Damion walked slowly. He wasn't in the biggest hurry to find his dorm and unpack. The typical College excitement most freshman had, wasn't present for Damion whatsoever. He fingered the note from Steph inside his pocket. The moment he got it, he added it to the other small assortment of objects that he actually cared about. All of which he kept inside his satchel.
He hardly glanced up at the beautiful campus, his gaze was lasered to the map which he blindly followed to the westside of campus.
The dorm building itself looked like the front of a high school, with big double doors, a courtyard where other guys and girls were talking and unloading cars. Damion was careful not to make eye contact with any of them. He leaned against the door, pushing it open, and entered a brightly lit hallway. A stairway at the end led to the upstairs.
Damion pulled out the dorm key he'd been sent. It was a magnetic key card, like the ones they used in hotels. It also held his student information, and dorm room. R222, it read. The two hundreds' were the second floor up, so Damion made his way over to the stairs. Most of the dorm doors were open, and people milled around meeting each other. Damion walked through the crowd swiftly, trying to make it obvious he didn't want to stop and talk. No one stopped him.
Some glanced his way, but upon seeing his appearance and the look on his face, they turned away again. He looked even more like a hobo compared to College kids. All the guys had nice jackets, with sport stripes or denim. The only thing he had in common was the fact that he wore a plaid undershirt, even then his looked like a dirty gray rag compared to their new red plaid or green or blue ones. The girls wore skinny jeans, short tops, nice jackets. In any sense, they all looked like rich kids.
Damion made his way up the stairs, and down the second-floor hallway, past a houseplant, and finally to R222. He held his card up to the door handle and heard a soft buzz noise as the door unlocked. He pushed it open gently and gazed inside.
The room was bigger than the one with the Asher's. There was a bunk-bed taking up the right side of the room, and a little more sectioned off to the left was a smallish kitchen. Well, part of a kitchen, you could hardly call it that. It was just a small white fridge, on it's a right a sink, and above the sink a microwave. On the back wall was a spot for a couch, also a bit to the left, and opposite the couch space a small TV area, but the room was bare.
He assumed most kids had desks to bring, or lamps or couches. He only had his suitcase and satchel bag. He threw his satchel onto the top bunk, kicked his suitcase into a corner, and swiftly climbed the ladder to the top bunk. He sat cross-legged on the bed and turned his satchel upside down, releasing its strange contents.
There was a cellphone that was nearly always dead. There was an assortment of pens and pencils, a small leather-bound journal covered in black soot and dirt, there was a second feathered earring matching the one on his ear already, they had belonged to his mother. There was a three-inch-long switch blade, which he knew he wasn't allowed to have. The knife used to be Steph's, he'd promise to never lose sight of it so here it was anyways. There was a singular silver bullet, which he's stolen from his father, a broken pair of sunglasses and a tape dispenser. He pulled out Steph's letter and smoothed it out, placing it on the bed next to his other possessions.
Damion taped the note to the window, placed the sunglasses, cellphone, the earing, the bullet and each of his pencils and pens on the windowsill. He shoved the knife under his pillow, and the journal back in his bag. He threw a glance at the suitcase, which the Asher's no doubt filled with clothing and toilet trees for him. He decided that could wait.
Just then, the door opened again. The buzz and click of the door gave Damion a small start, and he pulled himself further back on the bed. He watched someone enter the room and walk towards the left side of the room. They didn't notice Damion had moved in.
Damion sat silently until he realized they weren't planning to leave the room again. Perhaps if he was quiet enough, he could slip back outside. He stood to climb down the ladder, and as he stood his satchel bag fell off his lap and onto the floor. It was very quiet, making a weird flop sound, but it was silent enough to be heard in the even more silent atmosphere. Damion cursed under his breath. He looked up to see the person had turned towards the noise.
Damion looked up to make eye contact with another guy.
"Roommate?" He said, walking over. Damion froze, then slid from his perch on the ladder onto the ground.
"Yeah." He muttered, knowing it was a loud enough acknowledgement.
