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The house was purple. That itself wasn't too strange, but it was also HUGE. Built on a slight hill, there were trees all around and a lot of empty land separating the Institute from the rest of the city. It was almost like a secluded mansion. There would be privacy in abundance for the psychics to work on their skills. No one creeping at the windows, wanting to catch a glimpse of the freaks. No one would even have to know that's what he was there for. New school, new friends, new life.
Renny stilled his excitement with a deep breath and dragged his bags into the house.
Inside, it seemed much more cozy than it looked from the outside. There was a pile of bags and boxes and random items in the foyer, so Renny unloaded his arms gratefully next to the spread of items. He quickly adjusted his glasses, which had been slipping down his nose since he left the taxi, and wiped the sweat off his palms. His fingers were reddened with the strain of too many bags. Perhaps he'd packed up too much, but he was going to be away from home for about a year, and he had wanted to be as comfortable as possible. He wondered for a moment whether he should leave his bags until later, or take some with him. He took an abortive step forward, but with a second thought he picked up his suitcase and his laptop. There was noise and laughter coming from upstairs, and with an eager grin Renny started up after it.
There were rooms along the hallway at the top of the stairs. The first door was closed, but there was noise coming from the middle room. Renny walked towards it, hearing the laughter grow louder as he neared. He peered around the side and saw a girl about his age sitting on a lap of a man who looked like he should be in college. The girl was laughing, her long hair falling down her back as the man ran his fingers down her throat. It was an intimate gesture, and Renny was instantly blushing. He moved to quietly leave the couple to their devices, but he backed into someone, tripping over a large foot.
"Ow! Hey, watch it, man, those are my best sneakers! I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Renny side-peddled, falling into the wall by the door. "I'm sorry, I didn't see..."
The young man's smile was dazzling, straight and sparkling white. He playfully punched Renny in the arm, nearly causing him to lose his grip on the suitcase. "Hey, man, I'm just kidding!" He laughed quick, biting it off as he looked into the room. He narrowed his eyes at the couple, but Renny stopped himself from looking too. Whatever he'd walked into, he wasn't ready to mediate a fight. The young man smiled, however, when he turned back to Renny. "So, you're one of us psychics?"
Renny nudged his glasses up his face with a nose-wrinkle. "Yeah, I guess. I'm--" he looked down at his full hands, unwilling to drop something in order to shake hands. He offered an apologetic smile instead. "I'm Renny."
The man nodded, his blue eyes sliding to the side again. "Yeah, cool, man. I'm Sasha. I think you already met Frost and King."
"That's ParTAY King," the older boy's voice came from the room behind him. When Renny turned to look, he was face-to-face with the young woman.
She was very good looking. She gave Renny a beaming smile, one hand absently fixing her hair over her ear, taming the wild, thick curls. Her gum smacked in her mouth as she spoke. "Laurie Frost. It's a pleasure, Renny." She wiggled her long-nails at him as she pushed into the hall.
"Yeah," Renny said, nodding, watching her move smoothly down the hall to the first closed door.
"Like to get a piece of that, huh?" Sasha said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Renny blushed and nudged his glasses up with his shoulder. "Um, so, are these the only rooms up here?"
"Yeah. The Institute's pretty cozy that way. Sabrina and Frostie in room one, King--'scuse me ParTAY King in two, I'm in three. I guess you're stuck in the back with the other one." Sasha wiped a hand over his broadly smiling mouth.
"The other one?" Renny didn't like the sound of that.
"Nerds in the back!" King shouted from the room.
Renny narrowed his eyes and scowled.
"Ah, don't pay attention to him. He's just King Priss since he got the big room. No hard feelings that we already split the place up, huh?" Sasha asked as he started to steer Renny down the hall. "I mean, first come, first serve; it's only fair right?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Renny muttered, already finding Sasha's fake-friendliness more off-putting than King's rudeness.
"Cool. Enjoy!" Sasha gave him one last hard pat on the back and left Renny to find his own way to the last room on the floor.
The door was open, and when Renny stepped in he saw that the large bay window was also open. A body, long and lean, was stretched out across the box-like bench in front of it, the sharp, bony shoulders ending at the pushed-up windowpane. It took Renny a heartbeat to realize that he hadn't just walked into a murder scene. His new roommate NOT headless, but was hanging half-out the window, butt perched precariously on the edge of the sill.
The outside edge.
Renny dropped his bags and was crossing the room before he even completed his line of thought. His hand gripped the jean-clad thigh hard as he ducked under the pane, reaching out for the man's shoulder. Just as Renny was about to grab him, the man startled away from his touch, the sinewy muscle under Renny's hand tensing. Renny tightened his grip on the man's thigh and yanked, dragging his butt off the sill and onto the cushioned bench. There was a meaty-sounding THUNK, followed closely by a rough-growled "FUCK!" and then Renny met his suicidal roommate face to furious face.
