(There’s a chapter summery at the end for those of you who don’t like or have time for long chapters.)
Andy was both nervous and excited to be starting collage. He’d never lived away from home before, and he would be moving in with five other boys, most of whom would be total strangers. Luckily he had his older brother already staying there to help him adjust.
“Hey Marco!” Andy called as soon as he saw his big brother on the campus grounds. Marco was an athletic, up beet kind of guy. Handsome with curly brown hair with a hint of their Latino father. Andy’s hair too was curly, but with more of a hint of red in it too, with far less of his father’s lineage and more of his beautiful redheaded freckled white mother coming through. He had a more delicate build and wasn’t nearly as tall as his one year older brother. Where as Marco was boisterous and loud, Andy wore a nervous smile, as if he was eager to be here, but worried about what kind of people he’d be meeting.
“Hey there, lill bro, let me help you with that.” Marco easily picked up the luggage Andy had been struggling with. “How was the train getting here?”
“Okay I guess. Kinda long. I sat next to a kind lady for most of it and we sort of got talking about our lives. Or actually, I guess she did most of the listening. I was so nervous about starting collage. It really helped. Though I think she was kind of superstitious. She gave me this candy and said it’d help me find my place.”
“You know you shouldn’t take candy from a stranger,” Marco said with a smirk.
“Yeah yeah,” Andy said dismissively.
“Anyway,” Marco continued. “You know how I arranged for you to come live in the flat with us? Well, there’s been a slight mix up. Double booking. The organization on this campus is a mess.”
“Wait, does this mean I’m not going to be living with you!?” Andy asked.
“No, no. You’ll be staying with us. There’s no where else to put you. It’s just, we’re going to be a room short until we figure this thing out. I’m sure we can get a hold of an extra bed or something in the mean time. We’ll work it out later. For now, let me present to you your new palace.” It was obviously a joke to call the student apartment block a palace. The old brick building wasn’t a bad place though. Each separate floor was a basic apartment meant for six students. The first couple story windows were barred to prevent anyone breaking in. Marco buzzed open the front door in the corner of the building with some kind of app on his phone and lead the way in to a small room with a stairway and an elevator to the right. But Marco stopped Andy from pushing to summon the elevator.
“We live here, at ground level,” he explained, buzzing open the door right in front of them instead. Did no one use keys here, Andy wondered.
The apartment door lead to a slightly narrow and long corridor. Along its left were a series of doors labeled A1 to A6, likely the 6 one man bedrooms. The corridor eventually widened out to what looked to be a large common area. Andy could only see a sliver of it through the passageway, and what filled the entire three man sofa at the end was the fattest person Andy had ever laid eyes on. The guy however wasn’t scooter fat, like some folks Andy had seen driving down the shopping isles back home. No this guy was built more like a massive sumo wrestler. Under all that blubber, the guy must have been built like a hulk. Alt least that’s what Andy had to assume with how easily the massive stranger stood up from the couch. The guy wasn’t just wide, but he was tall. He had to turn sideways as he lumbered towards them. Andy stepped back instinctively, afraid he’d get trampled, like a mouse meeting an elephant.
“You must be Marco’s brother, Andy?” the giant asked holding out his left hand in greeting. Because of the orientation he’d come in through the corridor with, he couldn’t reach over with his right. Tentatively Andy took the hand. His own vanished in the giant’s grasp and Andy was pulled forward into a huge marshmallow hug. Andy’s back was pressed up against bedroom door A2, and his front was swooshed into the fat belly.
“Ha ha! I’m Henry. I’m afraid I’m the reason for our little housing dilemma. You see, they had me scheduled to stay at the top floor originally, only the cheep elevator they have here isn’t actually made to handle my weight. Plus, I guess they were afraid the floor would give out under me or something.” He laughed, causing jiggles to ripple about Andy as if he was in a waterbed.
“What’s with all the commo… Wow there!” The door behind Andy opened up bouncing the smaller boy right up against a set of steel hard black abs. Strong hands grasped Andy, steadying him. Andy looked up to see the opposite of Henry. This guy was shirtless and coated in a sheen of sweat as if he’d just been training. He was black as night and there was nothing soft about any part of him. The handsome obsidian sculpture of a young man helped Andy to his feet and spun him around to shake his hand with a single firm handshake.
“Dave’s the name,” he said.
“Andy…” Andy murmured, mouth dry.
“Hey, Henry. Mind moving aside?” Marco asked from the hallway. “I need to get Andy’s things to my room.”
“Sure.” Henry slipped back down the way he’d come. Andy took a moment to take in the accommodations of the bedroom. Single bed. Desk. Limited floor space. A window out. A closet. A couple of shelves and a small storage area under the bed. Simple student accommodations. Though as Andy had feared, the bathrooms and showers seemed to be communal.
Realizing he was probably intruding on personal space, Andy backed out of the bedroom as soon as his brother got his luggage past. Glancing back to room A1 nearest the entrance, he did notice that the room and even door seemed slightly larger. That had to be Henry’s then. Maybe that bedroom had been originally meant for two?
Glancing back towards the communal area, Andy saw a new face looking out from the next room, A3. This guy looked slightly older. Maybe someone going back to collage for a new degree? He had a squarish face and body build, which reminded Andy of a soldier. He said not a word, but geared with hard eyes as if he disprove of Andy’s slender features. Andy grew instantly nervous again and instinctively brushed a hand through his curly amber locks.
