Oh My God, They Were Roommates

33 | You Belong To Me

The next day, Sora woke up to the knowledge that Ray had already left for class. The apartment was quiet as Sora awoke to the ungodly sound of his alarm blaring. And, when he checked in the fridge, there was still a container left for him from two days prior when Ray prepared food for the week.

I should really pay him for groceries, Sora thought as he packed his backpack and took off for class.

When he got to class, though, Ray's usual spot was left empty between Leo and Huey.

Sora paused at the stairs, a perturbed feeling sinking into his gut. Something was off, and he wouldn't realize until after sitting in contemplation all through lecture. It was only after class that Leo would catch up to him just outside of the classroom to say, "Have you heard from Ray?"

Sora paused in the hallway. A few students glanced at them and Sora felt distinctly watched as he said, "Not today, why?" He dragged his eyes back over to Leo, who turned bashful in an instant, looking down at his feet, cheeks flushed.

Huey emerged from the classroom behind them, saying, "Ray sends good morning texts to the group chat and he didn't today."

Of fucking course he does, Sora thought, resisting the urge to snicker. "Yeah, I haven't heard from him today. Sorry."

The three of them walked towards the doors as Leo said, "Are you gonna see him later today? I was thinking about going over to his place—"

"Yeah, I'll see him later today," Sora said, mostly because he still wasn't quite comfortable with visitors. If anyone snooped around his room, he didn't exactly have a safe to store his lingerie for work.

He pushed open the door and stepped out, only to startle at the sight of that familiar Mexican bastard Xavier sitting on the stone ledge. Not only that, but his hands were bandaged up and initially, Sora chalked it off as a pole vaulting thing. If he knew anything about working a pole, it was that blisters were a bitch.

Xavier perked up at the sight of them and glanced behind them. Yet another visitor for the idiot, Sora thought, sighing.

"He's not here," Sora said.

"I just wanted to check in with him," Xavier said, hopping off of the ledge.

Sora rolled his eyes, hands in his pockets. "Is that a new euphemism for 'stalk'?"

Xavier squinted at him and said, "No. After what happened yesterday I figured he might not be doing too great."

"What do you mean?" Huey said. "I saw him when he went to check out the dorms and he looked fine."

Sora's mind screeched to a halt at Huey's insinuation. He glanced at Huey, who's attention was on Xavier. Leo looked between all three of them and, after assessing Sora's narrowed eyes, said, "What do you mean, 'checking out the dorms'?"

"Apparently there's an opening," Huey said. "Someone's roommate left this semester."

Sora didn't have long to process that before Xavier sighed and said, "Fat chance he'll go for it. There was a guy from his old community college that seemed interested in the room. Some guy who threw his guitar out a window."

"What? Here?!" Leo cried, horrified.

"No, not here. Last semester," Xavier said. "It sounded like he had a rough go of it last semester. I got Nick to back off—Nick from discus," he explained to Huey, who's eyes widened.

"Ray knows Nick?" he said, shocked. "He looked rough at practice this morning."

Sora's eyes dropped to Xavier's hands. He looked up and caught the guy's eye and said, "What'd he say to Ray?"