. They were quieter and were the only ones at the
table with food and trays.

Directly next to the girl was the guy from earlier, who put his arm
around her shoulder and leaned over glaring at him.

Most of the people who looked like they were a part of a couple seemed to
be staring at him, curiously.

He just took a seat, nervously next to the girl, who moved her backpack
to make room.

"Hey," she started, with a smile.

"Uh, hey," Trey replied, trying not to appear nervous.

"You stay here?" she asked.

"Yeah," Trey replied. "First floor."

"Oh," the girl replied before looking down and back up. "I'm Grace by
the way. This is my boyfriend Dro."

Trey looked over at the Dro guy whose glare seemed even worse before
looking over at someone less threatening.

"You a freshman?" Grace asked.

Trey wasn't really sure whether or not he wanted to tell the truth or
not.

He couldn't exactly tell one way or another if anyone he saw was a
freshman or a senior.

He just decided to tell the truth, as he knew that it wasn't exactly
good to lie to people who were being nice to you.

"Yeah," he replied. "I am."

"Oh," Grace said. "I'm a sophomore."

"Really?" Trey asked.

"Yeah I took a few AP classes in high school," Grace replied.

Trey had taken AP classes as well. He just didn't take any AP tests in
order to get the credit.

He hadn't been aware that he'd looked as shocked about it as he was
until Grace commented on it.

"Black people can be smart too, you know," Grace spoke.

She'd said it in a way where Trey couldn't tell whether or not she was
being playful with him.

"Right," he replied. "Sorry."

"Baby, I gotta get to work," Dro spoke, standing up all of a sudden.

"I know Dro," Grace spoke, sounding annoyed. "Damn. I was talking to
somebody."

Trey noticed Dro glaring at him again before he looked away.

"Well come on then," Dro said. "I'ma be late."

Grace rolled her eyes and stood up, grabbing her tray.

"If you'd just get yo ass a real damn job so you can buy a car, I
wouldn't have to drive you everywhere," she said.

Trey watched as Grace and Dro walked over to the end of the table before
Grace grabbed her backpack.

"What's your name?"

Trey, again, wasn't sure that she was addressing him, but decided to
speak up anyway.

"Trey," he replied.

"Well Trey," Grace said. "I'll see you around then."

"Yeah," Trey replied, smiling at Grace smiling at him.

He turned away after Dro glared at him while putting his arm around
Grace's shoulder and stared walking her away.

He heard him mumble the words `punk ass' and `nigga' a few times too.

Trey always felt more at ease and willing to be more social whenever
people actually extended the effort to get to know him, so he was feeling
excited on the inside.

He'd been smiling, looking down at his food before he looked up and
noticed all the people Grace had left him alone with were still staring
at him.

He quickly looked down and started eating his lunch, avoiding looking at
them.

Not really having much in the way of work to do in any of his classes,
Noah planned to go straight back to his dorm.

He'd already done all his exploring back in the summer when he
and^Å..well, needless to say,  he knew the whole campus pretty well.

He was actually just hoping to catch a nap before working on a few songs
afterward.

Which was why after turning the key to his dorm door, opening it and
finding his roommate sitting at his desk playing some kind of game on his
computer, he immediately groaned inwardly.

He tossed his keys on his bed and let out a sigh, not really sure he even
wanted to address Jeremy's presence.

Apparently, Jeremy wanted to address him though, which he did after
spinning around in his chair.

Noah plopped down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, or Jeremy's bed
in this case, as he was on the bottom of a bunk bed.

"Is it hot out there?" Jeremy asked.

Noah hated stupid questions.

It was still technically summer, and it was Texas, so of course the high
for the day had been 91.

He sat himself up on his elbows, looking Jeremy over.

He noticed that he was wearing the same clothes that he had on yesterday.
Then he noticed that there were several empty cans of soda lying around
as well as empty chip bags and a couple open cans of soup.

Jeremy wasn't exactly fat, but he wasn't skinny either, and now Noah
knew why.

"Did you even go to class today?" Noah asked.

Jeremy laughed at the question, or did what Noah figured was laughing,
before shaking his head and reaching for one of the soda cans.

"They just released a patch update for World of Warcraft," he replied.
"I got a busy week ahead of me."

And here Noah thought the point of college was to go to class and get
good grades so that you could get a good job. Otherwise, somebody was
wasting their money.

Noah flashed Jeremy a bemused look who seemed to squeal with delight
after getting a message from someone on his computer.

"DarkMageXoXo9 is supposed to be selling me a Knight's Ring for
cheap," Jeremy spoke turning back to his computer. "And it just came
out today!"

