“Dare? You in here?”
Milo began to peek into the dorm room, then he stopped himself. This is my room, too. I’m done acting like I’m trespassing or something, he thought, so he pushed the door open and walked in. Daryl was, as usual, sprawled out on the bed with his shirt off, with his eyes locked onto his cellphone as he scrolled up and down.
“Of course I’m here. I told you I’d be here the whole semester,” Daryl said, not even looking up. “…Shit, that freaky horse wasn’t kidding around. The whole fucking internet is different here… I’ve been checking out all the different news sites I can find, and the world’s totally different. I don’t know any of these people, any of the music or movies. It’s crazy…”
“…Maybe it would be fun to learn more about them?” Milo offered quietly, rubbing his ever-growing teeth through his lip. He really hoped Max was joking about accidentally breaking his teeth (tusks?), since he knew we wasn’t going to be able to keep his hands away from them until they grew all the way in.
“I’m not here to have fun. I’m here to piss off my parents again when I get kicked out,” Daryl shot back, throwing his phone down onto the mattress dramatically.
“No one says you couldn’t do both!”
“Funny. Real funny,” Daryl said, though Milo was pretty sure he’d seen a hint of a smile cross the other young man’s face. However, Daryl quickly raised an eyebrow and frowned. “…Dude, what’s wrong with you? You’re talking kinda weird. Like you got marshmallowsh shtuck inshide your cheeksh.”
Milo smirked at the impression, certain he didn’t sound quite like that, but as he did he unintentionally flashed his enlarged teeth off to Daryl. Curious, Daryl hopped up from the bed, strode across the room and, without even asking, held Milo’s mouth open and pulled down his lower lip to get a closer look.
“Jesus, dude… My dad would have a field day with you…” he muttered as he got in close to check out the little tusks-to-be sticking out of Milo’s gums. Milo was blushing hard at the close contact and struggled to get his roommate’s hands out of his mouth as quickly as possible.
“And why’s that?” Milo managed to ask once his mouth was free again. “He a pork farmer or something?”
“No, orthodontist,” Daryl said with his eyebrow still raised. He flashed a shit-eating grin and snickered at Milo’s comment. “Pfft… Man, you’re turning into a pig? That fucking sucks!”
“Not a pig, a boar! At least, that’s what Stripes thinks. And what’s wrong with that!? Boars are great!” Milo responded, unsure why he was getting so defensive about this.
“Yeah, great with a side of barbecue sauce!”
“Ugh, forget you, Dare,” Milo sighed, getting a little kick out of using that nickname that seemed to annoy his roommate. “Speaking of barbecue, I was gonna ask you to come with me to lunch, but now I’m afraid you’ll try to eat me or something…”
Daryl froze up hearing that. He’d actually been enjoying the chance to joke around and good off with Milo for a bit there, but hearing the irritation in his roommate’s voice made him feel oddly ashamed of himself. He didn’t let it show on his face, naturally. He didn’t want anyone to care about him or think that he cared about them. But deep down, he was extremely self-conscious of how others saw him. He knew his parents resented him for wasting their money and wasting his life. He had a feeling that RA hated him already, and he was secretly a little worried that now Milo would never want to speak to him again.
The question was how could he fix this without doing something as unbelievably lame as (shudder) apologizing?
“…Milo, dude, I was just fucking with you!” Daryl said boisterously, rolling his eyes. “You didn’t think I really cared about you turning into a pig or whatever, right?”
“Boar!”
“And I wasn’t seriously gonna ask you to get me lunch every day and bring it back here,” Daryl continued without even acknowledging Milo’s correction. “You’d probably spit in it or something anyway, right? So, let’s go get some food, okay?”
Daryl pulled a shirt off the back of his chair, gave it a quick sniff and shrugged before pulling it on, then he walked right out of the dorm room without even looking back at Milo. Milo just stood there for a moment, completely taken aback by Daryl’s unpredictable bipolar shifts in attitude.
“Ugh, I’m gonna regret this, aren’t I?” Milo sighed before turning and trying to catch up with Daryl in the dorm hall.
-----------------------------------------------
“So, what do you hope you turn into, Dare?” Milo asked curiously. The two men were walking side-by-side toward the dining hall, taking in the sights of the campus on the way. A few of the senior students were walking past, drawing the stares of the as-of-yet unchanged freshmen and giving Milo and Daryl a vision of what they could look like one day.
“Humans are animals, right? Can’t I just turn into one of those?”
“…Dunno. But I don’t think your chances are very high, even if you can,” Milo replied. He could tell that Daryl was dodging the question, and he was starting to get the impression that was his roommate’s default approach to dealing with people. “It’s just a hypothetical question. Doesn’t really matter, since you can’t pick anyway. I’m serious, what do you want to be?”
“And that doesn’t piss you off, dude? Like, we’re stuck here and we have to turn into a fucking animal person or whatever,” Daryl grumbled, glancing back at a few of the upperclassmen that were heading in the same direction. A big monkey alongside a short but muscular rabbit, a couple of nearly identical foxes, and a couple of animal species that Daryl couldn’t even recognize off the top of his head.
“You keep avoiding answering questions. Why is that?” Milo asked curiously, earning an annoyed glare from Daryl.
“This is a conversation, not a fucking interrogation. Now, do you want to get lunch or are you just trying to get in my pants?” Daryl spat, then he frowned. Why the hell had he put it like that? He wasn’t a bigot or anything, but neither did he have any interest in going out with anyone while he was stuck at this fucked up college.
“Sorry I asked,” Milo replied airily, deciding it wasn’t worth it to keep on asking when Daryl was like this. Things were quiet between the two of them for a few moments as they continued to walk in awkward silence. Until…
“…’Shorry I ashked’,” Daryl said quietly, with just a little chuckle under his breath.
“Damn it, I don’t shound like… Fuck!“ Milo started to respond, but upon realizing how slurred he sounded he too burst into laughter. “I mean, I don’t sound like that!”
“You sure about that? ‘Shounds’ like that to me!”
The two young men laughed nearly all the way to the dining hall, getting a few odd looks from freshman and upperclassmen alike. Once they made it there, Daryl made a horrifying realization. He’d actually enjoyed talking with Milo. This boring, average dork that they’d stuck him with, and he’d actually sort of liked having him around. Sort of.
But there was no way Milo could enjoy talking with him. Daryl knew he was a total asshole to everyone, and who would want to eat lunch with an asshole? He probably just doesn’t know anyone else at school, or he’d be eating with them. Hell, he probably just felt bad for me, Daryl’s internal monologue told him, and he believed it without question. As they stepped into the dining hall together, Daryl felt his mood begin to drop again as his psyche continued to sling insults at him over and over again, making him doubt the tiny, budding friendship that had been built up between himself and Milo during their walk.
All he could do was fish out his meal card from his wallet and get it ready, without even noticing the tiny stripe of white beginning to dye itself into his hair, almost unnoticeable amongst his wavy blond hair…