Woes of a College Dropout

Chapter 1

"Jet. JET! Come on, please get off of the couch and TAKE A DAMN SHOWER!"

Jet leaned his head over the couch's arm, his bearded dragon flicking his tongue as he sat on Jet's shoulder. 

"Ouch, I'm so hurt! My big brother's being so mean to me!" Jet fake whined. "What you say has no power over me, Oh Great and Mighty Luci! It's nothing compared to what I tell myself every diddly darn day!"

Lucian sighed, pressing his fingers to his temple as if it hurt. "Jet, you and your therapist talked about this. You need to stop with the self-deprecating. It doesn't help. Also, remember to take your fricking pills. They're supposed to help you!" 

Jet mocked him, giving his lizard a pet to the head. "Did you hear that, Charlie? Luci, our own dear sweet Luci wants me to pop some pills and make everything sunshine and puppies! Oh well, it could be worse... he could make us go outside and talk to people." Jet shuddered in fake horror. Charlie, to his immense credit, simply blinked calmly at his owner. Lucian wondered where the bearded dragon stored all of his patience.

Jet picked his pet off of his shoulder, holding him gently as he flipped over onto his stomach. He looked up at Lucian, his blue eyes flat.

"I'm hungry," he whined. 

Lucian went back to his students' papers, grading with swift marks of his red pen. "Go make yourself some ramen or something. We have cereal, you know. Holden, you're one of my best students, but Captain America did not really end World War II... points for creativity? Yeah..." 

"Your students are dumbasses," Jet told him, "If the super-soldier serum had been given to Peggy Carter, then that movie would have been over in half the time!"

"Look who's talking, Mr. 'I somehow failed Kindergarten'!"

"I didn't know all my numbers, okay! So, sue me! Now, I'm still hungry!" Jet wailed dramatically, stretching his long limbs over the couch. Shay, Lucian's boyfriend, grimaced as Jet's socked foot hit his knee. He didn't look up from his laptop, eyes glued to it behind his glasses.

"Luke, please make your brother some food before I tape his mouth shut," Shay told him, voice deathly calm. He was the most patient out of everything in the house, except maybe Charlie, but the lizard didn't count. So, if Jet was annoying him, it must mean he was e-mailing his boss.

Lucian didn't look up from his papers. "I don't cook. He's a big boy, he can handle making himself some ramen."

"YOUR RAMEN TASTES LIKE FEET!" Jet whined, flinging a hand over his eyes as if something had mortally wounded him, "besides, you don't even get real ramen! You buy that generic shit!"

Lucian growled, glaring daggers at Jet. "Then go order yourself something off of those delivery apps we just had to have! We have accounts on two of them!"

"I don't have any money!" Jet fired back, flopping over onto his back again. Charlie moved to his master's head, and Lucian had to admire his devotion to his overly dramatic owner.

"Maybe if you hadn't bought those comic books two weeks ago, you'd have some," Shay offered, still typing, albeit more furiously. 

"They are not comic books! They are manga, and manga is an ART!" Jet defended his books, getting up. He put Charlie in his cage, the lizard curling under the heat lamp to take a nap.

"I'm going to take a shower," he told them, walking out of the room and down the hall. He disappeared, not even bothering to turn on the lights to the bathroom.

Shay shut his laptop, getting up and wandering over to Lucian. He put his hand on Lucian's shoulder.

"He's acting like nothing wrong, but it is, isn't it?" Shay asked.

"I probably need to talk to Karen, see if we can get him in for another appointment. He won't admit it, but he needs it. He doesn't even turn the light on when he goes somewhere he can see his reflection," Lucian told him. He put his hand on his shoulder, fingers threading with Shay's much more slender ones.

"What did I do to deserve you? You care so much, it's adorable," Shay asked.

"Um... looked really cute in a college cafeteria?" Lucian offered. Shay laughed, ruffling Lucian's hair. 

"I'm going to make a pizza, maybe Jet will eat some when he gets done."

Lucian sat, not feeling up to grading papers anymore. He watched in silence as Jet darted from the bathroom to his bedroom, shutting the door quickly. Even through the wall, Lucian could hear the hiccup.

Lucian longed to be able to comfort his brother, to relate to him and help him through whatever he was struggling with, but he just couldn't. It killed him to see his baby brother hurt and upset, but he just didn't know what to do. Whenever he asked Jet, all he got out of him was 'I don't know'.

Jet emerged from his room, wet hair going in all directions and wearing a fresh pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt with a picture of a lightbulb that said 'Watts Up?'.

Lucian smiled. He had gotten the shirt for Jet when he had gotten into Upper Lake University. Jet had been so excited, practically falling over himself as he showed Lucian his photography portfolio, already planning to snag a job for a magazine like National Geographic. Then, three months ago Jet had shown up in front of his apartment, suitcase in hand and telling Lucian he had dropped out. 

Lucian hadn't asked why, and Jet hadn't told him. He would when he felt ready. Karen knew, of course, but it was confidential between her and the school. She couldn't tell him even if she wanted to.

"You kept it," Lucian told him. Jet sighed, flopping onto the couch again.

"Damn right I kept it! It's a comfy shirt, and it's funny! Shay, tell him my shirt's hilarious!"

Shay rolled his eyes, looking at his phone as it chimed. "Anna couldn't reach you, so she's coming over. Told me to tell you that she's bringing your usual."

Jet pumped his fist, a 'Yass' escaping his lips. "Caramel Vanilla Frappe, sweet!" he reached for a pizza slice, biting into it. 

He mumbled something, spraying crumbs everywhere. Shay grimaced, using a delicate swipe of his hand to clean his knee.

Jet swallowed. "I asked if you thought Anna would want some," he told them.

Shay sighed, his eyes rolling almost comically. "Jet. The brother of the love of my life... you are the dumbest person I know. Anna eats us out of house and home every time she comes over! Of course, she'll want some!"

Jet laughed, finishing his pizza and leaned his head back on the couch, waiting for his friend to show up with her offering.

Author's Note

I'm not sure if I'm writing his anxiety right, but I'm using my own personal experiences with it as a basis. Not the college thing of course, but just how he generally acts and how he reacts to things.

Poor Shay, he was raised really proper and dignified and now here he is living with two basically homeless people and TRYING to keep any sort of dignity as he watches Lucian take a swig straight out of the milk carton and he thinks Jet hasn't moved from the same spot for three days...

Jet loves Marvel, especially Peggy Carter. Come on, he thinks she's the best. (I mean, isn't she?)

Next, we meet the lovely Anna. She's the best. I love her to bits.