Noah wanted to laugh out loud over how thrilled Jeremy was to be getting
a fake piece of nothing on his little digital time waster, but he decided
against it and fell back on his bed.

He'd had a busy day.

He hadn't come back to his room right after class.

Now that he was back, it was nearly six in the evening.

He really wished that he could sleep in peace, but the constant clicking
of Jeremy's mouse and clacking of the keys on his keyboard left him
feeling annoyed for more than one reason.

Feeling defeated, he let out a sigh and sat up, reaching over to the side
of his bed for his guitar.

He took it out of his case and let it sit in his lap as he thought.

He normally wrote songs about whatever he was feeling, which was why it
was so easy for him to even write songs.

But he had so many different feelings going on in his head, he wasn't
sure where to start.

He figured the lyrics would come to him as he started strumming a few
cords.

Jeremy was too enthralled in his game to care, Noah figured, or else he
would have at least given him some attention.

He continued strumming a few cords before he heard a knock at his door.

He stopped strumming and looked over at Jeremy who hadn't even moved
since the last time he looked over at him.

He wondered whether or not Jeremy even had any friends as he got up to
open the door.

He was a little surprised to see Zoey, even though she was the only
person he'd talked to since he came to the school.

"Hey, you going to the floorientation meeting?" she asked.

"The what?" Noah asked, stepping out into the hall.

Zoey stepped, back, moving her open book to another hand.

"They do it every semester," Zoey replied. "And they always say it's
mandatory. I don't think it is, but I don't know for sure."

"You going?" Noah asked, scratching his head.

"They take attendance," Zoey replied. "And I like to stay off Hitler
Jr.'s bad side."

"Our R.A. is that bad?" Noah asked.

"Let's just say you don't ever wanna get drunk and have your boyfriend
pee outside his door at four in the morning."

Noah laughed while rubbing his left arm and thinking.

He wasn't doing much anyway.

And if it was mandatory anyways.

"Lemme just grab my keys," Noah replied, although he figured that given
that Jeremy probably saw sunlight and smelled fresh air maybe once a
month, he'd probably never really need them anyway.

Noah had just shut the door behind him before turning his attention to
the tall guy at the end of the hallway with the bullhorn.

"Meet in the Ark Hall lobby, people!" he was saying.

"Ark Hall?" Zoey spoke as she and Noah started down the hallway towards
the elevator. "We normally have it downstairs."

Noah just shrugged as they continued down the hall.

Jesse had decided to go back to his room and change before going off and
finding a party or something to go to but felt himself being pushed into
the bushes next to the stairs that led up to the front door of the
sorority house.

He would have been upset if it was anyone other than Amber, his roommate,
and very good looking girl if he had to say so, that was now situated on
top of him.

"Well this is new," Jesse blurted out when he realized that he was on
the bottom of Amber.

Amber quickly shushed him and looked through the bushes.

"What the hell?" Jesse muttered, pushing Amber off of him. "This
outfit wasn't cheap you know."

"Sorry but you can't just walk in there like that, Jesse," Amber spoke
in a hushed tone. "Not by yourself."

"I'm sorry, do I or do I not have a room in there?" Jesse asked.

"Yes," Amber replied, sitting up. "But guys aren't really allowed in
the rooms. And they definitely can't share rooms with us."

"Ever think about changing the rules, then?" Jesse asked, looking over
his outfit.

Amber looked out of the bushes before turning her attention back to
Jesse.

"Come on," she replied, grabbing his hand and standing up.

"What^Åhuh?"

Jesse didn't really get an answer as Amber basically pulled him straight
through the bushes and into the sorority house.

"If anyone asks, you're tutoring me," Amber spoke, still leading Jesse
by the hand. "I don't know, but people seem to think I need a tutor for
some reason."

Jesse rolled his eyes before Amber pushed him into the room and locked
the door behind her.

"Ugh," Jesse sighed, heading straight for the restroom. "All that
filth you had me in. I'm going to need two baths off this one."

"But I thought you were gonna tutor me?" Amber asked.

Jesse stopped and turned around.

"I thought that was just a cover story?"

Amber put a finger on her bottom lip and looked up.

"Oh yeah," she giggled. "I forgot."

Jesse narrowed his eyes at her stupidity before peeling off his shirt and
heading into the bathroom, Amber behind him.

"Don't sororities throw parties?" Jesse asked, looking into the
bathroom mirror.

"Sometimes," Amber replied. "Heather's on the social committee. She
would know."

Jesse undid the belt on his shorts and peeled them off after slipping off
his sneakers.

"Yeah well, maybe you should ask her when the next one is," Jesse
spoke, continuing to admire himself in the mirror.

He stopped and walked over to the bathtub, starting the water.

