Fuck, he was stressed.
Alex O’Hara closed his eyes and was counting to ten in his head, taking deep breaths and trying to not let the tears spill over from his eyes.
How could he have been so stupid and careless, this was his midterm essay for his creative writing class and he forgot about it? He can hear his mother ripping him a new one right now.
He was in one of the study rooms in the library, it was two in the morning and he was beyond tired and hungry and fuck he could really go for a joint right now.
“Ey, Hazard you okay?,” his roommate, Kasey asked.
Alex didn’t even have time to process that the door to the study room had opened before he heard Kasey’s voice. “Could be better.”
“Want a coffee I snagged from the lounge?”
“That sounds incredible, yes.”
So Kasey walked in, closing the door gently behind him and taking a seat across from Alex and handing him one of the cups. “I just brewed it, should be nice and strong.”
“Thank fuck.”
Kasey shook his head smiling and pulled out a journal from his bag and placed it on the table. He was used to late nights, he was in charge of the overnight desk in the library and had just been given enough time to go bother his roommate. Normally, Alex would be all for it, but his eyes were focused, stressed and worried. “Anything I can help with?”
Alex just laughed sadly, “Only if you can come up with another 600 words before 10 AM.”
Kasey scoffed, “Oh, I think I can help.”
Kasey took the laptop from in front of Alex, he took a quick glance at the rest of the essay and then started typing away.
“Kase, I was joking.”
“Lexy, I wasn’t.”
Alex rolled his eyes at the nickname Kasey gave him the second week they lived together freshman year. “Don’t you have work to do?”
“Nah, it isn’t due until Friday.”
With a few more dramatic clicks on the keyboard, Kasey flipped the laptop around to Alex and had him proofread what he wrote.
“How is the man with so few words, this good at writing?”
“I spend a lot of time listening to you read your own work…” Kasey trailed off, that was too much information
Alex felt the flush on his cheeks, “So you do listen to me when I read my stuff.”
“It’s good, I like it.” Kasey threw his spiral notebook back in his bag. “Okay O’Hara, it is almost 3 in the morning, let’s get back to the apartment.”
Alex stood and packed up his laptop and stood by Kasey and they started their walk home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once there, Kasey flopped his backpack on the couch and he turned to look at Alex. He looked tired, woozy, exhausted. And goodness, did Kasey want to kiss him to make him feel better.
Kasey had walked into the kitchen to make Alex a cool glass of water like he liked before bed. He had just pulled the glass from the cabinet when Alex had walked close to him.
“Hey, want to go to the roof?”
Kasey smiled warmly towards him, he walked to the fridge and filled the glass up with water and then placed the glass itself inside of it.
When Kasey made it up to Alex’s room, Alex had already made it out to the roof and had one of his joints lit between his fingers. “Ah that kind of roof time,” Kasey moved through the window frame and then sat beside him.
“You don’t have to smoke with me, I just… needed something. Feeling uptight,” Alex grumbled. He looked at the joint between his fingers before placing it between his lips and inhaling. He held the smoke in his lungs, letting the smoke linger and do its job in there before exhaling.
Kasey grabbed his wrist, looking at Alex as he moved his hand by the wrist to his lips. He placed the joint between his own lips and doing the same thing that Alex did. As he pulled the joint from his lips, he watched as Alex’s eyes flicked from his lips to his eyes. “Something catch your eye, Lexy?”
Kasey watched as Alex’s face flushed, this time going all the way to the tips of his ears. “You could say that,” Alex replied, in a hushed voice. “Do you ever think that there are things made in this universe that were put here for a single person to enjoy? Like something so rare and beautiful that its existence was put here just for you.”
Your eyes, Kasey thought.
“Maybe? Your writing brain and your high brain are funny together,” Kasey answered.
“Kase?”
“Lexy?”
“I think that about you.”
Kasey turned his head from looking out at the barely pink sky right back to Alex. “Me?”
Alex nodded, looking right back. An uneasy feeling started pooling in his stomach, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, no I am glad you did,” Kasey pulled the joint from between Alex’s fingers and placed it on the little ash tray he brought out there. He grabbed Alex’s hand, looking closely at the freckles that graced the pale skin before lacing their fingers together.
“Oh,” Alex watched their hands mold together perfectly, like this was how they were meant to be in the first place.
“Lex, I have wanted to kiss you for… so long,” Kasey said, his voice soft now.
“So kiss me.”
Eh, who needed sleep anyway.