Chapter Text
“Thank you Latte, I think I can take it from here.” A man of average stature, quite obviously fatigued, dropped the overloaded plastic bin on the faux wood desk that came with the room. It was just one of many that all had been hauled up into the room over the slow morning yet hectic morning. For such an expensive school it was hard to believe the students resided in small quarters as this.
Heavy lifting certainly wasn’t what he’d prefer to be doing, at this hour he’d much prefer to be sipping on some freshly brewed coffee and planning out his latest project. But today was an exception, and one built upon much anticipation. Today was the day Espresso was moving into his dream school, his first day at University.
Everyone around him treated this as if it was a momentous occasion, like he had braved the turmoil of boyhood and officially started his foray into adulthood. And not only was it any university, he had been accepted into one of the top schools in the nation! It was surely a reason to celebrate to all but Espresso. At the moment, it felt like a chore.
“Are you sure? It still looks like you have a lot here?” The woman, Latte, couldn’t help but ask. The room was equipped with a wardrobe, a bed (with a frightfully thin mattress), and the aforementioned faux desk. It was quite barebones, the only thing that truly made it distinct from a jail cell was the lack of bars on the windows. “I know it looks small but it will take awhile to make it feel nice, believe me.”
Espresso sighed, “I can handle it. I just need to get my equipment out.”
He quickly go to putting away the contents of the boxes, starting with a mattress topper and various linens. He pulled each out at a time, trying not to let any components of the box spill out onto the dirty floor.
Latte seemed to linger, simply watching rather than taking her leave. She stood there, observing Espresso as he struggled with a fitted sheet.
“Can I help you?” He asked the woman, withholding no bitterness in his tone.
She moved her long, dyed silver hair as she took a seat and leaned back into the chair sitting at the desk. “I have to be honest with you, I’m hoping to catch your roommate. We really have no idea what they might be like!”
The conversation from the mellow-faced women didn’t seem to impress him much. “I have a few ideas…”
Espresso didn’t have the luxury of picking a roommate beforehand. The bitter reality of his situation was that he only recently learned that he was going to the very university that he was currently moving into. It’s true that to be accepted into a prestigious institution such as this had always been a dream of his. Ever since he was a child he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge that he hoped to nurture at one of the Ivy leagues.
But, Espresso had swallowed the massive pill of getting waitlisted months ago and thus applied to the State University. It was a respectable school, but not up to his standards and he found it to be a hit to his ego. So when Espresso got the news of his acceptance only days away from decision day, he was rather pleased, if not stressed because he had to immediately start admittance forms according to his new course of action.
So, he simply hadn’t had time to look into a roommate, his schedule was much too busy with much too little time and he was much too picky to decide that quickly if he was willing to live with someone. He was forced to choose a random roommate, who he was not exactly excited to meet.
Latte offered him a sweet and warm smile, as she always seemed to do. It wasn’t hard to infer that he wasn’t excited about this aspect of his scholastic future. You only had to know him for about a minute to guess that suprises weren’t something he welcomed. And solitude; Espresso could go days on end in his room alone if he wished.
“You know,” Latte started, “I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. The people here are pretty serious; maybe you’ll even make some friends!”
He rolled his eyes, Espresso didn’t appreciate the gentle riving.
Latte finally lifted herself from the chair. “I suppose I’ll be on my way,” she dusted off her dress, the last thing she needed to do was add to his mounting stress, “you know where to find me if you need me! I’ll see you, ‘spresso!”
“See you.”
“I love you!” The woman smiled evilly, almost as if what she said was intended to annoy the man as she leaned on the doorway.
Espresso sighed, but he admitted “I love you too,” with little convincing. She left upon hearing those words, satisfied with his confession.
There was a lot about he couldn’t help but stress over. His roommate, his future classes, his general future here. Everything was up in the air, and although he wasn’t willing to admit it, he was insecure about his placement in the college considering the fact that he was originally waitlisted. The only thing that gave him any relief was knowing that Latte was not living too far away.
Part of the reason that he originally applied to this school was the fact that Latte attended this school and her high praise of it. She was beginning her junior year and lived just off campus in an apartment with three roommates he never bothered to introduce himself to. He felt as though knew them well enough through Latte’s stories.