He had short, sandy blonde hair, large black glasses, and amber eyes. He wore a simple gray sweatshirt and jeans, and had socks on his feet, no shoes.
"I'm West." He said, sticking out a hand. Damion stared at it, really wanting to just stare at it. But that was cruel, and unnecessary, and as much as he was okay with that, he would be living with West for the rest of the semester.
"Short for anything?" Damion asked, shaking his hand but not returning his name.
"Nope, just West." He answered, looking a little put off. "You are?" He asked next, without missing a beat.
"Damion." He said flatly. West nodded.
"Good to meet you." He said, still trying to get something friendly out of Damion.
"Yeah." Damion offered. West looked put off again, but he seemed to snap out of things quicker than Damion would have hoped.
"So, can I drag you down to the dining hall with me? I just came to check out the room." He explained and grabbed his own suitcase, throwing it to the bottom bunk. "Wanna come, it'll be a while before my other stuff gets here. I saw a spot for a couch and TV, I've got those, do you? Because we can use yours if you want." West rambled aimlessly. Damion tried really hard to repress in-taking air in his exasperation. It didn't seem like West was going to give up. Which made sense, they were stuck together after all.
"I don't have any furniture." He muttered.
"Well then let's head down to the dining hall." West chirped.
"Alright." He agreed resignedly, pulling his boots back on. West smiled and disappeared to grab something from his suitcase. His shoes it turned out.
When he reappeared, Damion was leaning nonchalantly against the wall.
"On we go." He said cheerily, opening the door. Damion reluctantly followed him out.
"So, where're you from?" He asked, as they fell into step. Damion's mind stuttered. He wasn't from anywhere. He'd lived in eight different states. Eight. He barely remembered the one he was born in. All he could recall about California was the ocean. They, his family, took him to ocean every weekend. But most of his memories were in CCS buildings.
"I'm from." He began. Pick a place. He thought wildly. "Austin." He blurted out finally. Austin Texas, home of Austin University.
"So, do you live near campus?" West asked, oblivious to Damion's poor lying skills.
"About two hours out." Damion answered, his mind imagining the Asher household.
"Lucky, I'm from Arkansas. Home's a bit further for me."
"That's nice." Damion said, not really paying much attention.
West smiled. "It's something." He agreed. "Here we are." He pointed out. They looked up to see the doors to the dining hall.
"Hungry?
"Starving."
Damion pushed the doors open with his back, and West ventured inside. Damion pondered walking back to the room for a last time but again figured that was cruel considering they'd be living together and followed him inside.
The dining hall was enormous. So big in fact, that the reverberating echoes from one side of the room dies before reaching the other. It mostly looked like a really big restaurant space, there were kitchens lining one wall, where students could order food.
Steph would've actually liked the dining hall. There were three things he loved, space and food and people to watch.
People watching was something Damion enjoyed too. Was it creepy? Only if they caught you staring. Was it interesting? Hell yes. People were stupid, people were thoughtful, crazy, weird and strange. Damion and Steph used to sit out on the front steps of buildings, in front of those streets for walking, lined with restaurants and shops, and just watch people.
Damion glanced around the hall, whilst following West to one of the food lines. At one circular table, every seat was filled with girl, each of them had a Starbucks drink with them, and their phones were piled in the middle. One talked while the others listened. At another table, only one seat was occupied. The seat belonged to a muscular looking guy with a Gatorade and headband. He was repeatedly bouncing a lacrosse ball on the table, eyes glazed over in immense thought. A third table was filled with a mixed group of guys and girls. Extra seats had been dragged up around the table as well. They were all talking and laughing, black cases surrounded them. Band members.
"Damion?" West asked, waving a hand in front of his face. He turned his attention slowly back to him.
"Hmm?" He asked dully.
"What do you want?" He asked, gesturing behind him where they stood in the front of the line. Damion, blinked and scanned the menu as fast as he could.
