Chapter Text
September 2015. It was his and Sydney first year of college and he wasn’t Jedidiah a nervous wreck. He’d worked his ass off last summer studying and helping Sydney study ensuring they both got good enough grades to go to an actual decent school out of state, rather than one on the run down university’s in their city. He and Sydney were about half way into their journey to Pittsburg when Jedidiah’s conscience decided it was the end of the fucking world, as his hands started to shake again the steering wheel.
Thank the lord that Sydney was asleep in the passenger seat next to him, avoiding seeing what an embarrassment his friend was making of himself. Bordering on this anxiety attack there was a sign for a gas station up ahead, Jedidiah decided this was definitely a good time for a pit stop before he could kill Sydney and himself from his swerving on the road.
He turned into the lay-by and found himself an empty spot in the parking lot off to the side of the gas pumps. The lot was relatively quiet this afternoon save a few spot Jedidiah assumed to be reserved by the employees cars. The man killed the engine and turned the sleeping boy next to him. As guilty as he felt about walking Sydney up from his sleep, he knew he would never hear the end of it if he didn’t get him something from the store inside.
“uhh…Sydney?” jedidiah spoke, giving him a gentle tap
“Sydney!” jedidiah repeated louder shaking the boy as he jolted awake
“Gosh Jeddie, can’t you let a man get some beauty sleep” Sydney began half annoyed, half teasing.
“Sorry, Sydney. i just wanted to know if you wanted anything inside” he said, pointing out the store to the side of them.
Sydney becoming aware of his surroundings shot up “Aw hell yeah!” his grogginess all disappearing in less than a second “who do you think i am to refuse a gas station convenience store?”
“You forgive me for disrupting your slumber now” Jedediah retorted
“ummm duhhh” answered the boy “now let’s get some over priced snacks” he announced, lifting his hand to jedidiah beside him, indicating a high five.
They simultaneously opened their car doors with jedidiah instantly getting out and opening the back doors to grab Sydney’s cane and run back around to hand it to him and help him navigate his way out of the car.
They waked inside, over head bell ringing as they opened the door. Both split at this point and began searching the aisle as if for clues in a murder investigating. After several minutes of wondering around the store. The boys regrouped at the till and presented their evidence to the cashier, Sydney placing a bag of sour gummy worms and a shitty twilight magazine, which he planned to rip apart and stick to the walls of his new dorm. Despite Jedidiah shaking previously he added to the collection of items on the till with a can of iced coffee, which he knew would taste terrible but he needed the caffeine and the coffee machine at the back looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in 20 years, so opted for the shitty can instead. The cashier ran them up and they headed back to the car, with Sydney tearing open his bag of candy on the way. As the two got inside jedidiah sighed as he inserted his keys into the engine. The boy besides him noticed his uneasy aura and rest a hand on his shoulder.
“What’s the matter, honey?” he asked concerningly
“I’m fine, babe really i’m- “
“Jedidiah Abraham Adonais Martin, i’ve known you for what, 10 years? I think i can tell when something up with you.” Sydney spoke, waving his arms dramatically to prove his point
“…”
“Come on jeddie” playing his hand back on the man’s shoulder “you know you can tell me anything, right?”
“Fine, it’s just..um this is like a fresh start, for the both of us i mean. blank slate. I just don’t want this to be like highschool all over again.”
The boy sighs “Yeah i know what you mean i’m pretty nervous too. But it won’t be like highschool, all those idiots either got into OSU or had to go to the community college, we will not be seeing any of those guys around, trust me.”
He continued “and hey, a fresh start is a good thing you might even make another friend besides me”
“Sydney you aren’t my only friend”
“sure you keep dreaming”
“Besides even if were my only friend, which i state again you aren’t! I’m happy just being with you” which he coincided with wrapping this arms around Sydney waist and his hips a tight squeeze
“Unhand me you fiend” Sydney spoke through giggles
Ignoring his request jedidiah opted to instead place a kiss to the other boy’s cheek
“Jeez Jeddie, you were boarder line depressed 2 minutes ago, what’s gotten into you”
“Can i not even give you a kiss without my actions being questioned”
“we are not fucking in this parking lot Jeddie”
“I- What. I wasn’t like-“ Jedidiah struggled to get out his words speachless from his partners starling statement
“Relax Jeddie i’m just teasing you” Sydney said with his signature puppy eyes that made it impossible to not forgive him even if he ended the world, one look could clear all his sins.
As the chaos died down, Jedidiah turned the keys and the headed back on to the highway. For the rest on the way there Sydney talked Jedidiah’s ear off with the new found energy he got from those gummy worms.