“Um… hi. I’m Andy.” Andy held out a friendly hand. The clearing man did not take it. After a moment, he turned back to his room without a word and closed the door.
“Don’t mind Victor,” said a voice from door A4. “The Russian doesn’t speak much English. Or so we presume. He doesn’t say much to anyone, but oddly enough, he’s friendly in his own way. Got a flat tire and he’ll fix it right up for you, no questions asked. Literally. He’ll just glower angrily the whole time and make sure you’re alright.” Andy moved over to the doorway to see who was speaking from inside.
The guy lounging on the bed could have been a tattoo artist in a parlor. Either that or a Yakuza hit man. Detailed and colorful tattoos of dragons and churning oceans raged down his arms. Like the dragons his skin depicted, he blew a plume of smoke at his open window, though the window could only open so much thanks to the steel bars that wrapped around it. Everything about his screamed bad boy.
“So you’re out extra occupant? Don’t know what you’re brother’s planning to do with you? I’m not moving out. Had this room last year and I’m not intending to move just because of an overbooking screw up.”
“Oh, um… I didn’t mean to cause you any inconvenience,” Andy said, rubbing his arm nervously and curling his toes. The tank top wearing tattoo tapestry took another swig of his cigarette.
“I’m Cliff by the way.”
“Andy…”
“I know.”
“Andy, come here,” Marco called from way down in A6. Andy passed room A5 without incident. Marco had placed Andy’s bag under his desk. “So I was thinking, for tonight you can either sleep on one of the common room couches, or we can try to set up a mattress or something on the floor in here.”
“Um… In here…” Andy said. Just the thought of sleeping out in the common area would give him nightmares. That terrifying Russian Victor guy might come out and strangle him. Or Cliff, the mafia dude might knife him. Or Henry might accidentally step on him. Or Dave the body builder might snap him like a twig. Why was everyone living here so scary? Besides, Andy had been feeling strange for a while now. Like his body wasn’t quite acting as it should. Like the butterflies in his stomach had escaped and invaded all the other parts of his body as well with odd tingles and flashes of heat. He still had that strange sweet taste of that candy in his mouth.
“You okay?” Marco asked, noticing how Andy had been momentarily stuck in a trance.
“Um, yeah. Just trying to remember names. So, um, who’s in room A5?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you. It’s Leo. He’ll be arriving soon.” Leo was Macro’s best friend. Andy had met him plenty of times. A cool and chill kind of guy. A skater with kind of long haired. Even a tattoo or two, though nothing as extra as Cliff’s body art.
“Ah, at least I’ll know someone besides you,” Andy said.
“Don’t be silly. You’ll make friends with the others in no time,” Marco said. Though by the phrasing of that it sounded as if Marco didn’t expect anyone to move out.
“You know there’s a third option for where you could stay…” Marco said, realizing something. “Come.” He grabbed Andy’s hand and dragged him out into the common area. The place was a wide open room, with kitchen on one end and lounge with TV and sofas and a bean bag on the other. Marco kept on pulling Andy along to an adjacent room that turned out to be a communal shower room. Three shower booths stood against one wall with plastic curtains to draw in front of them. On the other side of the room were some sinks and cupboards for toiletries. At the end of the room were two doors. One was to the toilet, but the other was more mysterious. The door was metal and far more secure looking.
“Being on the ground floor gives us an entire area that the other apartments don’t have,” Marco said eagerly. “Normally only the maintenance staff are supposed to have access to this, but I happen to be friends with the handy man around here, so…” With another press of that app he had, Marco opened the security door. Beyond was a steep set of stairs into pitch darkness.
“Ta-da! A cellar! I’d show you right now, but the light isn’t working right now. Just a large empty room with some plumbing stuff and an electrical box. But it wouldn’t be too hard to spruce up a bit. I know Victor loves working on these sorts of things. Do this right, and we can all stay here.” Marco’s words were dripping with confidence, but Andy wasn’t so sure. That deep dark tunnel frightened him. It felt like the entrance to a monster’s den.
“I’m not so sure…” Andy said.
“Don’t worry. We’ll all help out. Besides, the rent’s the same no matter how many people are living here. This way, we’ll all split the pay of 6 people on 7 instead. I’m sure the others would be more than happy with that arrangement.”
“Um…” Andy tried, but his big brother had made up his mind and was now moving on to other topics.
“You hungry? Let’s ask the guys if they want to go for a pizza.” He left Andy at the top of the dark stairway. Again, Andy felt that strange pulse rush through him. Why was he feeling so weird? Was it just nerves? He sighed and tried to remember all the names of the people he’d be living with. It would be embarrassing to forget any of them.
In A1, Henry, the giant.
In A2, Dave the obsidian body builder.
In A3, Victor the stoic Russian.
In A4, Cliff, the tattooed bad boy.
In A5 Leo, the skater friend.
And in A6, Andy’s brother, Marco.
Chapter summery:
Andy is beginning collage and is moving in with his big brother and other flat mates in a sheared apartment on campus. On the train over, he was given a strange candy by a lady and now is beginning to feel strange. The apartment is for 6 people, but is overbooked with now 7. Henry the fat guy. Dave the black body builder. Victor the stern quiet Russian who might not know English. Cliff the tattooed bad boy. Leo, the chill skater. And Marco, Andy’s big brother. The apartment has a basement, and Marco suggests turning it into Andy’s new room. Andy is hesitant, but Marco has already made up his mind.