"Burger and fries." He told the person at the counter. They nodded and clicked into their register. It made a print noise and the guy handed West a receipt.
"Number thirty-two." Counter guy said in a flat tone.
"Thanks." West said, gingerly taking the thin paper. He turned and walked over to an open table. Damion followed. West was quite literally dragging him around. West took a seat, and Damion took the one next to him, plopping himself down tiredly.
"So, what's your major?" West asked, nervously playing with the receipt. This was the first nervousness Damion noticed, perhaps it'd been there all along. West really wanted Damion to like him. So far Damion gave off the vibe that he wanted to be anywhere but with West.
Damion shoved his guilt from being mean down.
"Bio-engineering." He said, still only giving a one-word answer.
"Oh, that's pretty neato." West said, smiling. Damion nodded. There was a long pause. Damion withheld a sigh and then finally,
"You?" He asked. West lit up.
"Oh, I'm majoring in English. Journalism to be exact. I've always been interested in reporting and writing I guess. I wrote for the high school newspaper once." West chuckled at his memory. "And then, well Austin read some of my work and they invited me here. Well we checked it out and I really liked it, so here I am." West seemed to be suppressing more nervous laughter.
Damion blinked. All he'd asked was 'you?' and West had been able to talk for thirty seconds. Screw the semester, it would only take a week to get to know this guy inside out. Damion then also realized that by asking simple questions, he could keep conversation without really having to try.
"So, family?" Damion tried, almost smiling upon seeing West light up at yet another question.
"Well, my ma and pa grew up in Arkansas too, but we were from Austria originally. I've got four siblings back home. All younger. Three are triplets, Jason, Aus and Faren. Then we've got one starting high school, Felicity. She's a bit of troublemaker, you remember being a teen. Man, we thought those were the hard days. I'd love to sit through senior year one last time." West paused, apparently visited his high school days.
Damion didn't remember much of high school seeing as he dropped out. But he didn't want to tell West that, because West would want the whole damn story. Instead, he just nodded like he understood, and pretended to reminisce along with West. In reality, he was remembering his time in the world with Steph again.
The start of junior year was when he left Steph, at sixteen nearly two years ago. Steph had come back to find Damion packing his things.
"Dami?" Steph had asked, closing the door behind him with his foot.
"Steph." Damion had answered, unable to keep the nervousness out of his voice.
"Whatcha packing for kid?" Steph asked.
"Foster." Damion said slowly.
"Foster? Now?" Steph asked, brow furrowing.
"CCS found another family to take me." Damion explained.
"And you're going?" Steph asked, voice stemming from surprise to incredulousness.
"I have to Steph, CCS ain't giving me a choice." Damion explained.
"You've always got a choice Dami, we gotta get outta here before you leave." Steph said, rushing over and shutting his suitcase. "Look Dami, I'm starting com service any day now, I've got two years of it and then I'm free. You've got another two years until com service. So, you wait up until I'm done, then when it's time for you to start yours, we bust outta here." Steph explained.
"Steph, the Asher family will just hate me and send me back here anyways. I might as well just get this over with." Damion explained.
"Dami there's always a chance that these people try to keep you." Steph pointed out.
"They won't. I can make sure of that." Damion promised confidently. Steph almost smiled.
"Give 'em hell then." Steph agreed, running his hands through his red hair. It was dyed back then. Deep scarlet, almost the color of blood. Damion half wondered if it still was.
But apparently Damion hadn't been hellish enough. The Asher's had their secret weapon. Rory, and Damion could never be hellish in front of that child. They'd kept Damion for the two years in which he was supposed to go back to Steph. Then College wrecked everything. Almost. If he hadn't gotten that letter from Steph, he would be losing his mind right now. But he knew he was still going to make his great escape, he would never return to the Asher's, Rory would never be able to charm him again. Damion would be free.
How about some backstory? I'm thinking we're gonna see some more of Steph in the future too. And has Damion really seen the last of the Asher Family? Stayed tuned.
Keep Writing Keep Reading, Nova out ; )