——————
The drive went by fairly quickly with Jedidiah being entertained by Sydney non stop chatter rather than his previous overthinking. They drove onto campus and spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out where to park (hey it was a big campus and there went many signs telling them which way to go, okay!). They sat there for a second collecting their bearings. Jedidiah turned to Sydney, who was studying the map in his hand that had been given to them at the entrance of the campus.
“So i think we are here” Sydney spoke, pointing to a spot on the map “and check in should be in the auditorium, which is….” Sydney’s index finger traveled around the map trying to find the image of the theatre “there”
“So we just need to go straight through that gap between those too buildings there” Sydney explained pointing in front of them
“then we gotta turn left and carry on up this road, and that path should take us straight there” Sydney handed the map over to his partner to check that was correct
“Yeah, sounds good Sydney.”
They both got out of the car and the new atmosphere around hit them hard, It felt so different that being in ohio despite only being a three hour drive from home. The sun shining and the blue sky gave Jedidiah hope that maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. Despite the sunny atmosphere, there was an early autumn chill in the air that caused Sydney to retrieve his and Jedidiah jackets from the back seats.
Jedidiah was still studying the map, taking in the most important spots on campus. Sydney handed him his jacket then proceeded to put his own on.
“Right” Sydney began, giving Jedidiah’s back a light slap “Let’s do this!” His enthusiasm caused Jedidiah to give the boy a soft smile before they started walking in the direction that Sydney pointed out earlier.
They arrived in the theatre and despite how big it was it was absolutely packed with young adults scurrying around, looking as if it was there first day on earth. There were several tables scattered around, all of which were labelled as what the provided. Jedidiah opted to first head to the informations packs table.As he walked towards the queue of people infront of the table Sydney followed close behind him.
The pair quickly got to the front causing the woman behind the table to ask “Name?”
“Oh yes, um” Jedidiah spoke, quite startled from the basic question (oh sue him, he was nervous)
Sydney spoke for the both of them “Jedidiah Martin and Sydney Sargent” giving jedidiah a little smirk and the woman behind the desk repeat their names to her co worker and they began to look do their envelopes in the M and S section.
The co workers handed the envelopes to the boys, to which they muttered a small “thank you”.
Jedidiah and Sydney stepped to a quiet corner of the auditorium and began to quickly open their packets, desperate to see the contents inside.
Despite his eagerness this is the part Jedidiah was dreading, where would he be saying for the next 4 years of his life.
Jedidiah wasn’t so nervous about his sharing of space with a roommate as Sydney had often slept over in his room from when they were in their earlier teen, and he had fully moved into his bedroom a couple weeks before his 17th birthday so he was not stranger to sharing a room.
He knew however, it was very unlikely that he and Sydney would be roommates. Lucille insists they not but a special request in to be pair together as she stated It would be quote on quote ‘good for the both of them to make some other friends besides each other’.
Sydney, despite Jedidiah denying it earlier was really his only friend since they met. They were both a bit socially awkward so got on together well. So Jedidiah wasn’t well acquainted with ‘making new friends’ as he hadn’t needed to, him and Sydney went together like bread and butter.
They both rummaged through the contents to find the dormitory sheet. As unlikely as it was Jedidiah was praying on the non zero percent chance he and Sydney got to share a room.
As the pulled their own sheets out they quickly glanced at it and looking quickly at the others, realising they were in separate buildings, causing both to let out a huff of discontent.
They walked around the room for a bit visiting a couple tables with leaflets for events or different clubs and then headed back to the car.
As they looked at the map they checked out the buildings they were staying in. They look as if were only about a five minute walk between both buildings which wasn’t the bad, at least the wouldn’t have to go trekking across the whole of campus to get to each others buildings.
—————
They drove to Sydney’s building first, both moved to the back of the car grabbing all they could carry from the trunk and headed inside to the boys room.
The room was fairly spacious, enough room to navigate around if Sydney has a particularly nasty pain day and needed to use his wheelchair, also his room was group floor which was good since it looked like the building has no elevators.
In front of them were two beds with an oak desk between of them, on the bed on the left was a suitcase with a couple of boxes stuffed with an assortment of items. It seemed Sydney’s roommate had claimed their side of the room and dipped.
After a couple more trips back and forth all of Sydney’s stuff was out of the car. Sydney offered to come help Jedidiah unload his stuff into his dorm as well to which he declined stating Sydney should unpack his stuff and get himself settled in.
“I’ll see you later then?” Sydney asked, as both a statement and question, knowing Jedidiah would agree
“Oh yeah, i was thinking we could go for a drive in the car this evening, have an explore of the city?”
“Yeah that sounds good, i’ll see you then Jeddie” Sydney got on his tiptoes and planted a kiss on Jedidiah cheek.
