Just Your Average College Life

Chapter 2

Friday 11th October, 11am

Keith sat in the studio, mind entirely focused on the paper on the worn desk in front of him and the sharpened pencil that sat in his hand as he as he swirled the stationary over his page. He was, like usual, attempting to draw Shiro's likeness instead of whatever more productive thing he had planned for this Friday morning in his surprisingly dull art class. Not that he had always thought of it as dull, when he'd first started attending Castle College he had lived for these classes, for one thing it gave him an excuse to get away from his annoying roommate. But now? Now he missed Shiro, his boyfriend was basically his muse at this point and he'd found himself unable to concentrate on drawing anything other than the two of them, or just Shiro alone. So now he'd sit in art class drawing his soulmate and he'd be reminded that they weren't together, which was even worse for his focus. Shiro always told him to be patient but that wasn't who Keith was, he was reckless and impulsive and liked taking action but didn't like talking to anyone other than Shiro, not that he'd know how, anyway.

With this in mind the art student paused his current sketch and flicked back through his (incredibly fat and messy, a good 500 pages long) notebook to 8 months previously, when his life was changed forever…

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8 months earlier:

Keith shivered pathetically in the February wind, wishing he wasn't so prone to the cold or hypothermia or other useless shit like that whilst simultaneously cursing himself for forgetting any gloves other than his usual fingerless ones at his aunt's house. The only bright side he could think of was the others would think he was shaking from the cold, not nerves.

Why was he doing this again? This seemed so out of character for the young introvert that he was starting to question the possibility of having a concussion or some other form of head trauma, but no. He, Keith Kogane, had made the decision to try out for the college football team: the Altea Lions. Though as he stood on the edge of the pitch decked out in way more gear than was probably necessary (Keith could take a punch at this point, why not a muscly 6ft athlete?) half frozen in his place, he was wondering why?

Simple answer that he would probably tell his aunt was he wanted to get some fresh air, exercise and an excuse to get away from his roommate who was the single most annoying creature on the face of the Earth (he was also constantly high and talking with some guy called Rolo about defying the government). But honestly? He was getting lonely at college, he had no friends even remotely close to campus or anywhere in the world for that matter and being on the football team would at least give him the opportunity to talk to people. And charging into people full speed for something as inconsequential as a ball did make the art student’s heart flutter with excitement. Yay, violence! Especially when he knew he'd be good at the sport.

His nerves were coming from the anxious side of him that was currently screaming: 'SOCIAL INTERACTION! ALERT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? WE NEED TO GO BACK TO OUR DARK ROOM AND PUT ON MUSIC AND DRAW FOR THE NEXT 8 HOURS’. Still, he already came all the way out to the pitch at 9am on a Saturday, so there was no way he was going to go back now. So he shifted his focus from the impending conversations he'd have to have and instead fiddled with his jersey that appeared to be red for him but was undoubtedly some other colour Keith wouldn't get to witness until he found his soulmate. Or soulmates in his case he supposed. But apparently the inability of some players not being able to distinguish colour was an actual problem when there were two teams playing, which was basically always, so their jerseys had letters on them to signify team. A large, bold 'A’ sat on Keith's outfit followed by a slightly smaller 'L’. Though had Keith been designing this uniform he would've used 'CC’ for Castle College instead of ‘AL’ for Altea Lions.