Let The Awkward Man Speak
Tyrell Wellick knew from the very first moment he saw Elliot that he would be boring. He did a quick glance around the room, freshman orientation, before deciding where to sit. He knew everyone would be boring with their overly-friendly first day personalities, long small talk conversations until you found a mutual interest, and comments of 'I'm so happy to be away from _______' that made him want to kill himself. So he wasn't singling Elliot out by saying he was boring, no, everyone was dull and he was no exception in this case. In fact, Tyrell hadn't even noticed Elliot until he sat down in the crowded auditorium about 10 feet away from him. A small observation of the back of his head said that he would be just as dry as anyone else in his freshman class. Therefore, he only paid attention to his black hoodie and nervous tics before returning his focus to everything else in the area. Another tedious and unnecessary day, he thought, sighing.
The next time he saw Elliot was in their Communications 101 class, a requirement that Tyrell felt would be an easy A and required minimal effort from him. Besides, all you had to do was write a few essays and get a grade. Easy. Tyrell walked into the classroom with a slight pep in his step so he wouldn't be late and could still get a good seat, but, to no avail, all the seats were taken except one. An empty seat next to a guy in a black hoodie. A small groan of annoyance escaped his lips as he sat down in the back of the classroom next to hoodie boy. He checked his watch, seeing that there were still ten minutes to spare before the instructor came. Still crowded, he thought with a scoff.
Tyrell looked over to his odd neighbor, deciding maybe it was worth it to interact with someone while he waited. However, Elliot's attention wasn't towards him, or towards anyone in the class, but to something outside that caught his eye. Anything to get his mind away from the anxiety he was feeling right now. Elliot's back was turned to Tyrell, not showing his face, so he took it upon himself to make himself noticeable. Tyrell cleared his throat to get Elliot's attention but that effect didn't seem to work. He cleared his throat again, still not attracting Elliot. He looked around the classroom to see if he had attracted any unwanted attention, thank god he didn't, because he couldn't survive the embarrassment. Everyone was too preoccupied with their own conversations to care. This time, he decided a more effective and straight-forward approach would work best, tapping would do. Tyrell put on his best award-winning (yet fake) smile and tapped Elliot on the shoulder.
The young hooded boy twitched at the light pressure of the touch, sharply turning his head towards the perpetrator. What the hell does this guy want?, Elliot thought to himself, wearing his emotions all over his face. Maybe he should wear a sign on the back of his hoodie that says 'don't touch me' to ensure that no one would go against his very important rule. This was the second time this had happened --the first time was his dorm neighbor, Shayla, introducing herself-- and he didn't want it to be a repeating pattern.
Tyrell's smile immediately dropped, not to an expression of scorn like Elliot, but to one of surprise and awe. He was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. Though his initial impression of Elliot was boring and dry, his face said otherwise. It was like his face had been personally sculpted by God and delivered from the Heavens via baby angels so Tyrell could look at him. He wanted to stare at him all day, and he was pretty certain that he would never get bored. Tyrell quickly came out of his trance-like state to introduce himself, though it proved difficult to do after seeing such raw beauty unexpectedly. "H-Hi, I'm Tyrell Wellick." he said stammering over his words painfully. Idiot.
Elliot stared at him with confusion. What the hell was he saying? Oh shit, right, headphones, he thought, slowly turning off his loud music and removing one earphone so he could hear the awkward man speak. "What?" he asked, promoting the man to repeat.
He tried hard not to get flustered from embarrassment. He didn't hear you, dumbass. Tyrell took this opportunity to revamp his approach and not make a fool of himself. He flashed his smile again, this time genuine, extending his right hand out for him to shake. "Tyrell Wellick."
Elliot cautiously looked down at his hand. "Elliot." he said, shifting his eyes back-and-forth between Tyrell and his hand. He hoped 'Tyrell' could take a hint.
Thankfully, he could and awkwardly retracted the sign of a formal greeting. "So what brings you to this University?" There was no way he would let Elliot get away that easy without hearing more of his voice and seeing more of his face that was normally hidden by his large hood.
"Learning," he said bluntly, deciding he might want to elaborate, "about computers."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise; maybe small talk wasn't the worst. "Really?," he said trying not to sound too eager,"I'm double majoring in computer science and business as well."
Elliot nodded, uninterested. Why is he still even talking to me? "Nice, man."
"That means we'll probably see more of each other in the future." Tyrell said, giving Elliot a small look up and down. "I look forward to it."
"Right." Elliot responded, looking over to the front door to see his instructor walk in with papers and a briefcase. Thank God. "Well, the teacher's here so we better pay attention." He tried to sound disappointed that their conversation had to end prematurely but it just sounded like a big sigh of relief on his part.
Tyrell seemed unaffected by the abrupt end to the conversation, instead, smiling at Elliot as he changed his focus. His body even physically relaxed from the tension he was holding in. I could relax that tension, Tyrell thought with a chuckle to himself as he waited for the syllabus to be passed out. He couldn't help but think about his new hooded friend. The way he presented himself spoke 'leave me alone!' and his quiet demeanor didn't exactly say 'come speak to me' either, Tyrell could obviously see that --anyone could see that. So he should leave him alone. There was absolutely no reason to talk to him or even look at him outside of class. He was just another boring freshman, like himself, that was away from home for the first time, ready to experience new freedoms. Except he really wasn't, he was the most person in the room now. And Tyrell was ready to have a new experience.
If Tyrell was ever sure about anything it was at this exact moment. He had to have him. There was no reason why he couldn't, so he would. Somehow this school year, Tyrell Wellick would get into Elliot Alderson's pants and there was no one to stop him. Perfect.