“I’ll pick you up around 7” Jedidiah spoke as he turned on his heels to leave the room, getting a thumbs up from Sydney in agreement.
———
As Jedidiah entered his dorm a slender rainbow haired girl was standing on one of the beds in the room hanging up what appeared to be a sunset type of flag (Jedidiah liked to think he was quite good at geography but he has no clue what country that flag belonged to). The girl turned around at the sound the floor boards made as Jedidiah stepped inside the room. She smiled brightly as she saw him.
The girl jumped off her bed and began to walk towards him “Ah you just be Jedidiah, right?”
“ah yes- um how did you know my name?”
“It was on the information packs, did you even read yours?” she said with a hint of judgement
“No” he said shamefully “I only glanced at it briefly”
“Well that’s alright” the girl spoke with chipper, sticking out a hand to the man infront of her “I’m Yvonne, nice to meet you”
Jedidiah took the hand and gave it a firm shake. Yvonne turned on her heels and walked back to her bed sitting down on it and crossing her legs. Jedidiah mirrored this.
Yvonne began “So where you from?”
“Cleveland”
“Ah sick! i’m from Ohio too”
“Oh!” Jedidiah spoke startled, shocked to have anything in common with this girl who looked like the complete opposite of him” “Really where about?
“Columbus”
“Oh wow you’ve come a long way”
“Yeah but you know his Ohio is, I was not staying in that shitty state any longer than I had too” She continued “So what’s are you studying?”
“I’m doing a medical degree”
“Jesus you’re so fucking with me” her eyes widening, Jedidiah looks very uncomfortable, to which Yvonne looks down noticing the cross necklace he was wearing “Oh shit. sorry man, but anyway as i’m
doing an MD too can you believe that?!?”
Jedidiah then comes to the realisation that this is how he and ramona flowers got paired up together because they were both from ohio and were doing an MD. Damn what kind of school is this, Jedidiah couldn’t think of a worst roommate than a party girl. Oh well he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Jedidiah rose from the bed, stoping the game of 21 questions Yvonne had decided to begin. “I need to get the rest of my stuff in from my car and then park up”
“You want me to help you out?” Yvonne offered
“Oh sure if you’re willing”
Jedidiah began to walk out of the room, Yvonne following behind.
———-
Sydney was sitting on his bed scrolling through his phone, he’d got about half of his unpacking done when his body decided that hanging up and folding clothes was the equivalent of being run over by a freight train. So he just opted to rest up until Jedidiah came to pick him up in half an hour.
Sydney was scrolling through the warrior cats tag on tumblr when the door banged open. A boy, who he presumed to be his roommate stood in the doorway, laughing at a joke his friend must have made. He was looking down the corridor in the direction of his friend.
A voice called out down the corridor “Oh Josh! we’re going out for drinks at the vault around 8 if you wanna come”
“Yeah sure man i’ll be there” his roommate called back to the man, before shutting the door and properly entering the room.
Great, Sydney thought, he went and jinxed himself. So much for ‘this won’t be like highschool’ he had to fucking room with a fucking frat bro. Jesus christ what sins had be committed to deserve this.
The man realising Sydney’s presence, “Oh shit, didn’t see u there.” he reached his arms out, which Sydney took suspiciously “Joshua” the man introduced himself as.
Sydney have him a dirty look then, picked up his phone again, “Jeez rude much” Joshua muttered under his breath.
“Soooooo” Joshua continued “When’s your boyfriend getting here?”
Sydney looked up, confusion strung across his face “Boyfriend?”
“Yeah,Sydney! Fair play on the dude too for scoring an emo chick. Oh shit is he not ur boyfriend, just friends with benefits or something?”
“What no! I’m Sydney”
“But Sydney’s a dude…”
“Yeah” Sydney snapped “I’m a boy”
“Oh…oh are you one of those like trans..transform…”
“Transgender” Sydney corrected, with the little patience he had left. He didn’t know how he was gonna last a week with this guy, let alone 4 years. Hey maybe the guy would get lucky and move into the fraternities on campus so he wouldn’t have to live with him.
Silence filled the air.
“Damn best of both worlds, so i’m assuming you’re single then?” Jedidiah opened the door and walked in “or not” Joshua began to rummage through his bag trying to remove himself from the awkward situation he put himself in.
“Sydney you ready yet? I wanted to head out before the traffic builds up of everyone going out tonight.” Jedidiah asked
“Yeah i’m ready” he said glaring daggers into the back of Joshua’s head.
“Let’s head out then”
————
Both men got in the car, buckling up their seatbelts
“So how’s your new roommate?” Jedidiah asked
“Oh don’t even get me started” Sydney replied, rolling his eyes.