The man, now standing in the middle of the empty, white room let his eyes move from the door to the unpacked boxes. Time was of the essence, he knew very well, and so he continued working on setting up his situation now in silence.
He unpacked, moved, and organized all with faint, unfamiliar sounds creeping through the space between the floor and the door. It was him alone with the thoughts in his head and the distant mumbling of unnamed neighbors and classmates.
Despite the fact that Espresso appreciated solitude more than the average man, he couldn’t help but feel a little out of sorts in this strange place away from home. Being alone here simply wasn’t the same as being alone in his room surrounded by familiarity. He decided to put on some music to distract his mind and hopefully, if only mentally, remove him from the room if even a little bit.
The music soothed his soul, even if just a bit, and he was able to more comfortably continue setting up his situation. That was until he was startled by a sudden, booming laughter bouncing its way down the hall. God, imagine being that guy’s neighbor.
Espresso tried to continue, now moving to some encased elements of the periodic delicately surrounded in bubble wrap. But there was another crack of the booming laughter, accompanied by a similarly rowdy voice. It seemed to be moving closer to his door and Espresso couldn’t help but feel the beginnings of dread. How was he ever to do research if he had to live next to that guy?
Hopefully, he was just someone’s excited dad, although he seemed too young. Maybe someone’s brother dragged along to carry boxes?
The voice only grew and grew in volume, bouncing off the walls and harassing Espresso’s sensitive ears. Closer and closer the man walked, the whole instance reminded him vaguely of the Tell-Tale Heart in how insufferable the sound was.
And then, he heard a light jingle directly outside his room. The door swung open with no warning, revealing a tall, buff, smiling blond. “Hello! You must be my roommate! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”
Espresso turned off his music. The voice from the hallway, that irritating, boisterous voice, had just introduced itself as his roommate. Within less than a minute, this man had single handedly created a bleak, pessimistic, version of his future.
The blond, who seemed to have never ending heaps on heaps of hair that managed to reach his waist, extended his hand. Slowly, almost cautiously, Espresso let his hand be taken by the stranger who immediately accepted it with a firm shake. “I’m Madeleine! What might your name be?”
“Espresso.”
“Splendid! I know we’ll be the best of friends!” The man, Madeleine,beamed with a smile stretching cheek to cheek. Espresso merely frowned.
“Madeleine? Qui est-ce?” A foreign, feminine voice asked from the hallway.
“Oh, Mom! It’s my new roommate! You must meet him!”
With that, a woman entered much resembling Madeleine. She was fair of face and shared his copious golden locks only much more well maintained and styled into large ringlets. She offered the bewildered Espresso a smile which looked comparatively demure to that of her Son’s. “Why, Hello! I’m Madeleine’s mother, but you can call me Grand Madeleine. It’s so very nice to meet you.” She spoke with a slight french accent, which explained her question from earlier.
Before Espresso could introduce himself to her, three other women, all with matching platinum blond hair and deep blue eyes, entered. He could assume they were all related; it seemed the genes were very strong in this family. Each woman was either carrying a box or pulling a cart all loaded with various things.
“Hello! It’s good to meet you! We’re the aunts of dear Madeleine.” This aunt, who had her hair up in a bun with curls for bangs said with a noticeably thicker french accent compared to the mother. Espresso noticed at this moment, by the clank of the necklace of said aunt who had leaned over to greet him, that the whole family seemed to be rather well adorned with jewelry.
Now that he was paying a modicum of attention, he noticed that all of them, Madeleine included, were dressed rather well. Espresso was the odd one out with his simple t-shirt and sweats. Today was a day he dressed more in the interest of functionality rather than style with all the moving involved, but apparently, Madeleine and his clones didn’t agree.
“Yes! We wanted to help our Madeleine.” Said another, who had long straight hair. “Oh! Dear, we wanted to bring you something!” And one of the aunts dropped a Tupperware container of freshly baked cookies in front of their nephew topped with a little note that was illegible from where Espresso stood. “We know how you love your sweets!”
“And we didn’t forget you either! Oh, you are so cute! But please take care of our dear Madeleine, he can’t help himself around sweets!” And the woman dropped another container on Esspresso’s desk, this one with a note that read "A friend of Madeleine’s is a friend of ours! We hope you enjoy!"