"I didn't know guys took baths," Amber spoke.

"There seems to be loads you don't know, dear," Jesse mumbled.

"Huh?" Amber asked.

"Nothing," Jesse replied, before he walked into the towel closet in the
bathroom.

He took the time to check out his muscles for few minutes while the bath
water ran, deciding that he'd have to visit the gym at least once this
week.

He finally stopped admiring his own body before he took off his boxers
and grabbed a towel, exiting the towel closet and stopping when he
noticed that Amber was in his bathwater, and had also added soap to it,
making it all bubbly.

"I thought this would work better," she spoke, grinning at him.

Jesse smiled at her before walking over to the tub and getting in
himself.

"Finally, a thread of intellect," he replied.

"Dude, I so shouldn't even be here right now," Ben spoke, looking
around. "I think we're having a floorientation thing too."

"Like you care," Shawn mumbled looking around.

Neither of them were really sure why it seemed like the floor meeting was
turning into a gigantic dorm meeting.

"But this is gotta be more than one floor right?" Ben asked. "I mean,
look at all these people."

It was obvious something was going on that they didn't know about, but
Shawn was sure the R.A.'s would explain later.

Shawn himself was feeling a bit nervous. Nervous because despite trying
not to, he was thinking about his roommate.

He wondered how his day went. What kinds of classes he'd taken. If he
was even coming to the floor meeting.

And the fact that he was even remotely curious about any of that stuff
was what had him worried. It was like he couldn't decide whether or not
he really hated Trey, even though everything about him was telling him he
should.

He even found himself searching for him at one point but found himself
being interrupted by Ben walking into his line of sight and turning to
face him.

"You think if I tried to get numbers during the meeting anyone would
notice?" he asked.

Shawn frowned at his best friend.

"Yeah," he replied. "People would notice."

Although, he was wondering how in the world he was even going to pull
that off.

And while he was thinking mixed thoughts Trey was feeling just as nervous
as ever.

He didn't exactly hate people.

He hated how nervous he felt around them.

It just didn't seem natural to him to be so afraid to do something as
simple as find at least one friend. The way he saw it, everyone had
friends. Everyone but him, and he knew exactly why. He knew that it was
his fault.

Now he was in another social scene he didn't want to be in.

He'd been under the impression that the floor meeting was going to be a
meeting for the people on his floor only, which would have been no more
than a hundred people. Instead, it looked like the entire lobby area was
so full, it would be next to impossible to get in or out, let alone move.

This made Trey slightly happy, as with so many people, he didn't have to
worry about trying to look like he had friends. Many people were lost in
the crowd, disconnected from whoever they knew, and he realized that he
could just seem like one of those people.

For some reason, Trey was wondering about his roommate, Shawn. After he
finished eating, Trey had gone straight back up to his room, where Shawn
hadn't been and hadn't come back to even before the meeting started.

That hadn't surprised him, as Shawn was obviously a social person with a
life. It actually made him a little happy, because if he was going to be
gone all the time, he wouldn't have to worry about trying to get to know
him. Because even if he wasn't deftly terrified of the thought
otherwise, the fact that already he and Shawn hadn't seemed to be
getting along would have made that just one awkward situation.

It was extremely noisy in the room, given all the people, and most
everyone looked like they didn't know what to expect as Trey noticed the
R.A.'s making their way to the front of the room.

"How am I supposed to hear myself think?" Zoey asked as she and Noah
entered the Ark Hall lobby and looked around.

Noah was a bit taken aback with how many people there seemed to be
crowded into the lobby. There were so many people, he and Zoey barely had
enough room to make it through the crowd.

"Maybe they're gonna give out concert tickets or something," Noah
joked, shouting the comment.

"Maybe they already did and this is the concert," Zoey shouted back.

The two of them looked around a little more before the R.A.'s called a
silence over the room and started with what they had to say.

As they went on with their fairly straightforward rules and guidelines,
Noah looked around the lobby of the dorm hall he'd had a brief stint in.

Nothing had changed really, except there was no longer a table in the
corner selling pizza's, not that he expected there would be.

He saw a few people he recognized from his floor and even a few from his
classes.

Then, he saw someone that he had hoped against hope he wouldn't have to
see again.

He knew that he saw him because he was looking at him too.

He and Trey's eyes were locked.

He quickly looked down at the carpet, suddenly feeling all kinds of
emotions rushing through him.

Trey couldn't be here.

He^Å.kissed him.

He couldn't be here, Noah thought.

But the truth was, he was here.

And because he was here, he realized that his college life was going to
be a lot more complicated than he originally thought.

Personal email: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com

YahooGroup (featuring advanced chapters of the story):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction/


Copyright 2005