Elastic Collision

It been a week since Tyrell had first met Elliot and he was utterly infatuated with him. He had thought about his plan on wooing Elliot (enough to make him at least like him) and so far he had absolutely no idea what he was going to do. During the rest of the week, he hadn't talked to Elliot at all since their single conversation in Communications and he was anxious to talk to him again. But, he didn't want to speak again until he had a plan in motion. He was just itching to speak to him, hear him talk, see his beauty. He strives for perfection so his plan had to be foolproof. For now, all he had were his studies and girlfriend. 

"Joanna, how do you feel about Elliot?" Tyrell said, taking a pause from his studying. 

His girlfriend, Joanna, didn't seem the slight bit interested in what he had to say. The fashion magazine had more appeal to her than hearing Tyrell moan about some irrelevant classmate. If she wanted to hear people talk she would've stayed in her room and listened to her roommates' worries or watched television. Unfortunately, Tyrell didn't have a TV yet so she was forced to suffer and participate in unwanted conversation. "Elliot who?"

"Elliot...I don't know his last name. He's in our Psychology class. He wears a lot of black and a hood over his head all the time." he tried his best to describe him, but he couldn't seem to. Everyone around campus had to have known him. His face was unforgettable. 

Of course she knew who he was. Her roommate, Shayla, had mentioned that he was their 'dorm neighbor' but she wanted to act dumb for Tyrell so he would do most of the talking. She was not in the mood for conversation. "Oh....yes, Elliot." she replied un-enthusiastically, continuing to look at her magazine. "What about him?"

"How do you feel about him?" he said, repeating his previous question. He wanted an honest outside opinion of his subject, and he knew Joanna would deliver. 

She sighed, putting down her magazine and looked at him directly. "Is he another one of your 'projects'?" 

He stared at her, confused. "What 'projects'?" he said using air quotes sarcastically. 

"Tyrell...." she got up from her place at his desk, to take a seat next to him on his bed. "...we both know what I mean by projects. If you want to play dumb, then I'll explain. When I say projects condescendingly, I mean people that you become so obsessed that you're determined to take control over them. Whether its sex or to get ahead in life, you need to gain power some way, I don't know why but you do it often. However, I'm the only one you can't do that because you're so dependent on me for companionship and structure that it's sickening. As your girlfriend, and I use the term very loosely, I'd think you'd do something better with your time. That's the whole reason I told you I want an open relationship. I date whoever and do whatever I want when I have to get away from you and you do this...."

Tyrell was surprised, "Jo-"

She patted him on the back for moral support, and moved from her place on his bed, back to her position on the chair. "I know you, Tyrell Wellick. I've known you for years and I know all of your defenses and weaknesses. Don't think for a second that you can fool me. You're an open book and I'm the only one reading it."

The initial shock from her previous statements had disappeared. He said he wanted honesty and in exchange he got what he wanted. This was just Joanna's way of telling him to get a grip. It wasn't necessarily mean-spirited but it did put salt in his old wounds. "You're going to make a good lawyer one day."

"I didn't get into this University to study law for nothing." she said picking up her magazine again and lazily flipping through it to return to her page. "By the way, I'll help you plan whatever it is you want to do with Elliot as long as you're out of my hair. You're the worst at creating plans by yourself."

"Thank you," he sighed gratefully, "and you never told me what your opinion of him was."

She paused and briefly looked at him with a smile, "He's just your type."

-

Tyrell looked into the mirror, adjusting his shirt and lint rolling it perfectly. There's no reason to be nervous, he's just one person, he thought to himself. Just one person he was extremely infatuated with. Sure, he had small crushes on people but they never elevated to the point where they are now. He couldn't displace the idea of him and Elliot together intimately out of his head without having to think about something else. Their one moment together was his singular motivation to break Elliot's cold shell --if there was anything underneath. Is this what human love feels like?

Tyrell glanced over himself one last time before deciding that this was the right way to go. He wanted to look his best and show all of his glorious features to Elliot. He hadn't even spent this much time on an outfit for one of his dates with Joanna, a girl he had been dating for five years, and this was only to class. Just as he was gathering his things for class, someone knocked on the door. Tyrell looked at his watch. Who could be knocking at eight AM? Making sure he had everything, he opened the door to find that a girl was there. 

