KISS Kollege

Ch 24: What's Wrong? (Ace)

Paul stumbled into the room, shutting the door behind him and sinking to the ground, huge smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow. "You seem like you had a good time studying," I said pointedly. He dissolved into nervous giggling, eyes bright. "H-hah, oh y-yeah, studying," he mumbled. I frowned, eyebrow arching higher, before all of a sudden connecting the dots. "Oh! Oh you--you were at Gene's place! And then you two...?" I trailed off and he nodded, still giggling. 

"Hah! Fucking told you!" I said gleefully. "I told you curly! I fucking told you!" He hugged himself tightly, nodding, unable to stop smiling. "Damn well hey that's great! That's great! Aw I'm so happy for you!" Nodding, he finally rose to his feet, walking to his bed with a slight limp and flopping onto the mattress with a wince and a dreamy sigh. "Ahhh damn, literally nothing can ruin today." 

No sooner had the words left his mouth was there a knock at the door. We exchanged glances. "Did you...was Gene gonna come over here?" I asked. He shook his head. "Was Peter?" he asked. Wincing, I shook my head, walking to my feet and looking through the peephole as whoever was on the other side knocked again. I closed my eyes as I saw Tommy standing in the hallway. "Shit," I whispered, before taking a deep breath and opening the door. "Hey Tommy, what's going on?" 

He didn't bother to come into the room, just stood in the hallway holding his stupid clipboard in a trembling hand. "Did you guys break any rules?" he asked in a thick voice. Paul and I exchanged glances. "Did we...what?" I asked. "Rules. You know the rules. Did you break any?" he asked, looking absolutely dead inside. "Um...no," I said, exchanging another glance with Paul. "Cool. Good j-job, keep it up," he choked, voice breaking, before snapping his clipboard in half over his knee and dropping it in the hall, walking off. I watched from the doorway as he moved next door, stepping into his room and shutting the door behind him. 

Baffled, I picked up the two halves of the clipboard, stepping back into our room and turning to Paul, who had joined me at the door. "What was that about?" I asked. He shrugged, taking the pieces from my hand and looking at the paper that was on it. "I mean it's just a list of everyone on the floor. He must've been doing rounds again. We're last on the list, we always are since we're right next door to him," he said, looking at the list of crossed off names. "I know, but come on! You can't act like that's normal! He's always so anal about room checks, he always like...he always checks everything and docks us for the smallest things but he didn't even come into the room today! He didn't even look, he just asked!" I protested. 

"Well what, are you saying we should check on him?" he asked. I shrugged helplessly. "I dunno! I feel like we should do something though! He seems like he's really upset or something." "Yeah that's true. You wanna go check on him then? I'm kinda sore," he said sheepishly. I grinned, rolling my eyes. "Uh huh. But yeah, I'll go check on him, you just stay here." He nodded, giving me a wave as I walked one door down. I stood outside Tommy's room, unsure of whether I was doing the right thing. The nametag on his door was missing and I frowned. He had told me that his boyfriend had made it for him and it seemed strange that he'd get rid of it. 

Taking a deep breath, I raised a fist and knocked. There was a long pause and I knocked again before he finally opened the door, giving me a look I couldn't read. "What's wrong?" he asked, still sounding like he was struggling to fight back tears. "Um...well, I just...wanted to make sure you're okay, I guess," I mumbled, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Tommy's face fell and he seemed to deflate. "I'll be fine. I appreciate it though," he murmured softly. "Are you sure? I-I mean like I don't wanna assume anything but you kinda...seem really upset," I said, face growing red. 

He closed his eyes, leaning his head on the doorframe. "Yeah. Makes sense, I've got shit to be upset about. I'll be fine though. I'll either get over it or work it out, one of the two." "Oh. Well, if you're sure you're okay then. Um. Well, I hope you feel better," I said, and he gave me a thin smile. "Thanks Ace," he mumbled, giving me a halfhearted wave before walking back into his room. Heaving a sigh, I returned to my room, giving Paul a shrug. "I dunno curly. I think he might be fighting with his boyfriend or something. Hopefully it'll be fine." "Well, at least we passed the room check," he said with a grin, and I nodded. "That's very true." 

Paul and I just chatted for the rest of the night and it was fun to see how excited he was before eventually it got late and we both headed to bed.

The next morning Paul grabbed his phone pretty much as soon as he woke up, dialing Gene's number, already smiling like the lovesick idiot he was. "Hey! Um I was wondering if maybe we wanted to like get together for like more of a...more of a date thing, you know? And like maybe talk about yesterday?" he asked. The smile slipped off his face, replaced by a look of total bewilderment. "But...but we did. Gene, we did, you can't...you can't deny it. I-I mean if you...if you don't like me like that well then that's fine, but..." He fell silent as Gene kept talking, eyes growing sad. "Look, can we just meet up and talk about it in person? Please? I feel like we shouldn't be having this conversation over the phone." There was another pause as I gave him a confused look before he closed his eyes. "I don't care. We can meet in my room or your room or in the dining hall, just please man! Come on, can we please just fucking meet up?!" he snapped.

Finally, their conversation ended and he hung up, burying his face in his hands. "What's wrong?" I asked, sitting next to him. "He said that...he said nothing happened between us. I don't understand. Like it's one thing if he said he's not gay and he didn't like me like that, but he's not! He's just flat out denying that anything happened. Like he won't admit we had sex, but we literally did." Frowning, I sat next to him, patting him on the shoulder. "Huh. Well, just talk to him, that's my advice. And hopefully it'll work out! Maybe he's just...confused, I guess?" Paul sighed, running a hand through his hair and starting to throw on some clothes. "Yeah. Maybe. Well, I'm gonna head to the dining hall and meet up with him, I'll catch you in a bit," he said, heading for the door. 

"Good luck curly! Hopefully it goes well," I said, giving him a wave. The door shut behind him and I let out a sigh, shaking my head. Looks like I had two people to worry about.