Chapter Text
Calum sat at his desk underneath the lofted bed in his dorm room. His laptop was centered on the desktop, his fingers frozen atop the keyboard as he contemplated what to type next. A half-eaten turkey sandwich was to the left of the computer, a cup of Ramen noodles and a glass of iced tea to the right. Calum readjusted the glasses on his nose before glancing over his shoulder at the door, as if looking at the slab of wood would make Ashton walk through it any faster. The clock on the desk said ‘3:53 AM’ and Calum was beginning to feel like the father in a teenage romance film, waiting for his daughter to get home from a date - except he was waiting for his roommate to return from a party, instead. Realizing that Ashton may not even come home tonight - or, this morning - at this rate, Calum decided to attempt to get some sleep. He and Ashton both had to be at the quad in about four hours to promote the upcoming dinner they were organizing to help support the local animal shelter.
Calum shut his laptop, pulled off his t-shirt, and climbed into his bed. His growing concern for his roommate was easily put to rest as Calum’s eyes immediately drooped closed. Just as he began to drift off to sleep, the dorm room door creaked open.
A moment passed before a tiny voice, barely above a whisper, came, “Cal?”
And, yeah. Calum was mad. Relieved, but mad. So, he didn’t respond.
“Calum?” Ashton tried again. Calum could tell that something was off with his friend, Ashton was known for his loud and excited persona, and this Ashton seemed the opposite.
Calum stayed quiet, and thought that Ashton had given up and was going to go to bed himself. However, then a mess of light brown hair popped up over the side of Calum’s bed, and Ashton pulled himself completely into the bed, quickly burrowing underneath the covers and up against Calum’s body. Calum let out a deep sigh, but wrapped his arms around his roommate and let the boy rest his head on his shoulder.
Ashton sniffled and then two tears quickly dropped onto Calum’s collarbone, one right after the other like they’d been sitting on Ashton’s cheek, waiting for the right moment to alert Calum of Ashton’s emotional distress.
“What’s wrong?” Calum whispered.
“He’s an asshole, Cal,” Ashton balled up his fist and brought it down against Calum’s chest, not powerful enough to hurt the other boy, but strong enough to signal that he was clearly upset.
“What happened?”
“Luke!” Ashton practically screamed, furiously wiping away the tears on his cheeks with the back of his hand.
Calum didn’t know the details, but he was certain that Luke has screwed over Ashton in some way. He wanted to say, “I told you so,” wanted to reiterate what he’d been telling Ashton all along, but he knew that would only hurt Ashton worse in this moment, so Calum just pulled Ashton closer and let him cry until they both fell asleep.
-
It was...chilly. Okay, it was fucking cold. But, Luke was from Sydney and it was, like, October, so. How could Luke be blamed for anticipating it be warm outside? He was in his second year of university in New York, he probably should’ve known that the weather was different here, but, whatever. Luke had bigger problems than worrying about forgetting his coat back in the house. He was running late, who the hell had planned a party on a Tuesday night? He had to make it all the way across campus in two minutes to make it to class on time. This also meant that he hadn’t had time to get his coffee, a morning routine that, if missed, could throw off his entire day. On top of all of that, he could see a group of students up ahead who were forcing flyers onto anyone who passed by, and Luke couldn’t take a different route if he wanted any chance of making it to class on time. Luke put his head down and headed forward as fast as he could without jogging.
“Excuse me! We’re holding a dinner in Kearse Hall on Friday night to raise money for the Humane Society!” Luke heard a man’s voice call out to him.
He continued on in hopes that the man wasn’t pushy and would not pursue him. Luke was not so lucky.
A hand roughly grabbed onto his upper arm, spinning him around.
“What the hell?” was Luke’s first reaction, because normal people didn’t just attack students for ignoring them.
“Look, asshole. I’m freezing my balls off too, but I fucking care about these dogs so I’m standing out here anyway. The least you could do is take a fucking flyer,” the man snarled, shoving one of the flyers into Luke’s chest.
Luke grabbed onto the piece of paper with both hands, taken aback by the aggressive nature of the dark haired man in front of him, but also a bit intrigued by the black lettering - presumably initials? - that were inked on both of the man’s hands between his thumb and pointer finger.
“Let him go, Cal,” another one of the students gritted out, pulling back on ‘Cal’ by the hood of his jacket, and - oh shit.
“Uh, hey, Ashton,” Luke greeted awkwardly, now having run into last night’s hookup that hadn’t exactly ended on a high note.
“Luke,” Ashton replied meekly, averting his gaze to the ground.
“Wait, you’re Luke?” the dark haired man spat out, his scowl somehow intensifying.
Luke stepped in front of the man and tried to block him from Luke’s view. “Cal, don’t do this.”
The ‘Cal’ guy reached out and yanked the flyer from Luke’s grip. “Stay away from Ashton, and you can stay away from the fundraiser. The animals don’t need help from douchebags like you.”
He then crossed his arms in front of his chest and turned around to face away from Luke. It was a childish gesture, but Luke still felt a pang of guilt.
Ashton continued looking at Luke with wide, watery eyes and this was…uncomfortable. What was he supposed to say? Whatever. Luke had to get to class anyway.
Luke had barely thought about the encounter throughout the entirety of his accounting class. Okay, that was a lie. Luke couldn’t stop thinking of the dark haired man. Cal. Was he always angry? Was he even really angry or was that just the way his face looks? Maybe Luke could change that. Maybe his face would twist in another way if he had Luke’s dick up his-
Luke was pulled from his thoughts by the movement of students rushing out of their seats around him. Apparently, the professor had dismissed the class. Luke scrambled to his feet as well, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and exiting the classroom. He was on a mission, now, a mission to relieve some of Cal’s…anger.
How Luke would even gain Cal’s attention again, he didn’t know, which is why he convinced himself that it was fate when he glanced at the bulletin board nailed to the wall at the end of the corridor. Right in the middle of the board was a white sheet of paper, cutely drawn puppies and kittens adorned the edges.
“Help Support Our Furry Friends!” it read. “Soup dinner in Kearse Hall, Friday, 6PM. Cost $8. All proceeds go towards aiding the Humane Society.”
Luke dropped his backpack on the floor and looked around to make sure that no other students were looking his way. He ripped the flyer off of the board and shoved it into his bag. Now, he knew how he was going to enact phase one of his mission.