"Uh, if you're looking for-" he started but she cut in.

"Are you Tyrell Wellick?" she asked impatiently, like she had more important places to be than here. 

"Yes. Who are you?"

She rolled her eyes which were shielded by bright sunglasses. "It doesn't matter. Thank you for wasting my time, though," she said with annoyance, abruptly leaving his room with a look of disgust on her face. 

Thoroughly confused and ready to go to class, Tyrell grabbed his backpack and left his room. It wasn't a long walk to Joanna's room, but it was confusing. He had to ask three people if he was going to make sure he had the right door number. Having to ask for directions agitated him because that meant he needed help but that emotion dissolved into nothing other than a slight inconvenience by the time he got there. He knocked on the door, waiting outside in the hallway. In the period of time he waited for her to come out the room, someone across the hall opened their door. Tyrell, briefing looking up in pure curiosity to see who it was, was surprised to see a girl walking out the room with Elliot. Their voices weren't above a whisper with both of them looking around the quarters in paranoia to see if people were a large distance away so their conversation couldn't be heard. Once they were finished their secrecy, Elliot handed her money almost retreating into his room until she spoke to Tyrell.

She turned around, pocketing the money, and glancing up just in time for her to see him. "Hey, you're Joanna's boyfriend, aren't you?" her speech was slightly slurred as she approached him. 

"Oh, she's called me today, huh?" Tyrell said, finishing a text message to the woman in question to tell her he's there. He hadn't been in her room yet and he didn't plan on it. Joanna was very particular about her privacy, not wanting him to know certain things until she wanted him to know. While Tyrell barred his soul to her, she was quiet and calculated about the information she gave out. He was surprised to learn that she gave out their relationship status and it wasn't on Facebook. She must be showing me some sort of kindness today, he thought. 

"I'm Shayla. Your outfit is really cute, by the way. Very smooth looking," she said politely nodding to herself in agreement. 

"I'm only wearing it for a certain someone." he looked towards the door, noticing that Elliot was there. It was the perfect time to have a conversation outside of class, not that they actually had more than one. "I didn't know you lived across the hallway, Elliot." he smiled at him, taking in everything he saw because this would be a rare occasion. Elliot had just woken up in time for class but didn't have a hoodie on. Everything was exposed to Tyrell and to the world.

Elliot crossed his arms over his chest, propping himself up against the door. "It isn't very public information." Then he turned his attention back to the girl. "Shayla, can we...."

"Oh, yeah, of course sorry." Shayla said returning to her secretive position half way in his door way, half way out.

A few moments later, Joanna appeared out of the room, making sure the door was locked behind her. She briefly looked at Elliot with a small smile, then interlocked her arm with Tyrell's. "Let's go to the cafeteria and see if they have anything good. Either that or Panera Bread, I'm starving." 

 "It was nice to meet you!" Shayla shouted and waved as the couple walked down the hallway. When they were gone, Elliot sighed deeply. Every time Tyrell was around, it felt like a large annoying burden was on his shoulders was there; and when he left, the feeling immediately disappeared.  "You know, Elliot, if you're stressed out, you should try acupuncture. My cousin tries it and she said that's it's the best thing that's every happened to her. Maybe it can work wonders on someone like you." 

"Nah, I think I'm just find with weed." he said, referring to the large bag in his pocket. There was no stress reliever better than marijuana, actually maybe morphine, but he hadn't done that ever since he cut himself off and went cold turkey in the Summer. Besides, no one had access to that drug here, he had asked around before applying. 

"Try it sometime, you might like it." She smiled, "do you want me to smoke that with you?"

"I've got class in an hour, so I don't think that would be the best decision." he suddenly remembered that his next class was with Tyrell Wellick. "Actually, let's do it. My sister's coming soon so we should hurry before she smokes it all." God knows what'll happen an hour from now, Elliot thought, closing the door behind them. Besides, he had been seeing the men again and he needed an aid to forget about all his worries. Though he didn't want to admit it, Tyrell's odd appeal to him were the least of his problems.