It was a kind gesture, and his roommate’s family seemed nice enough if not a little obsessive. But still, Espresso could feel himself being suffocated in this room much too small to host this number of people. There was too much chattering too, he could hardly concentrate with all the noise filling up the room. The whole ordeal was starting to become unbearably overwhelming.
Realistically, it was only about half an hour until Madeleine and co finished up with the decorating and unpacking, but it felt as though it dragged on forever. There were more than enough helping hands to prepare such a tiny space and yet they all made it such an ordeal. Espresso, in his passing interest in their affairs that he was not yet ready to indulge in, had noticed how Madeleine himself almost never lifted a finger. His family was all too willing to do tasks for him that a grown man should be fully capable of.
“A bientôt, Madeleine!” Finally said the mother, but not before a loving kiss on the cheek and a prolonged hug.
“Oh, I can’t leave without a hug, Maddy!” Another aunt said, rushing over to scoop up her nephew into an embrace. After a long, rather obnoxious display of affection between the family members, they were on their way out.
“Au revoir, Espresso!” Madeleine’s mother waved before finally, finally closing the door for good.
Good, it was over, Espresso could breathe. Only he couldn’t because his roommate still sat directly across from him. He tried to continue unpacking his belongings, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of Madeleine’s eyes burning into his head.
Then, as if he had gained clairvoyance, he could see Madeleine approaching him. “You are not done packing? Do you need any help?”
“I’m ok, thank you.”
“Who is this! You don’t mind if I look.” Madeleine had snatched the picture Espresso had only just put down of Latte. “She’s awfully pretty, is she your girlfriend?”
“Foster sister.” Espresso plucked the photo from the blond’s hands and placed it on the desk. He promptly returned to unpacking
Without being prompted, Madeleine got to unpacking , not bothering to keep his eyes on his roommate who continued to loom over him.
Without any prompting, Madeleine started shifting through the boxes and started unpacking them himself. “Quite a lot of beakers!”
“Would you please put my things down.” Urged Espresso, clearly starting to lose a handle on his patience.
Madeleine finally started to get a modicum of a hint. He raised his hands defensively and moved over to his bed, letting the entirety of his body hit the mattress.
There was finally a sense of stillness in the air, Espresso could hear himself think. He had started to make some real progress on the setting up of his new room! What would truly put him at ease would be to continue his studies, but alas, he had to continue his novel for the semester had yet to start.
Espresso did as his roommate had and let his head collide with his pillows. Relaxation wasn’t usually a priority for him, but he had to admit to himself that it wasn’t bad. He removed his book mark, set it aside, and opened to page 103. He let himself be transported into a foreign world with foreign problems that he could never relate to. It was nice.
He was only taken out of the experience when he heard the rustling of Madeleine from across the room. He turned on this oversized fan that one of his many aunties had lugged into the room. He then spent a moment pacing around the room, which also served to distract Espresso as he could sense his movements out of the corner of his eye. He finally returned to his bed, only to loudly laugh at videos he decided to watch on his phone at full volume.
That’s it, Espresso gave up. He let the book lay open on his face as he let out a long, exasperated sigh. Madeleine carried on with his laughter oblivious to the world around him. He turned over to face his roommate, “Espresso, come look at this. Oh, it’s too good.”
Espresso ignored him.
“Y’know I am feeling a bit peckish, do you want to go to the dining hall?”
Espresso continued to ignore him.
Madeleine yawned, “Did you have to get up early to move in too? I suppose it was worth the view! Campus is simply-”
“So you made your family carry everything? You couldn’t be bothered to help?” Espresso interjected, stopping the big dumb oaf in his tracks. Finally, even if just for a moment he was still and quiet!
“They didn’t want me to! My aunties don’t want me to be injured!” Madeleine cried.
“Are you serious?” Espresso hissed, gearing up to let out all the day’s frustrations on this fool he was forced to live with. At this point, even Madeleine seemed stirred. His smile finally faltered and his face contorted into a mix of confusion and offense.
The tension in the room had grown to an all time high, the air was still. Madeleine opened his mouth to retort only to be brought to a stop by an unexpected knock at the door.
“This is your RA! Come out for a floor meeting!”