the spirits shriek

Lincoln had just finished up posting some content on a few of his pages before looking at the time and wondering how his whole afternoon got away from him. He knew that he had a shit ton of homework to do and an impossibly short time to do it if he wanted to get a proper night’s rest. Being his resourceful self he decided to text one of his classmates because two heads should get it done in half of the time, right? Scrolling through his phone he tried to decide on who might be around and who he wouldn’t actually dread spending some time with. ‘heeeeey want to come to my room and do homework together?????’ he ended up texting hudson, knowing that he liked him enough from some of the brief conversations they had before class started. ‘pretty pretty pretty please with 20 cherries on top????’ Lincoln added for some additional pressure. He plopped down on his bed while he waited to see if the other man responded, briefly considering hiding some of his filming equipment so the other didn’t raise any questions.

⤐☀⬷

ROMA WAS SITTING MOSTLY ALONE, with only a few others settled around her. and only because they all had a class together, and they’d leave her alone to her thoughts. she’d been reading and ignoring her companions, but was interrupted when someone demanded she not move. she snorted, a quiet laugh slipping past her lips. she closed her book carefully, marking the page she’d left off on. grinning and sitting up straighter to better hide him, she glanced at lincoln. “ who are we hiding you from ? and why ? ” she asked the other as she took a sip from her water bottle. “ next time i need a favour, i’ll keep that in mind, although you know i’d hide you  if you have a valid reason, right ? ” roma added.

Lincoln was happy that the other was amicible in his plot to hide from his terrible roommate. He couldn’t bear the thought of getting someone else annoyed at him today. He stayed relatively silent for a few moments until he was certain that the other man hadn’t seen him in the cafeteria. Lincoln let out a sigh before responding to the woman sitting next to him. “My roommate,” he said lowly, even though the man wasn’t even close to be within earshot of the two of them. “He still refuses to clean his messes up even though I’ve been begging. Today I decided to write him a not so nice note about it and he definitely did not take it well. I’m, like, eighty five perfect sure he could completely crush me if he wanted to, so I really need to avoid that for the sake of my bones.” He smiled, shaking his head, “Is that reason good enough? If not just forget everything I just said and I’ll make up a lie that sounds more dramatic.” 

It seemed as if Theo wasn’t going to be eating alone today as he watched the other unpack his lunch. A sandwich was an odd choice seeing as Kingswood offered some surprisingly delicious food. He didn’t see many student packing their lunches. But it was clear this guy was different. He must not have cared much for chef curated dishes. “Damn babes. I thought I was a drama queen”, Theo responded, offering the other a friendly smile. “But yeah I totally agree about the juice heads. But don’t worry too much about it, babes. Just gotta remind yourself that you’re superior. His brain is probably the size of a peach pit.” Theo honestly thought the boy’s response to the situation he’d gotten himself into was precious. “Glad I could help, Lincoln. You’re funny. I like you.”

Lincoln shook his head, he definitely didn’t think he was a dramatic person. This one instance just happened to take over the more outlandish parts of his psyche at the moment. He was sure that if anyone had switched places with him for a day, they would have totally gotten his panic. “I thought they were all kind of grouped together as far as housing goes. I’m truly one of the most unlucky people, so of course I had to get stuck with one of the rouge players. Maybe I can disguise myself so he thinks he got a new roommate? With that tiny brain, it just might work,” he smiled, taking another bite. “I’m glad you do. I can only take on one enemy at a time. What do you study?” 

“Okay?”, Theo mumbled, still patiently waiting for the other to respond. Theo reached forward, taking a swig of his pellegrino as he watched the strangers eyes move across the room at his roommate. He smiled as the other finally began to respond, tickled by the story. Theo might have been reserved but he definitely wasn’t timid. He figured he might be able to help. At least help convince the stranger that he didn’t have to hide. “First of all, sorry that your roomie is a slob. I swear some people here are incapable of doing anything for themselves. Not even something as simple as throwing away a takeout container. Secondly, you did what you needed to do. Don’t feel bad. I’m Theo, by the way.”

Once Lincoln was sure that he wasn’t in the man’s line of vision, he felt like he was safe to take out the sandwhich he’d been grasping on to. He had almost forgotten all about. “It’s alright. I mean, there are just five months left in the semester, right? I think I can avoid someone for that long. I did put in a request to change rooms, but I was denied,” he said, taking a bite, “I feel like I should mention that he’s also terrifying. I don’t know if it’s steroids or what, but I feel like he’s always as aggressive as possible. Athelets.” Lincoln took another bite, trying to keep his attention on the other man instead of his roommate. “Oh, sorry. I’m being rude. I’m Lincoln. Thank you for being my human shield.” 

Theo sat alone for lunch nearly every day. He hadn’t had the chance or the time to make a bunch of new friends. Even if that’s what he desired. And it wasn’t. Theo found that he didn’t vibe much with people his age. Apart from a select few that he’d grown close to. He enjoyed silence. Time alone with his own thoughts. So he sat alone until a stranger ran up, looking completely panicked and quickly taking the seat next to him. Theo’s eyes darted towards the other, his mouth frozen mid-chew. “Gotcha”, he replied, moving his head ever so slightly to see what the stranger was hiding from. “You in trouble babes?” Theo kept his voice low and made sure not to look overly suspicious.

Lincoln was only half listening to the other as he watched his roommate grab some food and head to a table that made it impossible to sneak out of the cafeteria. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have assumed it was some sort of tactic to force Lincoln into running into him, but his roommate barely had two working braincells. “I’m okay... I think,” he said, straightening up a bit when it seemed safe to do so. “I’m trying to avoid my roommate. He’s absolutely disgusting. Like, he’s left a pizza sitting out on the counter for two weeks kind of disgusting. I couldn’t really take it any more, so I wrote him a note that didn’t really go over too well... I know I can’t avoid him forever, but maybe he’ll forget about it?”