"Whatthefuckareyoudoinggetyourhandoffmeyoufaggot," the man said in a rush. He ended his proclamation with a heavy exhalation of smoke right into Renny's face. The thick smell of tobacco filled Renny's nose. He reeled back, taking his hand away from the man's leg as though he'd been burned.
"I thought--" As he watched, the man--maybe a year older than Renny, but no more--took a long drag on his half-done cigarette before holding his hand out in the open air of the window. He rubbed his other hand across the side of his head. His long black hair untangled for a moment, giving Renny a clear look at his grimacing face before it fell back across his cheek, shadowing his eyes once more. He exhaled towards the open window, his hair falling forward to further obscure his face.
"I thought you were going to fall out," Renny finally completed.
The man coughed. It might have been a laugh, but it was a rough, incomplete sound. He lifted his cigarette to his lips again before saying a simple, "No." He tipped the ash out into the light breeze whisking past the window. His right hand lifted again to his head, pressing on what must by now be one impressive bump, but he didn't complain.
It wasn't exactly how Renny had imagined meeting his roommate. He'd had vague thoughts of friendly awkwardness, the kind of thing you always saw in the movies right before the two guys became best buds. This was supposed to be something like college, only he was still a senior in high school.
His roommate seemed content to ignore Renny as he finished his cigarette, but Renny felt awkward and uncomfortable. He didn't want to share a room for a year with a guy who hated his guts, so he raised the white flag first. "I'm sorry. I didn't meant to...ah, grab you and stuff. I just didn't want to share my room with a corpse. At least not until I got his name." He ended with a laugh, to ease the tension he could feel creep into his voice. He rubbed his sweating palms against his thighs.
The man pinched the cigarette between thumb and forefinger, rolling it until the little clump of burning tobacco fell out of the paper. Then he flicked the extinguished butt out into the wind. He slithered off the bench, his long body twisting and moving with a complicated twitch of too-long arms and legs until he was standing. His shoulders rolled forward as he slumped, his head ducked behind his fringe of long, dark hair.
"John." Even without the smoke, his voice was rough, unused.
Renny stopped himself from offering his hand for a shake; though it would have been polite, John didn't seem too open to body contact. Or he might have been, if Renny hadn't grabbed him before even meeting him. Instead he offered a fairly strained smile and nodded his head. "I'm Paul Renfrew. My dad is Paul, actually. Most people call me Renny."
John just nodded silently to himself, edging away from Renny towards the bed closest to the window. There was a lumpy duffle bag dropped into the center of the bed.
It was at that moment that Renny realized the true extent of his actions. With a panicked gasp, he sprinted back to the door to where he'd dropped everything that had been in his hands the moment he'd thought John was in danger. He swore under his breath at seeing the laptop case upside-down, tipped at an angle by the suitcase he'd also been carrying. He carefully lifted it between his palms, turning it over. From the outside, the damage looked minimal, but there was no telling if the padding had protected his precious computer.
Renny carefully placed the long briefcase on the unoccupied bed and unlocked the zipper. He lifted the cover just an inch or two, checking to make sure everything was still in their pockets. When nothing immediately fell out, he flipped back the casetop and eased out the black computer. The plastic was cool and slick under his fingers, unchipped and uncracked. He opened the laptop and hit the power button, holding his breath. He half expected it to not turn on at all after his maltreatment, but with a whine of the fan, the screen lit up.
The Enterprise stretched out before him, its decks outlined in gold on a flat black background. It was an exact replica of the schematics of the Enterprise NCC1701-D that were displayed in Engineering in /The Next Generation/. The computer beeped happily at Renny as it finished loading the programs. Renny clicked through his most-used programs first, to make sure they were running, before he checked the file manager. Everything seemed to be working fine, and he breathed easily for the first time since setting foot in the house.
/'The Institute,'/ he reminded himself. /'They call it the Institute.'/
Renny was determined to fit in and not be the "nerd" that Sasha and King obviously thought him to be. To be honest with himself, he was a bit geeky. He was smart, and he spent too much time around electronics, learning them inside and out with his mind as much as his hands. But back home, he had been pretty popular. He'd run track, and the one year he was on the swim team he'd placed in the top ten of the district. He wasn't really a jock, or a nerd, or any other clique, and he didn't want to start out the year placed into any category. He wanted to fit in with everyone.
So far, he was off to a lousy start. At least they had two weeks to get comfortable before school started. His senior year, and he was at a new school, with new friends, learning how to be a better psychic. It seemed too surreal, like the plot of a bad teen drama.
