Chapter Text
Charlie was rudely awoken by his alarm blaring in his ear, he’d stayed up late the previous night because he decided to pack his remaining belongings for Leeds university. Sitting upright with a groan and wiping his eyes, Charlie glanced around his room at the evidence of his hard work which included stacks of boxes, bags and suitcases dotted around his childhood bedroom.
Suddenly there was a sharp knock at the door then an abrupt entrance by his mother Jane Spring. “Come on Charlie! Tao will be here in a few short hours, your stuff is, well it’s everywhere, and the car is empty!” She said in an exasperated tone. Charlie groaned and stretched his arms upwards, and shuffled off the bed hoping his feet would catch him, upon doing so he remembered his phone was on the floor directly below. Sighing in frustration, he lifted his foot to rescue his phone and switched it on with the side button.
Tao - Charlie, you best not still be in bed, I swear you’ll owe me big time if I have to haul your ass out of that pit you call a room!
Carefully stepping over the chaos which remained on the carpet. He decided a shit, shower, shave and food in that order was needed before Tao decided to lose his shit at him for making them miss room allocations.
Once in the kitchen for the food bit of his list, he noticed his usual go to foods weren’t there from his carefully itemised list which the food clinic had given him, so he decided to just put on his converse by the back door and help his dad load the car.
“Charlie! The rest of your stuff will be with you tomorrow because we can’t get a van to move it today’” he heard his mum call from the kitchen. Charlie rolled his eyes, he couldn’t wait to get away from his obsessive mother who had logged everything that went into each box, with a QR code.
“It’s so you know what’s in the box when you seal it and then you can write what room it needs to go into.” She’d told him.
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They head off around mid morning and arrive just after 1pm. Tao looked rather impressed at the organization of the campus, as they parked up. Charlie had napped on the short journey, and was jolted awake from elbows in his ribs followed by a loud tut from Tao.
“Come on Charlie, I’m not missing a thing just because you were so unorganised! We need to find the tent by reception to get our keys.”
“Coming, I’m coming, jeez!” Charlie was far from awake, he realised he shouldn’t have skipped breakfast, as skipping meals wasn’t advised by the specialists. He definitely needed a caffeine fix and fast.
Tao stormed off ahead, walking towards a pretty girl with curly hair in buns and caramel skin. Her badge read ‘Elle’. Tao ground to a halt, mesmorised by the person he saw before him. She was tall, and she wore glasses which suited her face perfectly. She had a kind, genuine smile, which reflected into her dark eyes.
“Welcome to Leeds university, and your names are?”
Tao looked utterly stunned, so Charlie answered for him. “Charlie Spring and Tao Xsu.”
Elle glanced down at her laptop and began typing before stealing a glance at Tao, pink spreading across her cheeks.
“Right,” she said pointing, “over there you’ll receive your keys and passes, you’ll need to confirm your addresses and your courses there too. You’re in Hamlet and you’ll be sharing with 3 other people”
“Thanks…um.. Elle. I’m Tao, so.. I’ll see you.. around?”
Charlie stood and chuckled to himself as he heard Tao trip over his words, before heading off towards the directions given to them by Elle. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Tao so happy, his smile beamed from ear to ear.
“Tao! You’re proper crushing already and we’ve only been here 5 minutes!” Joked Charlie. He was greeted with daggers and a sharp pull from his wrist dragging him away from the embarrassing situation.
In their haste to get to their dormitories, they suddenly crashed into a tower of a man making Charlie instantly stumble backwards. Slightly dazed, Charlie looked up to see auburn hair and soft apologetic honey eyes.
“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going and..”
Charlie immediately cut him off. “ You’re fine, I.. mean, yes you’re fine.. um.. I gotta go” before speed walking away and hearing Tao’s footsteps catch up to him.
“What was that?! You were totally awkward, what happened to you’ve been here 5 minutes and you’ve already got a crush?!”
“Shut it” He replied, his face burning up with an embarrassingly big smile on his face.
They reached their building,it was a newer building with hanging baskets outside, a grey door and cream tiles that made the entrance appear clean and modern. Charlie slid his key into the lock and heard a click, he knew he was very fortunate to get one of the newer buildings even if he had to houseshare with 4 other people.
As he entered the house, the stairs were on the left and a hallway with grey laminate flooring and the kitchen was straight ahead.
“Hello?” He cautiously greeted, careful not to startle any housemates who had arrived earlier. When he didn’t get a response, he walked into the living area and sat on the sofa. Tao stood directly behind him, “You’ve got all the time in the world for that, come on! We need to get moved in.” They walked around the communal parts of the house, the kitchen /diner which was beautifully decorated in a green oak finish and a picnic style table. The living room was blue, with mustard hints dotted around the place. So this is where I’ll be living, it’s all of a sudden becoming more real.
Charlie felt like a lifetime had passed before they had finished hauling all the boxes from the car and trailer, he was dreading tomorrow as he had more stuff to come. His room was nothing like the one back home, it was bigger, with a double bed and a sofa with a tv. His dad had pulled out all the stops to ensure he had his own space to escape to, this also meant having the biggest room in the house. He heard footsteps coming towards his room and his friend stood in his doorway with his mouth open, “wow! I only got a single with a pokey little side room.”
Charlie immediately felt bad, and went to speak, but was interrupted by Tao “I know what you’re about to say, and no, we aren’t swapping rooms. You need this.”
He heard the door open downstairs and voices echoed through the house. “I knew we’d be getting new housemates today! Isn’t it exciting? I forgot about the amount of stuff one person could have though.”
Charlie could hear laughing coming from the kitchen. He cringed, as he thought he would have more time to move his shit up to the bedroom. Great, just the impression you want to have on your new housemates isn’t it?! Complete slob right here!! He thinks to himself.
Charlie hauled his ass from the bed and made his way downstairs to greet his housemates, and also apologise for the mess. As he stepped down and carefully walked down the hallway, trying not to draw attention to himself straight away.
He noticed there were people sat around the picnic table, an average build, dark haired lad who had kind eyes and a book in hand. There was a blonde girl who was rinsing one of the other housemates for liking bubblegum ice cream, and another girl sat next to her. “Bubblegum ice cream is definitely a crime!” She giggled.
He pushed open the door slightly, everyone turned around to look at him. He felt his presence was noted, and that was when he noticed the tower of a man he’d bumped into earlier stood in the kitchen with his lopsided smile.
Charlie immediately blushed, he raised his hand and made an attempt at a greeting “hi.”