Concentrating, Renny used just his thoughts to shut down his laptop. It was trickier to manipulate programming than simple electronics, but the more he practiced, the easier it got. It all came down to energy--1's and 0's, on and off. You just have to find the right place to push. The computer warbled a goodbye noise, and the screen went blank.
Renny glanced over at his roommate. John was standing over his bag, moving clothes item by item from the duffle to the drawers by the bed. It was impossible to tell what his special psychic power was; all that Renny had been told was that everyone would be psychics at The Institute, not what they could do. For all he knew, John could be another PK psychic.
"So, uh, what do you do?" He tried to make it casual, but feared that his excitement might bleed over into his voice. This was the first time he ever met another psychic. A real one.
John looked up from his unpacking. His long hair fell back a little as he tipped his head, and Renny had a moment of shock as cold grey-blue eyes looked right at him, almost through him with the intensity of the gaze. Then he shook his head slightly, knocking a dark lock across his eyes. "Astral projection."
Renny was able to keep the smile off his face. The way John growled out the words, he didn't sound too happy to admit to it. Renny had never really thought of astral projection to be a psychic power, more like what people did when they meditated. "That's... ah, cool," Renny finally settled on, hopefully not sounding too amused. "I do psychokinesis. I'm really good with electronic things. Watch." Renny turned his attention to the TV perched on top of the old desk at the foot of the bed. He concentrated, feeling the layout of the wires and the flow of electricity inside the box. It was almost as though he could see the map of it imprinted on his brain. Just move some energy here and--
The television came to life with a whine of guitar. Images appeared, first as ghosts, then clearer as the machine warmed up. It was a music video; in the corner, Renny could see the station logo. "I'm glad we got the room with cable. I think I'd die without my MTV."
John nodded without agreement, turning apathetically away to stare into his bag. It was empty. Renny retrieved his own suitcase from the floor and began to unpack it. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched John crumple up the thin duffle and toss it into one of the drawers. Instead of going downstairs to get the rest of his bags from the pile by the door, John tossed himself down on the mattress, stretching out his long legs and leaning against the headboard. His eyes glittered in the shadows of his hair, reflecting the light of the rapid-moving music video.
Suddenly, Renny felt rich and overdressed in his letterman's jacket and designer jeans. John was wearing an old t-shirt and jeans that looked lived in, and the clothes he'd unpacked--what little there were--didn't look much better. Renny wanted to ask about that, to see if those were the only things he'd brought, but he had pissed his roommate off enough for one day. If there was any hope of being friends with John, he'd have to find some way to break through that thorny exterior.
John blinked slowly, making the light in his eyes flicker oddly.
"You have cool eyes." The words were out his mouth before he even thought to speak them. Renny ducked his head quickly, feeling stupid for saying his thoughts aloud. He watched John carefully out of the corner of his eye.
John startled at Renny's voice, his spine going rigid as his hands clenched into fists on the mattress. He slowly turned his head, ducking beneath long bangs. "What do you mean?" he asked suspiciously.
Renny held up a hand, hoping to stave off another confrontation. "I didn't mean, like, they're freaky or anything. I just... they're cool."
"They're blue," John said simply.
"Nah, not the color. Just..." Renny fumbled for an explanation, feeling the full heat of John's intense gaze concentrated on him. It was unnerving. Instantly, a memory rose to the surface of his thoughts. "Reminds me of a jackal I saw, at a zoo." He'd been nine. It was right beside his mother's favorite animal, so he'd seen a lot of it in his formative years. "He always... he looked..." Every time, the jackal had fixed that intelligent, hungry, animal gaze on him, and every time Renny hid behind his mother, knowing that the creature wanted to eat him alive, little bite by little bite. He could never look away from that jackal, so small and sleek and cunning. He had been so scared...but at the same time, so fascinated.
That was exactly how John looked at him. Like a predator who'd just sniffed out some prey.
And just like those times at the zoo, Renny felt the stirrings of an erection, the rush of heated pleasure at the thought of being devoured alive.
He couldn't tell any of that to John. Instead, Renny deflected his attention with a wave of his arm, adjusting his glasses and turning back to the computer wires in his bag. "Nevermind."
Even as he untangled the clump of wires, he could feel that intense gaze still concentrating on him. He stopped himself from meeting it, afraid that those eyes would be able to read his thoughts, see the rising bulge in his pants.
Just when the tension reached the point that he knew he'd have to say SOMETHING, Sasha's voice rose up from the hallway. "All right, it's suppertime kids! Let's move it to the kitchen!"
Renny waited for John to leave the room before he followed, his eyes on John's heels as they walked down the hall.